The Three

"But the godless are like thorns to be thrown away, for they tear the hand that touches them. One must use iron tools to chop them down; they will be totally consumed by fire."

I was preparing to right this post when I suddenly read this passage immediately before the section I was going to talk about. It seemed to fit will as a means of explaining what I am about to talk about. So what am I talking about than? War.

Warriors specifically. To be even more specific, I will be focusing mainly on three warriors: Jashobeam, Eleazar, and Shammah. These were David's mightiest warriors out of all his mighty warriors. These guys were the best of the best. And they weren't simply labeled that; they earned it.

Let's start with Jashobeam. He lead these three warriors, the "three mightiest warriors among David's men".

Before I begin telling you about him though, let me just say a few things. I had heard of these guys, and others before, but literally just hours before writing this I rediscovered them. I became fascinated very quickly by many of the war heroes in the Bible. I chose to write of these three for now. I could probably go on for a long time though about the warriors of old (both in biblical and nonbiblical texts).

Now, Jashobeam. How to put it... Okay, I got it! To become an Ace today in the airforce, you have to get five confirmed kills. Jashobeam would have become an Ace, 40 times, in one single battle. Using just his spear, against an army. That means in one single encounter, Jashobeam killed 800 men. 800 men! And my Bible says "He once used his spear to kill 800 enemy warriors in a single battle" (emphasis mine). This was just one single battle for him. Thas was obviously his largest, because why would anyone choose to tell of a smaller victory, but it still leaves you (or at least me) wondering how many he killed in all his years as a warrior. On the many video games I see these days with kill/death ratios, if there was someone with 800 kills and 0 deaths, he would be banned for hacking! Yet we see that same ratio happen here, and no hacking (except what Jashobeam possibly did to the bodies of his foes). And of course, as I said, you must remember that this was just one battle!

Okay, so Jashobeam was the mightiest of all David's warriors. So he was the main leader of more ordinary warriors, right? Wrong!

"Next in rank among the Three was Eleasar son of Dobai, a descendant of Ahoah. Once Ealeazar and David stood together against the Philistines when the entire Istraelite army had fled."

So let me explain this to you. Israel was at war with the Philistines. The Philistines are the bad guys, and the entire good guy army just ran away. Except for David and Eleazar. The entire Israelite army! Except for these two guys, just left standing there. Here's what happens next:

"He killed Philistines until his hand was too tired to lift his sword, and the Lord gave him a great victory that day. The rest of the army did not return until it was time to collect the plunder!"

So, these two big armies came together to fight. The good guys run, except for their leader and one of his best warriors. The entire enemy army attacks. These two men kill all of them. The entire Israelite army that fled merely comes back to find a field strewn with corpses of the Philistines, and all they have to do is collect the plunder. And I highly doubt these "armies" were small warbands of a few dozen warriors. When we read other mentions of the Philistines, and other enemies of Israel, as well as the armies of Israel itself, we hear of numbers in the thousands. Or tens of thousands. Or even hundreds of thousands! So I really doubt that David and Eleazar fought a few dozen men. After all, Jashobeam killed 800 in one encounter! How many Philistines lay dead at the end of this day? I can only imagine...

And finally, Shammah. The third warrior in the Three.

"One time the Philistines gathered at Lehi and attacked the Israelites in a field full of lentils. The Israelite army fled,"

I'm starting to see a patter here. The Israelites and the Philistines come together to fight, then the Israelites run away. But...

"but Shammah held his ground in the middle of the field and beat back the Philistines. So the Lord brought about a great victory."

One of Israelites great leaders/warriors seem to come and save the day. Okay, reread that section above. "but Shamah held his ground. . . and beat back the Philistines" Not only did Shammah kill them, he actually drove them back! Now this is one man we are talking about here! Once again, we see the Israelite army run, but this time we see one warrior stay behind. And do the work of an entire army.

Now I challenge you to find one historical example (other than the Bible, there are several) of someone, anyone, who can beat these exploits. And remember, the Philistines are known for having large armies. Whenever I hear the word "Philistines" in the Bible associated with a number, that number is always at least a thousand. So, we've seen instances of two men killing an entire army and one man driving an entire army back. Yet another of one man killing 800 enemy soldiers with his spear in one battle. Beat that. Can you find one provable instance of anyone else in history who can do something like that? Likely not, since these were men of the Almigthy.

Oh, and just to top it off, one final exploit of the Three was thrown in. The Philistines occupied Bethlehem, and David wanted a drink from the well at the gates of Bethlehem. So when the Three heard this, what did they do? Did they just think to themselves "well, once the Philistines leave we'll make sure our first task is to get him a drink"? No. Did they decide to gather the army and attack? Nope.

They broke through the Philistine lines at Bethlehem themself to get a drink for David. Three men broke into the city occupied by the enemy army just to get some water from a well. Then what happened? David saw the water as to good for him to drink, or as he said "This water is as precious as the blood of these men who risked their lives to bring it to me." So he offered it to the Almighty instead.

So the score so far:

Jeshobeam: killed 800 men in one battle

Eleazar: killed an entire army with David

Shammah: drove back in entire army by himself

The Three: broke through enemy lines in an occupied town to gather water from a well which was used as an offering for the Lord of Heaven's Armies.

Beat that. I beg of you, beat it.