1 Chronicles 11:22-23

Valiant Men

1Ch 11:22-23

BENAIAH is described as "the son of a valiant man." Even if we regard the word "son" in this particular place as a spurious addition, we must remember that the Septuagint reads "son of a mighty man," and that it is nothing uncommon to find a son traced to a distinguished parent. If we are to expect the virtues of the fathers repeated in the sons, what wonderful progress the ages ought to have seen! It is a marvellous fact that whatever a father may be able to bequeath to his children he is unable to give them the information which he himself has acquired. Every man must learn the alphabet for himself. Some degree of mental force may be traceable to heredity, and unquestionably is so; at the same time that mental force is to be exercised by its owner on quite independent grounds. We cannot live long on the reputation of our fathers. There is hardly a more humiliating spectacle than a man who has to be accounted for as to his social position, by the fact that his father was a man of considerable eminence. A curious law of recession seems to operate in the progress of mankind. The son of Aristotle is not Aristotle plus ; he may indeed be Aristotle minus in an alarming degree, quite an indifferent figure, an incapable person, a living irony upon the greatness of the father to whom he belongs; yet in the next generation there may be a distinct advance, and even the original greatness may be transcended; so the law moves on, and retires, advancing, receding, now working miracles on the right hand, and now on the left hand, and now falling into dead monotony, and producing nothing for many a weary day; and then again a man arises who surprises the ages by his mental capacity or transcendent valour of every kind. If the son of a benevolent man were himself to be benevolent, the philanthropy of past ages would soon sink into comparative insignificance. But this is not the case. There would seem indeed to be a wonderful similarity between one age and another in all moral excellency and in all personal acquirements. In the Old Testament and in the New there are men separated by ages whose benevolence is perfectly equal; and so there are men to-day whose philanthropy will compare favourably with the philanthropy which was shown by the earliest Christian churches. Providence appears to rebuke everything like personal vanity in this matter; raising up and casting down by an uncontrollable law, and thus preserving a wonderful equality amongst men, even in the midst of apparent inequalities that would seem to separate men by impassable distances. The dowries are different, but the execution equalises the level, and constitututes a kind of indestructible brotherhood. We must never forget the responsibility of having a great Father. If we cannot claim a great father in the physical sense of the term, yet there is not a man now in civilised society who cannot claim an illustrious parentage in the broadest social sense. Once the only eminence would seem to have been that of merely personal relationship. A man born in a distinguished family became by so much distinguished himself. Now all this is changed: whoever is born in a great civilised land is born to inheritances, rights, and privileges compared with which any merely personal possessions dwindle into insignificance. Every man now is, as it were, born in a school-house, or a library, or a museum. The great world-house is fully furnished in all its apartments, so that when we awake to consciousness we find that the ages have been here before, providing as it were for our reception into the world. We are embarrassed by riches. We have to invent pleasures and excite our mental powers, in order to surpass what has already been done: in other words we have almost to perform miracles. We are all, therefore, the sons of an illustrious parentage, and we degrade ourselves and dispossess ourselves of many an honour, by simply thinking of our local habitation and our immediate family relationships, instead of looking abroad upon the whole world, and claiming everything we can mentally appropriate as truly part of our possessions. What an irony it is to think of being the son of a valiant man, and yet not being valiant oneself; or the son of a good man, and yet being bad; or the son of a philosopher, and yet being almost an imbecile!

What did Benaiah do to create for himself a place in history? Three things are represented in the text as having been accomplished by this valiant man. (1) He slew two lionlike men of Moab; (2) he went down and slew a lion in a pit on a snowy day; (3) and he slew an Egyptian, a man of great stature, five cubits high. All these constituted so many local anecdotes, and as such they are hardly worthy of quotation in our own day. At the time of the transactions they were no doubt the subject of excited talk, for it was no small thing that a man should go down and smite a lion in the middle of the cistern in the day of snow, or that he should slay an Egyptian so vast in stature and so completely and heavily accoutred. Probably these were the only things which a man like Benaiah could do. His was the rudest kind of power, quite elementary, yet perhaps the only strength that was available or possible, considering the man's environment. Examples of this kind are not set down for our imitation within the limits of the letter. Yet we are called upon to imitate them in the highest spiritual senses. We, too, are called upon to slay, to destroy, and to overthrow. Are we anxious to slay a lion? "Your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour." There is a lion to be fought by every man! Are we inclined to go out and search for the nest of the serpent and destroy the horrible creature? The devil is described as "that serpent," and from the beginning he has been "more subtil than any beast of the field." The Son of man came to crush the head of the serpent, and we are called upon to take part in that great destruction. The battle has only changed its ground, its scope, and its purpose. Life is still a tremendous fight. The weapons of our warfare are indeed not carnal, but they are not therefore the less weapons of war; for us there is a sword and a shield and a buckler: "Take unto you the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all to stand." Enemies are the more mischievous and deadly when they are invisible, and when in any sense they partake of a ghostly nature, coming and going quite spectrally over and around the life, without giving any notice of their method of attack or the weapons with which they will strike. We are called upon to fight against self-indulgence, to mortify our members, to crucify the flesh, to keep ourselves under, lest after having preached to others we ourselves should become castaways. Christians are expected to fight against merely worldly fashion: they are not to be conformed to this world, but to be transformed, by the renewing of their minds, by the creation of a new conscience, a new purpose, and a new will in life. They are to see the temporariness, yea pitiful evanescence, of all things earthly; they are to use them as not abusing them; they are to say concerning every pageant, how grand soever its pomp, "The fashion of this world passeth away." Christians are called upon to fight a battle every day against the insidious attacks of worldly ambition. They are tempted to take one step in advance of their brethren, to have larger estates, finer habitations, wider fame, more determining influence: they are tempted to live in display, and in all the petty vanities which attract and dazzle general attention: they are called upon not to be high-minded but to fear; to have regard to the brother of low estate; to go out and seek that which is lost until it be found; they are to let this mind be in them which was also in Christ Jesus, that being abased in his humiliation they may be raised with him in his glory and honour. A man who sets his military thoughts in this direction will have battlefield enough, and opportunity enough of showing of what metal he is made. We need not lament the old days of war, aggressive and defensive; the days of storm and tempest, the days of so-called heroism and chivalry. Truly there is battle enough now to be done. Whosoever will set himself against the customs of his time, the popular policies of the circle in which he moves, the prejudices of the persons whose friendship he values, will find that he must have a sword in his right hand, and that even whilst he sleeps he must have his armour so near that at a moment's notice he can be once more in the fray.

A beautiful expression is this "a valiant man." This is what the Church needs now, both in the pulpit and in the pew. This is no time for indifference, timidity, self-consideration, or cowardice. To his credit or discredit be it said, the devil is valiant enough. He plants his evil places at the corners of the streets; he is up first in the morning and last at night; he studies the tastes of the people, and accommodates himself to them; though a leader he is yet a follower; there is no man, how low or how high soever, whose peculiarities he does not study with a view to his corruption and overthrow. How is it that the Church will operate but in one direction, forgetting the breadth of human life, and the multitudinousness of its necessity? The Church is apt to confine its valour to one line or to one point. It does not follow the sinner, tracking his every step, passing with him from chamber to chamber, pleading with him, wrestling with him, and giving him to feel that he will not be let go until he has answered the great appeals of heaven. Is it enough to build a sanctuary and to say that the people may come to it if they please? The sanctuaries must be built, and steady, careful, scriptural teaching must be maintained; but in addition to all this there must be a spirit of going out, a missionary spirit, an aggressive spirit, and spirit of distribution and evangelisation, that will not rest until the Gospel has been preached to every creature under heaven. Then again we must allow for differences of valour. All men are not valiant in the same direction, any more than they are valiant in the same degree. One man is valiant as a public controversialist: give him his sword and let him fight his battle in his own way. Another man is valiant in the matter of self-culture: let him also have his sword and fight his secret battle as it were in the solitude of prayer. Another is valiant in the way of leading good causes, setting good examples: let him also have abundant scope, that he may stimulate others, and lead them to join in the great battle for right and purity and love. A pitiable day it will be for the Church when it is forgotten that though the regiments are many the army is one. Is it a time to be fighting about uniforms, badges, and mere marks of distinction, when the enemy is at the gate, his mouth filled with loud boasting, and his eyes blazing with malignant passion? Let us forget all petty separations, all merely regimental distinctions and honours, and gather together into one great force to strike a united blow at a common enemy. Blessed be God, every effort is put down in his book as if it were a victory. This is the peculiarity of divine benevolence. Men do not give one another sufficient credit for good intention or strenuous endeavour; they simply look at results, and judge everything by that which is visible and estimable in plain figures. By no such rule does God judge the world. He knows who are heroic in heart, and he writes down the inward proofs of heroism as if they were accomplished facts in arms. He knows who would give much if he had much to give, and he sets down in his book a great sum as if it had actually been contributed. God knows every fight that is proceeding in the heart, in the family, in the Church, in the world. At last many shall be found who have been giants and heroes, mighty and valiant men of war, who have been regarded in this life as timid, silent, and almost useless. But let no man here play the thief, and take encouragement who has no right to take it. Every man knows in his own heart what he is, what he would be if he could, and what he would do if he could. We need not wait for the least illumination to throw light upon our own character, because at this moment we may see it just as it is, if we really want to do so, and will study ourselves at the cross of Christ.

Prayer

Almighty God, thou art our Father, though Abraham be ignorant of us. We know it in very deed; our souls are glad in the holy consciousness that we are thine and cannot be separated from thee, that we are bound up in the bundle of life. This assurance we have in thy Son Jesus Christ. We live upon it; we rekindle the torch of our hope by this holy fire; we stand here in all the sacredness and safety of inviolable strength. God is our refuge, the Judge of the whole earth is our upholder; the God of the fathers is our God. We cannot explain this in words, even to ourselves; but behind all tumult, and unrest, and fear, and loss, and pain, we stand in this holy consciousness. We bless thee for the revelation of thyself in Christ Jesus. He is thy Son, our Brother, the Captain of our salvation, the Redeemer of the whole world, the ever-living the unchanging Priest. May we study his words; may we imitate his character; may his mind be in us, and repeat itself in every action of our hands. We bless thee for the quiet place in the midst of the city, for the sweet hymn of praise, for the altar of the Cross, where we now bend in lowliest prostration, in most hopeful affection. Let our coming together be for the profit of our souls, that, being enriched with religious thought, and ennobled by Christian aspiration, and comforted by heavenly solace, we may do all the work of life with a firmer hand, with a completer patience, with a nobler heroism. Undertake for us in all things; we would be servants of thine and in no wise masters, receiving thy will, in a measure understanding it, and gladly attempting in thine own power to carry it out in all its gracious meaning. Thus would we begin our life by spending our few earthly days wisely and well. We do but begin here: our full time is not until by-and-by, when the veil shall be rent and destroyed, and we shall stand in the eternal, and see thy purpose more completely. Cleanse us by the precious blood; give us the consciousness of the nearness of the Holy Ghost in all our thought, and purpose, and speech; and at last, in thine own time, in thine own way, bid us come higher, that we may see all things from a better level, and in a clearer light. Amen.