How To Kill A Lion On A Snowy Day

Title: How to kill a Lion on a snowy Day

Theme: New Years challenge to do more for God in 2024. Be intentional about how we live but also how we fight.

Text: 2 Samuel 23:8 - 37

Notes used from Ray Steadman's sermon with same title.

Opening Scripture: 2 Samuel 23:20-22 Benaiah was the son of Jehoiada, the son of a valiant man from Kabzeel, who had done many deeds. He had killed two lion-like heroes of Moab. He also had gone down and killed a lion in the midst of a pit on a snowy day. (21) And he killed an Egyptian, a spectacular man. The Egyptian had a spear in his hand; so he went down to him with a staff, wrested the spear out of the Egyptian's hand, and killed him with his own spear. (22) These things Benaiah the son of Jehoiada did, and won a name among three mighty men.

Introduction

2 Samuel 22: 8 – 39 is a list of David’s “mighty men”. These are men who defended and protected David. They fought with David against the enemies. Their exploits were those of legends.

David gathered these from the

1 Samuel 22:2 describes who these men were, “And everyone who was in distress, everyone who was in debt, and everyone who was discontented gathered to him. So, he became captain over them. And there were about four hundred men with him.

David attracted these men. They were distressed, debt ridden, broken men. They were discouraged. But they found hope and grace in David. David did not push them away. This says a lot about David’s heart.

Thought # 1

We were all at this place until God found us. We were all broken, discouraged and hopeless until God found us. We owed a large debt “for the wages of sin is death” until God intervened.

God remined me that it was not the conviction of the Holy Spirit that cause me to surrender to God. That may have gotten me to a place of realization but for me it was the fact that my life was a mess and I could not continue this way.

As I have said, “This was not going to end well”. When I surrendered my life to God then things changed. As I was speaking to Chaplin Dexter the other day and he said, “her countance changed when her relationship with God changed’

So David attracted these type of men. They fought with him and they fought for him.

Listen to some of their stories:

Jashobeam who killed 800 men at one time with his spear. In 1 Chronicle 11:11 it is told that he killed 300. Probably on another occasion.

Shammah who defended a ground of lentils from the enemy. Right in the middle he stood, why he knew that you cannot give any ground to the enemy, no matter how insignificant they seem.

Abishai who also killed 300 men.

Eleazer son of Dodo who fought (2 Samuel 23:10) until his hand was stuck to the sword. That is a fight.

Thought: That is how we are to fight. With our hand stuck to the sword of the Lord.

Men who would go to the extreme for their leader. When David missed home and longed for a drink from the Bethlehem well they “broke through the camp of the Philistines, drew water from the well of Bethlehem that was by the gate, and took it and brought it to David.”

I want us to zoom in on one man that is mentioned here.

Another man we see is the one we opened the verse with. The reason I think he is so important because we are given more detail. Kind of like the Prayer of Jabez we find the people surrounding his name but we see this man with a powerful prayer that got the attention of the author.

Benaiah was the same way

Benaiah was the son of Jehoiada, the son of a valiant man from Kabzeel, who had done many deeds. He had killed two lion-like heroes of Moab. He also had gone down and killed a lion in the midst of a pit on a snowy day. (21) And he killed an Egyptian, a spectacular man. The Egyptian had a spear in his hand; so he went down to him with a staff, wrested the spear out of the Egyptian's hand, and killed him with his own spear. (22) These things Benaiah the son of Jehoiada did, and won a name among three mighty men.

First notice the names here. Benaiah son of Jehoiada. Names and meanings are always important, so we learn that

He was the son of Jehoida “God knows” which we learn he is a priest.

Benaiah means “God builds.”

Thought # 2