Benaiah in Reverse

I have long appreciated the stories of David's mighty men -- especially that of Benaiah in 1 Chronicles 11:22-24. In fact, back in the late 1970's, as friend and pastor Bill Woods and I were discussing a project for mass outreach using pop radio music (hold your fire, please!), Benaiah was -- at least in my thinking -- the model for what we intended to do.

No one would argue how music especially, but arts and sciences (humanities) in general affect the human spirit. Maybe even more so today, people have "their song" or "their artist" and they both identify with these things and let them influence their choices. Often, music has been used as an instrument of evil to influence people wrongly into doing things that are destructive to their own lives and others' around them.

In our plan, music was the "weaver's beam" being used by the Egyptian giant to attack. Like Benaiah, we wanted to take the weapon from his hand and turn it around and use it against him (not against the people but against the Evil One).

Though our idea focused specifically on music as an outreach, history is filled with the work of Christians in all areas of culture who believed God wanted them to use their gifts, talents, interests, to glorify Him and make their community a better place. The litany would be too long, but would include Christians who nursed the sick during plagues in the Roman empire while the Romans ran for cover, J.S Bach writing music for God (much just music, not a musified gospel tract), William Wilberforce persistently putting forth anti-slavery legislation in Great Britain year after year until it passed, George Washington Carver using his gifts in research to find ways to benefit poor people and the community as a whole with his many experiments, Lord Kelvin and many men of science who contributed to medicine and hospital care and the founding of schools for the common folk and universities for those who want to learn more. The list is endless.

These men (and women) took the weaver's beam from the enemy and used it to defeat him, as Romans says, to "overcome evil with good." They didn't run for cover and teach others to do the same. They took their talents into the fray. They were like Benaiah. Unfortunately, acts like this have fallen out of fashion and have been called "polishing the brass on a sinking ship". We have given those areas of cultural development back to unbelievers because they have become "unspiritual". They (the enemies of Christ) now own those institutions and we think it is supposed to be that way. It is like Benaiah handing the beam back to the Egyptian and saying, "Sorry, I was mistaken, here is your weapon back," then letting him run us through.

God grant me to be like Bach, like Wilberforce, and many more as well. I want the weaver's beam back!