In II Samuel 23, and verse 9 and 10, the Bible says, “And after him was Eleazar the son of Dodo the Ahohite, one of the three mighty men with David, when they defied the Philistines that were there gathered together to battle, and the men of Israel were gone away: 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.”
Here in II Samuel 23, we have some of the last words of King David. Now, we are not sure if these were in fact his last words, or if this were his last recorded words before he died. But either way, the things that David has to say here are important to him.
So, as David reminisces here in II Samuel 23, as he begins to remember, he begins to recall the many exploits of his Mighty Men. Now, David had many soldiers, many that were loyal to him, many that had accomplished great feats on the fields of battle. But, in this chapter, David is going to narrow that down to 30 of those men, and really, he’s going to specifically focus on 3 of those Mighty Men, men that David referred to as “The Chief among the Captains.”
These are the men that stood out in David’s mind, the men that he wanted to remember before he died. David wanted everybody to know how he felt about these men. And as we read the chapter, we get down to verse 8, and we are introduced to the first of these 3:
- Adino, the Ezrite – this is a fellow that drew his spear and slew 800 of the enemy of God at 1 time.
- In Verses 9, 10, there is Eleazar the Ahohite – but we will come back to him, as he is the focus of the message.
- In verse 11, Shammah, the Hararite – who stood against the Philistines when everybody else ran away and the LORD wrought a great victory.
I want focus on verses 9 and 10 and give you 4 things that caught my mind as I studied this Mighty Man Eleazar, a man who was faithful, a man who was loyal to his king, notice with me first of all:
THE PERSONAL RESPONSIBILITY
You see, as you read this passage of Scripture, we find apparently what happened is King David, and these 3 Mighty Men, and the others mentioned here, go into battle against the Philistines. Right in the heat of the battle, everybody turns and runs away. The end of verse 9 says, “and the men of Israel had gone away.” They fled – they ran – they retreated!
Now, they either left Eleazar by himself, or maybe the other 2 stayed with him – we don’t know for certain, as Eleazar is the only one mentioned in these two verses.
He was left alone to fight the entire army of the Philistines. Why do you think he didn’t run? When everybody else turned and ran away, why do you think he didn’t run with them? I think he didn’t run because he understood his Personal Responsibility.
You see, every one of us have some personal responsibilities in our lives; some things in our lives that no one else can do for us – they are our Personal Responsibility:
- If you are married, you have a Personal Responsibility to your Spouse. As a husband, it is my responsibility to take care of my wife (not my husband – my wife) and to love her. That is your responsibility – no one else is supposed to do that for you.
And no matter what other husbands do, or do not do, that does not change MY PERSONAL RESPONSIBILITY.
- If you are a parent, or a grandparent, you have a responsibility to care for those children that God has put in your life, you are to love them, to care for them, and to nurture them. It is not the communities responsibility, or the school’s responsibility – it is MY personal Responsibility.
And no matter what other fathers do, or fail to do, that does not change my Personal Responsibility to my children and my grandchildren.
- If you are a Christian, you have some personal responsibilities to your Church:
- We have the responsibility to pray for our church, for our leaders, for our pastor and for one another;
- We have the responsibility to be faithful – with our time, talents and tithes;
- We have a responsibility to reach the lost for Christ. It is not the Pastor’s responsibility – it is all of our responsibility.
And no matter what other members of the church do or do not do, no matter what other Christians do or do not do, that does not change my Personal Responsibility to my church.
I believe Eleazar was a good man, a good soldier, a good husband and a good father because he understood he had a Personal Responsibility. You see, it didn’t matter what the rest of Israel did that day – it didn’t change Eleazar’s Personal Responsibility.
Eleazar knew that if he survived the battle, he was gonna have to stand before his king. So he stayed in the battle; he stayed faithful to the fight; he stayed in there when the going got tough.
I can almost picture this battle in my mind. I can see Eleazar standing there in the thick of battle, watching all the others run away – I can imagine he had a few thoughts and choice words about them! I can’t even fathom what was going through his head when he watched everybody run away. It would have been easy for him to run with them, I mean, who would have held it against him?
What’s really amazing to me is that Eleazar was just an ordinary guy, just like everybody that ran away, yet he made a decision to do an extraordinary deed – because he had a Personal Responsibility to his king. It didn’t matter to him what everybody else was doing – he had a Personal Responsibility. But the 2nd thing I see:
THE PAINFUL REALITY
So, here is Eleazar – he’s swinging his sword; he’s slashing and thrusting; hacking and whacking. He is giving this fight everything that he has. And notice what verse 10 says, “He arose, and smote the Philistines until his hand was weary . . .”
He got tired. Listen, you hold a big shield and sword and sling them around for a while – you’re gonna get weary! Every time he would kill one of the enemies of God, it seemed two more would pop up. It seemed like there was no end to the battle. And don’t miss this though:
- He was doing what was right;
- He was being faithful.
But the Painful Reality is that even when you are doing the right things; even when you are giving all you’ve got, there are times when you are going to get weary!
And when we get weary, that is when we need to be careful, because Satan will come in and get us. And folks, we can get weary doing all the right things! We can get weary in well doing!
You know one of the bad things about getting older? You see, I am still as excited as I’ve ever been – and maybe even more so – BUT, I cannot physically express that excitement like I once could – my body is getting weary. And we can get weary in well doing – Eleazar did. He was doing the right things for the right reasons and he got weary.
Why do you think he got weary? I think there are a couple of reasons:
- Because of the number of the enemy. There were a lot of them. He would kill them, and they’d just kept coming.
- Because there was no one else to fight the enemy with him – he was all alone Truth is, if the Israelites would stayed with him in the battle, none of them would have gotten as weary.
Listen, sometimes when we get weary, sometimes when we get discouraged, sometimes when we get overwhelmed, it’s because of the number of the enemy. And sometimes no matter how hard we fight, no matter how right we are, the battles just keep coming. Some days, we just get weary!
Sadly, sometimes when we get weary, we look around and see there is so much to do, and so few willing to help. Nobody was helping Eleazar – they all ran off. So Eleazar got weary.
You know, Eleazar could have dropped his sword when he got weary and ran away – and NOBODY would have said a thing about it, after all, he stayed in the battle longer than anybody else. He could have done what they did and just ran away. But that’s not what he did.
Instead, verse 10 says, “he clave to his sword . . .” That word clave means “to get a better grip,” “To grip it a little tighter.”
Here he is fighting the Philistines with everything in him, his buddies have all run off, he’s getting weary – and he can either throw down his sword and run away – or he can get a better grip and say “God, I am here for the duration – live or die, sink or swim, I’m here till it’s over!”
The Painful reality was, his hands got tired, they got weary – but let me show you:
THE PHENOMENAL RENEWAL
Sometimes, I think God is waiting for a point in the battle to see if we really mean business for God; to see if we are really serious about serving him; to see if He can count on us.
I believe many Christians have given up the fight just as God was about to send a great victory their way. They threw down their swords.
But, I am glad the Bible doesn’t say that about Eleazar. His hands clave to that sword, he got a better grip. And when he did that, he was making a statement, “God, I’m not going anywhere; I’m gonna fight to my last breathe.”
Illustration: I played baseball in school, and during the 9th inning, whenever it was time to bat, and there were runners on base, the coach would say, “Now don’t try to hit a home run, just choke up on the bat – get a better grip – get a hit, get on base, keep the game moving forward.”
You know what, I believe as Christians, rather than worrying about hitting homeruns all the time, maybe we should just think about getting a better grip on the “Sword” and be faithful.
You know what husbands, your wives don’t need you to be a Fabio – they need you to be faithful. Our kids don’t need us to be superman – they just need us to be faithful.
Now, after Eleazar had been in the fight, he got weary – but rather than throw down his sword, he got a better grip and made up his mind he was going to be faithful. And because he did – “The LORD wrought a great victory that day.”
That is the Phenomenal Renewal. That is God’s way of reminding us that it is Him that brings the victory.
THE PROPER RECOGNITION
Now this brings us to the final point. Notice it doesn’t say that Eleazar wrought a great victory, or King David wrought a great victory. It says, “The LORD wrought a great victory that day.” Eleazar knew that it was God that gave the victory.
I pray that everyone of us – when we get in the battle, when we’re sticking to our responsibilities, and we get weary, I pray that God gives us the strength to get a better grip, and when the last battle has been fought, I pray we will be able to say, “To God be the glory, for great things He has done.”
Give Him the PROPER RECOGNITION.
I like Eleazar, just a regular ole guy that wanted to be faithful to his king. And you know what:
- I want to be faithful to my King;
- I want to be faithful to my Lord and Savior;
- I want to be faithful to my Wife, to my family;
- I want to be faithful to my Church;
- I want to be a Mighty Man for God!
Fighting for My Pea Patch 