IN A PIT WITH A LION
THEME: GOD ENABLES US TO CHASE OUR DREAMS.
TEXT: 2 SAMUEL 23:20-21
Far better it is to dare mighty things, to win glorious triumphs, even though checkered by failure, than to rank with those poor spirits who neither enjoy much nor suffer much, because they live in the gray twilight that knows not victory nor defeat. These are the famous words of Theodore Roosevelt.
Benaiah was a man who lived by Roosevelt’s model. You might not know who he is. But he is mentioned in the Bible in a dynamic way. In fact two verses tell us of his deeds. 2 Samuel 23:20-21 “Then Benaiah the son of Jehoiada, the son of a valiant man of Kabzeel, who had done mighty deeds, killed the two sons of Ariel of Moab. He also went down and killed a lion in the middle of a pit on a snowy day. And he killed an Egyptian, an impressive man. Now the Egyptian had a spear in his hand, but he went down to him with a club and snatched the spear from the Egyptian’s hand, and killed him with his own spear.”
This verse is easily passed over in the yearly reading of the Bible. The verse can be overlooked in the safe confines of home, the office, and in the church building. But this verse is packed with power. Can you imagine a man chasing a lion into a pit? When lions are around humans run because lions can kill humans. Lions are dangerous animals. Even tamed lions are dangerous and un-predictable. A few years ago the famous lion show in Las Vegas had an attack. The Siegfried and Roy show was taking place when a lion un-expectantly attacked Roy Horn. These performers showcased this performance hundreds of times. But on this night the lion attack Roy and serious injured him. These were tamed and trained lions. Imagine running into a pit with a wild lion?
The text does not indicate if Benaiah had a weapon or not. But we know he did not carry a hunting rifle with him. He was not walking into a hunting safari. He charged after this lion into a pit to do battle. The situation was even worst to running to fight a lion. The text indicates that it was a snowy pit. Personally, I know about the effects of snow on traction. A lion has claws that will stick into the ground. A man simply has two feet that will slide around. There seems to be all the odds stacked against Benaiah. We do not know what exactly what happened in the pit. We do not know about the claws to the face. We do not read about the teeth to the legs and arms. We do not read about the blood spilling from the wounds. But we do not the unlikely outcome. The text informs us that Benaiah walks out of the snowy pit with lucky lion’s foot around his neck. Benaiah was victorious.
On that day, Benaiah was not the odds on favorite. If Vegas were giving the spread, Benaiah would have been the underdog. More likely, no one would have even given him a chance. There was no way that one man could defeat a wild beast. But Benaiah was a lion chaser. David was a giant slayer. Abraham was an old man. The twelve Apostles were simply men. Everyone needs to remember that odds are not applicable to God. In fact Paul reminds us of this. Roman 8:31 “What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who is against us? Also in Philippians 4:13 “I can do all things through Him who strengthens me.” The odds are not important for God’s people. That which seems impossible is possible with God.
Personally, I my own life I have seen God overcome the odds through me. When I left home to attend Brown Trail School of Preaching, I was not even a Christian for one year. I was going into a difficult and intensive program that would demand that I write and read constantly. The problem was that I only read two books in my whole life and I was not able to even write a complete sentence. I was leaving everything that I knew behind me. It would have been different if I was a top student or had some natural ability. But I was simply a dummy with a dream. The odds were that I could not handle the work load or the type of work. Remember just the year before I applied to a school and they wrote back that I had no chance of completely the program. They did not directly say this but they let me know that they laughed when I thought I had a chance of going to school there. The odds were that I was too slow, too lazy, would become too homesick to finish the program. In fact, after a few years when I was in Heritage Christian University I was visiting Brian Garnett who encouraged me to attend Brown Trail. He confessed that he did not believe I had it in me to finish Brown Trail. The odds were that I would head home a failure. But God can overcome the odds if we let him.
Odds and risk are interesting topics for Christians. Most Christians enjoy and desire the safety of Christianity. We want a safe church that has a safe God. Sometimes our goal in Christianity is to remove the risk. But faith is risky business. God can throw us into difficult circumstances. He commands us to chase the impossible. He desires us to follow him to the extremes. God is a God of risk. It was risky to chase a lion into a snowy pit. It was risky to fight a huge Egyptian warrior with a club when he had a spear. Life is about handling the risky stuff with faith. The goal of faith is to not eliminate risk but to embrace risk. The great risk is taking no risks.
This is the point of the parable of the talents. Matthew 25:14-29 “"For it is just like a man about to go on a journey, who called his own slaves, and entrusted his possessions to them. And to one he gave five talents, to another, two, and to another, one, each according to his own ability; and he went on his journey. Immediately the one who had received the five talents went and traded with them, and gained five more talents. In the same manner the one who had received the two talents gained two more. But he who received the one talent went away and dug in the ground, and hid his master’s money. Now after a long time the master of those slaves came and settled accounts with them. And the one who had received the five talents came up and brought five more talents, saying, ’Master, you entrusted five talents to me; see, I have gained five more talents.’ His master said to him, ’Well done, good and faithful slave; you were faithful with a few things, I will put you in charge of many things, enter into the joy of your master.’ The one also who had received the two talents came up and said, ’Master, you entrusted to me two talents; see, I have gained two more talents.’ His master said to him, ’Well done, good and faithful slave; you were faithful with a few things, I will put you in charge of many things; enter into the joy of your master.’ And the one also who had received the one talent came up and said, ’Master, I knew you to be a hard man, reaping where you did not sow, and gathering where you scattered no seed. And I was afraid, and went away and hid your talent in the ground; see, you have what is yours.’ Therefore take away the talent from him, and give it to the one who has the ten talents.’ For to everyone who has shall more be given, and he shall have an abundance; but from the one who does not have, even what he does have shall be taken away.
Jesus commands the slaves to take a risk and make a return. But the servant who buries his talent is called wicked. Why is this—because this servant would not take a risk for God? Christianity is taking risks. It is using our talents to improve the Kingdom. God is not pleased when we always take the safe road. God rewards risk and courage. In fact in the parable the man who risked his five talents was given five more. He was even given the talent of the wicked slave. When we take risks God rewards us with more opportunities. Once we have proven faithful with a small service God opens great doors of opportunity. But if we are too busy hurdling in the corner trying to preserve what we have, then God is going to take our blessing away from us.
Mark Twain once wrote “Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail way from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore, dream, and discover.
God even blesses Benaiah was greater service and opportunities because he is willing to take risks. Notice what 2 Samuel 23:23 says “And David appointed him over his guard.” Since Benaiah proved to be able to handle risk, David chooses him to oversee his guard. This was David’s personal group of body guard. I am sure that David heard about his lion fighting and wanted a man with this amount of courage protecting him. God is looking for people who take risks for him to provide even great chances of opportunity. God blesses those who will chase a lion down into a pit.
The reason that there are only a few lion chasers in the church today is because of two powerful hindrances. Foolishness and failure are deterrents to lion chasing. I am sure that for a moment Benaiah thought in his head about running down to attack that lion. In that moment he might of felt foolish in such a crazy pursuit and he might have feel that people were going to mock him if he failed. These two influences cause people to take the safe road everyday for the rest of their lives. I do not want people to think that I am foolish and I do not want people to think that I am a failure. So we sit back and are safe. Never realizing the full blessings that God is willing to give us, we prefer the routine over the energy of victory. We like to be too civilized. Jesus wasn’t in the temple. John the Baptist wasn’t in the wilderness. And we should not be either. Paul realizes that looking foolish in the chosen method for God accomplishing his work on earth. “But God has chosen the foolish things of the world to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to shame the things which are strong” (1 Cor. 1:27).
Jason was a lion chaser. “It was the stuff of Hollywood, but it was real. Senior Jason McElwain had been the manager of the varsity basketball team of Greece Athena High School in Rochester, N.Y. McElwain, who’s autistic, was added to the roster by coach Jim Johnson so he could be given a jersey and get to sit on the bench in the team’s last game of the year. Johnson hoped the situation would even enable him to get McElwain onto the floor a little playing time. He got the chance, with Greece Athena up by double-digits with four minutes go to. And, in his first action of the year, McElwain missed his first two shots, but then sank six three-pointers and another shot, for a total of 20 points in three minutes. On that evening he could have chickened out. He had autisms. But Jason did not. He walked out on that field and killed that lion. He was a lion chaser on that night.
God has created us all to be lion chasers. But at some point we have given up the pursuit. Maybe it is time to start chasing God again. Maybe it is time to seize God-ordained opportunities. Maybe it is time to unleash the lion chaser within you. Chase the lion into the snowy pit and walk out knowing the feeling of victory.
