The Loyalty of Ittai

Nancy L. Hitt

Description

The story of Ittai and his friendship with King David. Familiar stories in the Bible from the unique perspective of a Philistine.

Ittai must make a life or death decision! Should he take his family to safety? Or should they all follow his friend, King David, through the wilderness to an unknown destination, facing the possibility of death for him and his family? Does he have enough faith in God to choose the harder path? This story of loyalty, courage and friendship is based in part on true events in the Bible.

Sujets

• Religion
• Christianisme
• Religious
• Juvenilee Fiction
• King David's Warriors
• Christian
• David
• Bible

Informations

• Publié par: WestBow Press
• Date de parution: 14 juin 2023
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9798385000494
• Langue: English

Extrait

The Loyalty of Ittai
 
A Story of Loyalty , Courage , and Friendship
 
 
 
 
 
Nancy L . Hitt
 
 
 
 
 

Copyright © 2023 Nancy L. Hitt.
 
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the author except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.
 
 
 
WestBow Press
A Division of Thomas Nelson & Zondervan
1663 Liberty Drive
Bloomington, IN 47403
www.westbowpress.com
844-714-3454
 
Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.
 
All scripture quotations are taken from the King James Version. Public domain.
 
Interior Art Credit: Kimberly Cohan
Interior Maps Credit: Nancy Hitt
 
ISBN: 979-8-3850-0048-7 (sc)
ISBN: 979-8-3850-0049-4 (e)
 
Library of Congress Control Number: 2023911047
 
 
 
WestBow Press rev. date: 06/14/2023
CONTENTS
Acknowledgements
Preface
 
Chapter 1The Sword Fight
Chapter 2The Horrible Champion
Chapter 3Soldiers at Last!
Chapter 4The Horrible Challenge
Chapter 5The Challenge is Answered
Chapter 6The War Continues
Chapter 7Giving Aid to the Enemy
Chapter 8Discouraged
Chapter 9Answers at Last
Chapter 10Whosoever Will May Come
Chapter 11An Awkward Situation
Chapter 12David Returns to God’s Will
Chapter 13Choosing the Blessing of God
Chapter 14The Loyalty of Ittai
Chapter 15The Faithfulness of God
 
Epilogue

 
 
DEDICATED TO
My amazing husband, Jim Hitt, who has supported me for many years, even when I come up with wild ideas, such as writing a book!
Also, to my three beloved daughters, three sons-in-law, and all my grandchildren. I pray this book will encourage you to always serve the Lord.
 
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Thank you to Pastor Richard Rossiter for encouraging me to complete this book.
PREFACE
God’s word is absolutely amazing. You can read it a thousand times and still see things you never saw before. God shows me new things in scripture continuously. It has caused me to fall in love with the Bible and the God who wrote it more and more as time goes on.
One day as I was reading through the Old Testament I read about a man I had never noticed before. He’s only mentioned in a few verses, but his character was so outstanding that I couldn’t believe I had never noticed him before. The man was Ittai and following is one of the passages where he is mentioned. It’s located in II Samuel 15, during the time when David was fleeing from his rebellious son, Absalom.
18 And all his servants passed on beside him; and all the Cherethites, and all the Pelethites, and all the Gittites, six hundred men which came after him from Gath, passed on before the king.
19 Then said the king to Ittai the Gittite, Wherefore goest thou also with us? return to thy place, and abide with the king: for thou art a stranger, and also an exile.
20 Whereas thou camest but yesterday, should I this day make thee go up and down with us? seeing I go whither I may, return thou, and take back thy brethren: mercy and truth be with thee.
21 And Ittai answered the king, and said, As the LORD liveth, and as my lord the king liveth, surely in what place my lord the king shall be, whether in death or life, even there also will thy servant be.
22 And David said to Ittai, Go and pass over. And Ittai the Gittite passed over, and all his men, and all the little ones that were with him. (King James 1611).
As I read this passage, for seemingly the first time ever, I began to wonder who this man was. Gittites are people from Gath, a city in the land of the Philistines. The Philistines were the enemies of the Jews and had fought wars with them for many years. So, what was Ittai and 600 other men from Gath, along with their families, doing in Jerusalem? If you consider most of the men were probably married and had children, it would be several thousand Gittites dwelling in Jerusalem, serving in King David’s court. What were they doing there? Why had they come? Why did they stay with David, risking their lives and the lives of their families, living in hardship while fleeing with David instead of returning to Gath?
One thing was certain, Ittai was such a faithful man that David made him one of his three captains in II Samuel 18:2. After II Samuel chapter 18, he is never mentioned in the Bible again.
For a number of years I pondered this man. He became my favorite “obscure” character in the Bible. He is obscure because we know so little about him. As I thought about Ittai and David, I realized their lives probably intersected numerous times. Was Ittai in the battle when David killed Goliath? Maybe. Certainly Ittai had seen Goliath on the streets of Gath before the famous battle since they were both from Gath. David had fled to Gath several times in his attempt to escape King Saul. Had they met during one of those times? Possibly. Since Ittai was a soldier, David and Ittai probably had fought against each other during some of the many battles that occurred between their countries.
Only Ittai and the Lord know the details of his story. But one thing is certain, God worked in Ittai’s life to bring him to a saving knowledge of Him. In II Samuel 15:21, Ittai refers to him as LORD. LORD in all capital letters refers to Him as Yahweh or Jehovah, the one true God and Creator. Ittai was acknowledging his belief in the true God of Israel. Even though we don’t know the exact details of how God brought Ittai into a saving knowledge of Him, we do know that God will work in the lives of people, no matter where they are born. Some people respond and seek after the Lord; others reject Him.
God has worked in my life, orchestrating things around me, to bring me ever closer to Him. I’m sure he did that with Ittai, and that’s why we find him living in Jerusalem, serving King David, the man after God’s own heart.
My prayer for you as you read this book is that you will see how much God loves you and that He wants to work in your life, to bring you closer to Him. The first step to knowing Him is to receive Him as your Saviour. If you have never trusted in Christ as your Saviour, I encourage you to read the epilogue. There it is explained how you can know beyond a shadow of a doubt that you will be in heaven one day by trusting in Christ as your Saviour.
Most of the details of Ittai’s life in this story are reasonable guesses on my part. For example, we don’t know at what point he met David. For any part of the story that is in the Bible, I’ve made every attempt to have it line up with the Bible as closely as possible.
I hope you enjoy reading this book and that it will encourage you, wherever you are in your walk with the Lord. Thinking about Ittai and his loyalty has been a blessing to me. I pray it will be a blessing to you too.
 
CHAPTER 1
The Sword Fight
“Take that!” shouted Ittai as he tried to stab his friend Padi with his sword. Well, actually, it wasn’t really a sword. It was a stick several feet long, just the right size for their pretend sword fight.
“Ha, you missed me!” shouted Padi, as he quickly dodged Ittai’s pretend sword. The boys, who were best friends, often played battle. Some might have thought it strange that they played war games so often. However, in their culture it helped prepare them for the future when they would fight in a real battle.

Ittai and Padi lived just outside the walled city of Gath, one of five cities that made up the country of the Philistines. The wall helped protect the city from its enemies.
It seemed the Philistines were at war more than at peace. Some battles were necessary, such as when another country tried to invade their land. During those times the Philistines needed to defend their property and their families. If soldiers hadn’t been willing to fight, armies from other countries would come, killing many people and taking the spoil, which was anything of value, such as livestock, food, silver and gold, and clothes. The Philistines would have been left with almost nothing to provide food and clothing for their families if they didn’t defend their country.
At other times the Philistines were the aggressors, starting wars with other countries. Ittai had a hard time understanding that. He preferred to live peacefully, helping his father, Ziza, grow crops and raise a small herd of cattle that they used for food and clothing. Their farm was located a short distance outside the city walls.
Ziza had been one of the soldiers who went to war anytime the king of Gath, Achish, decided they should be at war. Most recently they had been fighting with the country to the east of them, Israel. In one of the battles Ziza had been wounded. The Israeli soldier with whom he had been fighting came at him with a sword, trying to pierce his breastplate and kill him. Fortunately, Ziza had been able to dodge the attack at the last second and the sword had missed his upper body. However, it had gashed his leg, leaving an ugly, gaping wound. One of Ziza’s friends had come to his aid and kept him from being killed that day. But that was the last battle Ziza fought. The wound, which took months to heal, left him with a limp, and it was all he could do to walk around his sma