| “Asahel was as light of foot as a wild roe. And Asahel pursued after Abner … wherefore Abner with the hinder end of the spear smote him under the fifth rib … and he fell down there, and died in the same place” (2 Samuel 2:18-19, 23). |
| Asahel was one of David’s young men, and he was very brave. In fact, he is mentioned in 2 Samuel 23:24 as being one of David’s mighty men. David valued him greatly, but sadly, he died at a young age. Why did this happen? If you read the whole story of Asahel in 2 Samuel 2:18-24, you will see what happened. |
| As we see in one of our verses today, Asahel had the ability to run fast, and the Bible says that he was “as light of foot as a wild roe [deer].” Another good translation of the verse says that he was “swift of foot.” In the battle that took place between the servants of David and the servants of Saul, it seems that Asahel wanted the glory of killing Abner, the captain of Saul’s army. For this reason Asahel ran as fast as he could after Abner, and paid no attention to anybody else. But Asahel was only a young man, and he had not had much experience in warfare. Abner was a well-trained and experienced soldier, and Asahel was no match for him. Abner did not want to kill Asahel, and called out to him to chase someone else. But when Asahel would not listen, eventually Abner struck him with the back end of his spear, possibly thinking only of wounding Asahel. But the spear killed him, and he died right there in the field. |
| When we are young, sometimes we want to attempt to do things that are beyond our ability. This can happen in our natural life, and it can happen to us as Christians too. Perhaps we really want to do something for the Lord, but we want to do something big and important right away. But if we are not ready for it, it can cause trouble for us, just as it did for Asahel. Asahel could run fast, but he was not as good a fighter as Abner, and thus he was killed. It would have been far better for Asahel to do something else, rather than try to do something beyond his ability, and then to die. Let us be content to do what the Lord gives us to do, and wait until we are more mature as Christians. Then perhaps the Lord will give us greater things to do. |
