How To Kill A Lion On A Snowy Day

I have a confession to make.

Even though many of you view me as an aging "rock 'n roller", I enjoy listening to sermons on y IPOD. (Thank you, Barb and Kiernan!) I also enjoy listening to old time radio programs, but that is irrelevant to today's prayer update. All of these can be downloaded from the internet... even in Costa Rica.

Recently, Susan and I especially appreciated a message given by Ray Stedman sometime in the mid-seventies. He spoke from 1 Chronicles 11:22 about "How to Kill a Lion on a Snowy Day."

Now, I must admit that until this point in my Christian life I have not paid too much attention to 1 Chronicles 11:22. However, I believe that it will stay with me for the rest of this long, strange trip I have here on the planet Earth. It reads, "Benaiah son of Jehoiada was a valiant fighter from Kabzeel, who performed great exploits. He struck down two of Moab's best men. He also went down into a pit on a snowy day and killed a lion." (NIV)

We are not told how he did it, but Benaiah faced the worst enemy that he could imagine in one of the worst places while under the most difficult circumstances possible. A lion is capable of killing a man simply by hitting him with his front paw... the whole gruesome teeth thing is not necessary. If I were forced to fight a lion, I wouldn't want to do it in a pit. It would remove the illusion of mobility. If I had to fight the lion in a pit I certainly wouldn't want to do it on a snowy day. I may live in the tropics, but I seem to remember that snow doesn't provide the best footing possible.

The most ferocious enemy, in the worst place, under the most difficult conditions. Maybe you have felt like you have been in that situation before.

It is frustrating that we are not told how Benaiah did it. There is no detailed description of the feat. The Bible leaves it to our imagination. However, there are a few clues to be discovered in the passage.

Whenever Benaiah is mentioned in Scripture it is in the context of being his father's son... he never gets to be plain, old Benaiah. He is always the son of Jehoiada.

Although I am not an expert in Hebrew, I understand that Jehoiada means, "God sees." Nothing escapes God's attention. He doesn't miss a detail. He understands what we are going through.

Benaiah means, "God builds." It is His work. He is the one that has to do it... even if "it" means facing our worst enemy. God knows what we are going through and He is the one that will carry us through. There is no doubt about it.

For the past two years Susan and I have been slogging through the ordeal of building a house in Costa Rica. To say the least, it has been a challenge. At times we didn't know if we would make it.

Yesterday, we moved in.

God saw what was happening and God built. I have no doubt about that. Our prayer now is that He would allow us to use the house for His honor and glory for as long as He gives us tewardship over it.

By the way, the ordeal is not over. Yesterday, when the engineer finally showed up with the cable for our electrical installation, I fired him. So, tomorrow we start from scratch with the whole electrical installation. May our Father gives us steady footing in this "snow."