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Context No. 2413 of 4322 · 2 Samuel

Context · Reflection

2 Samuel 23:8-12: in context

8These are the names of the mighty men whom David had: Josheb Basshebeth, a Tahchemonite, chief of the captains; he was called Adino the Eznite, who killed eight hundred at one time. 9After him was Eleazar the son of Dodai the son of an Ahohite, one of the three mighty men with David when they defied the Philistines who were there gathered together to battle, and the men of Israel had gone away. 10He arose and struck the Philistines until his hand was weary, and his hand froze to the sword; and the LORD worked a great victory that day; and the people returned after him only to take plunder. 11After him was Shammah the son of Agee, a Hararite. The Philistines had gathered together into a troop where there was a plot of ground full of lentils; and the people fled from the Philistines. 12But he stood in the middle of the plot and defended it, and killed the Philistines; and the LORD worked a great victory.

The record of David's warriors preserves a few vivid stands. Eleazar fought the Philistines until his hand cramped and froze to the sword. And Shammah, when the army fled from a Philistine raid, planted himself in the middle of a field, a plot full of lentils, and held it alone. Both times the text says the same thing: the LORD worked a great victory that day.

What stays with you is the lentil field. It was not a strategic hill or a city gate; it was a patch of beans, the kind of ground no one would think worth dying for. Everyone else ran, and Shammah simply stood where he was and defended the little assignment in front of him. The victory is credited to the LORD, but it came through a man who refused to abandon an unglamorous post. God works deliverance through people willing to hold the small ground they have been given when the crowd has already left it.

What small, unglamorous ground has God given me to hold, that I am tempted to abandon because everyone else has run?

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