2 Samuel 23:9-10 – It’s Better to Have a Bloody Sword than a Rusty One
Eleazar struck down so many Philistines that after a while, he couldn’t have let go of his sword, even if he wanted to. Would you rather die with your hand clinging to your sword? Or with your sword rusty because it’s used so rarely? Would you rather they had to put the sword in the coffin with you because they couldn’t get it out of your hand? Or that they couldn’t find your sword and weren’t even sure when the last time you used it was?
So what is the sword? For Eleazar it was a literal sword. But how can we apply this today? We can take the sword to represent the Bible. Hebrews 4:12 says that the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two edged-sword. Or we can just take it as a picture of active service in the Christian life, which won’t look identical for all of God’s people. And it will look different at different stages of life. But we all have sin in our lives, which we’re called in both Romans and Colossians to ‘put to death’. And it’s always easier to fight the liberals and the government and whoever else – even our fellow Christians – than to fight the sin in our own lives. So we’re to take up the sword as we fight the sin in our own lives. But we’re also to take it up as we seek to go out with the gospel. Jesus has given a commission to his church. That commission is to go and make disciples of all nations. We don’t all have the same role in that commission. But we all have a role to play.
As we fight, remember that we do so in God’s strength. The name Eleazar means ‘God has helped’. In verse 10 it says: ‘And the LORD brought about a great victory that day’. What an illustration that is of how God’s sovereignty and man’s responsibility aren’t opposed to one another. What was Eleazar’s responsibility? His responsibility was to not follow the crowd. Not to withdraw like everyone else. His responsibility wasn’t to do nothing, but to rise and strike down the Philistines. And his responsibility was to keep doing it until his hand was weary. But who gets the glory? God! Why? Because as Peter says in 1st Peter 4.7, whoever serves is to serve through the strength that God supplies – in order that in everything God may be glorified through Jesus Christ. It may be that we couldn’t be accused of being slackers. It may be that we are weary from the fight. But are we serving in God’s strength – or are we trying to serve on our own? And if we are fighting in his strength, that will be seen by an active reliance on him in prayer.
Question
- What is the sword that we are to use?
Prayer Points
- Pray that we would battle on in our Christian life.
- Use prayer points from your congregation.
- Pray for family matters.