The figure of Benaiah is among my very favorites in all of Scripture. From a Levitical lineage ( 1 Chron 27:5-6, 12:23), he would have known how to use a knife to slay a sacrifical animal, and as one of David’s mightiest men he knew how to slay God’s enemies. His role as Solomon’s executioner in the passage we considered Sunday sets the stage in his loyalty to replace Joab as the head of Solomon’s army. “The king put Benaiah the son of Jehoiada over the army in place of Joab” (1 Ki 2:35).

This great man’s legendary exploits are recorded in 2 Samuel.

“And Benaiah the son of Jehoiada was a valiant man of Kabzeel, a doer of great deeds. He struck down two ariels of Moab. He also went down and struck down a lion in a pit on a day when snow had fallen. And he struck down an Egyptian, a handsome man. The Egyptian had a spear in his hand, but Benaiah went down to him with a staff and snatched the spear out of the Egyptian’s hand and killed him with his own spear. These things did Benaiah the son of Jehoiada, and won a name beside the three mighty men. He was renowned among the thirty, but he did not attain to the three. And David set him over his bodyguard.” (2 Sa 23:20–23)

It would be hard to envision a more legendary or heroic figure. And no doubt there is much here to inspire our own God-sized exploits. But I want us to consider briefly his role as executioner and what that communicates about the justice of God.

God justice and His mercy are both beautiful and important expressions of God’s goodness. I have argued in our Triadic catechism that God’s power, wisdom, and goodness are the three major categories of His communicable attributes. God’s goodness, in particular, is multi-faceted (as is often the case in the third part of a triad). Under the category of goodness are attributes such as love and grace, righteousness and justice. Mercy and justice as two aspects of God’s goodness, have an interesting relationsihp.

On one hand we are to be lovers of mercy, and in a very particular way. We are told in James 2:13 that mercy triumphs over judgment. And we are to forgive others as God forgives us (Lk 11:4), not repaying (personal) evil with evil (1 Thess 5:15). Nevetheless, the Scriptures also give us ample cause to rejoice in justice and the execution thereof. Benaiah glorifies God as he strikes Joab down, even as the veteran clings to the horns of the altar. An appeal to God’s mercy is useless when you have showed nothing but unrepentant vengeance in your life (as one who already had the knowledge of God).

What use can we make of this in our lives? Let me suggest a few. Firstly, we can glorify the justice of God in the world without feeling guilty. We can rejoice when a dictator is toppled and his subjected people celebrate. We can rejoice when criminals are prosecuted. We don’t have to feel guilty or half-hearted about desiring to see murderers executed as demanded in Scripture. Justice is good.

Secondly, we ought to be executioners of sin in our own lives, as noted on Sunday morning. Put to death whatever is earthly in you (Col 3:15). Take up the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God, and deal ruthlessly with every thought, deed, or word that is opposed to God within.

Lastly, we ought to rejoice in the justice done at the cross, where God was demonstrated to be both just and justifier of the one who has faith in Christ (Rom 3:26). God expressed mercy to us through His justice against sin in His Son Jesus. Mercy triumphed over justice not by God neglecting justice, or winking at it, but by Him punishing it in the most visible, obvious way, to show how evil sin is, and then granting mercy to all those who recognize, although with Him, the evil of sin.

It is often said that by our sins, we put Jesus to death upon the cross. There is an important truth here. Nevertheless, it is also true that by looking in faith at Christ, we are executing our own sins in Him.

We are all executioners. We are all Benaiah. We ought to rejoice in justice, we ought to put our own sins to death, and these things are both possible because we have first given our sins to Jesus. He is the ultimate priest, the ultimate warrior, the ultimate doer of great deeds.