One of my friends owns a lawn service business. The last few weeks I have been doing some part-time work for him. Whenever I help, I’m always stuck doing the weed eating and edging. To me, I have the hardest, most important job. Someone can mow their yard but not do any edging or trimming around it and that will be the first thing that is noticed. Anyways, by the end of the day my hands hurt from weed eating, my right hand hurts to open and when it’s open, it hurts to close. This is from holding that weed-eater and squeezing the trigger that makes it run for long periods of time.
When this happens, I think of a verse from the Bible, II Samuel 23:10, “He arose, and smote the Philistines until his hand was weary, and his hand clave unto the sword: and the Lord wrought a great victory that day; and the people returned after him only to spoil.” This verse is from the story of David’s mighty men. The man in this was Eleazar. He was one of the top three guys in David’s army, he was the best of the best! One of the things that made these men great was that the stood and fought while everyone else ran. They weren’t afraid of the fight, they were willing to fight no matter the cost.
Eleazar fought all by himself and held off the Philistines. He gripped his sword so long and so hard that his hand clave to his sword. The word ‘clave’ is a past tense verb of the word ‘cleave’ which means to adhere firmly and closely or loyally and unwaveringly.
I see 3 lessons we can learn from Eleazar.
- Eleazar was not going to let go of his sword no matter what happened. His sword was his only tool of offense and at the same time, his only tool of defense. If he dropped his sword, he was a goner, he would have been slain by those Philistines. “For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any twoedged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.” Hebrews 4:12 The Word of God, the King James Bible, is our sword. It is our sword to fight Satan and sin and it also protects us from Satan and sin. Too many Christians, drop their sword in the battle and that is when they fall into the world and sin. Don’t let go of the Word of God, don’t let go of your sword, you need it every single day as we fight the world, the flesh, and the devil. We need the Word of God to protect us from every attack Satan brings our way! Cleave unto your sword, cleave unto the Word of God and don’t let go!!
- Eleazar fought alone. In verse 9 of II Samuel 23, it says that “…the men of Israel were gone away.” The men who were supposed to fight, left. They ran, they turned their back on the battle, only Eleazar stood to fight. He fought, even though he was alone, he wasn’t going to let the enemy win the battle! In the Christian life, we may feel like we are in this battle alone. We may feel like everyone left us and deserted us. Continue to fight, continue to press on, don’t give up!
- The Lord gave a great victory! Eleazar wasn’t worried about the outcome, he was going to fight and do what he was supposed to do. He even fought the battle alone. Because of this, the Lord did something great that day and gave him the victory! God brings victory, even when you least expect it! God is in the business of doing giving great victories when we least expect it.
After the Lord gave the victory, the Bible says the people returned only for the spoil, only for the rewards. This is typical in today’s society, one person puts in the work and others want to reap the benefit after the hard work is done. If you fight a battle alone, and God gives you the victory, don’t be upset if other people reap the reward also, God used you and you were used by God….that’s victory enough!
——————————————————————————————————————————
Thanks for your continued reading! If you would like to support us but love shopping on Amazon more, just click on this link to shop! When you do, we get a little kickback, it is just something that helps keep this blog going!!
***********************************************************************************************************
If Amazon isn’t your thing, then head over to our t-shirt shop to get your very own Counted Faithful t-shirt!
——————————————————————————————————————————
Listen to the Counted Faithful Podcast!! You can also support us by supporting the podcast!!
***********************************************************************************************************
Counted Faithful 