​Among the band of heroes that the Bible tells us were King David’s leading warriors – his “special forces operatives” –  one warrior is particularly interesting.  David’s chief fighters were all noted for great exploits, but one who stands out even in that crowd is Benaiah the son of Jehoiada.  We might well call this warrior “Benaiah the lion hearted,” considering what is said about him:Benaiah son of Jehoiada, a valiant fighter from Kabzeel, performed great exploits. He struck down Moab’s two mightiest warriors. He also went down into a pit on a snowy day and killed a lion. And he struck down an Egyptian who was five cubits tall. Although the Egyptian had a spear like a weaver’s rod in his hand, Benaiah went against him with a staff. He snatched the spear from the Egyptian’s hand and killed him with his own spear. Such were the exploits of Benaiah son of Jehoiada; he too was as famous as the three mighty warriors. He was held in greater honor than any of the Thirty, but he was not included among the Three. And David put him in charge of his bodyguard (1 Chronicles 11:22-25).

Take a minute to consider these exploits.  The son of a famous warrior, Benaiah ended up excelling his father’s deeds.  Living in a time when ancient Israel was frequently attacked by surrounding nations, he is first said to have killed the two greatest warriors of Israel’s arch-enemy Moab. We don’t know if he fought these enemies separately or together, but the Hebrew term used of them seems to imply that they were “lion-like.” Yet that is only the beginning of Benaiah’s reputation.

We are also told that Benaiah slew a giant Egyptian warrior who was doubtless part of an invading Egyptian force. This man is said to have been of great height –  approximately the same as the famous giant Goliath that David himself had killed –  but it seems that Benaiah was armed only with a staff and that either through cunning or sheer strength he snatched the Egyptian’s huge spear and killed him with his own weapon.

But the most notable of Benaiah’s feats is that he “went down into a pit on a snowy day and killed a lion.” This is the deed we need to think about in order to truly appreciate its magnitude.  We are not told why Benaiah  slew this fierce animal, but at that time lions frequently preyed on flocks and herds (1 Samuel 17:36), and this predator may well have been endangering the people of the area where the incident took place.

Whatever the reason Benaiah ended up fighting the lion, this story gives us some important details about the contest. Military ground operations must always take three major factors into account:  the strength of the enemy, the terrain – including options for mobility and withdrawal, and the ambient conditions (fog, smoke, bad weather, etc.).  If any one of these factors is disadvantageous,  military units must operate with great care.  In Benaiah’s case, all three of these factors were against him. The simple statement “a lion in a pit on a snowy day” indicates an enemy of vastly superior strength, in very difficult terrain, and with very negative ambient conditions.

These combined conditions meant that on the snowy day visibility may have been limited by flying snow.  Being in a pit meant that the sun would not melt ice on the ground making it easy to slip, plus the fact that the wind would likely have blown more snow into the pit where it could have become quite deep –  making it hard to move.  These are all very difficult conditions in which to find oneself: in a pit, facing a lion with no easy way of retreat. Keep in mind that a fully grown lion can smash a human skull with a swipe of one of its paws and can bite completely though a human body. The lion may have been trapped in the pit, but once Benaiah entered it, so was he.  Any person with a tactical background knows that the simple biblical description of this contest indicates what a huge victory it was for Benaiah.

Even with these great exploits, Benaiah was not one of David’s three top generals at this time. However, he is said to have been greater than the king’s top 30 fighters and, perhaps not surprisingly, to have been made the commander of the king’s bodyguard.  But there is one final detail that is often overlooked regarding the hero Benaiah.  1 Chronicles 27:5 tells us that “… Benaiah [was the] son of Jehoiada the priest. He was chief and there were 24,000 men in his division.” Both Benaiah and his warrior father were Levites and his father is actually said to have served as a priest.

Perhaps we might not expect an individual with this priestly background to have taken on the enemies he did – including lion-like warriors and an actual lion.  But the story of Benaiah, like that of David and Goliath, is one of several accounts given in the Old Testament that show the connection between faith and fearlessness –  of active, tactical involvement in life and the willingness to take on real problems and enemies.  In that sense, Benaiah is the story of a religious man who was not afraid to fight to help others.  Thankfully, in our own day we do not have to fight lions, but the battles are out there for the warriors who are willing to fight them in faith.

​The story of David and Goliath may be the most famous conflict story in the Bible, but an earlier battle fought by Abram, before his name was changed to Abraham, was perhaps even more impressive.  The story is a fascinating one that carries important reminders for modern warriors of the Way.
                       
In Genesis 14 we are told that Sodom and Gomorrah and other cities of the Dead Sea Valley had long been subject to the kings of Mesopotamia (“Shinar”), but that while Abraham was living in the area of nearby Hebron they rebelled against this foreign rule. The Amorite Mesopotamian king assembled a large army including his Elamite, Hurrian, and Hittite allies. The massive force  overwhelmed Sodom and its neighboring cities, seizing the goods of the cities and taking many of their inhabitants as slaves.  In doing this they also carried off Abram’s nephew Lot and his possessions, since Lot was living in that area (Genesis 14:12).  But Abram was informed of what had happened and took decisive action:

“A man who had escaped came and reported this to Abram the Hebrew. Now Abram was living near … Mamre the Amorite, a brother of Eshkol and Aner, all of whom were allied with Abram.  When Abram heard that his relative had been taken captive, he called out the 318 trained men born in his household and went in pursuit as far as Dan. During the night Abram divided his men to attack them and he routed them, pursuing them as far as Hobah, north of Damascus. He recovered all the goods and brought back his relative Lot and his possessions, together with the women and the other people” (Genesis 14:13-15).

Many people may be surprised to read in this account that Abram had over three hundred “trained men” which shows the size of his household.  In fact, these trained men were not simply shepherds and other workmen hastily handed a sword or other weapon. The  Hebrew word hānīk means an “armed servant” and was used of men whose primary function was to provide military protection. These men were essentially a small private security force in full-time service to Abraham. Together these men pursued the returning Mesopotamians, catching up with them near Dan on what was later Israel’s northern border.

But what is truly surprising in the account is the daring raid that Abraham and his small force executed to rescue Lot.  Militarily, a raid is usually a carefully planned small-scale attack on enemy forces,  conducted covertly with speed and surprise – often at night and behind enemy lines – on an unsuspecting enemy.  An extraction raid is one planned to rescue captured soldiers, hostages or other friendly elements and  the  idea is almost always “quick-in, quick-out.” Abraham’s raid against the Mesopotamian allied  forces was a classic extraction raid, conducted under the cover of darkness in a skillfully planned attack – but it was anything but a “quick-in, quick-out.” 

After his attack Abraham and his small force continued to engage the enemy over an extended distance – a further fifty miles from Dan to Damascus.  These men did not just hit and run – they stuck with their mission until it was successful and Lot was rescued. Abraham’s men probably did not carry much food or supplies in order to travel quickly and catch up with the enemy force, but they travelled a considerable distance of at least 153 miles (247 km) – from Hebron to Damascus and beyond – and then returned to the Dead Sea Plain.
 
Abraham and his men gladly gave credit to God for their victory against a vastly superior force (Genesis 14:20),  but we should not forget the part these men played in the conflict and the things they did that were militarily sound.     Even apart from the successful tactics Abraham employed in utilizing  a night attack to maximize confusion and with divided forces closing from different directions (Genesis 14:15-16),  we see three key factors aiding the mission’s success.
 
Abraham didn’t set out unprepared. His men were properly trained and ready, as we have seen (Genesis 14:14).   He didn’t try to go it alone. He involved his allies, the  men of Mamre, Eshkol and Aner (Genesis 14:13, 24). These men were not just his neighbors – the Hebrew says they were “sworn allies” (literally “possessors of the covenant of Abram”), so these were allies Abram could trust.  Once the fighting began, Abraham and his men persisted – they “went the distance”  till their mission  objective was fulfilled.
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Simple as they may sound, these three principles are fundamental to our own spiritual warfare.  Warriors of the Way need to train well to be prepared for the battles we will inevitably have to face. We then need to utilize the allies we are given in the form of fellow-believers – allies we can trust.  And when the battles begin, we need to proceed with a warrior’s attitude of persistence till we have fulfilled the task we have been given.  The very characteristics so clear in Abram’s victory over physical enemies are ones we need to develop in our spiritual lives, too.