Friday, June 6, 2008

Giant Killers

I was reading the other day in 2 Samuel 21 verses 15-22.

Once again the Philistines were at war with Israel. And when David and his men were in the thick of battle, David became weak and exhausted. 16 Ishbi-benob was a descendant of the giants[a]; his bronze spearhead weighed more than seven pounds,[b] and he was armed with a new sword. He had cornered David and was about to kill him. 17 But Abishai son of Zeruiah came to David’s rescue and killed the Philistine. Then David’s men declared, “You are not going out to battle with us again! Why risk snuffing out the light of Israel?”
18 After this, there was another battle against the Philistines at Gob. As they fought, Sibbecai from Hushah killed Saph, another descendant of the giants.
19 During another battle at Gob, Elhanan son of Jair[c] from Bethlehem killed the brother of Goliath of Gath.[d] The handle of his spear was as thick as a weaver’s beam!
20 In another battle with the Philistines at Gath, they encountered a huge man with six fingers on each hand and six toes on each foot, twenty-four in all, who was also a descendant of the giants. 21 But when he defied and taunted Israel, he was killed by Jonathan, the son of David’s brother Shimea.[e]
22 These four Philistines were descendants of the giants of Gath, but David and his warriors killed them.

It's pretty cool that David was a giant killer and he raised up other giant killers. David's mighty men were trained to do what he did, and they even surpassed him. It got me to thinking, am I raising up any mighty men to go on and do what I do? Am I training people to go on and surpass me and touch more people for God than I can? In this passage David was getting a little closer to the end of his life and he was passing the tourch to his men, but I don't want to wait until the end of my life to pass the tourch, I want to empower people right now to do what God wants them to do. I am so thankful that God has allowed me in my ministry to train several people who are now in full time ministry. I want to be able to pour myself into others and see them go on and do more than me.

Who are you pouring yourself into? Do you have people in your life that you are mentoring, leading and training? If not why? What can we do to be pouring ourselves into other more?

What do you think?

2 comments:

Rhettro said...

I am blessed to have such a great mentor. Jeanee Mayo says "the greatest compliment you can ever recieve, is to be called someone's mentor." I hope pray that God developes the wisdom in me to be able to recognize his calling in other people. I can't wait for someone to call me their mentor.

Chad Benson said...

Rhett, you are mentoring so many already. 2 kids, and a dozen teenagers. Keep it up!