2 Samuel 23:9-10 says, “⁹ Next to him was Eleazar son of Dodai the Ahohite. As one of the three mighty men, he was with David when they taunted the Philistines gathered at Pas Dammim^[e] for battle. Then the men of Israel retreated, ¹⁰ but he stood his ground and struck down the Philistines till his hand grew tired and froze to the sword. The Lord brought about a great victory that day. The troops returned to Eleazar, but only to strip the dead.”

The text is talking about David’s mighty men. These are the guys that had King David’s back and fought beside him in battle. This particular text is incredibly inspiring. This guy Eleazar was the kind of guy that you wanted on your side in a fight. Here we read of a brief account of him that ought to make us pause and think. He and David had taunted the Philistines and the Philistines fought against the Israelites. Apparently the fighting was pretty fierce and the men of Israel retreated….except for Eleazar.

This dude stood there by himself and fought the Philistines until his hand grew tired and froze to the sword. Talk about fighting! This guy kept swinging and swinging until his hand froze to the sword. What in the world would possess a man to fight that hard?! The men of Israel returned to their boy whom they had abandoned but only to strip the dead. God used Eleazar on that day to bring about a great victory.

How many of us have that much fight in us? I think that Eleazar can usher a lesson to us through the annals of history. There are things in our lives that are worth fighting for. Things like our marriages, our kids, our callings, our spiritual vitality and much, much more. I think that all of us would probably admit to the fact that we have surrendered some ground to the enemy and we didn’t put up that much of a fight. We have surrendered some of the romance of our marriage. We have surrendered time with our kids that we’ll never get back. We have surrendered our spiritual vitality for the sake of our favorite TV shows. We have surrendered parts of our physical well-being for the sake of comfort food. Maybe we have surrendered more than we would care to admit.

There is no use in despairing over that which we’ve relinquished but we can start to fight again. We can take out the proverbial sword and fight for that which matters most in our lives. What if we learned a lesson from Eleazar and fought so hard that our hands grew tired and froze to the sword? You can go to sleep well at night when you fight like that. You may not always win but at least you won’t have to deal with the pain of regret. You can stand with Eleazar and the faithful men and women throughout history that didn’t leave anything on the field. Who knows…perhaps God will use you to bring about a great victory. The only way to know is to keep swinging until you can’t swing anymore.