2 Samuel 23:8-39 Why the Credits Role

Of Recast Church in Matawan, Michigan. This week, Pastor Don Filsak is preaching from his series, The Warrior Poet King, Study of Second Samuel. Let's listen in.

People Matter in God’s Kingdom

Well, good morning, everybody. Good morning, and welcome to Recast Church. I'm Don Filsak, I'm the lead pastor here, and God has given us another week in the books, right? Praise him, he's given us another week for challenges, another week for growing, another week of his undeserved blessings raining down on us, regardless of how difficult or tough your week may have been.

How many of you could raise your hand and testify that God has been good this week? God has been good. This morning, we have another week for gathering together as a people who are increasing in our love for God and our love for others, growing in faith, growing in community, and growing in service together.

We're nearing the end of Second Samuel. I started this series, started preaching through the book at the start of 2022. So here we are, the second to the last message in the book. It's been a year of marching through the twists and turns of the life of King David, highs, lows, and everything in between, sin, victories, all kinds of stuff that demonstrates that his life was a real life like yours and mine.

This week, we're gonna see the credits roll. We're gonna see the credits roll like you see the credits roll at the end of a Marvel movie, but there's still a trailer left for the next movie kind of at the end.

Anybody know what I'm talking about? If you know, you know. You stay at the end of the movie, and then there's another thing yet to come. So despite the fact that this week, we're looking at the credits, next week is gonna be one last story about the life of David that God desires for us to hear before we wrap up the book of Second Samuel.

And here we see an important event in the life of David. I'm sorry, next week, we're gonna see an important event in the life of David, but here we see the list of names similar to the way the credits roll at the end of the movie.

And there is something very important about credits. It wasn't just the star actor that made the movie work. It wasn't just the director that made the movie work. It wasn't only the producer. It was a whole lot of people that made the movie, and we know that, despite the fact that most of us, unless we think there's something to stay for, leave.

And if you've ever stayed to the end of the credits, it was a whole lot of people. Any of you ever actually just stay for the credits, watch them? There's a lot of people, a lot of people that go into a single movie, right?

And there was more that went into the ancient kingdom of King David than just himself. And there was more than just mere battle, and I wanna point that out, because what we're gonna see is credit. We're gonna see the credits roll in David's life, and we're gonna see a very narrow sliver of credit given to his valiant army.

But I wanna point out to you that a valiant army was a significant requirement for the maintaining of a geopolitical kingdom in the Bronze Age. That era of human history, the Bronze Age, if you wanted to stay around, you had to have a military force of defense.

And to be honest, let's just be real, a strong military is a pretty significant thing for maintaining a geopolitical nation in 2022 as well, is it not? So we acknowledge that even now, despite the fact that back then it was just significant and vital for survival.

But the fact that so much of the conclusion of the life of David is taken up here and given credit to his valiant, mighty men shows the centrality that a strong military had in those ancient days. But it's important to understand the overarching point of this text before we read it together.

And it's just simply this, here's the point. You read the book of, you can read the book of Numbers, lots of lists of names. You can read Chronicles, lots of lists of names. You can even read Romans chapter 16, lots of names.

And you can brush over those. You can read this text about the mighty men. You can just brush over those names. But here's what God wants you to walk away from here with here's the silver bullet this morning, the main nugget, people matter.

People matter to our God. David was not alone as the king over Israel. He wasn't the only one that mattered, but there were others, all people matter. There's some credit due to others here at the end of the book about the establishment of God's kingdom.

Some men deserve some honor because God wasn't just solely doing something in David. He was working through a bunch of people to establish the security of his people. And he was doing that for a reason.

Why was he establishing the security of the people of Israel? It was so that they could be the conduit through which the Messiah would come to the world. All of this focused on the bringing forth of a Messiah named Jesus Christ.

The establishment of Israel was all about that, that one would come from the line of Israel who would save and rescue people from their sins. The protection of Israel was for the bringing forth of Jesus who was prophesied to come from the line of the Jews.

Even in a passage commending a bunch of guys for acts of might and valor and bravery, there is a link to God's plan to bring the savior of the world through the Jewish people. And God used David's mighty men to gain victory over the enemy nations surrounding Israel to help them to keep being a people.

So let's open our Bibles or your apps or your scripture journals to 2 Samuel chapter 23. And we're gonna read on eight through 39. Bear with me and be glad, you can rejoice that I'm the one up here reading these names and you're not.

So if I butcher them, I usually do fairly good with confidence and very few question me on the reading of these things. And yet today I may stumble at a couple of points. Some of these names just don't roll off my tongue very easy.

But we'll bear with it together because this is God's word. Again, he loves people and he loves that I'm about to read these people's names. Names of people that God knew. These are the names of the mighty men whom David had.

Joshua Beshebeth, the Tecumenite. He was chief of the three. He wielded his spear against 800, whom he killed at one time. And next to him among the three mighty men was Eleazar, the son of Dodo, son of Aohai.

That one never, that one just does not roll. He was with David when they defied the Philistines who were gathered there for battle. And the men of Israel withdrew. He rose and struck down the Philistines until his hand was weary and his hand clung to the sword.

And the Lord brought about a great victory that day. And the men returned after him only to strip the slain. And next to him was Shammah, the son of Agi, the Hororite. The Philistines gathered together at Lehi.

There was a plot of ground full of lentils and the men fled from the Philistines. But he took his stand in the midst of the plot and defended it and struck down the Philistines. And the Lord worked a great victory.

And three of the 30 chief men went down and came about harvest time to David at the cave of Adullam when a band of Philistines was encamped in the valley of Rephaim. David was then in the stronghold and the garrison of the Philistines was then at Bethlehem.

And David said longingly, oh, that someone would give me water to drink from the well of Bethlehem that is by the gate. Then the three mighty men broke through the camp of the Philistines and drew water out of the well of Bethlehem that was by the gate and carried and brought it to David.

But he would not drink of it. He poured it out to the Lord and said, far be it for me, oh Lord, that I should do this. Shall I drink the blood of the men who went at the risk of their lives? Therefore he would not drink it.

These things the three mighty men did. Now Abishai, the brother of Joab, the son of Zariah, was chief of the 30 and he wielded a spear against 300 men and killed them and won a name beside the three. He was the most renowned of the 30 and became their commander, but he did not attain to the three.

And Benaiah, the son of Jehoiada, was a valiant man of Kabzeel, a doer of great deeds. He struck down two aerials of Moab. He also went and struck down a lion in a pit on a day when snow had fallen. And he struck down an Egyptian, a handsome man.

The Egyptian had a spear in his hand, but Benaiah went down to him with a staff and snatched the spear out of the Egyptian's hand and killed him with his own spear. These things did Benaiah, the son of Jehoiada, and won a name beside the three mighty men.

He was renowned among the 30, but he did not attain to the three. And David set him over his bodyguard. Asahel, the brother of Joab, was one of the 30. Elhanan, the son of Doda of Bethlehem. Shammah of Harad.

Elika of Harad. Heles, the Paltite. Irah, the son of Ikesh of Tekoa. Abiezar of Anathoth. Mabunai, the Hushethite. Zalman, the Ahohite. Meharai of Netopha. Helab, the son of Banna of Netopha. Itai, the son of Ribai.

Ribai, yes. Of Gilead, of the people of Benjamin. Every time I say his name, it makes me hungry. Benaiah of Pirithon. Hidai of the Brooks of Gosh. Abielbon, the Arbethite. Asmabeth of Behurim. Eliabah, the Shalbenite.

The sons of Jason, Jonathan, Shammah, the Hararite. Iyam, the son of Shirar, the Hararite. Eliphelet, the son of Ahasbi of Macca. Eliam, the son of Ahithophel, the Gilanite. Hezro of Carmel. Parai, the Arbite.

Egal, the son of Nathan. There's a name I can pronounce. Nathan of Zoba. Bani, the Gadite. Zelic, the Ammonite. Nehari of Beroth. The armor bearer of Joab, the son of Zariah. Irah, the Ithrite. Gerab, the Ithrite.

Uriah, the Hittite. 37 in all. Let's pray. Father, I thank you that you are a God concerned with people. You don't have to pay any attention to us. You could have wadded this whole universe up and thrown it in the trash bin and started over again.

We could just be robots or automatons. We could be people unworthy of credit rolls and no attention from you whatsoever, but instead you have seen fit to work in and through humanity. Humanity made up of individuals, individuals who bear names, individuals who bear histories, who come from places and are heading places.

Father, I thank you that you have met us here. And I don't believe that there's anybody in this room that's not here in part because they've met you in some way, shape, or form, and they want to know you better, that you're drawing hearts, you're drawing us all into this epic and huge story of the things that you desire to do, not just in history, but in our present and in our future as well.

Father, I pray that you would help us to rejoice and lift our voices as the people who are being impacted by you day by day, in the good and in the bad and everything in between, that you are the one who gives victory.

We may stand in the lentil field with our sword in our hand, but we are mortal, and you are the one accomplishing what you desire to accomplish. Father, I pray that you would help us to trust you more as a result of hearing this message this morning, hearing this text and singing these praises to you, gathering together with your people.

I pray that we would grow in faith, we would grow in community, we would grow in service, and that our faith would be stronger, even going into an election week and all the stresses and strains of this season of life, seasons that seem to just repeat themselves over and over again, cycles of difficulty and frustration, and even for some, I'm sure we would confess fear.

Father, I pray that you would turn that around to faith and trust, that you have a plan, that you are good, and that we come before you to worship you now, in Jesus' name, amen. All right, yeah, you can go to be seated and make yourself comfortable.

I do ask that you please reopen to that list, 2 Samuel chapter 23, verses eight through 39, and we're gonna walk through that text. If at any time during the message you wanna get up and get more donut holes or coffee, take advantage of that.

You're not gonna distract me if you need to get up and stretch out or use the restrooms or whatever. While David was running from Saul, before he was king, he collected people. Most of them were battle-hardened men who were particularly skilled in the ancient art of combat.

And over his entire life, he built up an inner circle of men that were known as the 30. The way that it's used in the Hebrew language demonstrates it's kind of like an office. It's a gathering, a group of people that were designated as the 30.

So in many places, we see mention of the armies of Israel in general, and even a couple of times in this chapter, we're gonna see that the armies of Israel will flee, while members of the 30 will stand their ground.

A distinction between the general army and this group of crack troops, these elites. They were elite, and it appeared to be quite an honor and likely something official to be numbered among the 30. There's an indication that there were 30 at any given point, and yet most scholars believe that when one died, another was chosen to fill a spot so that the number would always be at least 30.

So there were always 30, but those who had once served among the 30 and passed away are still honored here in our text so that we're gonna see that the numbering of the 30 is actually 37 by the end of the text, and that can create some confusion.

But at any given point, there were 30, but some of them passed on, and we actually have record of Asahel, for example. He died fairly early in David's reign. But before I give you the outline, I wanna highlight a couple of things that I think we need to get out of the way at the start of a list of credits that are honoring these men, something that I think that's important for us to understand as Christians.

The first is that it's good to honor those who have served well. Now, you go, yeah, duh, but maybe, but maybe duh, but maybe not. Like, maybe we haven't done a good job of that. In this case, we're gonna see acts of bravery, we're gonna see acts of heroism, and these 30 are honored, these 37 are honored.

We see a list of their names where they are commended. God apparently loves to list the names of people who have particularly exhibited faith and trust in him. The New Testament, of course, includes its own share of lists.

We have the list of the 12, his 12 disciples, his inner circle. And if you just consider the ending of the book of Romans, where chapter 16 is completely taken up with honor and love and thanks and greetings expressed to those who have served the church with Paul well.

So we know that, and many of the epistles of Paul conclude or contain lists of people's names. Again, I mentioned it in the introduction that one of the primary messages that you should get out of this message this morning is that God loves people.

He's concerned for individuals, not just corporately, not just nations, not just, you know, a smattering of, yeah, I kind of love generally recast church or something like that. No, he loves the individuals and he knows names and he has no problem recalling those names in a list like this.

I think it's good to get this out of the way at the start, by the way, that there's commendation given in scripture simply because Christians, in particular Christians like me with a bent towards a reformed view of God and a deep commitment to the doctrines of sovereign grace, well, let's just be honest.

I'm not sure that people that go down that road do gratitude very well. And I think it's, I would just encourage you to think in your own heart and in your own mind and in your own life, how well do you do gratitude?

I mean, we might think in reason like this from a reformed perspective, doesn't all glory go to God alone? Soli Deo Gloria is one of the five solas that the entire Reformation movement was based upon.

Soli Deo Gloria, glory to God alone. Why would I thank you? Why would I thank the middleman? Why wouldn't I go straight to God might be the thought of some people. Isn't it glory to God alone by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone as revealed in scripture alone?

Be done with it. So we could adopt an attitude that says, why thank people? Anybody know what I'm talking about? There's a little bit of awkwardness in evangelical and conservative Christian circles about thanking each other.

Doesn't that really belong to God, we might wonder? We're just tools that God applies in the lives of each other. So only give him thanks might be the thinking, but it's important to note that the Bible shows us something different, does it not?

Is it not here in this very text demonstrating something different than that? And if we call ourselves biblical, then we're gonna take on what the scriptures are showing us, not some convoluted false humility or attempt at false humility when it comes to thanking each other.

No, no, just give the glory to God. Don't thank me or whatever. And I experienced that as well. I think all of us do. I'm not just pointing at you guys. When somebody thanks you for something, are you sometimes just awkward about it?

Anyone? Like standing at the door, somebody says, thanks for the message, pastor. No, glory to God alone, man. It's just his, that was his. Do you take the knee and Tebow right there? What do you do? Like, oh no, that was his touchdown.

That wasn't me. I didn't catch that ball. No, of course not, right? So we get to adopt that kind of attitude, right? Do you see that? And so it's important for us to see from the get-go, as far as just setting the table for us this morning, thanks is baked in this message.

It's right in there. So it is good to honor those who serve well. The second thing that I think all of us need to take on, this is very un-American what I'm about to say, but we kind of know it in our gut.

Some receive more honor than others. We joke about participation trophies. I joke about being the most improved player on my freshman basketball team. We all know what that means. Not that good to start with.

Not that good at the ending. But better. There was improvement. God doesn't give everyone the same trophy. God doesn't give everyone the same gifts. God doesn't even, in this text, give everyone the same honor.

Not everyone wields a spear like Joshua B'Shebeth. Not everybody's that good. Not everyone is called to take the stand in the lentil field. Shammah was. Not everyone can Excel spreadsheet like Zach Lloyd.

It's just, just not everybody can do that. And yes, I use that as a verb. You can Excel spreadsheet. That's a verb. When it comes to Zach, he can make that thing do stuff that I don't even know, like, if the designers meant it to be able to do that.

Like, he just gets that. But where we see God using a person and then them responding in faith and applying their skills and their gifts and their talents for the glory of the kingdom of God, it is good to recognize them.

It is good to thank them. It is good to recognize the glory of God using each other. And it should not be an awkward thing in the church. It should be a normal thing. So, with those caveats out of the way, it is good to give thanks.

Some will receive more honor than others, but the outline looks like this. A little bit of a technical outline. First, verses eight through 11 is the three. Then the unnamed three, verses 12 through 17.

Then the two commanders, verses 18 through 23. And then the 30 listed out in verses 24 through 39. So that's your four points. The three, the unnamed three, the two commanders, the 30, all centered on those numbers.

Three guys stood out above all of the military of Israel, according to this text. They were mighty warriors who were powerful in battle. Joshua Beshebeth is given to us as the name of the guy who was chief of the three.

The ones who stood out were the three. Among the 30, among the military of Israel, there were the 30, and then above them were the three, and they were crazy, skilled warriors. They were the most decorated elite soldiers in all of David's military.

It's interesting to think that we have very little recorded of the actions of Joshua Beshebeth at all. We don't know much about what he did. We know one instance of valor, and yet the assumption ought to be in our minds that there's a lot of unrecorded valor, a lot of unrecorded bravery, that they're just giving us a sample exemplary event in the life of Joshua Beshebeth, but he did a lot of other things.

This man who lived out his life under King David is his military, he is his apex special operator. He is the elite of the elite. I might even just go so far as to say the best of the best of the best.

In verse 18, I mean verse eight, we see an astounding example of his military prowess. Some of you might be unimpressed, and actually kind of, it's gruesome. He killed 800 enemies in one battle with only a spear, and you go, wow, killed 800 people, that's impressive, and many of us don't really relate to spears very well.

You're like, well, isn't that for throwing? Well, there's actually two words in the Hebrew language for this type of implement. There's javelin, it's translated javelin in different places in the Bible.

That's a throwing implement. So that's for hurling at somebody. Sharp on both ends, you throw it, and it's done. Like, you don't always recover those, okay? Then there's the spear that was meant to be maintained in your hand.

You didn't let go of it. You didn't chuck it at people, generally speaking. You generally thrust it, ew, ew, ew, gross. And not a lot of cutting edge on a spear. You guys getting the picture? A little short head on it, you know, just a couple little cutting edges.

That's what's so impressive about this military action of Joshua Beishebeth, killing 800 in one battle with just a spear. Spears are not weapons that would be wielded to rack up kills. And without getting too graphic, slicing blades with longer edges would be the kind of weapon that you would use to rack up more kills.

Josheb, here in the text, is first. He stands head and shoulders above everybody else in his military might. Second was Eleazar. He stood his ground in a battle with the Philistines. All the army retreats, like, ah!

He rose up, says he stood up and stood his ground against the Philistine army, struck down the Philistines until they fled. One guy, like, what you have to have in your image here is that the Philistines were powerful enough to create fear in the entire military of Israel.

They all retreat, and this dude, Eleazar, stands his ground there and says, ah! And by the end of the battle, they're afraid of him. And when the army of Israel finally returns to see what all the commotion is about, all they had left to do was to search for spoils.

Now, there's two primary theories that exist about his hand getting stuck to the hilt of the sword here. Yes, the Hebrew in verse 11 has an indication that he can't let go of his sword. It's stuck to his hand.

By the end of this battle, he's either cramped up or something. The least gruesome of these is that there's an actual disorder in the tendons that can be caused from overuse, and it actually can lock up.

So that's one possibility. One commentator that I read this week went all full-on gruesome and basically said, congealed blood gets sticky. End of story. So you can just imagine what that, he can't get the sword out of his hand by the end of this battle.

Either way, note that the text indicates something interesting here. Here in verse 10, as well as in verse 12, the Lord brought about a great victory that day. And we see this comment in verse 12 as well.

We have to recognize all victories, church. Hear me carefully. All victories are his gifts. We will be tempted to think that the end of the day, it is Eleazar that won this battle, or that Joshua B'shebeth is the one who won the battle.

We're gonna be tempted to credit ourselves as the ultimate cause of the victory, or powerful people as the ultimate cause of the victory, or even circumstances, or even worse than that yet, would be fate won the victory.

But it is God who here in the text is credited with using bravery and acts of daring to bring forth his plan, his victory for his people. Let me state this all a different way so that you can hopefully, by the reverse, by stating the reverse, you get what I'm going about here.

We can be brave, stand our ground, and still be cut down, right? Is that right? Raise your hand if that's true. That's true. I mean, when it came to Joshua B'shebeth, there in the battle with his mighty spear, and he's uh-uh-uh, how many of you know that an arrow could have took him out?

How many of you know that somebody else could have got through his defenses, and it's just a matter of time, and maybe somewhere around 620, somebody gets him. So who gets credit for this victory? God.

God kept him standing. We can be brave and still be cut down, so who made sure that none of those 800 killed Joshua B'shebeth in that battle? Who kept Eleazar standing there until the Philistines fled?

And the third is in verse 11, where we read about Shammah standing his ground in a field of lentils, where he stood alone and shouted at the Philistines, no soup for you, right? Because that's the only thing I know to do with lentils is make soup.

So I just picture that being the case, and he struck down the Philistines until they fled. Some of you know what I'm talking about. If you know, you know, right? Who struck down the Philistines in the field full of lentils?

The Lord gave the victory. Our bravery and acts of daring do not win the day, church. They may be used by God to win the day, but he has the final say in the matter, amen? He has the final say in the matter.

We stand in faith, hoping that maybe if he sees fit, he will deliver us. Like Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego saying to Nebuchadnezzar, you could throw us in the fire, and God could save us if he wants to.

We don't know if he's going to or not, but we will not bow to your pagan idols. We won't do it. And this might be the day we go home. This might be the day we die, but this is where we draw the line. This is where we take our stand, and that's it.

So we see in these first three a reminder that while we may include names in the credits of the victories, God is the one working them. And we may offer thanks to each other, but we always keep in mind that God is the one who grants or withholds the victory at the end of the day.

The Three Unnamed Mighty Men and David’s Refusal of Worship

Now, the second section for the text is the unnamed three, verses 13 through 17. We see this account here of the bravery of three of the 30. Now, these are three, we probably know their names because they're probably three of the guys that are mentioned later in the list.

We just don't know which three. But the circumstances seem likely to have occurred prior to David becoming king. I say that because he hung out at the Caves of Adullam regularly during the period of time where he was fleeing from King Saul and we see lots of records in 1 Samuel of David hanging out near the Caves of Adullam.

But in this circumstance, whatever the context is, the Philistines were garrisoned close by, close to the Caves of Adullam, by David's childhood town of Bethlehem, probably getting ready to head up to Jerusalem.

They're about six miles to the south of Jerusalem and he says, I'm in passing, just in a passing comment that's overheard by some of his military. Man, I love the water in that well over there by Bethlehem, by the gate.

We're told that this is during the harvest time, which you go, oh yeah, oh, harvest time, I get it. It's a particular dry time in Israel. And so, a particular thirst likely drove this passing comment out of David.

This is his childhood, this is his childhood home, this is where he grew up. He knew this well. And there's just something about being near home anyways, but then there's also, in this context, the taste of the water.

How many of you know that the taste of the water that you grew up with is the water that you're used to, right, you know what I'm talking about? I grew up in Middleville, by the way, on our sign, as you went into Middleville, was Best Tasting Water in Michigan, two years running, 1991 and 92.

That was the claim to fame of Middleville, Michigan, up there by Grand Rapids. Good tasting water, I still miss it to this day. Oh, that somebody would bring me a drink of water from Middleville. I mean, not that you need to do that or anything, but just kidding.

He makes this passing comment. And so, these three mighty men overheard David's longing, and the Hebrew text says, they cut through. That's the Hebrew word that's used here in the text, cut through. This is not a stealth mission.

This is not night ops. This is not their infrared goggles or anything like that. This is them just taking on the Philistines head on. We're gonna get to that well, and we're gonna get our leader some water.

They cut through the Philistine lines to the very gates of Bethlehem, where they drew water while defending themselves. Now, how many of you know, like, you've drawn water out of a well? Probably not many of us, but it takes some effort.

One of these guys, literally, is there with the rope in their hand, getting the water while the other two are defending him. Like, that's the picture that you have to have in your mind. Like, these guys have just fought their way to the city gates, and are there, drawing water for their king.

They return with the water to David. We don't know what kind of instrument, if they carried a bucket or what, but they have to carry the bucket of water. This sounds like a video game, right? They have to carry the water through the enemy lines without spilling a drop, or else, oh, sorry, you gotta start over again.

Only, probably not in this case. You don't get to start over again. Not extra lives or anything like that. So they return with the water to David, and in verse 17, we see that this story is included as an exemplary action that shows the types of things that the 30 routinely did.

But what they do here, what these three do, these three unnamed, and maybe it's because of the nature of their needing correction that they're not named. There's some debate about why not include their names.

Well, they have to be corrected, and we see that in the text. They display a radical display of loyalty to David, their king, but it's shown to be at least a little bit misguided. They overplay their loyalty to David to some degree, because what they do here is considered by David to go beyond just mere thanks and mere gratitude to being worshiped.

They have worshiped him, and he will not accept their worship. He will accept thanks, he will accept tribute, but he will not accept a worship that belongs to God alone in this text. He sees them as having crossed that line from thanks to worship, and we'll talk about that a little bit later.

But David refuses to drink the water. Any of you just think, you've read this before, or you've seen this text, anybody just like, is that honoring or dishonoring for him to do that? Like, it just seems kind of like, they fought their way through.

Why in the world would you not drink it? Like, just show them some respect. But David refuses to drink this water, but pours it out as an offering of worship to God instead, because he sees too much elevation of himself in this scenario.

The sacrifice of his men has been a sacrifice he is not worthy of. They've risked their lives and blood to bring him a drink of water, so he even equates the water itself with their lifeblood. These guys are mighty, these guys are radically loyal to David, and these guys needed a lesson in reserving worship for God alone.

The Two Commanders Who Fell Short of the Three

Now we move on to the third one, in verses 18 through 23, we see two commanders set over the 30, one of them set over the 30, and one of them over the bodyguard of David. The Pelethites and the Cherethites are mentioned all throughout the text, that's his elite bodyguard, those who traveled in his entourage, always near David, always ready to protect him.

And they distinguish themselves, these two commanders, but not to the level of the three. So let me state up front that we might assume what we probably, what our American minds wanna do with this text is assume that Joshua Beishebeth, as David's very best warrior, should be the commander of the 30, right?

Did anybody think that? Like if he's the elite, if he's the head, if he's the most powerful man in David's military, should he not be commander? Raise your hand if you think. Maybe he oughta be commander.

Like that's the way that we have a tendency to think. He's the best of the best of the best. He's top gun. So he ought to be the commander of the 30, right? Well, wrong, because some operations run on common sense.

And David's kingdom was likely one of them. Not everyone who can kill 800 people with a spear would make a good military commander. Not every star running back makes a good coach. Not every star quarterback should be a coach.

So while Abishai and Benaiah are distinguished as commanders, they are not as powerful with weapons as Joshua, Eleazar, or Shammah. The text goes over the top to say, these guys are better running backs than him.

These guys are better quarterbacks than him. These guys are better at their position than Benaiah or than Abishai. Now, Abishai, it says right in the text, was only able to kill 300 with a spear. Lightweight class bush league, right?

Like last time I checked, 800 is bigger than 300, right? Like, yeah. Abishai was trusted by David with military strategy. He's pretty powerful anyways, but he was the brother of David's highest commander, Joab, which I need to state right now might be confusing to some of us.