Read Time: 6 minutes1 Chronicles 12
The warriors of every tribe come to David with one heart to make him king — and the chapter rings with the joy of a kingdom united under its rightful head. They come first to Ziklag, while he yet kept himself close because of Saul — men willing to throw in with the king before he wears the crown, when it is still costly to be on his side. Archers who could use both hands, men whose faces were like the faces of lions, the men of Issachar that had understanding of the times, to know what Israel ought to do. The Spirit comes on Amasai, and he speaks for them all: Thine are we, David, and on thy side, thou son of Jesse: peace, peace be unto thee, and peace be to thine helpers; for thy God helpeth thee.
At Hebron the muster swells to a host, all these men of war, that could keep rank, came with a perfect heart… to make David king over all Israel; and all the rest also of Israel were of one heart to make David king. The mark of them is a perfect heart and one heart — undivided loyalty, given before the reward is secure, with eyes open to the times. And the chapter ends in feasting: there was joy in Israel. The rightful king enthroned by a whole-hearted people is a thing of gladness.
This is the picture of the gathering to the true King — not conscripts but volunteers, coming while it still costs something, of one heart, understanding the times. The men who knew what Israel ought to do are the ones who threw in with David before Saul was even dead. They are the army of faith, the counterpart of the cloud of witnesses who fought the good fight to the stake (Heb. 11); and though their numbers could already have crushed Saul, David characteristically awaited the manifestation of Yahweh’s hand rather than seize the throne by force — the same waiting on Yahweh the King after his own heart would carry to Gethsemane.
The warriors come with a perfect heart and one heart to make David king — many before it was safe — and there was joy in Israel. The true King is enthroned by the whole-hearted who understand the times.
Ezekiel 25
The nations that gloated over Jerusalem’s fall are answered one by one — the gladness of the gloater is itself the charge. With the city fallen, Yahweh turns to the neighbors who cheered. To Ammon: because thou saidst, Aha, against my sanctuary when it was profaned, and against the land of Israel when it was desolate — for that gloating, Ammon will be given to the men of the east. To Moab, who said Judah was like unto all the heathen — no different, no special covenant — judgment. To Edom, who taken vengeance on the house of Judah — the sword. To Philistia, with its perpetual hatred and revenge — I will execute great vengeance upon them.
The refrain is the same over each: and they shall know that I am Yahweh. The neighbors mistook Judah’s fall for the absence or weakness of her God — Aha, her sanctuary is profaned, her God is finished — and Yahweh answers that they will learn, in their own ruin, exactly who he is. The judgment on Jerusalem was the act of her God, not his defeat; the gloaters who read it as his impotence are about to be taught otherwise.
There is mercy hidden in the structure of it. The same Yahweh who would not spare his own covenant people when they sinned will not let the gloating nations triumph either; the judgment is even-handed, and it clears the ground for the restoration the next chapters begin to promise. The Yahweh who chastens his own is the God of the whole earth.
The nations gloated — Aha, her sanctuary is profaned — mistaking Judah’s chastening for her God’s defeat. They shall know that he is Yahweh, the God of the whole earth.
Luke 22
On the night he is betrayed, the King who is to receive the kingdom seals a new covenant in bread and cup, and submits in the garden: not my will, but thine, be done. At the Passover table he takes the bread — This is my body which is given for you: this do in remembrance of me — and the cup — This cup is the new testament in my blood, which is shed for you. The memorial of his offering and the new covenant in one meal: not a sacrifice repeated but a death remembered, the covenant Ezekiel and Jeremiah promised now sealed in the blood of the One who stands in the gap.
Even here the disciples dispute who is greatest, and the King redraws greatness: he that is greatest among you, let him be as the younger; and he that is chief, as he that doth serve… I am among you as he that serveth. And he makes them a kingly bequest: I appoint unto you a kingdom, as my Father hath appointed unto me; that ye may eat and drink at my table in my kingdom, and sit on thrones. The crown reserved until he come whose right it is is being handed on, at the table, to the little flock. And when he bids them now take purse and sword, and they answer here are two swords, his it is enough is not arithmetic but exasperation — for the weapon he means is the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God, not the blade Peter will draw in the garden and be told to sheathe.
Then Gethsemane. Knowing Peter will deny him and Judas betray him, the King goes to the garden and prays in agony, his sweat as it were great drops of blood: Father, if thou be willing, remove this cup from me: nevertheless not my will, but thine, be done. The man Ezekiel could not find — the one to stand in the gap before Yahweh for the land — kneels in the dark and accepts the cup no other could drink. Judas comes with a kiss — his thirty pieces the price the Law set for a slave gored by an ox (Exo. 21:32), the true Servant valued at a gored slave’s worth by the bulls of Bashan (Psa. 22:12) who ringed him; the arrest; Peter’s threefold denial and the look that breaks him; the mocking. The King takes the lowest place of all, that he may receive the kingdom that is his by right.
At the table he seals the new covenant in his blood and appoints a kingdom; in the garden he yields, “not my will, but thine.” The One who stands in the gap drinks the cup no other could.
Synthesis and Exhortation
The day turns on the whole-hearted gathering to the King and the reading of the times that goes with it. The warriors come to David with a perfect heart and one heart, many before it was safe, the men of Issachar understanding the times — and there is joy in Israel. The gloating nations of Ezekiel 25 read the times exactly wrong: they saw Jerusalem fall and crowed that her God was finished, mistaking her chastening for his defeat, and they shall know that I am Yahweh in their own ruin. And in Luke the rightful King gathers his little flock at the table, appoints them a kingdom, and goes out to the garden to seal the covenant in his blood.
The thread is the heart that reads the times and gives itself wholly to the King. The men of Issachar knew what Israel ought to do and threw in with David in the costly hour; the gloating neighbors misread the hour and were judged; and the disciples at the table are given the kingdom the whole month has tracked — the crown reserved until he come whose right it is, now handed on to those who will eat and drink at my table in my kingdom. The King who appoints that kingdom does not seize it; he kneels in Gethsemane and says not my will, but thine — the perfect heart in its deepest form, the whole self given over to the Father.
So the exhortation is to come to the King with a perfect heart and to read the times rightly. Throw in with him while it still costs something, as the warriors did at Ziklag; do not be the gloating nation that mistook the chastening of Yahweh’s people for the failure of their God. Take the bread and the cup in remembrance of the One who was given for you; receive the kingdom he appoints to the little flock; serve as he served, lowest of all. And learn from the garden the prayer that holds the whole of discipleship together — not my will, but thine, be done. The whole-hearted who understand the times are gathered to the King; the gloaters who misread them are taught who Yahweh is.
Come to the King with a perfect heart and read the times rightly; do not gloat as the nations gloated. Take the covenant in his blood, receive the kingdom he appoints, and pray with him: not my will, but thine, be done.