From Benjamin, Saul's tribe

1 Chronicles 12:22-38 TNIV

Day after day men came to help David, until he had a great army, like the army of God.

These are the numbers of the men armed for battle who came to David at Hebron to turn Saul’s kingdom over to him, as the Lord had said:

from Judah, carrying shield and spear—6,800 armed for battle;

from Simeon, warriors ready for battle—7,100;

from Levi—4,600, including Jehoiada, leader of the family of Aaron, with 3,700 men, and Zadok, a brave young warrior, with 22 officers from his family;

from Benjamin, Saul’s tribe—3,000, most of whom had remained loyal to Saul’s house until then;

from Ephraim, brave warriors, famous in their own clans—20,800;

from half the tribe of Manasseh, designated by name to come and make David king—18,000;

from Issachar, men who understood the times and knew what Israel should do—200 chiefs, with all their relatives under their command;

from Zebulun, experienced soldiers prepared for battle with every type of weapon, to help David with undivided loyalty—50,000;

from Naphtali—1,000 officers, together with 37,000 men carrying shields and spears;

from Dan, ready for battle—28,600;

from Asher, experienced soldiers prepared for battle—40,000;

and from east of the Jordan, from Reuben, Gad and the half-tribe of Manasseh, armed with every type of weapon—120,000.

All these were fighting men who volunteered to serve in the ranks. They came to Hebron fully determined to make David king over all Israel. All the rest of the Israelites were also of one mind to make David king.

My thoughts -

I wish I could say that I have gotten a lot out of reading through 1 Chronicles the last two days but I really haven't. It all seems to run together. There are families and names listed and I just can't seem to keep them all straight. I should probably make notes and charts on all of this. Maybe after I finish this reading plan I'll come back and spend more time in these books doing just that.

There are some things though, in the midst of the monotony of these lists, that have jumped out and grabbed my attention. This passage is one of them, especially verse 29:

from Benjamin, Saul’s tribe—3,000, most of whom had remained loyal to Saul’s house until then;

We've gone over the heartbreakingly complicated nature of the relationship between David and Saul. Saul's son Jonathan was like a brother to David. David was like a son to Saul, but a son that Saul was jealous enough of to want dead.

The family dynamics of ancient Israel are somewhat beyond my comprehension but they seem culturally significant and fairly close. To read that members of Saul's own tribe, his family, took up arms against him, just breaks my heart.

Now, there were less from the tribe of Benjamin than other tribes but these men are listed here as having previously been faithful to Saul. And 3000 people leaving you to fight for your enemy is nothing insignificant, either.

There is so much I don't understand and probably never will but one thing I believe is that we are all united in Christ. To see conflicts like this in our history, and to know that we've been killing each other, even in our own families, for thousands of years makes it seem like things have always been and will always be this way. But we have hope in Christ.

Come, Lord Jesus.

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