Raising a Lion Slayer
The Name of My First Son, Benaiah
Hi Everyone,
Happy Monday. I wrote an article introducing my new son Caleb that received enough positive feedback that I decided to write additional articles on the names of our children. I hope these stir you to think about the names you have chosen for your children, the character traits you want to instill in them, and the story you desire for them to live out.
If you could do me a favor, please share this publication with someone. If you enjoy them or they’ve had meaningful impact on you, I would appreciate the referral.
Enjoy the article.
God Bless
Keaton
The name of a man or a woman has a prophetic nature. The mother and father see with spiritual eyes who their son or daughter could become. The first act of parenting a new child is to give them a name; to declare who they hope their child will be. The next 18-25 years of parenting is to raise them in such a way that they become who they were named to be.
A name not only carries the vision of what a father sees in a son or daughter but it also roots them in their heritage. A name ties them to the past of their forebearers. The name gives them a sense of identity beyond their immediate surroundings and roots them in a long story, if that story has been passed down. In the case of my children, each of them has a name that ties them to their Christian heritage and their familial heritage.
We named our second child and first son, Benaiah David
Benaiah the son of Jehoiada was a valiant man of Kabzeel, a doer of great deeds. He struck down two ariels of Moab. He also went down and struck down a lion in a pit on a day when snow had fallen. And he struck down an Egyptian, a handsome man. The Egyptian had a spear in his hand, but Benaiah went down to him with a staff and snatched the spear out of the Egyptian’s hand and killed him with his own spear. These things did Benaiah the son of Jehoiada, and won a name beside the three mighty men. He was renowned among the thirty, but he did not attain to the three. And David set him over his bodyguard.
Benaiah doesn’t get a lot of mention in the scripture but he played a prominent role in David’s rise and in David’s kingship. The verse above comes from 2 Samuel 23 where Benaiah is named among David’s mighty men. He’s one of the few warriors in David’s army that was by his side on his ascent, his exile, his fall, his recovery, and to his death.
I first encountered the name Benaiah through a book written by the former Army Soldier named Cliff Graham. The book is called Day of War. It is the first book in a series of books in the Lion of War series. It’s a novel for teenagers written about David’s mighty man, and it opens with a chapter about Benaiah fighting a lion. It’s exactly the type of book a young man would love to read if he wants something to fire him up to go fight a battle, and believes the scripture is only filled with soft men. I have loved the name ever since.
The verse above is not arbitrary accomplishments. The accomplishments in battle are highlighting parallels between Benaiah and David.
David killed a lion protecting his father’s sheep. Benaiah killed a lion in a pit.
David killed a giant. Benaiah killed a tall Egyptian. (Chronicles describes him as tall)
David confronted Goliath with a staff. Benaiah confronted the Egyptian with a staff.
One of the first words used too describe David is valiant. Same with Benaiah.
If you’re wondering what an Ariel is (Benaiah killed two Ariels of Moab), Ariel is a descriptive word that mean’s “like a lion”.
Everything in this description of Benaiah is supposed to tell you HE IS LIKE DAVID.
One of the things I intend to pass to my children, especially my son, is that becoming great does not necessarily mean glory. The glory is given to those who have been chosen, but the call to greatness, to being valiant, to being like David belongs to every single one of us. David receives the glory but Benaiah, by virtue of his deeds, shares in the glory of David.
More than likely, Benaiah was one of the four hundred dispossessed men who went down into the caves of Adullam to be with David during his exile. In his exile he took these under his care, trained them, and turned them into warriors. The caves and the wilderness where David was hiding and questioning everything about the call God had on his life and the anointing he had received. And he was making warriors out of the dispossessed. He was doing what a king does. He was calling other men to greatness, giving them hope and a future. It was in the caves of despair for David that Benaiah found a purpose for his life and someone for whom he could lay down his life.
There is a parallel between David and Benaiah and Christ and his disciple. Anyone who answers the call to become a disciple, Christ promises to train them until the disciple is like him, and thus sharing in his glory. (see Luke 6:40, Romans 8:17)
Benaiah was a lion slayer. That one little line about Benaiah, killing a lion on a snowy day, is rich in detail if we use our imagination to see the scene. Snow on the ground is going to be slippery. It difficult to firmly set his feet and take his stand against the lion. The lion is already stronger than him, more vicious. The safest place to defeat the lion is to descend into the pit, where he must confront the lion in closer quarters but at least his footing is solid. We don't know how big the pit was but it must have been big enough for a man and a lion to do battle and small enough for the man to win. Big enemies do not do well in tight spaces. After slaying the lion, Benaiah ascends out of the pit and back to life.
There's a connection to Christ in the slaying of a lion. The devil is compared to a prowling lion seeking someone to destroy. Jesus descended into the pit of hell to set the captives free, to proclaim his victory over Satan and death. Benaiah is prefiguring Christ in this manner.
Who finds the courage to fight a lion? Benaiah did become a valiant lion slayer by himself. He attached himself to one greater than himself and dedicated his life to imitating this much greater man. He watched him pray, cry out to God, weep, rise, train, and do battle. He watched his interactions with other desolate and forgotten men. This was long before David came into his glory as king. Benaiah did not attach himself to David because he was positionally king but because he was king-like in the cave. There, he learned to fight lions.
My son’s middle name is David. Benaiah David Tucker. David is also my first name. King David is the man I admire the most in all of Scripture with Christ being the one exception who stands above him. The whole of my adult life has been a study of the life and character of David: his response to personal sin, his care for the desolate man, his quiet rise in the cave.
Benaiah did not just attach himself to David, but David attached himself to Benaiah.
It is my hope to impart whatever is good in me to my son. I also hope my son sees in me a man worth imitating, worth becoming like. Many sons do not admire their father. They may listen and obey, but they don’t want to be like them. That is not the fault of the son, but of the father who did not become someone worth imitating. Abdication of duty, lack of devotion, personal sin, and everything in between can cause a son to look elsewhere for a hero, for a man they want to be like.
Sons, from the earliest of ages, want to be like a great man. They hope their father is a man they can be like. We can hear this on the playground or in our own memory. “My dad can beat up your dad” was the great insult of kindergarten. It is said with confidence and assurance. There is a belief in the young spirit of a boy that is father is invincible and unbeatable. He will eventually mature, and see clearly that his father is just a man. Hopefully in the clearness of his eyes he see that his father, though just a man, is a just man, not a coward or hypocrite.
I gave my son a high name to live up to. By attaching my name to his name, I also gave myself a high name to live up to. I want my son to be valiant, a lion slayer, a strengthener of men, and defender of what is good by the conduct of his life. I want him to learn to rise out of the cave and to stand his ground. That means he needs to see me doing those things. If I am not those things, I cannot expect him to learn them from me. It will not be his fault, but mine.
If I hope and desire for him to do those things and he is primarily going to learn from me how to do such deeds that means he needs to be with me as I am doing them. Breakfasts and playtime, fun and games are important for bonding but they will not instill the courage he needs to make his way in the world. He needs to see me going about my life, strengthening men, praying, taking Church seriously, and even in the midst of the battles of life. It would be a detriment to him if I kept him from the daily dangers of life, sheltered in the home. As he grows, he is going to need to spend more time with me, his father, so he can see how I handle different parts of life. It is essential to his development.
Hopefully, my son can learn from me how to be a man.
Love this brother great article.