Ittai the Gittite

Ittai the Gittite

God and Satan are picking sides for a dodgeball team.  God gives Satan the first pick and he picks a strong fast teenager.  God picks a slightly overweight kindergartener.  Satan picks a beefy guy who looks like he plays college football.  God picks a blind man.  Satan picks a soccer star.  God picks a girl in a wheelchair.  

On and on it goes, until the teams are finished.  

God's team is blind, crippled, small, slow, and if you were to be honest -absolutely hopeless.  Satan's team is strong and sleek, and they have no worries whatsoever.  Except for one tiny detail.  God's team is God's team.  

Have you ever heard of Ittai the Gittite?  

He chooses to join the loser kickball team precisely because it is God's team.  

David's son Absalom was rallying support and stealing control of the kingdom, in what may have been the low point of leadership in the great King's reign.  Absalom, for four years, went daily to the city gate to settle disputes for the people of Israel.  He would shake hands, kiss babies, make promises, trash-talk his father, and plant seeds of "if I were king.". The people love it and loved him, both for his help and for his beauty and long flowing hair too!  Really he was the perfect politician, beautiful, compassionate, and most importantly, treacherous.  

And Absalom used to rise early and stand beside the way of the gate. And when any man had a dispute to come before the king for judgment, Absalom would call to him and say, “From what city are you?” And when he said, “Your servant is of such and such a tribe in Israel,” Absalom would say to him, “See, your claims are good and right, but there is no man designated by the king to hear you.” Then Absalom would say, “Oh that I were judge in the land! Then every man with a dispute or cause might come to me, and I would give him justice.” And whenever a man came near to pay homage to him, he would put out his hand and take hold of him and kiss him. Thus Absalom did to all of Israel who came to the king for judgment. So Absalom stole the hearts of the men of Israel. (2 Samuel 15:2-6 ESV)

Why doesn't King David nip this in the bud?  

Short answer, I don't know.  God killed one of David's sons as punishment for killing Uriah to steal his wife Bathsheba.  Then another son Amnon slept with his half sister Tamar, Absolom, Tamar's brother was enraged, set a trap, and murdered him.  So maybe David was tired of his sons dying and didn't want to see it happen.  If David had punished Amnon, maybe none of the trouble with Absalom would have happened.  

Has something bad ever happened in your family that could have been avoided by early intervention?  

At any rate, Absolom goes out of Jerusalem under false pretenses,  rallies support of the surrounding peoples. and a blast of trumpets signals that he is usurping the throne. 

And at the end of four years Absalom said to the king, “Please let me go and pay my vow, which I have vowed to the Lord, in Hebron. For your servant vowed a vow while I lived at Geshur in Aram, saying, ‘If the Lord will indeed bring me back to Jerusalem, then I will offer worship to the Lord.’” The king said to him, “Go in peace.” So he arose and went to Hebron. But Absalom sent secret messengers throughout all the tribes of Israel, saying, “As soon as you hear the sound of the trumpet, then say, ‘Absalom is king at Hebron!’” With Absalom went two hundred men from Jerusalem who were invited guests, and they went in their innocence and knew nothing. And while Absalom was offering the sacrifices, he sent for Ahithophel the Gilonite, David’s counselor, from his city Giloh. And the conspiracy grew strong, and the people with Absalom kept increasing. And a messenger came to David, saying, “The hearts of the men of Israel have gone after Absalom.” Then David said to all his servants who were with him at Jerusalem, “Arise, and let us flee, or else there will be no escape for us from Absalom. Go quickly, lest he overtake us quickly and bring down ruin on us and strike the city with the edge of the sword.” And the king’s servants said to the king, “Behold, your servants are ready to do whatever my lord the king decides.” So the king went out, and all his household after him. And the king left ten concubines to keep the house. And the king went out, and all the people after him. And they halted at the last house. (2 Samuel 15:7-17 ESV)

The people are marching out of the city, weeping and mourning as they go, and after the last house, King David pauses to watch the men go by.    

And all his servants passed by him, and all the Cherethites, and all the Pelethites, and all the six hundred Gittites who had followed him from Gath, passed on before the king. Then the king said to Ittai the Gittite, “Why do you also go with us? Go back and stay with the king, for you are a foreigner and also an exile from your home. You came only yesterday, and shall I today make you wander about with us, since I go I know not where? Go back and take your brothers with you, and may the Lord show steadfast love and faithfulness to you.” (2 Samuel 15:18-20 ESV)

Why does David tell Ittai to go back home?  

David has given up hope.  His son will take Jerusalem and the kingdom an nothing but suffering lies ahead.  He wants to spare this newcomer the hardship and possible death that he now faces.  God bless you Ittai, but go back to safety, Absolom has no reason to harm you.  

But Ittai answered the king, “As the Lord lives, and as my lord the king lives, wherever my lord the king shall be, whether for death or for life, there also will your servant be.” (2 Samuel 15:21 ESV)

Ittai chooses his spot on the kickball team.  He chooses the losers, because regardless of the outcome, this is God's team.  Absolutely amazing!  

It's a lot like Ruth's statement of faith to Naiomi - where you go I will go, where you stay, I will stay.  Your people will be my people and your God, my God.  

Why would Ittai do such a thing?  

Why would he pledge faithfulness to the king?  

Where had Ittai come from?  He is a Gittite, which means he came from Gath.  Twenty bonus points if you know who else came from Gath!  

The giant, Goliath!  

And there came out from the camp of the Philistines a champion named Goliath of Gath, whose height was six cubits and a span. He had a helmet of bronze on his head, and he was armed with a coat of mail, and the weight of the coat was five thousand shekels of bronze. And he had bronze armor on his legs, and a javelin of bronze slung between his shoulders. (1 Samuel 17:4-6 ESV)

And the Philistine said to David, “Am I a dog, that you come to me with sticks?” And the Philistine cursed David by his gods. The Philistine said to David, “Come to me, and I will give your flesh to the birds of the air and to the beasts of the field.” Then David said to the Philistine, “You come to me with a sword and with a spear and with a javelin, but I come to you in the name of the Lord of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied. This day the Lord will deliver you into my hand, and I will strike you down and cut off your head. And I will give the dead bodies of the host of the Philistines this day to the birds of the air and to the wild beasts of the earth, that all the earth may know that there is a God in Israel, and that all this assembly may know that the Lord saves not with sword and spear. For the battle is the Lord ’s, and he will give you into our hand.” (1 Samuel 17:43-47 ESV)

Little bitty David killed great big Goliath, the greatest warrior Gath had ever produced.  Maybe Ittai heard the stories, or maybe, like young David, he was present at the battlefield that day as saw what happened.  Whatever the case, Ittai knew that The Lord had been with David since his youth.  The boy who killed a giant was in dire straights, but Ittai knew better than anyone that any situation with David and God involved was not hopeless.  It would be pure foolishness to join the other team, no matter how external circumstances looked.

How does the story end?  David, it turns out, has many faithful friends in addition to Ittai.  A man named Hushai infiltrates Absolom's court and gives him unwise military advice.  Joab, the leader of his army finds and kills Absolom.  It turned out to be pretty easy, Absolom's beautiful hair which had made him so popular was his undoing.  He was riding his donkey under a tree, his curls get caught, the donkey rides away, and Joab runs several spears through him.  David tries to mourn, but Joab tells him to snap out of it and start acting like a King.  So David does, they head back to Jerusalem and happiness ensues. . .for a little while anyway, until the sinful census.  

Have you ever been in a situation where you had to choose sides?  What did you choose?  

What would you have done if you were in Ittai's shoes?  Would you have gone with David, waited in Jerusalem for Absolom or done something else altogether?  

"Let love and faithfulness never leave you, bind them around your neck and write them on the tablet of your heart."