2 Samuel 21:18-22 - The Biblical Illustrator

Bible Comments

Sibbechai the Hushathite slew Saph, which was of the sons of the giant.

On doing valiantly

If his master bids him perform exploits too hard for him, he draws upon the resources of omnipotence, and achieves impossibilities. Wellington sent word to his troops one night: “Cindad Rodrigo must be taken to-night.” And what do you think was the commentary of the British soldiers appointed for attack? “Then,” said they all, “we will do it.” So, when our great Captain sends round, as He doth to us, the word of command, “Go ye into all the world, and preach the Gospel to every creature,” if we were all good soldiers of the Cross, we should say at once, “We will do it.” However hard the task, since God Himself is with us to be our Captain, and Jesus the Priest of the Most High is with us to sound the trumpet, we will do it in Jehovah’s name. (C. H. Spurgeon.)

Deeds

When a man dies they who survive him ask, what property Ire has left behind; the angel who bends over the dying one asks what good deeds he has sent before him. (H. W. Beecher.)

What one can do

In one of the Napoleonic wars a young soldier complained to his commanding officer that his sword was too short. “Then add a step to it,” was the curt and significant reply. “When I hear,” says the Rev. W. L. Watkinson, “a man say, ‘You know you cannot do more than you can do,’ I am always still for a moment. It is such a philosophic sentence that it can only be taken in slowly.” But you never know what you can do until you put your soul into it--until you add a step. Says Paul to Timothy: “Stir up the gift that is in thee.” And it is not so much a question of environment as it is a question of soul; it is not a question of opportunity, because “it is in thee.”

Action more than knowledge

“It is not the man who knows most, but the one that does best, that wins the victory, Grant, and Meade, and Sheridan could have been taught many lessons by our learned professors of military tactics and strategy, but none of these could have guided his forces to victory as Grant did at Chatanooga, Meade at Gettysberg, or have hurled his masses as Sheridan did at Winchester. Action guided by knowledge, if you will, but better action without knowledge than much knowledge and feeble action.” (General Sherman.).

2 Samuel 21:18-22

18 And it came to pass after this, that there was again a battle with the Philistines at Gob: then Sibbechai the Hushathite slew Saph, which was of the sons of the giant.f

19 And there was again a battle in Gob with the Philistines, where Elhanan the son of Jaareoregim,g a Bethlehemite, slew the brother of Goliath the Gittite, the staff of whose spear was like a weaver's beam.

20 And there was yet a battle in Gath, where was a man of great stature, that had on every hand six fingers, and on every foot six toes, four and twenty in number; and he also was born to the giant.h

21 And when he defiedi Israel, Jonathan the son of Shimea the brother of David slew him.

22 These four were born to the giant in Gath, and fell by the hand of David, and by the hand of his servants.