The recounting of Benaiah, son of Jehoiada in the Bible has stuck with me ever since I read of him.
The story most people remember of him is that he went down in a pit and killed a lion on a snowy day.
Something kept gnawing at me about that story. Why?
Why would he go down into the pit?
To kill a lion or a tiger in a pit only requires a well placed arrow or spear hurled from the safety of the pit edge, up and away from the danger.
People have been using pit traps for eons. Even cave paintings have images of men throwing spears down into a pit at the animals they captured. You don’t go down in there, there is no reason to, until the animal is expired.
There is absolutely no reason to go down in there!
The Bible verses surrounding this story include a notice that before he killed the lion, he killed two of Moabs best men who were lion-like or had faces of lions. There is quite a bit of discussion about these two men and what or who they were and why they received special billing in the story of Benaiah.
(a picture of Maasai warriors of today/lion hunters of Africa, they actually hunt down individual lions, no pit is dug)
The Bible credits Benaiah as being ‘more honorable’ than ‘The Thirty’ or ‘The Three’ and King David placed him in charge of his personal bodyguard and some elite troops, the Cheretites and Pelethites. These were professional Philistine soldiers, come to find out, paid by and loyal to the king, I guess until the money runs out.
David had provided like wise service to the Philistine king when he was on the run from Saul. He never fought or raided against Israel though, as at one critical point, the Philistine king’s men pointed out that David and his men might switch sides in the heat of battle and turn the tide, so the Philistine king dismissed David and his cohort, and David returned to Ziklag before the battle with the Israelite’s.
To me what rings true about Benaiah is honor, duty, loyalty, courage, braveness, strength and ability.
The one that sticks out more than any other though is his honor.
[This is my ‘historical fiction’ account of what I think happened the day he killed two of Moabs best men and a lion in a pit on a snowy day and future articles will try to paint a picture of how Benaiah may have grown up.]
Prologue
Being from Kabzeel it was common for Benaiah to roam alone in the wilderness to be with God, alone with his thoughts as he pursued wild game or maintained his families sheep flock.
Today he found himself ‘in the time of snows’ searching for a lion. But not just any lion, HIS lion.
‘My lion’, Baladi Al’asad as he would come to refer to him.
He and his lion have been on each other’s trails before. They knew each other intimately and each carried scars they received from one another in their very first encounter.
He stopped and reflected on how they met, it was a day much like this one.
He crouched down on the trail testing the wind and checking his back trail, which he failed to do the first time they met.
They met when both were on the trail of a large Oryx.
Benaiah was easing up on the Oryx to get a clear shot, and he became too focused on the Oryx and neglected his back trail.
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