What Does II Samuel 23:9 Mean?

The second of the three is named: "And after him was Eleazar the son of Dodo the Ahohite, one of the three mighty men with David, when they defied the Philistines that were there gathered together to battle, and the men of Israel were gone away." Eleazar stands his ground when the rest of the army retreats, defying the Philistines alone alongside David. The courage of the man who stays when everyone else leaves is the courage that defines the inner circle of the mighty.

The phrase "the men of Israel were gone away" describes the abandonment that isolates the hero: Eleazar's valor is displayed against the background of his comrades' cowardice, and his willingness to stand alone demonstrates the quality that separates the mighty from the ordinary. The mighty man is not the one who fights when surrounded by allies but the one who fights when surrounded by enemies and abandoned by friends.

The Lord Jesus was abandoned by His disciples at the moment of His greatest trial: "Then all the disciples forsook him, and fled." The Son of David stood alone against the powers of darkness, and the defiance that Eleazar showed toward the Philistines Christ showed toward death itself. The mighty men of the church are those who stand with Christ when the crowd departs, and the valor that defines the kingdom is the valor of faithfulness in the face of universal abandonment.