The Mighty Men Of David

May 30th, 1999

The Mighty Men of David

“Where Are The Real Heroes?”

 Who are our heroes today?

 It is interesting what our heroes tell us about ourselves. We love heroes as a society.

 Israel’s had heroes.

 This is the hall of fame of the military heroes. (The Michael Jordan’s….)

 This from the appendix of the book of Samuel.

 Originally one book

 From 1 Sam 1 – 2 Sam 20 is historical data in chronological order.

 Chapters 2 Sam 21 – 24 are appendices, lists that the writer felt were important.

 Israel’s military heroes.

2 Sam 23:8-39

8 These are the names of the mighty men whom David had: Josheb-Basshebeth the Tachmonite, chief among the captains. He was called Adino the Eznite, because he had killed eight hundred men at one time.

 Here is the best of the best. “Crème de la crème.”

 This guy took it upon himself to kill 800 men at one time.

 Hank Aaron who hit 750 home runs.

 Fighter pilots from earlier wars who would shoot down a dozen bogies in one campaign.

 Adino means slender spear, Eznite means sharp spear.

9 And after him was Eleazar the son of Dodo, the Ahohite, one of the three mighty men with David when they defied the Philistines who were gathered there for battle, and the men of Israel had retreated.

10 He arose and attacked the Philistines until his hand was weary, and his hand stuck to the sword. The LORD brought about a great victory that day; and the people returned after him only to plunder.

 In those days they would line up on both sides of the mountain twice a day and taunt each other.

 David and Goliath. (1 Sam 17)

 They would do this to intimidate each other.

 Instead of doing it after a slam dunk or a touchdown, they would do it before to psyche-out their opponent.

 As they were taunting, the Philistines started to attack and everybody took off except this one guy.

 His hand was so sore he couldn’t open it.

 This was recorded in Israel’s history as a great victory

11 And after him was Shammah the son of Agee the Hararite. The Philistines had gathered together into a troop where there was a piece of ground full of lentils. Then the people fled from the Philistines.

12 But he stationed himself in the middle of the field, defended it, and killed the Philistines. And the LORD brought about a great victory.

 The Philistines attacked a food source and everybody ran except this one guy who stayed to defend it.

 He goes down in history as protecting Israel’s food source, by himself.

 These are the best of the best.

 Now the next story (vs. 13-17) is about these three and God gets the credit because it was so supernatural.

13 Then three of the thirty chief men went down at harvest time and came to David at the cave of Adullam. And the troop of Philistines encamped in the Valley of Rephaim.

14 David was then in the stronghold, and the garrison of the Philistines was then in Bethlehem.

 This is very significant because the Philistines were deep into Israel’s territory.

 We are going back to the time when David was a refugee running from Saul.

 David is on the run, Saul is after them and the Philistines are raiding the land.

 The Philistines were in David’s hometown.

 These were very bad times for the nation of Israel.

15 And David said with longing, "Oh, that someone would give me a drink of the water from the well of Bethlehem, which is by the gate!"

 David is in this cave, several miles away is Bethlehem and outside of which is a well.

 There were many places to get water around there.

 It wasn’t the only place to go and get water.

 David is remembering the good old days, when he was boy and the was freedom in Israel and Israel was strong.

 David is depressed and tired of hiding out in this huge cave at Adullum and watching the Philistines have their way with Israel.

16 So the three mighty men 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. Nevertheless he would not drink it, but poured it out to the LORD.

 These men took David literally.

 They knew their leader was discouraged.

 They said, “David’s discouraged, let’s go get him a drink from his favorite well. I can’t wait to see his face.”