Our text for today is 2 Samuel 23:20
“Benaiah son of Jehoiada, a valiant fighter from Kabzeel, performed great exploits.”
When you first read this verse, you may have thought, “Who is Benaiah?’ “Why would I care about him?” “ Why is he important?
I find it interesting that these are the same questions that people ask about other people. They are also the questions that you ask about yourself. Who am you? Why does anyone care about you? Why are you important at all?
Who is he? He is the greatest little known soldier in the Bible. Why do I care about him? Because he helps me understand why I should keep on keeping on. That makes him important.
To believe these answers, let’s read a little more of his story. It is told in only 72 words.
2 Samuel 23:20-21
“Benaiah son of Jehoiada, a valiant fighter from Kabzeel, performed great exploits. He struck down Moab’s two mightiest warriors. He also went down into a pit on a snowy day and killed a lion. And he struck down a huge Egyptian. Although the Egyptian had a spear in his hand, Benaiah went against him with a club. He snatched the spear from the Egyptian’s hand and killed him with his own spear.”
According to this text, he defeated the two biggest problems of David’s enemies. He killed a huge Egyptian with nothing but a club while the Egyptian had a spear. He snatched the spear away from him and used it to kill the enemy.
My favorite part of his adventures was that he killed a lion (a ferocious beast) in a pit (the worse place to fight) on a snowy day (under terrible circumstances).
In other words, he did what he had to do and what nobody else wanted to do. That makes him a hero in my book. It makes him a hero in God’s Book.
We can judge him by the battles he was willing to fight. He could have just gone fishing, but instead fought a lion and killed giant.
I tell you his story because, we all have our own lions to slay, in a pit, on a snowy day.
Children may sing, “Dare to be a Daniel,” but I say, “Dare to be a Benaiah.” Even if you have to work in obscurity.
Today, what is the lion you need to slay?
Lonnie Davis