David’s Mighty Men: Foreshadowing Faithful Believers

One of my favorite things to learn about in Scripture is the symbolism scattered throughout. There’s something about seeing a pattern repeated from the Old to the New Testament that helps me really grasp biblical concepts and that reminds me of God’s creativity in organizing the path of history the way that He has. 

Recently, I spent some time learning about the lives of David and Saul through this lens. I’ll summarize that here!

As we know, Saul was the first king over Israel. God had given him that position of authority, but ultimately he squandered it due to his pride, rebelling against the Lord. Because of this, God rejected him from being king, and anointed David in his place. 

However, David did not take possession of the kingdom right away. He waited until the right time, until Saul had died.

It’s important to note that as David waited, he wasn’t idle. He began gathering a group of “mighty men”, men who swore allegiance to him rather than to Saul and who would support him as he prepared to take the kingdom. And when David eventually ascended the throne, these mighty men were given positions of authority in his new kingdom. 

So, now let’s take a look at what all this symbolizes. 

We know that Satan, or Lucifer, was originally an angel of the Lord who had been given a level of dominion and rulership over the earth (though still under God’s sovereign rule). Satan is referred to in several verses as the temporary ruler or prince of this world (John 12:31, John 14:30, Ephesians 2:1-2, Luke 4:5-8).

But, due to his pride, he sought to exalt himself and rebelled against the Lord, resulting in his being rejected by God (Isaiah 14:12-15).

We also know that in the future, Jesus will set up His thousand-year Kingdom. But, that time has not come just yet. Following the pattern we see in the Saul/David relationship, God anoints a ruler (Jesus) who will ascend the throne after the previous one (Satan) has been done away with. 

But just as in David’s story, this waiting period is not an idle one. Like David, Jesus is gathering His group of “mighty men”: believers who faithfully follow Him and swear their allegiance to Him rather than to the current and temporary ruler. And all of this is with a view to the end goal – to being rewarded with a position in His Kingdom. 

Earlier this week I was reading 1 Chronicles 12, and I came across a list of these mighty men of David. What struck me about it was not just that their names were listed, but that they had qualifiers alongside them. Noted were the attributes that set them apart as worthy of being in David’s entourage. These characteristics were things like: being skilled with a shield and spear, being prepared for the task at hand, being knowledgeable and understanding of the times, and being undivided in heart and loyalty to David. 

In reading this I noticed the implications for us. As believers, we are called to be skilled with weapons of spiritual warfare. We are called to be equipped for good works, prepared at any moment to give an account for the hope in us and for the second coming of our Lord. We are called to be shrewd and discerning. And we are called to be undivided in loyalty to our King, serving Him alone. 

And why is this important to us? Because it’s all done with a view to being rewarded and to reigning alongside Jesus in His Kingdom (Colossians 3:23-25, Revelation 22:12, Revelation 5:10, Revelation 3:21). We must be faithful to our King, just as David’s men were faithful to him (Matthew 24:45-47, 1 Corinthians 3:12-15).

This is convicting – how often am I more preoccupied with the things of this present, broken kingdom than with the coming one? But it’s also encouraging – the Lord wants us to prove ourselves faithful to Him, and is actively at work preparing us for His Kingdom. Just as David’s men could look forward to the time when he replaced Saul as ruler and when their faithfulness would be rewarded, there’s something amazing and worthwhile for us to look forward to at the end of all of this as well!

Related Scripture 

1 Chronicles 12:23-38

Now these are the numbers of the divisions equipped for war, who came to David at Hebron, to turn the kingdom of Saul to him, according to the word of the Lord. The sons of Judah who bore shield and spear were 6,800, equipped for war. Of the sons of Simeon, mighty men of valor for war, 7,100. Of the sons of Levi 4,600. Now Jehoiada was the leader of the house of Aaron, and with him were 3,700, also Zadok, a young man mighty of valor, and of his father’s house twenty-two captains. Of the sons of Benjamin, Saul’s kinsmen, 3,000; for until now the greatest part of them had kept their allegiance to the house of Saul. Of the sons of Ephraim 20,800, mighty men of valor, famous men in their fathers’ households. Of the half-tribe of Manasseh 18,000, who were designated by name to come and make David king. Of the sons of Issachar, men who understood the times, with knowledge of what Israel should do, their chiefs were two hundred; and all their kinsmen were at their command. Of Zebulun, there were 50,000 who went out in the army, who could draw up in battle formation with all kinds of weapons of war and helped David with an undivided heart. Of Naphtali there were 1,000 captains, and with them 37,000 with shield and spear. Of the Danites who could draw up in battle formation, there were 28,600. Of Asher there were 40,000 who went out in the army to draw up in battle formation. From the other side of the Jordan, of the Reubenites and the Gadites and of the half-tribe of Manasseh, there were 120,000 with all kinds of weapons of war for the battle. All these, being men of war who could draw up in battle formation, came to Hebron with a perfect heart to make David king over all Israel; and all the rest also of Israel were of one mind to make David king.