I can hardly pass over Benaiah. From the time I was a child and my Mother used to tell us these stories I have always loved Benaiah. He was one of David’s mighty men. What boy, and, indeed, what girl, has not reveled in the deeds of those “mighty men”?
“Benaiah the son of Jehoiada, the son of a valiant man of Kabzeel, who had done many acts; he slew two lion like men of Moab; also he went down and slew a lion in a pit on a snowy day. And he slew an Egyptian, a man of great stature, five cubits high; and in the Egyptian’s hand was a spear like a weaver’s beam; and he went down to him with a staff, and plucked the spear out of the Egyptian’s hand, and slew him with his own spear.” (1 Chron. 11:22) (Do the lion like men of Moab tell us of the flesh? The lion in the pit, the devil; the Egyptian, the world?)
Jehoiada, Benaiah’s father, was leader of the Aaronites (1 Chron. 12:27). The family came from Kabzeel, as we saw above, which was one of the uttermost cities of the tribe of the children of Judah toward the coast of Edom southward. (Josh. 15:21). In 1 Chron. 27:5 he is spoken of as “a chief priest”. Through all the strife, and jealousy that accompanied Solomon’s accession to the throne, when even Joab turned aside after Adonijah, Benaiah was always true and loyal.
But in our meditations, it is as a parent we wish to think of Benaiah. We hear very little of him in that capacity; but in 1 Chron. 27:5-6 we read in connection with David’s officials: “The third captain of the host for the third month was Benaiah the son of Jehoiada, a chief priest; and in his course were twenty and four thousand. This is that Benaiah, who was might among the thirty, and above the thirty; and in his course was Ammizabad his son.”
What a comfort to a father’s heart to have a son on whom, in his increasing years, he may lean. What understanding, what confidence, what communion, those two must have had. It reminds us of Timothy, who as a son with a father labored with Paul in the Gospel. For one who has tasted it, there can be nothing much sweeter. May God help you, and give you the wisdom needed when the children are small, to so make them your companions, that when they shall be older, you and they will naturally labor together. You know, as well as I, how your father failed in this very matter: may it not be so with you.