Get in the Pit

Tucked into a list of David's mighty men is one of the strangest verses in the Bible. 1 Chronicles 11:22 tells us that Benaiah, son of Jehoiada, "went down into a pit on a snowy day and killed a lion." Read that slowly, because every part of the sentence makes things worse. There is a lion, which is already reason enough to go the other direction. The lion is in a pit, so there is nowhere to maneuver. And it's snowing, so the ground is wet, the footing is bad, and every condition is working against him. Benaiah goes down anyway.

Most of us spend our lives trying to stay out of pits. We put guardrails around them, we warn our kids about them, and we pray God keeps us far away from them. If we saw a lion go into one, we'd thank God that the lion and the pit were over there and we were safely over here. Benaiah sees the exact same situation and moves toward it.

I'll be honest about my own struggle here. I've been preaching faith for a long time, and I still like faith better when I can see where it's going. I want to know how it will work, where the provision is coming from, and who's going with me. I want God to show me the outcome first, and then I'll tell Him how much I trust Him. But I've learned that God doesn't always give the explanation before He asks for obedience. Often my hesitation isn't confusion. I understand exactly what He's saying. I just don't like what obedience is going to cost.

I don't think I'm alone in that. Many of us want God to use us, as long as it's somewhere comfortable. We want stronger faith, as long as nothing happens that requires it. We want courage, as long as we never face anything frightening. And some of us already know where our pit is. God has been dealing with us about something, and we keep finding reasons to wait. We call it timing. We call it wisdom. We tell ourselves we need one more confirmation, even though deep down we already know what He said.

The deeper problem is that we've tied the will of God to comfortable conditions. When things get hard, we assume we missed God. When a door doesn't open easily, we decide it must not be our door. When obedience costs something, we go looking for a different interpretation of what God said. But Scripture never promises that following God will keep us away from every pit. Sometimes faith gets you out of a pit, and sometimes faith leads you right to the edge of one.

Look at the pits in the Bible. Joseph's brothers stripped him of his robe and threw him into an empty cistern (Genesis 37:23-24). He didn't choose that pit; betrayal put him there. Jeremiah was lowered by ropes into a muddy cistern because he refused to change the word God gave him (Jeremiah 38:6). He wasn't there because he disobeyed. His faithfulness put him there. And then there's Benaiah, whom nobody threw anywhere. He saw the lion go down and chose to follow. Three men, three very different pits, and one truth: the presence of a pit does not prove the absence of God.

So instead of only asking, "God, why am I here?" we can start asking, "God, what are You doing in me here?" There are things God will teach you in the pit that you would never learn standing safely above it. Your location may change, your circumstances may change, and the people around you may change, but God does not. He is God on the mountain, and He is still God in the pit.

This matters because many of us are delaying obedience while we wait for the snow to stop. We'll move when we have enough money. We'll start when someone agrees with us. We'll serve when life slows down. We'll forgive when they apologize. We'll step out when we're no longer afraid. But Benaiah didn't wait for spring. Some assignments will never come with perfect conditions, and God will often call you to move while you can still hear the lion roaring.

That's why God's words to Joshua are so important: "Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid or discouraged, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go" (Joshua 1:9). Joshua's courage didn't come from knowing there would be no battles. It came from knowing who went with him into them. Biblical courage doesn't mean you stop feeling afraid. It means you know what God said, so fear doesn't get to make the decision. Faith doesn't pretend the lion is small. Faith knows the lion is real and still believes God is greater.

Here is where Benaiah puts real pressure on us. He could have stood above that pit and studied the lion, warned everyone about the lion, and spent his life explaining how dangerous lions are. None of that would have killed the lion. Many of us have learned to describe things in our lives that we still haven't confronted. We know where the fear comes from, which relationship needs a real conversation, and what God has told us to put down or pick up. At some point, revelation has to become obedience.

Faith isn't recklessness, though. Benaiah doesn't give us permission to jump into every pit we see. The question isn't whether something is dangerous. The question is whether it is assigned. That means you need discernment before you need courage. You don't have to answer every critic, win every argument, or fight every battle. Some pits need to be walked around, and some lions need to be left alone. Courage isn't fighting everything. Courage is knowing what God told you to fight and refusing to run from it.

So ask God one question: Is this my lion? Not whether it scares you, not whether it's hard, not whether everyone understands. Ask whether God assigned it to you. If the answer is no, walk away and stop wasting strength on battles He never gave you. If the answer is yes, quit waiting for spring. Make the call. Have the conversation. Start the ministry. End the compromise. Forgive the person.

After the pit, Benaiah became one of the most honored of David's warriors and was put in charge of the king's bodyguard (1 Chronicles 11:24-25). The Bible doesn't say the lion caused his promotion, but the lion became part of his record. What happened in the pit became part of his testimony. Joseph couldn't see Genesis 50 from the bottom of Genesis 37, yet he eventually said, "You planned evil against me; God planned it for good" (Genesis 50:20). You can't always interpret the pit while you're still in it. Don't let a temporary pit give you a permanent identity. The pit may be part of your story, but it doesn't get to write the ending.

Finally, remember there's another Lion in Scripture. Our enemy prowls like a roaring lion, but Revelation 5:5 introduces the Lion of the tribe of Judah, who has conquered. Jesus isn't another lion waiting for you to defeat Him. He is your King, your protector, and the One who has already won. You don't walk into the pit believing you're the strongest thing down there. You walk in knowing the strongest One goes with you. So if God has called you there, you can move with shaking hands and unanswered questions, because your confidence isn't in your ability. It's in the God who called you, the God who goes with you, and the Lion of Judah who has already overcome.