The second battle on your journey to breakthrough is The Battle of Covenant. 2 Samuel 23:9-10 continues the saga of the Mighty Men, “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: He arose, and smote the Philistines until his hand was weary, and his hand clave unto the sword: and the LORD wrought a great victory that day; and the people returned after him only to spoil.” Eleazar in the Hebrew text meant “God has helped.” His lineage was in the genealogy of the first priest Aaron, and Abinadab’s son who cared for the Ark of the Covenant. He was also related to the priest who rebuilt and dedicated the restored walls of Jerusalem in time of Ezra. Eleazar was a son of Dodo, who was an Ahohite. The Hebrew word ‘Dodo’ means ‘loving’ and ‘Ahohite’ comes from a Hebrew word meaning ‘brotherhood’. The spiritual picture is of a man who loved his brothers. This second battle on your road to breakthrough will be a deliverance from disconnection! You have a long history of being among those who handle the sacred presence of God.

You can trace your spiritual roots among those found in Ephesians 4:11-12, “And he gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers; for the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ.” Every oracle God exalts will know the heights of Heaven’s hand, and depths of despair’s death grip. This is the mechanism God uses to forge the connection of covenant ministry. Out of the paradox posed by the inconsistency of flawed humans heralding the divine we embrace Romans 10:14, “How then shall they call on him in whom they have not believed? and how shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard? and how shall they hear without a preacher?” You are not the message-just the messenger! 1 Corinthians 1:21 places you as a Court Jester in the Kingdom of Heaven, “For after that in the wisdom of God the world by wisdom knew not God, it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe.” It is no wonder we are taught that humor is the mask of pain.

This second battle will force you to break the isolation you shroud the fear of rejection inside of. You must stand with the man God has connected you with. It was never your choice. You were forced, kicking and screaming through a maze of indiscernible events that alienated you from the associations you selected, into a cave of misfits whose only common bond was a man named David who had been selected by God. Now, here you stand, in the heat of a battle you did not start. Now, here you are, standing beside a taunting fugitive who is openly defying the present system of secular thought to declare Jehovah is God. This battle on your journey to breakthrough is about your deliverance from disconnection. You do not get to choose you spiritual connections in this earth. God through his providence uses pain and despair as the glue to bind hearts and wills together for His purpose in the earth.

Eleazar had the pedigree to openly dispute his current assignment. He could sketch his family tree as a mighty oak of God’s preferred selection. His people were the anointed handlers of God presence and the protocols that protected it! What in the world was he doing here? Haven’t you asked yourself that a thousand times? How did I get here? You couldn’t recreate the process if you tried. You are living the axiom, “Truth is stranger than fiction.” You are here because you are a Mighty Man. You didn’t find the cave, the cave found you. Your steps were ordered by God. Your walk through the Valley of the Shadow of Death was an ordered mission. Isaiah 55:9 gives us God’s explanation in His own words, “For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.” Trust the process. Most people will run, or disconnect when the battle engages. But you have been called to stand with your spiritual connection in the face of adversity.

All of this had to be going through Eleazar’s mind on the battlefield that day when David screamed insults at the Philistines until they attacked. The scripture makes this distinction in reference to the timing of this event, “and the men of Israel were gone away.” It was at this point that Eleazar, “arose.” This is your season to rise up! It is no secret that you were initially connected to this setting by the divinely imposed limitation of the options before you, until you had no other choice. But now you are given a second personal battle on the road to your breakthrough, The Battle of Covenant. Your choice to stay this time will be solely up to you. This decision will be compounded by the fact that everyone else has decided this battle is not worth the risk. The Men of Israel have voted to leave David. Those men are still breaking the covenant of connection when the stigma of being with David becomes more than bargained for. I find that those who have been forgiven the most are among the most self-righteous. And, among the first to disconnect because they have no trust in themselves or others.

If you are ever going to conqueror the demon of disconnection you must arise to stand in the heat of a battle, beside a man God has connected you with, with a reckless abandon to the cause of the King! Eleazar, “arose, and smote the Philistines until his hand was weary, and his hand clave unto the sword.” Two words stand out in this text; weary and clave. Tired and stuck. Exhausted and inexplicably joined. Have you ever been too tired to continue, but too stuck to let go? Why couldn’t you just leave like everybody else has? It’s easy! Just walk away. No one will think worse of you. It is totally understandable. This fight is unfair anyway! You didn’t start the conflict. All of these legitimate reasons can’t erase the nagging memory of your past failures. The emptiness you have experienced from the times you have quit in the past. Somehow this time, as long as David is fighting, you have to continue. Forgive me if my motion seems mechanized. Please try to overlook the visible weariness I am exhibiting. But this time I am past quitting. I won’t run. Call me crazy, but after all I have been through, I would rather die fighting than to live running! Yes I am weary, but I will not quit!

Have you ever wondered how he knew the sword was stuck to his hand? There is only one fool proof manner in which to test the release theory-you have to try to let it go! The word “clave” in this scripture literally means to become joined to, as a part of. I think it is utterly fascinating that he word “cave” is found in “clave” but that’s another sermon. There is a unique transformation that takes place when you settle the issue of disconnection and refused to be severed from covenant. You discover that which you held onto, has now begun to hold onto you. Letting go is no longer an option. What you had embraced has now embraced you so strongly that there is no longer you and it. You have become one with the covenant. This is the moment when you have fought and won the second battle on the journey to breakthrough. How can you know this? There is no more quit in you. The option of letting the sword go has been replaced with a mental awareness that you are now the sword. You have become the weapon in God’s hand. You are not using God, He is using you!

When the battle is over, only David and Eleazar are standing in a sea of dead, defeated enemies. A spiritual transformation has taken place somewhere in the heat of the battle. Eleazar has been delivered from disconnection. He no longer thinks of quitting as an alternative to covenant. He has faced his own demons of isolation and disconnection. He has stared into the face of weariness and found a supernatural strength. He now understands, “What God has joined together, let no man put asunder.” Eleazar has won the second battle on the road to breakthrough, and so have you! Quitting is no longer in you spiritual DNA. You are now the weapon in God’s hand.