Amelia Student Ministries - Amelia Church of Christ

I was reading today about David’s Mighty Men. This little story in 2 Samuel 23:8f always intrigues me, but on this occasion I noticed something I hadn’t before. Mostly, it talks about the amazing exploits of the Three Mighty Men of David who were Josheb-Basshebeth, Eleazer, and Shammah.  These were some tough dudes. These were the kind of dudes that they make movies about because they were the guys that fought whole armies by themselves and won. I personally wouldn’t want to tangle with them.

But WAIT… there were two more??? I thought it was the Three. Well, yes, these two were never actually included in the Three. Bummer, right? Well, the story goes on to say that even though they were never really included in the group, they were potentially more famous than the other three. These two were named Abishai and Benaiah.  So what happened to these guys?

Well, Abishai, even though he never was a part of their group became their commander. Yep, he was put in charge of them. And Benaiah was personally chosen by David himself to lead his bodyguard. Hmm…I guess sometimes it pays to not be a part of the group.

A lot of times we get in our minds that a certain group is exactly where we want to be. Maybe they are the cool kids, or the they get the special treatment from teachers. But this story shows us exactly what can happen when we aren’t a part of the group… Amazing things. They could have changed to be a part of the Three, or been bitter that they weren’t, but instead they continued to do what they were called to do, and so they were rewarded because of it.

We are called to live for Christ. If that means that we won’t necessarily get to be a part of a group, oh well, because God can do amazing things where you are.