Real Details

Readings:
I Chronicles 11
Acts 7:1-22

Focus:
I Chronicles 11:13-14a:"He was with David at Pas-dammim where the Philistines had gathered for battle in a field carrying a good crop of barley. When the people had fled from the Philistines he stood his ground in the field, defended it, and defeated them."

Sometimes when I read some of the details in the Bible it makes me realize how real these people's lives were. Eleazar son of Dodo, the person who defended this field of barley, wasn't just some named warrior in King David's retinue. We don't just hear that he was mighty in battle. We also hear that there was a specific field at Pas-dammim that had a good crop of barley, which was important to the Israelites, and that Eleazar successfully defended it.

Another detail in this chapter concerns a different one of David's fighting men, Benaiah son of Jehoiada. Among his exploits we find that once he went down in a pit and killed a lion (presumably some kind of wildcat) on a snowy day. We don't just hear that he killed a lion; we hear that it happened on a snowy day.

And then there's the list of all of David's heroes, at the end of the chapter. It includes their names, and usually their fathers and where they're from, such as "Ahiam son of Sacar the Hararite." But sometimes it's something like "Helez from a place unknown."

Why do we have these details and these items such as "from a place unknown"? Because it's real. These things really happened, and people remembered the barley field, and the snowy day. Someone had a list of David's heroes, but they didn't have all the information about each one of them, so some of them were listed with "from a place unknown."

We're not just reading myths and mystical stories. We're reading about events that happened, and they're recorded for our benefit under the guidance of a God who loves us. The overarching plan of the Bible is for God to communicate to us how much he loves us and how he wants to have a relationship with us. It's worth our reading it.