Pressures Reveal The Quality of Faith

Transcript

GRS 2-66
4/27/2007
Pressures Reveal The Quality of Faith
1 Samuel 13-14
Gil Rugh

We are studying first Samuel, so if you want to turn to first Samuel in your bibles. At first part of the Old Testament, Joshua, Judges, Ruth, first Samuel. Samuel brings us through the closing period of the judges and brings us into the establishing of the monarchy and that monarchy will be in existence till the northern kingdom is carried into captivity in 722 BC and the southern kingdom in 786 BC. It will ultimately be restored with the coming to earth of Jesus Christ to establish his kingdom and fulfillment of all the prophecies and promises of the Old Testament Samuel is the last of the judges, you remember judges were individuals that were used by God to oversee Israel and bring deliverance from their enemies in the cycle that we have during the time of the judges. Samuel is one of the greatest of the judges if not the greatest because in the combination of his reign as a judge he will be used to anoint the first two kings of Israel really. Samuel was not only a judge, but he was a prophet and he was a priest and one of the most outstanding and godly men in the Old Testament, a giant of prayer as we have seen in a couple of passages referred to him in later prophets. Chapter 12 marked the time when Samuel gave his farewell address, now he is not going to pass off the scene, but he no longer functions as the political leader of the nation Israel, he continues his role as a prophet, he continues his role as a priest, but there is a new political leader for the nation. It is a king and that king is Saul.

Chapters 12 to 14 focus on Saul and his reign and he will continue to be the king of Israel down till chapter 31 of Samuel, but we are very close to the end of any blessings if we could say during his time. In chapter 16 of Samuel David will become the main character in the book of Samuel and Saul becomes a figure significant in the context of David in his interaction with David because Saul well had been rejected as Israel’s king and the spirit will leave Saul and come upon David even though David will not formally become king until after the death of Saul, then he formally takes full reign over the nation Israel. The Philistines are the major enemies of Israel during the days of Saul and that will continue down until the time of David and the early part of his reign. Saul has three main conflicts with the Philistines. Chapters 13 and 14 that we will be looking at in a moment, then again in chapter 17 we have another major battle between Saul as the leader of Israel and the Philistines and then in chapter 31 Saul have this final battle with the Philistines, so we have come to chapter 13, we have recorded Saul’s war with the Philistines and the focal issue here becomes Saul’s act of disobedience in the context of the battle with the Philistines and his disobedience is of such a level that God will speak through Samuel to declare to Saul that his line already has ended. God has already rejected him as king and appointed a new person and none of his descendants will succeed him. Very key chapter in that sense even though the unfolding of it will take place over subsequent chapters.

Chapter 13 begins with a difficult verse. Verse one, Saul was 40 years old when he began to reign and he reigned 32 years over Israel and you will note the numbers in this verse are in italics, Saul was 40 years old. Now, the word 40 is in italics meaning they have inserted it and what is the problem here is in the text as we have it the numbers are missing and you have the gaps, he was so many years old when he began to reign and he ruled blank in two years over Israel and there are various ways that might be constructed. Some of you have studied bibles and have notes on it, but its all speculation because we just don’t have any way to know the numbers. That’s not a reflection on the inspiration of the Old Testament, but as you can understand with the passing of time and the transposing of numbers and so on sometimes just possible to put the text together and know what it said, but if a number is not correct there is no way to correct the number within the text, so we are just not sure what was said here.

Now we can go to the New Testament, in Acts 13 verse 21 we are told that Saul reigned over Israel for 40 years, so we know the reign of Saul over Israel was 40 years because Acts chapter 13 verse 21 tells us that, then there is no confusion over that text, that’s clear, the number is clear, so we can say with authority Saul was king over Israel for 40 years, but exactly what he has been said out in verse one is not quite clear, so we will leave it at that. Verses two to four, you have Saul selecting a larger army, remember when he was anointed king, what do you do? Now you are king. Well basically you have the recognition before the nation that you are a king, but what do you do? You go back home and go about your business and remember he had certain valiant men that assembled with him, but now with some passing of time, verse two, Saul begins to assemble a larger army because at the heart of being able to lead Israel and particularly lead Israel in the battle against their enemies will be to be able to marshal an army and so you begin to assemble what we might call a standing army. He chose for himself 3000 men of Israel of which 2000 were with Saul in Michmash and 1000 were with Jonathan at Gibeah. So his son Jonathan is joined with his father and Saul delegates one third of the standing army at this point, if you will to Jonathan’s oversight and so you have an army assembled here. It becomes keen because Jonathan steps forward in verse three, Jonathan smote the garrison of the Philistines that was in Geba. The Philistines heard of it, then Saul blew the trumpet throughout the land saying let the Hebrews hear, all Israel heard the news that Saul had smitten the garrison of the Philistines and also that Israel had become odious to the Philistines. The people were then summoned to Saul at Gilgal.

So what happens is Jonathan takes his contingent of a 1000 soldiers and attacks the garrison, the fortress of the philistines in the town of Geba and you will have to look at the map, some of you who have a study bible probably have a map right there, if not I recommend that you don’t have a decent bible atlas, you have to stop at town once and get one. To supplement what you maps you do have in your bible because in a regular bible atlas, they will take you through these various portions of Old Testament and now have often little individual maps showing you each of the areas like for the battle with Saul, with the Philistines, his various battles and it helps put these things in a context, so we are down above the Dead Sea in the region of you know where Jerusalem is now, but Jerusalem is not one of the key cities in the conflicts here.

Well, Jonathan has taken his soldiers and defeated the garrison of the Philistines, note that he doesn’t defeat the Philistines, this is just one of their strongholds within Israel that they use to assert their authority and control over Israel, but now word gets out, you know in effect a declared war and Israel is summoned because we have these 3000 soldiers, but remember, the army of Israel is a lot larger, but the normal soldiers are out going there sort of like our national guard I guess, they are about their regular daily business, but when war is going to happen, then all the men of war are called to assemble.

So you assemble a sizable army, that’s what happens, they are assembled to Saul at Gilgal at the end of verse four, now you see Jonathan becomes a key figure, Saul is not doing anything here, but Jonathan is used by the Lord to bring a victory for Israel and to precipitate a larger conflict that will enable God to give Israel some deliverance from their enemies. Now you have stirred up a hopelessness because you defeat the Philistines at this one garrison, but now you have the mass army of the philistines assembled because they have to put down this rebellion and so verse five tells us the Philistines assembled to fight with Israel and the number is like the sand of the seashore as they come up and camp at Michmash, east of Beth-aven as we would say.

Now you do have a little bit of problem with the numbers here again, it says they have 30,000 chariots, that’s the figure that we have in most of the manuscripts we use, it’s probably not the accurate figure. It would be hard to assemble that many chariots in the area they are talking about and then it is totally out of line, look back in Exodus chapter 14, exodus chapter 14, now this is back in the context of the defeat of Pharaoh and his army when he pursues the Israelites after their exodus out of Egypt, he changes his mind and in Exodus chapter 14 verse seven, he took six hundred select chariots, and all the other chariots of Egypt with officers over all of them. So you see there is more than 600 chariots, but there are 600 with the choice chariots, other places you have numbers, look in Judges chapter four, Judges chapter four, during the time of Deborah and Barak the enemies of Israel, in judges four verse 13, Sisera called together all his chariots 900 iron chariots, second Chronicles 49 another number in the hundreds. So to say 30,000 chariots is probably not a realistic number and the figure may have been transposed, there are some manuscripts that have 3000 chariots and that would be a great force, so I just mention that to you, there is a huge number of philistines here, but they may not have had 30,000 chariots. Just like you know that would be sort of out of balance with other chariots mentioned in the Old Testament and then the area where the battle will take place, you would really have a crowded group of chariots in here and anyway the number of the people in their army is like the sand of the seashore.

So it is a dominating force, overwhelming in numbers and overwhelming in armaments as you will you see in a moment, verse six, when the men of Israel saw that they were in a strait for the people were hard-pressed, the people hid themselves in caves and thickets, in cliffs, in cellars and in pits, it’s like the battle is over before it starts. Israel is totally intimidated by this overwhelming force of Philistines that has moved into the area and so all of a sudden your army is unraveling, they are looking for hiding places, caves that they can go, hide in, homes and basements, we call them and they are identified here. Any place they could hide, they are looking. So you don’t have an army now, you are just ready to go to battle, you have soldiers looking for places to avoid a fight and even some of them crossed Jordan to the western side of the Jordan river, verse seven, but Saul, we was still in Gilgal when all the people followed him trembling. Even those who stayed with Saul, they are scared to death by the force that opposes them. This prepares the way for the major crisis of Saul’s life, he doesn’t know that that’s going to be ace, I mean he knows it’s significant, but this is the turning point in his reign as king and you know we look at this and we wonder as we proceed, it’s easy to think, well why would Saul do such a dump thing? But keep in mind he is under tremendous - tremendous pressure. The Philistines army is overwhelming in number and it is overwhelming in armaments, Saul has assembled the army to Israel, but you know what? Only two men in the whole army of Israel have swords, down in verse 22 “So it came about on the day of battle that neither sword nor spear was found in the hands of any of the people who were with Saul and Jonathan” Only Saul and Jonathan have sword and spear.

The preceding verses and we will look at that in a moment tell us the philistines did not allow the Israelites to have iron weapons because they didn’t want them to be armed. So when they come into have to put down an uprising, they have the armaments of swords and spears, they are going to fight against sticks and stones, so they can be more assured of victory. So you know you have got this overwhelming army and here you have two men that have - each have a sword and spear, nobody else has any real weapons like that. secondly, you have an army that’s scared to death and you have had mass defection of supposed soldiers running to look for caves and pits and cellars and houses and any places they can hide, part of your army has even crossed the river to the other side of the Jordan to get away from any of the battlefield territory. So you know, it’s a pressure situation, so you come to verse eight, Saul is waiting at Gilgal. The people with him are trembling, Saul waited seven days according to the appointed time set by Samuel, back up to chapter 10. Chapter 10 verse one, Samuel had anointed Saul, then down in verse eight he gave him instructions, you shall go down before me to Gilgal and behold I will come down to you to offer burnt offerings and sacrifice peace offerings, you shall wait seven days until I come to you and show you what you should do.

So that’s the context now when you come to chapter 13 verse eight. Saul is at Gilgal, he is waiting for Samuel to come, you got to wait a whole week. Why did Samuel do it that way? It was part of God’s plan to put Saul to the test, to see if he would pass or fail. The problem is Saul waits seven days and no Samuel and the army is unraveling rapidly, you have already had significant defections, the people that have stayed with you are scared to death and now your part, seven days, this just gives the people the chance to be taken over by their fears, the end of verse eight, we are told Samuel did not come to Gilgal and the people were scattering from him. What do I do? I mean I can’t just wait. Pressure helps to develop character, pressure also reveals our character. So now Saul will reveal whether he is willing to submit to the authority of the Lord in the face of great pressure. He is under tremendous pressure, will I submit and wait upon the Lord or will I take things into my own hands? If he is going to be God’s king, he has to obey explicitly, he has to be able to be faithful to the Lord under pressure.

Verse nine, Saul said, “Bring to me the burnt offerings and the peace offerings.” These were the offerings that would have been there prepared for when Samuel comes, remember he is the priest, only the priest can offer the appointed offerings, Saul decides he can’t wait any longer so he is going to take upon himself, now Saul was of the tribe of Benjamin, priests could only come from the tribe of Levi, so he is violating the explicit commands of the law, he offered the burnt offerings, as soon as he finished offering the burnt offering, behold Samuel came. Saul went out to meet him and to greet him and there is an insensitivity in Saul.

This becomes characteristic of Saul, a failure to appreciate the seriousness of sin when he commits it, there he comes out to meet Samuel, to greet him. Samuel said to him, “what have you done?” I mean you have done that which God has specifically, clearly in his law set out only the priests who comes from the tribe of Levi are qualified and allowed to offer sacrifices, so come up later and in the later event to obey is better than sacrifice. It’s going to be in chapter 15 when Saul repeats the offense. Samuel ask the question what have you done, Saul’s answer is clear, I saw the people were scattering from me, you didn’t come within the appointed days, the philistines were assembling at Michmash. I put those three things together, you understand the pressure I was under, what do you expect me to do? I am king, the people were scattering, you didn’t come within the seven days and the philistines are assembling. What do you expect me to do? You wait for the Lord, but he does not do that. Verse 12, therefore I say, now the Philistines will come down against me at Gilgal and I have not asked the favor of the Lord, so I forced myself and offered the burnt offerings. And say let’s give Saul some credit, I don’t want to go into battle against the philistines without seeking the blessing of the Lord. I really didn’t want to do it, but I had no choice.

You know there are no excuses acceptable to God. Samuel’s answer is clear and he is speaking as God’s spokesman. Verse 13 Samuel said to Saul, “you have acted foolishly, you have not kept the commandment of the Lord your God which he commanded you, for now the Lord would have established your kingdom over Israel forever” you failed the test. Now your kingdom shall not endure, the Lord has set out for himself a man after his own heart and the Lord has appointed him as ruler over his people because you have not kept what the Lord commanded you.

Understand the magnitude of what you did, you have forfeited the kingdom, and interesting, the Lord has set out for himself a man after his own heart, a man whose passion will be to serve the Lord, to obey him, to honor him, not to have what we call situation ethics where the pressure of the moment just start determines what I do. I tried to follow the commands of scripture, the commands of the Lord as often as I can, but sometimes life is difficult and filled with pressures and there I do it on the fly. You know it’s already done, it’s settled, it’s set in stone, the end of verse 14 “the LORD has appointed him, the man after his own heart as ruler over His people”, David has yet to be anointed, his appointment has already taken place in the plan of God. Saul is rejected, from this point on he is a hollow man if you will, he is still the king, he will still be respected as the king, but God’s word on it is set and settled. The kingdom will be taken from Saul and given to another. You know so another one of these cases we have seen as we moved through the Old Testament, we don’t know the consequences of sin, Saul did know how serious his action was, it seemed like humanly speaking the smart thing to do, the wise thing to do, but his disobedience has crushing consequences.

Verse 15, then Samuel arose and went up from Gilgal to Gibeah of Benjamin, Saul numbered the people who were present with him, about six hundred men. There you can see why Saul was a little concerned. I mean his army is dissipating, but there is never an excuse to disobey the Lord. Now Saul and his son Jonathan and the people who were present with them were staying in Geba of Benjamin while the Philistines camped at Michmash. And what the Philistines do now, they are sending out raiding parties, they have got three major raiding parties, if you will, companies, armies coming out and, you know preparing the way for their ultimate victory.

Verses 19 to 23 tells you Israel’s disadvantage, no blacksmith could be found in all the land of Israel, for the Philistines said, “Otherwise the Hebrews will make swords or spears.” So all Israel went down to the Philistines, each to sharpen his plowshare, his mattock, his axe, and his hoe, then it tells you what they charged. So no blacksmiths were allowed to function in Israel, those who would make implements of iron and then those who would fix them, I mean these were valuable tools in biblical times, you just didn’t throw away a tool and go buy a replacement, these had to be handmade, so there was nobody in Israel allowed to be a blacksmith to make implements of iron or to repair them or to sharpen them, so you see something of Israel’s condition here. They are an army without really the weapons of warfare, only Saul and Jonathan have these weapons.

Chapter 14, Jonathan come to the fore, back in chapter 13 verse three, it was Jonathan who smote the garrison of the Philistines at Geba. Now in chapter 14 Jonathan becomes the key figure and you see Jonathan and this will be true as you are aware knowing something of the story that unfolds before us, Jonathan comes in as a godly man, a man with a courage to trust God in seeming impossible situations and we have seen some interesting men in the book of first Samuel, I want you to just note the transition, Eli was a godly man with ungodly sons, Samuel was a godly man with ungodly sons, Saul was an ungodly man with a godly son. Here we look and Saw previously that there are no guarantees. Eli and Samuel both godly men and their sons were ungodly, you have Saul who is basically an ungodly man, but his son Jonathan is a very godly man and he will find great affinity with the man who was a man after God’s own heart David who is going to become king.

You read the account here, you wonder why didn’t God just reject Saul, but appoint Jonathan as king, he is a godly man with admirable character, but it’s not in the plan of God. Saul’s sin sets aside that whole line, that whole dynasty because the king of Israel will come from the line of Judah and Saul was of the tribe of Benjamin leaving his sin as part of the sovereign plan, has been included in the sovereign plan of God so that the man of his appointment will be appointed. So first five verses talk about Jonathan’s courage in going to challenge the Philistines again.

The day came when that Jonathan the son of Saul said to the young man who was carrying his armor, come, let’s cross over to the Philistine garrison that’s on the other side, he didn’t tell his father. I mean Jonathan doesn’t even take an army, he just said to his armor bearer, let you and I go over here and we will see, maybe we will just have to take on these Philistines and give them the beating. Saul was staying in the outskirts of Gibeah under the pomegranate tree which is in Migron. The people who were with him were about 600 men. Saul’s part, he had 600 men, he is the only one armed with true implements of war and got a Philistine army that can’t be numbered because they are like the sand of the sea. So he is just waiting under the pomegranate tree trying to decide what to do and there is a priest here, verse three, Ahijah and his lineage is set out there and nobody knows Jonathan has gone out from the camp and verse four, between the passes by which Jonathan sought to cross over to the Philistines' garrison, there was a sharp crag on the one side and a sharp crag on the other side, you can get the names of these two areas and description, verse six, then Jonathan said to the young man who was carrying his armor, "Come and let us cross over to the garrison of these uncircumcised” Jonathan sees them in the context of God’s covenant people. Circumcision was the sign of God’s covenant with Israel. The Philistines are the uncircumcised, they are outside the covenantal relationship that God has established with Israel. So they are the enemies of God. So you see Jonathan’s view of these people, what does he say? At the end of verse six, “perhaps the Lord will work for us, for the Lord is not restrained to save by many or by few” let’s face.

I mean here is Jonathan and his armor bearer and let’s go over, maybe we should attack the Philistines. I wonder what the armor bearer is thinking, yeah the two of us, you call charge and we will run up there, but for Jonathan this is no big deal because in his view if God wants us to get the victory, it doesn’t matter whether there is just the two of us or whether here is 200,000 of us because the victory depends on the Lord, doesn’t it? And he is not restrained, I mean God’s victory is not determined by how many soldiers you can marshal, so the Lord is not restrained to save by many or by few and his armor bearer is a faithful man, his armor bearer said to him, “do all that is in your heart, turn yourself, I am here with you according to your desire” whatever you thinks, I will do it, he is willing to put his life on the line and that’s what Jonathan thinks should be done.

So Jonathan says, here is the plan, we are going to cross over to the men and we will reveal ourselves, we are not going to sneak up on them and it’s not going to be a surprise attack, we are going to do it upfront so they can see us coming. Probably the armor bearer would have spoken, you know this is getting worse, no way and if they say, wait until we come to you, then we will stay where we are, that will be the signal that the Lord doesn’t want us to go forward "But if they say, 'Come up to us,' then we will go up, verse ten, for the Lord has given them into our hands; and this shall be the sign for us." you know no change here, he doesn’t say if they look weak, if their defenses look like they are relaxed, now let’s just go out and expose our self and depending on what they say that will be the Lord’s indicator to us to what he wants to do and so if they say come on up here, we will just climb on up there because we know the Lord is going to give them into our hands, then both of them revealed themselves to the garrison of the Philistines, the Philistines said, "Behold, Hebrews are coming out of the holes where they have hidden themselves" they are totally destined, here Jonathan and his armors are standing out there and one of the Philistines say, oh they have started to crawl out of the holes, they couldn’t take it any longer, come on up here, the Philistine said, so verse 12 the men of the garrison hailed Jonathan and his armor bearer and said, "Come up to us and we will tell you something" come on over here, we want to talk, yeah they want to talk alright.

What’s Jonathan say? Let’s pray about this, you know. He said to his armor bearer, the end of verse 12, "Come up after me, for the Lord has given them into the hands of Israel." And Jonathan is a giant of faith, I mean all he has is his confidence in the Lord and he is going to go up with his armor bearer and he is going to attack the garrison and he has no doubt of the outcome, the Lord has given them into the hands of Israel, but you understand Jonathan, the armies of Israel are not with you, but he is, Jonathan is going forward on behalf of the God of Israel as his servant, I don’t need the army of Israel if God has determined to give me victory, remarkable man of faith. Now they got to get there, so they got to climb up on their hands and knees, climbing up this ravine, the sides of this ravine to get up to where the Philistines are. What's naturally what they would do, naturally for protection put themselves in this place that was not easily accessed as some other place, but Jonathan climbed up in his hands and feet with his armor bearer behind him and you know what? They fell before Jonathan and his armor bearer put some of them to death after him because you know what? Jonathan has got to move forward and kill a few Philistines so that the armor bearer can pick up some weapons for himself and then any of the Philistines that didn’t die from Jonathan’s initial attack, the armor bearer can finish off as he comes along and the first slaughter which Jonathan and his armor bearer made was about twenty men within a small portion of land. It’s not hundreds, but I think here Jonathan just comes creeping through 20 men, 20 soldiers who would attack him, they would have been armed men, they are dead. Now the lord, you know remember, he is not restrained by many or by few. So they don’t have to wait here and hurry up and get an army here because Lord doesn’t need an army if he determines to do it another way, there was trembling in the camp, in the field and among all the people, even the garrison and the raiders trembled.

God controls the hearts and minds of men and a supernatural fear comes over these soldiers, they are unnerved and seeing their comrade’s fall all of a sudden there is a fear in their hearts and now you add to that the end of verse 15, the earth quaked so that it became a great trembling. So happens that God sends an earthquake through that portion of the land, now you have got the ground shaking and the armies of the Philistines are terrified, they are in a panic, so it becomes a great trembling and not only among the people, but in the earth itself as God sends an earthquake. Verses 16 to 23 bring Saul into the picture, Saul's watchmen in Gibeah of Benjamin looked, and behold, the multitude melted away; and they went here and there. As the watchmen around Saul’s camp are looking out, all of a sudden they see the Philistines turning to panic and they are starting to move away and run, they are going here and there, there is disorder among the Philistines. Saul said to the people who are with him, "Number now and see who has gone from us." they said Jonathan has gone, his armor bearer is not there and so now Saul calls for the priest and say we have got to enquire to the Lord, what are we to do here. And verse 19, while Saul talked to the priest, the commotion in the camp of the Philistines continued to increase; so Saul said to the priest, we don’t have time for this "Withdraw your hand." So we don’t have time to wait, look at the commotion in the camp of the Philistines, so I can’t wait any longer, I am a warrior and you see how Saul is constantly reacting to something going on and here he is going to seek to Lord through the priests that’s in the camp with him, but then he decides, I can’t wait for that, there is too much commotion in the camp of the Philistines, so let’s just go.

So Saul and all the people who were with him, verse 20, rallied and came to the battle; and you know what? The Philistines are killing themselves off, everyman’s sword was against his fellow, there is very great confusion and then there had been Hebrews who had gone over to the Philistines in prior days and now they turn against the Philistines and so the Philistines have this turmoil among themselves and fear and commotion and killing one another off and now you have the force of the Hebrews against them and verse 22, when all the men of Israel who had hidden themselves in the hill country of Ephraim heard that Philistines had fled they also joined the battle, so now you have got those who had fled and hidden, everybody and now everybody wants to join in this victory against the Philistines.

So verse 23, the Lord delivered Israel on that day, ultimately who did it? The Lord did it. He chose to do it through one man who trusted him and his armor bearer and brings great victory to the Israelites, you know we don’t learn that, you know we are all - right down to us, we read these accounts and we still get overwhelmed by our circumstances, our situations, so I read this, I don’t want to sit in my chair, I can be a great giant of faith in my chair reading about this and becoming the critic and I need to be the critic of it, Saul didn’t function as a godly man would be Jonathan did, really it’s just the same God, he is in control I want to count up, so I have the numbers right and can we do it? I want to be wise, but ultimately the Lord gives us the victory and the lesson, the Israel just had terrible time learning and living with.

Now Saul who had been hesitant reluctant to charge in the battle, he was parked under the pomegranate tree, remember with his soldiers, now he is really going to take charge and my enemies are going to be destroyed so he makes a rash oath. None of the soldiers can eat anything and what they do here, you have got a battle going on that spreads out like this, you know soldiers have to eat, otherwise they are going to lose their strength, but Saul makes a rash order, verse 24, takes a rash oath, he put them under oath saying "Cursed be the man who eats food before evening, until I have avenged myself on my enemies. Different than the kind of statement that you read Jonathan saying the Lord will work for us, the Lord is not restrained to save by many or by few, verse six, verse 12, the Lord has given them into the hands of Israel. Now you hear Saul’s boisterous blustering after God has set fear through the Philistines and is dispersing them, nobody can eat anything until I have avenged myself on my enemies and it just doesn’t have the same perspective, he is going to make this a personal victory and he is going to do it for his glory, so none of these soldiers can eat, so you are going to have all day, the battle going on, you know what happens? You don’t lead all day and you are going, you are out there chasing, running, fighting. I mean you are burning up all your calories, all your energy and you are exhausted, the people going into forest because soldiers dissipated into the forest, they try to hide, you go in after them and there is honey in the forest. Jonathan didn’t know about his father’s oath, remember he had left, he had been out leading the victory.

So there is honey there, you know a great source of energy, he dips his staff in the honey, eat some of it, his eyes brighten, he comes alive, you know he is refreshed and it’s like you do when you know if you haven’t eaten for a while you are just fatigue and you eat something sweet and nourishing, all of a sudden you are like ah I am refreshed, I am energized again, that’s what Jonathan does and verse 28, one of the people said to him, "Your father strictly put the people under oath, saying, 'Cursed be the man who eats food today.'" And the people were weary .Jonathan said my father has troubled the land. See now, how my eyes have brightened because I tasted a little of this honey. He is not aware of his father’s oath, but he said it was a rash oath, I mean you can’t starve, your soldiers and expect them to be able to go on. "How much more, if only the people had eaten freely, verse 30, of the spoil of their enemies they found! For now the slaughter among the Philistines has not been great." You know what? The people were too weary, too exhausted, too hungry to persuade the Philistines and make the victory complete.

My father, you know even Saul enters the battle and what? Minimize its impact, it could have been a much greater victory if he hadn’t made such a rash oath and now verses 31 to 35 says what happen now, the people got so hungry as the day were on that now they are killing animals, they are not draining the blood as Leviticus 17 required and they are blood with the meat because they are just famished now they are adding sin and guilt before the Lord and Saul recognizes that, recognizes his oath was foolish and so he tells them to stop that and bring the animals and they will be sacrificed and the blood drained properly and everybody can eat, but he made a rash oath that had consequences, its consequences for Jonathan, for the people, for the victory. This is the way Saul functions, you know then he is very angry, reacting one way and then another. Well I am going to step in now and we are going to get this victory and I am going to have a complete victory over my enemies, he makes the rash oath, now he has to undo that oath to correct the sin that leads to, he is just a man who bounces around, doesn’t have the stability that comes from a man who is committed to serving the Lord and honoring him and obeying him and trusting him and this is the characteristic of Saul’s life. Another example, verses 36 and following, Saul going to inquire of the Lord and say, okay should I continue to pursue the Philistines, but he gets no answer, he just going to the priest in verse 36 and following, so why he is not getting any answer, there must be sin in Israel so they go through cast lots, it comes down to his own family and now as true, what does Saul do? Makes a rash statement, rash oaths.

Verse 14:39 "For as the LORD lives, who delivers Israel, though it is in Jonathan my son, he shall surely die." so here he makes his rash statement, one have to find out who is guilty here in Israel, nobody is spoken up to say Jonathan did it. So we are going to cast lots, the priest is going to discern he is guilty and even if it’s my own son Jonathan, he will have to die, so here he is making this kind of you know just following up one rash act has to another. The lots are taken, it comes down to Saul and Jonathan, Jonathan is taken, verse 43, Saul said to Jonathan, "Tell me what you have done." Jonathan told him and said, "I indeed tasted a little honey with the end of the staff that was in my hand. Here I am, I must die!" Saul said may God do this to me in more also you shall surely die Jonathan but the people won’t let it happen, they recognized the rashness of Saul, the initial oath was a rash oath, it lead the sin among the people and so Saul had to correct that by allowing them to eat when the animals had been properly sacrificed, so now they recognized God gives the victory through Jonathan, they realized the victory didn’t come through Saul, he is not going to die today so the people defend Jonathan and won’t allow Saul to put him to death, so Saul breaks off pursuing the Philistines and returns home.

Chapter ends with the summary and you realize, we talked about a forty year reign of Saul, it’s a really which is getting certain incidents and because we are moving to David and Saul will become now a secondary figure and we will get to chapter 16 to David because we had enough revealed about Saul to reveal his character and reveal that he has been rejected by God, so he is just an interim here, verses 47 to 52 is a summary of Saul’s military activity and Saul is a significant military leader, he is not a coward in that sense. We may say he is a good soldier, but he is not a man who can trust the Lord, he is not willing to put himself in the Lord’s hands and live by faith if you will, so when Saul taken over the kingdom over Israel, he fought against all his enemies on every side and wherever he turned, the end of verse 47, he inflicted punishment. So he is in that sense a significant king, a warrior king, anyone there with idea that Saul is a wimp? What Saul lacks is that faith in the living God and the willingness to put himself in his hands and do what the Lord requires whatever that is, you have the family of Saul setout here, also only two of his immediate family will be significant, Jonathan his son and his daughter Michal and both of those individuals becomes significant because of their later relationship to David, Gods anointed the king to replace Saul. Also the Abner the captain of Saul’s army becomes a significant figure in later events and in context of David as well.

Verse 52 says that the he war against the Philistines was severe in all the days of Saul; and when Saul saw any mighty man or any valiant man, he attached him to his army, so Saul continues to build, so we have got a snapshot here, but we got a forty year reign of Saul that the bible is just pulling out highlights. Alright just a couple of a few observations on these two chapters and then we will have a word of prayer and go home.

Faith becomes the key, back in chapter 13 verse three, God uses men of faith, Jonathan brings the victory over the Philistines, the garrison at Geba. Chapter 14 verse six, that unshakable faith of Jonathan in God, the God of Israel and his power to bring victory that will be true in Jonathan’s recognition that God anoints David as king, that means Jonathan will never be king, that’s fine for Jonathan, he is a godly man, so here he has his faith in the God of Israel and so the God of Israel uses Jonathan to bring significant victories. In this context it doesn’t matter what the circumstances are, what the enemy is. Verse five of chapter 13, the army of the Philistines is like the sand of the sea, down in verse 22 the Philistines are well armed, they have chariots and soldiers well armed and Israel has two swords and two spears, it doesn’t matter, it just doesn’t matter. Now, it’s easy for me to read it as history that occurred 3000 years ago, I realizes this God is my God, that’s the God I serve, I don’t want to spiritualize the passage, it’s history, these things are written for our admonition, I want to be reminded that you know I don’t have to be overwhelmed because I can think boy, what are we going to do or just overwhelmed, who is overwhelmed? The God is overwhelmed? I walk in the center of his will, I walk with my faith in him, he is never overwhelmed. I mean so I need to be sure that I learn what there is for me from this, one of the lessons that will come out and will come out even more clearly in the next chapter when we study it next time, obedience is more importance than sacrifice and we saw that down in chapter 13 verse 13 Saul sacrificed, but obedience is more important, I do know I am not doing with the Lord what I have to be doing, but that’s alright I will go to church Sunday and go to worship with the God’s people and that makes it a wash. As Saul will be told in chapter 15 to obey is better than sacrifice, as you noted in verse six of chapter 14 God’s never help numbers, so never lose your faith, I use to admire Jonathan, just see him and his armor bearer climbing up the side of that ravine on their hands and knees with the Philistines just waiting to do them in and Jonathan can’t wait to get to top because he is convinced the Lord has already given them into our hand and being so well I can’t wait to get to the top and experience the victory and God thus give the victory verse 12, verse 15, he sends fear throughout the camp of the Philistines, he sends the earthquake at the appointed time, he controls men, he controls the forces of nature, everything is in his hand. So verse 23, the Lord delivered Israel that day, let’s not now figure out that Israel have enough soldiers, they require enough weapons, simple, the lord did it and in verses 24 to 30 of chapter14, the zeal of man doesn’t accomplish the work of God. Saul’s blustering around here taking oaths, you know he is a man who cannot experience the fullness of God’s blessings in his life, he tries to mix it and he is taking oath before the Lord, but he is not walking by faith, so he is a travesty, he is a man that God can’t use. Now understand that in the context God does use him like he use his godless men. You know he is in control, but us far as a man after his own heart, a man that God will use for the accomplishing of his purposes and bringing glory to him and leading his people, Saul can’t be that man. He just bounces from this and bounces to that and react to this and react to that, becomes more considering with his position and his power and his authority and it deteriorates, so he ultimately will die on the battlefield replaced by God’s man and all the above, God is sovereign, nothing gets out of control. When you read all of these, these different battles, these different enemies, God is sovereign in bringing his people to where he wants them to be. Let’s pray to God.

Thank you lord for your grace, thank you for the grace manifested to your people Israel where the fullness of grace has come through your son and so we stand and examine this history, reflect upon it with the fullness of your revelation before us and we know the greatness of the God of Israel who is our God, you are sovereign to your power, your ability to rule over all. Lord, may our hearts be encouraged, thank you for the testimony of a man like Jonathan who was not intimidated, was not afraid because he knew the greatness of his God. Lord, may we have that kind of faith as we serve you even in the days of this week and we pray in Christ’s name, Amen.