verse 7 of 2 Samuel 23, and the
rest of this chapter, the names of 37 men are listed. They're called the mighty men
of David. The names of almost all of them are only found in
this passage of Scripture. There's another place where it
lists the same men, but basically their names are only found in
the Word of God in this one place. Most of these men were not even
told what they did. in the service of David, just
that they are part of his mighty men. But they must have made
important contributions to David's kingdom, even though you and
I don't know what they what they did. You know, you may feel like
you don't have a very public name in God's church. But I can
assure you, if you're one of God's children, your contribution
to his church and his kingdom is important. What you do may
go unnoticed by men, but God knows Just like only God knows
what these men did. Only God knows. But that's enough,
isn't it, that He knows. So don't be weary in well-doing.
Whatever service the Lord's given to you, do it faithfully, and
the Lord will bless in due time. Now, it's interesting. We're
not going to read all these names. If you're interested, you can
read all their names this afternoon at your leisure. But if you read
this list, one thing you'll find out, Joab's name is not listed. in David's mighty men. Now, Joab
is David's general. He's the head of David's whole
army. He won many battles for David. But his name is not listed
in David's mighty men. I think I can tell you why. Because
Joab made a name for himself. Joab was interested in Joab,
not David. Joab was never interested in
doing something quietly. He always had to make sure he
got the proper recognition from everybody that was around for
everything he was doing. So Joab got the recognition that
he wanted, but his name's not included in this list. And that
tells us a whole lot about how you and I should serve the Lord.
We should do it quietly. Don't let your left hand know
what your right hand's doing. Do it quietly. Serve for the
honor and glory of the Lord, not for our own recognition.
Now we're going to look at a few of these men. There's a few of
these men that are listed. The Spirit tells us what these
men did in the service of David. And you'll see they did some
remarkable things. And certainly they ought to be
recognized for the things that they did in the service of the
Lord, in the service of David. But you know, much of the glory
for their actions goes to David. David was the one who trained
these men. Israel didn't have any warriors. David trained them
to, you know, the standing army. He trained these men and these
men were motivated to service by David. They had a love and
a devotion to David and they served and the things that they
did were motivated by love for David. And that's how and why
a believer serves Christ. We only serve Christ by the power
of Christ in us and our service, whatever it might be. is most
blessed when it's done purely for the glory of Christ, not
trying to get any kind of recognition for ourselves. We just do it
in imitation of our Savior. So in each of these men, we look
at the things that they did. You'll see it's Christ that gets
the glory. Now, if we had time, we'd look at all 37 names, and
I'm sure we would find the glory of Christ in all 37 of those
names. And we're just not going to take
the time to look at each of them. But of these 37 men, I'd like
to point out one. The men that were not told exactly
what they did in the service of David. I'd like to point out
one name. The last name listed in these 37 mighty men of David
is Uriah. Now that name is included in
this list. Not just to remind us of David's
sin, but to show us how dark and how vile David's sin was
when he had Uriah killed. David killed one of his most
mighty men. He's in the top 37. That's a
pretty elite group. He was mighty. He was brave. He was devoted to David. And David had him killed. Pretty
black, dark sin, isn't it? And that's the sin that's in
all of our hearts. I mean, we're not picking on David. David's
sin is in my heart and your heart, too. But seeing Uriah's name
here also reminds us of this. The riches of God's grace and
God's mercy and the power of the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. God's mercy forgave even this
sin. The blood of Christ paid for
even this dark, heinous sin. the blood of Christ made it white
as snow. So now we'll begin here in verse
8. That's where our lesson begins.
These be the names of the mighty men whom David had. The Tatmanite
that sat in the sea, chief among the captains. The same was Adino
the Esnite. He lift up his spear against
800 whom he slew at one time. Now Adino, he is the chief of
David's War Council. He's David's chief military advisor,
the head of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. That's the word I was
thinking of. Now he had unusual wisdom, but he also had physical
valor. He took a spear and by himself
at one time killed 800 men. I mean, that's just, that's astounding.
That's the kind of thing Samson did. We read a lot about Samson,
don't we? This is the only time this man's
name is given in the Word of God. And he did this great feat
by the power of the Lord. The Lord gives his people strength
to overcome. He gives a strength that's just
not natural human strength. But Adino did this in imitation
of his Savior. Christ, God the Son, is the only
one that the Father consulted in his covenant of grace. Christ
is the wisdom of God. He's the only one with the wisdom
and the ability to accomplish God's redemption, his purpose
of redemption. Christ accomplished the salvation
of his people by himself. One man fought the battle and
one man won the battle. If you look over in Hebrews chapter
one, I'll show you another picture of Christ here and what this
man did. He was given the best name of all these 37 men. He was given the name of the
most honor in David's court. Well, that's our Lord Jesus Christ.
In Hebrews 1, beginning in verse 3, who being the brightness of
his glory, and the express image of his person, and upholding
all things by the word of his power, when he had by himself
purged our sins, he sat down on the right hand of the majesty
on high, being made so much better than the angels, as he had by
inheritance obtained a more excellent name than they. the preeminent
name in David's court. Our Lord Jesus Christ is given
the preeminent name, a name which is above every name. We'll look
back here at verse 9 in our text. And after him was Eleazar, the
son of Dodo, a Hoheit, one of the three mighty men with David,
when they defied the Philistines that were gathered together to
battle. And the men of Israel were gone away. They fled in
retreat. And he arose and smote the Philistines,
until his hand was weary, and his hand clave unto the sword,
and the Lord brought a great victory that day. And the people
returned after him, only to spoil." Now here's another man. This
is the only time we read his name in Scripture. The Philistines
had come out this day, and they challenged Israel. They defied
Israel, just like Goliath came and defied Israel. And all the
army fled in defeat. And Eleazar stood alone with
the sword. And by himself, he killed every
last one of those Philistines. He killed all of them. And when
he was done, the battle was over. Then the rest of Israel came
back and they went out to the spoil. They got the spoil from
a battle they did not fight. One man fought the battle. One
man by himself won the battle. Now, there are times that a believer
will stand alone. The Apostle Paul stood alone.
Everybody left him. He stood alone, didn't he? Martin
Luther stood alone. Suddenly, he didn't have any
friends. He stood alone. And when a believer stands alone,
there may be a time you and I are called on to stand alone. But
you know, we really aren't alone. The Lord was with Eliezer this
day. The Lord's the one that brought
the victory, not Eliezer. He wasn't alone. And if we feel
like we're called on to stand alone, we're not alone. The Lord's
with us. And he'll give the victory. He's
able to give the victory, just like he did Eleazar. And if you
are called on to stand alone, use this man as an example. Stand
alone with your sword. Don't bring anything else. Don't
bring your intellect. Don't bring your wit. Don't bring
whatever gifts you think you might have. Stand alone with
the sword. God's word is the sword. Stand alone. When our Lord was
tempted of Satan, What did he use? The sword. This is the sword
he used. At every turn, he repelled Satan
with the Word of God. That's our sword. Now, if you're
called on to stand alone, do it with God's Word. Don't have
any other defense, don't have anything but God's Word. That's all he'll use to win the
victory. Now, this battle is a picture
of the battle over sin that our Savior won for his people. You
know, our Lord was a real man. We looked at this in our study
of John 4 a couple of weeks ago. Our Lord was wearied with His
journey. And He sat thus on the well and
asked a woman of Samaria for a drink of water. He was weary. He was a real man. And as our
Savior was preparing to go to the cross, He was preparing to
be made sin. He was preparing to offer a sacrifice
to God for the sin of His people. He was weary. He was praying
and he needed help. Scripture says he was in agony. He was weary. And an angel came
and strengthened him. If that angel hadn't come and
strengthened him, he never could have made it to the cross. He
was weary. Eliezer was weary. And even though
he was weary, he never put that sword down. He would not quit. The writers say the blood of
his enemy. I mean, you think the blood of eight? I mean, was
it 800 men he killed? Ridiculous. All that blood. They say the blood dried around
his hand and just cemented his hand to that sword so he couldn't
let go. That's our Savior. He was wearied
with the work of redemption, but he never put a sword down.
He couldn't put it down. If his people are going to be
redeemed, he couldn't put it down. He fought until every enemy
was destroyed. And not one of God's elect, for
even a single moment, fought in this battle against our sin.
We're just like the rest of the disciples. You know, they say,
oh, we'll die with you. But when it came time he was
taken, they were scattered. We're just like them. We're nowhere
to be found. But now, the victory's won. And the Lord gives his people
the spoils of his victory. You have the forgiveness of sins.
If you believe Christ, you have the forgiveness of sins. I mean,
you talk about a spoil, the forgiveness of sins. God's made you righteous. He sanctified you in Christ.
He's given you peace with God. He's given you eternal life.
He's given you freedom in Christ. You're no longer enslaved to
the law. You're free in Christ. That's the spoils of Christ's
victory that he gives to his people. Now, verse 11. And after
him was Shammah the son of Agi the Hororite. And the Philistines
were gathered together into a troop where was a piece of ground full
of lentils. And the people fled from the Philistines. But he
stood in the midst of the ground and defended it, and slew the
Philistines. And the Lord wrought a great
victory." Now here the Philistine army was foraging for food. The
people of Israel fled again in retreat. was left alone in that field
to fight the battle. You starting to see a pattern
here? One man fought the battle. One man won the victory. He stood
his ground and he killed all those Philistines. Now, God's
people, they're not looking for a war. God's people are not out
there all the time looking for a fight, looking to start a fuss.
But we will stand our ground. Brethren, we must. We must defend
the truth of God. We must defend the name and the
honor of our Savior, just like Shammah did here. He stood his
ground. You know why this was so important?
That field was full of lentils. That's a huge part of their diet. He stood his ground and defended
the food supply for his people. We must defend the food supply
for God's people. This is God's food. We must defend
the truth of God. If you take the truth out of
it, there's no food there. There's no life-giving power
there if you take the truth out of it. This is the only food
supply we've got. And if anyone's going to be saved,
if anyone's going to be fed, it's going to be by this word.
Now, we must defend it. We must preach it as plainly
and simply as we know how, and we must never let it be compromised. Ever. Ever. You young people,
if there comes a day somebody standing here not preaching the
gospel, get out. Do you hear me? Get out. God won't save His people and
He won't feed His people apart from His Word, the truth of His
Word. Get out. Now, in each case, A
man stood alone. In each of these three cases,
he stood alone to fight the enemy. And we honor them, don't we?
They should be honored. Honored whom honors do. What
they did, they should be honored. But let's not pretend. God gave
them the victory, didn't He? The Lord gave them the victory.
They fought for the glory and for the honor of David. And the
Lord gave them the victory. Now, we give them honor now,
but the victory is the Lord's, and that's the case in every
situation we may ever find ourselves in. Now, verse 13, And three
of the thirty chiefs went down and came to David in the harvest
time unto the cave of Dolom, and the troop of the Philistines
pitched in the valley of Rephaim. And David was then in a hold,
and the garrison of the Philistines was then in Bethlehem. and said,
O that one would give me a drink of the water of the well of Bethlehem
which is by the gate. And the three mighty men break
through the host of the Philistines, and drew water out of the well
of Bethlehem that was by the gate, and took it and brought
it to David. Nevertheless he would not drink
thereof, but he poured it out unto the Lord. And he said, Be
it far from me, O Lord, that I should do this. Is not this
the blood of the men that went in jeopardy of their lives? Therefore
he would not drink it. These things did these three
mighty men. Now this is probably a time when David was on the
run from Saul. He was public enemy number one. But there were a few men who
loved David. They were loyal to David. These
men weren't serving David because it was a popular thing to do.
It was unpopular. They were serving him because
they loved him. They were devoted to him. And they served David
just because they loved him. And it could be, there's some
speculation with this comment that David made about this water
from the well of Bethlehem. It could have been an offhand
comment. David could have just been sitting
there one day and said, boy, I'd love to have a drink of some
of that water from that well that's from my hometown. I remember
being a boy, I remember that's the best water, I'd love that
water, I'd love to have a drink of that water someday. It could
have just been an offhand comment. But these three men, they heard
David make that comment. And they wanted to get David
some of that water. And it was going to be a risk. It was going
to be difficult. But they wanted to get him some
of that water. Just because they loved him. I remember there was
a time, you know, God's people do this. Just when they have
the opportunity to do something nice for one of God's people,
they just do it. It's just the Spirit that God
gives His people. I remember once there was a preacher visiting
here in Ashland. And Ed Ballard came to service.
I still remember this. sport coat he had on. He had
a sport coat. It was like a brown, like camel hair, like sport coat.
And this visitor just told Ed, I love that jacket. That's a
nice jacket. The next week, a sport coat just
like that one Ed had on arrived in the mail at that man's house.
That's the spirit. It was just an offhand comment.
He wasn't asking for it. It was just an offhand comment.
That's the generous spirit God gives his people. And that could
be what happened here, possibly. But David may have been complaining.
We do that too, don't we? He could have been complaining.
He had water there in the cave, but it just didn't taste as good
as the water that he remembered. It may have been from a well
that just wasn't as sweet, you know. And he should have said
it. He should have been complaining.
God gave him water. He wasn't going to die of thirst, but he
just complained. And these men, they knew David
was complaining, but they just loved him. They covered his sin
with love and they just knew he was having a difficult time.
Well, let's do something to make David feel better. And they went
and got that water for him. Or it could be David spoke as
a prophet and he longed for the water of life that was going
to be born in his hometown of Bethlehem. Bethlehem means the
house of bread. Well, Christ, the bread of life,
was going to be born there in the house of bread. But Christ,
the water of life, was also going to be born in Bethlehem, the
house of bread. Christ is the whole meal, isn't
he? And David longed to see that
day, that the Savior would be born. Now, whichever it was that
David meant, maybe it was all three, I don't know, but whatever
it was that David meant here, this is what this is teaching
us. Somebody's got to bring us the water of life. We don't have
it. Somebody's got to bring it to
us. Somebody has got to break through the troop of the enemy
They've got to work. They've got to study God's Word.
They've got to work to bring the water of life to us. And
our Lord Jesus Christ does all that work. He accomplished all
the work of redemption. He went out and met the enemy
by Himself. And He freely gives that water
of life to His people. He gives a fountain springing
up in the hearts of His people so they'll never thirst again.
At Calvary, As our Lord was suffering and dying, one of the things
He cried from the cross was, I thirst. Just like David did
here in this cave. He said, I thirst. He cried,
I thirst to show His people He was suffering everything our
sins deserve. He suffered for His people. He
thirsted so that we'll never thirst. He gives that water of
life freely to His people. And when our Lord gives us that
gift, the gift of eternal life, the gift of that water of life,
we always say, I'm not worthy. I'm not worthy of the least of
God's mercies. I have no idea why God would
be merciful to me, at least none found in myself. I know why,
just because he would, just out of his goodness, just because
he would. But I know this, I'm not worthy. And you know it,
too, if God's given you this gift. Well, when David poured
out this water, that's exactly what he was saying. When I first
read that, I thought, if I'm one of these three men, I risked
my life to go get David that water out of that well, and he
poured it out on the ground, I'd have been offended. But if you look
at what David meant when he did that, you won't be offended.
When he poured out that water, he's saying, I'm not worthy of
the risk that these men took. They risked their lives to bring
this to me. I'm not worthy of that. I count
your life to be more valuable than mine. Isn't that our Lord
Jesus Christ speaking? He counted the life of His people
as more valuable than His own. He gave His life that His people
might live. He poured it out before the Lord
that His people could live. And when David poured out this
water, he's doing it as a form of thanksgiving. This is a drink
offering to the Lord. And he's pouring it out in thanksgiving
Thankful that these men survived, thankful for their love and devotion
to Him. It's a form of thanksgiving. I can make good on that. A drink
offering is always given as thanksgiving. For the very first time we ever
read about a drink offering in Scripture, in Genesis 35, this
is when the Lord met Jacob at Bethel again. The Lord kept meeting
Jacob at Bethel. And He told Jacob again, your
name's not Jacob. Not anymore. It's Israel. And
the Lord reminded Jacob. He reassured Jacob that his seed
is going to possess this land. His seed is going to possess
the land of Canaan. And Jacob knew he was not worthy
of all of God's mercies to him. So Jacob built an altar. And
he poured out a drink offering upon that altar. He poured it
out in thanksgiving for all of God's mercies to him. God gave
him a new name. He gave him a new nature that
matched his new name. God gave him the promise of this
land. And he was thankful. And he poured
that out as a drink offering, was saying, thank you. And that's
what David is doing. This drink offering was thanksgiving
to the Lord. Now, verse 18. Abishai, we've
met before. And Abishai, the brother of Joab,
the son of Zeruiah, was chief among three. He lifted up his
spear against 300 and slew them. had the name among three. Was
he not most honorable of three? Therefore, he was their captain,
howbeit he attained not to the first three." Now, we're not
told when this happened, but at some point, Abishai, by himself,
killed 300 enemies of Israel with just his spear. And because
of that, he was given an honorable name. His name was set above
the second set of three warriors. The first three, they had the
Kind of like the highest name. Now these next three, and he
was given the name above these next three lieutenants of David.
And again, over and over and over again, we see this is a
picture of Christ. The Lord Jesus Christ won the
battle against the sin of His people by Himself. By Himself. And the Father has given Him
a name which is above every name. That the name of Jesus every
knee should bow and every tongue should confess He's Lord. to
the glory of God the Father. He's given a name above every
name. Now, verse 20. This is the last name. And Benaiah,
the son of Jehoadah, the son of a valiant man of Kabziel,
who had done many acts, he slew two lion-like men of Moab. He
went down also and slew a lion in the midst of a pit in the
time of snow. And he slew an Egyptian, a goodly
man, a giant man. And the Egyptian had a spear
in his But he went down to him with a staff, all he had with
him was his walking stick, and he plucked that spear out of
the Egyptian's hand and slew him with his own spear. These
things did Baneha the son of Jehoiada, and had the name among
three mighty men. He was more honorable than the
thirty, but he came not to the first three, and David set him
over his bodyguard. Now Baneha, he met this big Egyptian,
he's a giant. His spear, they say, is just
a little bit smaller than Goliath's spear. And he just took that
spear from that giant and slew him with his own spear. That's
pretty impressive, isn't it? David was impressed. David was
so impressed, he made him the head over his bodyguard. If you
can take the spear from a giant and slay him with it and just
hand to hand combat, he can be the head of my bodyguard. I mean,
David's a dummy. This is a pretty good idea. But
this is a picture of Christ. Christ our Savior slew the law
with its own sphere. Christ kept the law as a substitute,
a representative of His people, and He freely gives that obedience
to His people. So now the law must say, you're
not guilty because Christ has given you His obedience, and
the law has no claim on you. If Christ kept the law for you,
then Christ died for the sins of His people. He took the spear
of the law into his own heart. It was thrust through him through
the law so that now the law is dead to you and you're dead to
the law. The law demands death for sin. Well, Christ died. So the law
can have no claim on anyone for whom Christ died because he died. He slew the law with its own
spear and he slew sin the exact same way. Christ took the spear
of sin, the sin of His elect, and He thrust it into His own
heart, and He died for that sin. And what does Scripture say about
our Lord? He took the sins of His people in His own body on
the tree. For when that body died, sin
died too. He killed sin. He slew sin with
His own spear. Now, sin can no longer have dominion
over anyone for whom Christ died. Because Christ has slain that
sin with its own spirit. And I'm telling you what, he's
gotten himself a name. He's gotten himself a name over
every name. And that's what all these men
represent. They're the mighty men of David.
The Lord Jesus Christ is the mighty man of God. He's the God-man,
the mighty conqueror that came. gives His people the spoil because
He won the victory by Himself.