One of my favorite stories in the Bible is the story of "Eleazar the son of Dodo, the son of an Ahohite, one among the three mighty men with David, when they defied the Philistines who were gathered there for battle, and the men of Israel went away. He rose up and struck the Philistines until his hand was weary; and his hand clung to the sword, and Jehovah accomplished a great salvation that day; and the people returned after him, but only to strip the slain" (2 Sam. 23:9-10). Before I read this story, I always thought simplistically of Israelites' conquering of their enemies. If they had faith, they just defeated their enemies. But this story shows that sometimes they were losing and they were at a point of being wiped out. Everyone ran but there was a man who could defy the outward circumstances and risk his life to a point "his hand was weary; and his hand clung to the sword." If he were to die there, it would have been worthwhile--heroic. However, Jehovah would not sit still. He was with him to accomplish a great salvation. Maybe some of us are very discouraged about a certain situation. But maybe God needs a "Eleazar the son of Dodo" to stick in there to accomplish a great salvation for His kingdom.
This is a great blog. Thank you for setting it up. I know I'll visit it often. I didn't know about Eleazar. What a wonderful illustration of "hanging in there" for the Lord. We are definitely not the first to get discouraged at times.
4 comments:
One of my favorite stories in the Bible is the story of "Eleazar the son of Dodo, the son of an Ahohite, one among the three mighty men with David, when they defied the Philistines who were gathered there for battle, and the men of Israel went away. He rose up and struck the Philistines until his hand was weary; and his hand clung to the sword, and Jehovah accomplished a great salvation that day; and the people returned after him, but only to strip the slain" (2 Sam. 23:9-10). Before I read this story, I always thought simplistically of Israelites' conquering of their enemies. If they had faith, they just defeated their enemies. But this story shows that sometimes they were losing and they were at a point of being wiped out. Everyone ran but there was a man who could defy the outward circumstances and risk his life to a point "his hand was weary; and his hand clung to the sword." If he were to die there, it would have been worthwhile--heroic. However, Jehovah would not sit still. He was with him to accomplish a great salvation. Maybe some of us are very discouraged about a certain situation. But maybe God needs a "Eleazar the son of Dodo" to stick in there to accomplish a great salvation for His kingdom.
Daniel,
This is a great blog. Thank you for setting it up. I know I'll visit it often. I didn't know about Eleazar. What a wonderful illustration of "hanging in there" for the Lord. We are definitely not the first to get discouraged at times.
Jin Heur
Hallelujah!
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