The Treason of True Allegiance Text: 1 Chronicles 12:1-7
Introduction: Choosing Your King
We live in a world that is allergic to fixed loyalties. Our age prizes autonomy, self-definition, and the freedom to shift our allegiances based on our feelings, our perceived self-interest, or the prevailing cultural winds. We want kings we can manage, leaders we can vote out if they displease us, and gods we can refashion in our own image. But the kingdom of God does not operate on such flimsy principles. The kingdom of God is an absolute monarchy, and allegiance to the true king is not a matter of personal preference but of cosmic reality.
The passage before us this morning is, on the surface, a simple list of names. It is a muster roll from a ragtag army, gathered around a king in exile. But we must learn to read our Bibles with sanctified eyes. These lists are not filler. They are not the parts of Scripture you can skim over to get to the "good stuff." These genealogies and lists are the very bones of redemptive history. They show us that God's plan is not an abstract philosophy; it is worked out in the mud and blood of real history, with real people, from real families, making real and costly choices.
This particular list is a record of treason. It is a list of men who abandoned the visible, established, and formally anointed king of Israel, Saul, to join the fugitive David. From a worldly perspective, this was an act of rebellion. Saul was the sitting king. He had the palace, the army, and the institutional authority. David had a cave. David was on the run, hunted like a partridge in the mountains. To join David was to choose the losing side. It was to embrace exile, danger, and the charge of being a traitor. And yet, these men were not traitors. They were the truly loyal ones, because their ultimate allegiance was not to the man on the throne, but to the God who anoints the man for the throne. They understood that when the institution becomes corrupt, when the anointed king sets himself against God's purposes, true loyalty requires a shift of allegiance to God's chosen man. This is a principle that echoes down through the ages, and it is one our own generation desperately needs to understand.
The Text
Now these are the ones who came to David at Ziklag, while he was still restricted because of Saul the son of Kish; and they were among the mighty men who helped him in war. They were equipped with bows, using both the right hand and the left to sling stones and to shoot arrows from the bow; they were Saul’s relatives from Benjamin. The chief was Ahiezer, then Joash, the sons of Shemaah the Gibeathite; and Jeziel and Pelet, the sons of Azmaveth, and Beracah and Jehu the Anathothite, and Ishmaiah the Gibeonite, a mighty man among the thirty, and over the thirty. Then Jeremiah, Jahaziel, Johanan, Jozabad the Gederathite, Eluzai, Jerimoth, Bealiah, Shemariah, Shephatiah the Haruphite, Elkanah, Isshiah, Azarel, Joezer, Jashobeam, the Korahites, and Joelah and Zebadiah, the sons of Jeroham of Gedor.
(1 Chronicles 12:1-7 LSB)
The Cost of True Loyalty (v. 1)
We begin with the context of this gathering:
"Now these are the ones who came to David at Ziklag, while he was still restricted because of Saul the son of Kish; and they were among the mighty men who helped him in war." (1 Chronicles 12:1)
The setting is Ziklag. This is not a glorious capital city. Ziklag was a Philistine town given to David by Achish, the king of Gath. David is in enemy territory, living as a vassal to the uncircumcised Philistines. This is the lowest point of his flight from Saul. He is "restricted," which is a polite way of saying he was a fugitive, an outlaw. From a human point of view, David's prospects looked bleak. Saul was on the throne, and David was in exile. This is the crucial backdrop. The men who came to him were not joining a winning team. They were not bandwagon fans. They were men who had counted the cost.
Their decision was a declaration. They were declaring that David, the man in the Philistine city, was the true king of Israel, and that Saul, the man in the palace at Gibeah, was the usurper. This is because God's anointing had departed from Saul and rested on David. Samuel had anointed David years before. The Spirit of the Lord had come upon David and departed from Saul. These men were aligning themselves with God's Word, not with the outward appearances of power. They were men of faith, not sight.
This is a direct challenge to our modern, pragmatic, and often cowardly approach to allegiance. We are tempted to align ourselves with what is established, what is safe, what is respectable. But God frequently calls His people to stand with the Davids in their Ziklags, not the Sauls in their palaces. The true church is often found in the wilderness, not in the state-sanctioned cathedral. True loyalty to Christ may require us to be "restricted" by the powers of this world, to be labeled as rebels and insurrectionists by the crumbling institutions that have rejected Him.
The Benjamite Betrayal (v. 2)
The next verse adds a shocking layer to this story of loyalty.
"They were equipped with bows, using both the right hand and the left to sling stones and to shoot arrows from the bow; they were Saul’s relatives from Benjamin." (1 Chronicles 12:2)
First, notice their skill. They were ambidextrous warriors, elite special forces. The ability to use both the right and left hand was a hallmark of the tribe of Benjamin (Judges 20:16). These were not just any men; they were formidable soldiers, bringing their considerable talents to David's cause. They did not come empty-handed. When you commit to the true king, you bring all your skill, all your strength, and lay it at his feet.
But the truly stunning fact is their origin: "they were Saul’s relatives from Benjamin." This is the heart of the matter. These were Saul's own kinsmen. They were from his tribe, his clan, his people. Their natural, tribal, and familial allegiance was to Saul. All the cultural pressures, all the expectations of family loyalty, would have bound them to Saul's side. To leave Saul for David was to betray their own tribe. It was to choose a king from Judah over their own Benjamite brother. In the eyes of their families, they were traitors of the highest order.
What does this teach us? It teaches us that allegiance to God's anointed king transcends all other loyalties. It is higher than loyalty to family, to tribe, to nation, or to race. When Jesus said, "He who loves father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me," He was simply restating this principle (Matthew 10:37). These Benjamites understood that. Their ultimate citizenship was in the kingdom of God, and their ultimate kinship was with the man after God's own heart. They were willing to be called traitors by their earthly family in order to be called faithful by their heavenly Father. This is a hard word for us, because we want to have it all. We want the approval of our family and the approval of Christ. But sometimes, as these men show us, you must choose.
A Roster of the Faithful (v. 3-7)
The Chronicler then does something profoundly important. He names them. He puts their names on the permanent record.
"The chief was Ahiezer, then Joash... Jeziel and Pelet... Beracah and Jehu... Ishmaiah the Gibeonite..." (1 Chronicles 12:3-7)
To our modern ears, this can sound like reading a phone book. But in the economy of God, names matter. God is the one who calls His stars by name (Psalm 147:4). Jesus knows His sheep by name (John 10:3). To be named in Scripture is to be honored by God for all time. These men, Ahiezer, Joash, Jeziel, Pelet, and the rest, made a costly decision in a dusty corner of the Philistine plains three thousand years ago, and we are still reading their names today. God does not forget the loyalty of His people. He records it. He honors it.
This list is a rebuke to all anonymity in the service of the king. We are not called to be secret agent Christians. We are called to publicly identify with Christ and His people, to have our names on the roll. There is a book of life, and in it are the names of all those who, by grace through faith, have bent the knee to the Son of David. These men were signing up for a physical war, and their names were recorded. We are engaged in a spiritual war, and our names are recorded in heaven.
Notice also the diversity within the unity. They are from different towns: Gibeath, Azmaveth, Anathoth, Gedor. There are even Korahites mentioned, who were Levites. Men from different backgrounds, different clans, all united by one thing: their allegiance to David. This is a picture of the Church. We come from every tribe and tongue and people and nation, with different backgrounds and different skills, but we are made one body by our common loyalty to King Jesus. Our unity is not found in our shared ethnicity or political party, but in our shared Lord.
The Greater David and His Mighty Men
This entire chapter, and indeed the entire story of David, is a shadow. It is a type, pointing forward to a greater reality. David in Ziklag, rejected by the ruling establishment but gathering a loyal following, is a picture of Jesus Christ in His first coming. Jesus was the true king, anointed by God, yet He was rejected by the rulers of Israel. He was "restricted," a man of sorrows, with nowhere to lay His head. The established powers, the Sauls of the Sanhedrin, sought to kill Him.
And yet, a remnant came to Him. A small band of mighty men, Peter, James, John, and the others, left everything to follow Him. They left their families, their businesses, and their old allegiances to pledge their lives to this rejected king. They were seen as traitors to the traditions of their fathers. They were choosing this Nazarene carpenter over the high priest and the elders of the people. They were choosing the foolishness of the cross over the wisdom of the world.
Every person in this room, every person who has ever been saved, is a spiritual Benjamite. We were all, by nature, kinsmen of Saul. We were born into the kingdom of darkness, loyal to the usurper prince of this world. Our natural allegiance was to the flesh, to our own autonomy, to the spirit of the age. But then God, by His sovereign grace, opened our eyes to see the true king, the Son of David. And in that moment, we were called to commit treason against our old master.
To become a Christian is to switch sides in a cosmic war. It is to defect from the kingdom of Saul and enlist in the army of David. It is a costly decision. It may cost you family, friends, and reputation. But these men in Ziklag show us the way. They show us that true loyalty is not determined by polls or power structures, but by the anointing of God. David was the future, and Saul was the past. To join David was to get on the right side of history, God's history.
And so it is with Christ. He is the anointed King, seated now at the right hand of the Father. His kingdom is advancing, and the kingdoms of this world are crumbling. The Sauls of our age, the secular humanists, the godless politicians, the compromised church leaders, are raging, but their time is short. The future belongs to Jesus. The question for each of us is simple. To whom do you belong? Are you hiding in the crumbling fortress of Saul, or have you made your way to Ziklag to pledge your allegiance, your skills, and your very life to the Son of David?