1 Samuel 13:15-14:23: Jonathan’s Courageous Faith

1 Samuel 13:15-14:23: Jonathan’s Courageous Faith

We’ve been working our way passage by passage through the book of 1 Samuel, and today the next passage we come to is 1 Samuel chapter 13 verse 15 through chapter 14 verse 23, so I’ll be reading a selection of verses from that passage. Hear now the words of the Living and True God:

…¹ One day Jonathan the son of Saul said to the young man who carried his armor, “Come, let us go over to the Philistine garrison on the other side.” But he did not tell his father. ² Saul was staying in the outskirts of Gibeah in the pomegranate cave at Migron. The people who were with him were about six hundred men…. ⁴ Within the passes, by which Jonathan sought to go over to the Philistine garrison, there was a rocky crag on the one side and a rocky crag on the other side. The name of the one was Bozez, and the name of the other Seneh. ⁵ The one crag rose on the north in front of Michmash, and the other on the south in front of Geba. ⁶ Jonathan said to the young man who carried his armor, “Come, let us go over to the garrison of these uncircumcised. It may be that the Lord will work for us, for nothing can hinder the Lord from saving by many or by few.” ⁷ And his armor-bearer said to him, “Do all that is in your heart. Do as you wish. Behold, I am with you heart and soul.” ⁸ Then Jonathan said, “Behold, we will cross over to the men, and we will show ourselves to them. ⁹ If they say to us, ‘Wait until we come to you,’ then we will stand still in our place, and we will not go up to them. ¹⁰ But if they say, ‘Come up to us,’ then we will go up, for the Lord has given them into our hand. And this shall be the sign to us.” ¹¹ So both of them showed themselves to the garrison of the Philistines. And the Philistines said, “Look, Hebrews are coming out of the holes where they have hidden themselves.” ¹² And the men of the garrison hailed Jonathan and his armor-bearer and said, “Come up to us, and we will show you a thing.” And Jonathan said to his armor-bearer, “Come up after me, for the Lord has given them into the hand of Israel.” ¹³ Then Jonathan climbed up on his hands and feet, and his armor-bearer after him. And they fell before Jonathan, and his armor-bearer killed them after him. ¹⁴ And that first strike, which Jonathan and his armor-bearer made, killed about twenty men within as it were half a furrow’s length in an acre of land. ¹⁵ And there was a panic in the camp, in the field, and among all the people. The garrison and even the raiders trembled, the earth quaked, and it became a very great panic. ¹⁶ And the watchmen of Saul in Gibeah of Benjamin looked, and behold, the multitude was dispersing here and there…. ²⁰ Then Saul and all the people who were with him rallied and went into the battle. And behold, every Philistine’s sword was against his fellow, and there was very great confusion. ²¹ Now the Hebrews who had been with the Philistines before that time and who had gone up with them into the camp, even they also turned to be with the Israelites who were with Saul and Jonathan. ²² Likewise, when all the men of Israel who had hidden themselves in the hill country of Ephraim heard that the Philistines were fleeing, they too followed hard after them in the battle. ²³ So the Lord saved Israel that day. And the battle passed beyond Beth-aven.

May God bless the reading of his Word.

 Let’s pray: Father, we understand from Hebrews 4 that your Word is living and active. So may it be living and active in our lives today. In Jesus’ name we pray, amen.

For whatever reason, there’s something within us that likes to root for the underdog. We love stories where the underdog wins. I think of the famous hockey game in the 1980 Olympics between the United States and the Soviet Union. Just about everyone expected the Soviets to win by a landslide. They had won the gold medal at five of the previous six Olympic games and were the favorite to win once again. This Soviet team consisted primarily of professional players with significant experience in international competition, while, by contrast, the US team consisted exclusively of amateur players, most of whom had only played in college. It was actually the youngest team in US history ever to play in the Olympics with an average age of only 21 years old.

Many people wondered whether the US team would even be able to score a single goal against the Soviets. And yet, against all odds, the US team somehow pulled ahead of the Soviet team in the final period of the game and ended up winning 4-3. It was an iconic victory—so iconic that a movie was later made about the game called “Miracle on Ice.” Also, in 1999, Sports Illustrated magazine would refer to the game as the top sports moment of the twentieth century. The underdogs had won.

And here in 1 Samuel 13-14, we find another underdog story—with the underdog, of course, being the Israelites. We learned last week in the first half of chapter 13 that Saul, Israel’s king, had a standing army of only 3,000 men. And their enemies, the Philistines, came against them with a vastly superior force. 1 Samuel 13:5 states, “And the Philistines mustered to fight with Israel, thirty thousand chariots and six thousand horsemen and troops like the sand on the seashore in multitude….” Verse 6 then states that “When the men of Israel saw that they were in trouble (for the people were hard pressed), the people hid themselves in caves and in holes and in rocks and in tombs and in cisterns.”

We then learn in the second half of chapter 13 that only 600 men remained with Saul. And to make matters even worse, the Israelites didn’t even have genuine weapons designed for fighting since the Philistines had successfully eliminated all of the blacksmiths from Israel. Therefore, verse 22 tells us, “So on the day of the battle there was neither sword nor spear found in the hand of any of the people with Saul and Jonathan, but Saul and Jonathan his son had them.” All of the other Israelites presumably only had their farm implements to use in battle.

So, from a human perspective, the Israelites don’t seem to stand a chance. They’re vastly outnumbered and don’t even have actual fighting weapons. Yet, as we’re about to read, God rescues the Israelites—and he does so specifically through the courageous faith of Saul’s son Jonathan. That’s the main idea of this passage. God rescues the Israelites through Jonthan’s courageous faith.

And as we go through this passage, keep in mind that this isn’t just an interesting story for us to read but one that challenges us to exhibit courageous faith in our own lives. Instead of cowering in fear or seeking a life of ease and comfort, this passage challenges us to take whatever risks are necessary in our pursuit of God’s mission. Instead of being content with the status quo, this passage challenges us to cultivate holy dissatisfaction with anything we see around us that doesn’t honor God and boldly seek to change it for the glory of God. And instead of putting limitations on what we think God can do or will do, this passage challenges us to recognize that nothing is too hard for God to accomplish. These, as we’ll see, are just some of the things that are involved in exhibiting courageous faith—and are therefore what Jonathan’s example of courageous faith should inspire us to do.

So, let’s look first at 1 Samuel 14:1. Remember that the Israelites are vastly outnumbered by the Philistines. Yet verse 1 tells us that, “One day Jonathan the son of Saul said to the young man who carried his armor, ‘Come, let us go over to the Philistine garrison on the other side.’ But he did not tell his father.” So, at first, Jonathan kind of reminds you of a rebellious teenager who sneaks away in order to do something reckless that he knows his father wouldn’t approve of. Yet, as the subsequent verses make clear, Jonathan’s behavior—daring though it may be—is what God will use to deliver the Israelites.

 We then learn in verses 2-3 that King Saul, Jonathan’s father, isn’t doing much of anything. He’s basically either staying in a cave or sitting under a tree—depending on how you translate that—and is more or less cowering in fear at the threat of the Philistines. So, quite the contrast with what Jonathan is about to do.

Verses 4-5 then tell us, ⁴ Within the passes, by which Jonathan sought to go over to the Philistine garrison, there was a rocky crag on the one side and a rocky crag on the other side. The name of the one was Bozez, and the name of the other Seneh. ⁵ The one crag rose on the north in front of Michmash, and the other on the south in front of Geba. So, basically, there are two very steep rocky crags or bluffs with a valley in between. I actually managed to find a couple of pictures of the kinds of rocky crags that exist in that area. Although we can’t be certain that either of these are the exact crags referred to in these verses, both of these pictures are from the immediate area around Michmash in Israel, so these are at least the kinds of rocky crags that existed in the area where Jonathan was. So, as you can see, it’s not exactly the friendliest terrain.

We then read in verse 6, “Jonathan said to the young man who carried his armor, ‘Come, let us go over to the garrison of these uncircumcised. It may be that the Lord will work for us, for nothing can hinder the Lord from saving by many or by few.’”

So, this was an incredibly risky proposition. Humanly speaking, we could even say it was a downright reckless proposition. Yet, Jonathan believed in a mighty God who’s supreme over everyone and everything. As Jonathan says, absolutely “nothing can hinder the Lord from saving by many or by few.” In a manner that’s similar to what we talked about last week, Jonathan’s gaze was fixed not on his dire circumstances but rather on the God who’s bigger than any circumstance he’d ever face. And that should lead us to ask of ourselves, where do we have a habit of directing our gaze when life’s circumstances seem overwhelming?

It's also good to keep in mind how this account of Jonathan is functioning in the larger narrative. The description of Jonathan in this passage seems to be intended to highlight a stark contrast between Jonathan and Saul. In the previous passage, Saul demonstrated a very disappointing lack of faith in God. Yet, here, we see that Jonathan possesses an enormous measure of the very faith Saul lacks.

I also appreciate the way in which Jonathan’s not presumptuous about God granting him success. He’s careful to state that “It may be that the Lord will work for us….” So, Jonathan expresses faith in God but is careful not to presume on God. It’s also important to remember—as we think about the danger of presumption—that God had promised Israel the land that the Philistine garrison was occupying. God had designated that land for the Israelites hundreds of years earlier. So, there was strong biblical warrant for Jonathan’s expectation that God would give him victory.

 This is strikingly different from those in the so-called “Prosperity Gospel” movement today who embrace a “name it and claim it” theology. They’ll try to name and claim all sort of blessings that God’s never promised us on this side of eternity. These blessings include physical healing, financial prosperity, and success in all kinds of different endeavors. Keep in mind that they’re not just praying for these blessings but are quite confident that God guarantees these blessings to all who boldly claim them in faith. Yet, I’d argue that—since God never promises us these blessings in this earthly life—what these adherents of Prosperity theology refer to as “faith” is actually presumption. Yet what we see in Jonathan here is strikingly different. Not only is he careful to say that God “may” give him success, he’s also seeking to capture land that God had indeed promised to the Israelites.

The story then continues to unfold in verses 8-12: ⁸ Then Jonathan said, “Behold, we will cross over to the men, and we will show ourselves to them. ⁹ If they say to us, ‘Wait until we come to you,’ then we will stand still in our place, and we will not go up to them. ¹⁰ But if they say, ‘Come up to us,’ then we will go up, for the Lord has given them into our hand. And this shall be the sign to us.” ¹¹ So both of them showed themselves to the garrison of the Philistines. And the Philistines said, “Look, Hebrews are coming out of the holes where they have hidden themselves.” ¹² And the men of the garrison hailed Jonathan and his armor-bearer and said, “Come up to us, and we will show you a thing.” And Jonathan said to his armor-bearer, “Come up after me, for the Lord has given them into the hand of Israel.”

So, in case you were wondering, yes, there is smack talk in the Bible. The Philistines are definitely talking some smack when they call out to Jonathan and his armor-bearer, “Come up to us, and we will show you a thing.” Yet Jonathan interprets their mockery as confirmation that God’s given the Philistines into the hand of Israel.

Verses 13-15 then tell us, ¹³ Then Jonathan climbed up on his hands and feet, and his armor-bearer after him. And they fell before Jonathan, and his armor-bearer killed them after him. ¹⁴ And that first strike, which Jonathan and his armor-bearer made, killed about twenty men within as it were half a furrow’s length in an acre of land. ¹⁵ And there was a panic in the camp, in the field, and among all the people. The garrison and even the raiders trembled, the earth quaked, and it became a very great panic. That phrase “a very great panic” is more literally translated as “a panic sent by God” or a “trembling of God.” God was the one who brought about this panic among the Philistines. The panic started with just a few men but quickly spread over the entire encampment. It reminds me of an avalanche that often starts with only a relatively small amount of snow but rapidly becomes something much larger.

Verse 16 then states, “And the watchmen of Saul in Gibeah of Benjamin looked, and behold, the multitude was dispersing here and there.” Saul then starts to consult God but quickly decides that he doesn’t have a moment to spare and therefore stops consulting God through the priest who was with him and instead simply leads his troops into battle.

 Look at verses 20-23: ²⁰ Then Saul and all the people who were with him rallied and went into the battle. And behold, every Philistine’s sword was against his fellow, and there was very great confusion. ²¹ Now the Hebrews who had been with the Philistines before that time and who had gone up with them into the camp, even they also turned to be with the Israelites who were with Saul and Jonathan. ²² Likewise, when all the men of Israel who had hidden themselves in the hill country of Ephraim heard that the Philistines were fleeing, they too followed hard after them in the battle. ²³ So the Lord saved Israel that day. And the battle passed beyond Beth-aven.

So, by any measure, Jonathan demonstrated courageous faith and extraordinary bravery. Yet, as verse 23 makes abundantly clear, it was ultimately “the Lord” who “saved Israel that day.” Jonathan was merely an instrument whom God used to rescue his people from their enemies. The hero of the story is God.

 And just as God used Jonathan to rescue the Israelites from their dire predicament, he’s also worked in a decisive way to rescue us from the dire predicament we were in. The Bible teaches that we were in a situation even more desperate than that of the Israelites in this passage. We had sinned against God and therefore deserved God’s punishment and were destined to suffer God’s punishment in hell for all eternity. 

Yet, God saw that we were in this wretched condition and were helpless to do anything about it. So, in his mercy, God the Father sent his own Son Jesus into this world to rescue us. Jesus entered this world as a man, lived a perfectly sinless life, and voluntarily allowed himself to be crucified in order to pay for our sins. So, unlike Jonathan, Jesus didn’t merely risk his life—he gave his life. Jesus died on the cross as our substitute, suffering the punishment our sins deserved. Yet it wasn’t long before he was triumphantly raised from the dead and is therefore now able to save all who put their trust in him. This involves turning away from our sins—including all of our attempts to earn God’s favor through our own supposed goodness—and instead putting our trust exclusively in Jesus as our only way of being forgiven of our sins and receiving the free gift of eternal life. 

So, whereas the Lord worked through Jonathan in our main passage to rescue the Israelites from the Philistines, he’s worked through Jesus in an even greater way to rescue us from our sins. As Acts 4:12 says, with reference to Jesus, “[T]here is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.”

Yet, returning to 1 Samuel 14, there’s still a lot we can learn from what Jonathan does in this passage. Even though Jonathan was simply an instrument God used to rescue his people, there’s nevertheless a lot we can learn from Jonathan’s example.

Just as Jonathan belonged to the kingdom of Israel, those of us who are Christians belong to the kingdom of God. And God calls us to fight against the spiritual forces of darkness in this world and thereby advance God’s kingdom so that it eventually covers the whole earth. We do this, of course, not with physical weapons or any kind of coercive action but rather by sharing the gospel—that is, by sharing with others about who Jesus is and what he’s done to save us. Our mission is to spread this gospel message throughout the world and, in that way, to advance God’s kingdom.

And just as God had promised the land around Michmash to the Israelites as a part of the Promised Land, he’s likewise given us every reason to expect that we’ll be successful in our gospel mission as well. In other words, just as Jonathan had every reason to be confident that his endeavor to defeat the Philistines would be successful since God had promised the Israelites that land, we also have every reason to be confident that we’ll be incredibly successful as well in our mission to spread the gospel worldwide.

Now, personally, I’m a premillennialist—and if you don’t know what that means, don’t worry about it. Yet, regardless of what you might believe about the exact chronology of the end times, I believe there’s a strong biblical case to be made for expecting enormous gospel progress and for the gospel to eventually triumph to a significant degree throughout this world even prior to Jesus’s return.

For example, Psalm 22:27-28 predicts this about the worldwide triumph of the gospel: ²⁷ All the ends of the earth shall remember and turn to the Lord, and all the families of the nations shall worship before you. ²⁸ For kingship belongs to the Lord, and he rules over the nations.  Notice that it’s not just a remnant of people from within every nation but rather “all the families of the nations” that will one day worship the Messiah. Every family of every nation will one day worship Jesus.

Now, someone might rightfully wonder about the degree to which that will be accomplished before Jesus’s return. That’s something I myself wonder. Yet let’s look at Psalm 110:1. Just about all Bible interpreters understand this as God the Father speaking to Jesus. It states, The Lord says to my Lord: ‘Sit at my right hand, until I make your enemies your footstool.” Notice that it’s not that Jesus will return and that only then will his enemies be made subject to him. Rather, it’s while Jesus is still sitting at the right hand of the Father than his enemies will be made into his footstool. This appears to imply that the gospel will be triumphant—at least to a considerable degree—throughout the world while Jesus is still at the Father’s right hand. That’s what the Father says to him, right? “Sit at my right hand, until I make your enemies your footstool.”

We also find these same truths taught by Jesus himself. In Matthew 13:33, Jesus states, “The kingdom of heaven is like leaven that a woman took and hid in three measures of flour, till it was all leavened.” Let me ask you something. How does leaven come to permeate a batch of dough? Does the leaven spread instantaneously or gradually? Even if you don’t know much about baking, you’re probably aware that it spreads gradually. Likewise, the spread of the gospel will happen not in a single glorious instant when Jesus returns but rather through a gradual process that occurs throughout the church age. The leaven of the gospel will spread more and more over a long period of time until eventually, Jesus says, the whole batch of dough will be leavened as the gospel permeates this world.

This same chapter of Matthew 13 also records Jesus sharing another parable about the wheat and the weeds—sometimes called the wheat and the tares. Basically, there’s a field, which Jesus says is the world. For whatever reason, some people seem to think the field is the church, but Jesus actually specifically tells us that the field is the world. And a farmer sows good seed throughout his field, which grows into wheat. The wheat represents Christians. But the enemy—whom Jesus says is the devil—then comes and plants weeds in the field as well. And Jesus says it’s not until “the end of the age” when he’ll separate the wheat from the weeds. At that time the wheat will be gathered into the barn, while the weeds will be burned in the furnace. Now, the thing I’d like us to notice about this parable is that, even though weeds are present, the field is still a wheat field. This world is spoken of not as a weed field but rather as a wheat field. Now, can we all agree that wheat is incredibly widespread in a wheat field? Likewise, we have every reason to expect the gospel to one day be incredibly widespread throughout this world.

And let’s not forget the passage we recite every Sunday here at Redeeming Grace, Matthew 28:18-20: ¹⁸ And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. ¹⁹ Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, ²⁰ teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”

Now, notice here that Jesus doesn’t tell us merely to make disciples in all nations or from among all nations. Instead, he tells us to disciple the nations. That’s the most literal rendering of the original Greek: “disciple the nations,” Jesus says. Or, if you wanted to avoid any possibility of entanglement with Christian nationalism, you might translate that “disciple the people groups.” That’s perhaps an even better way to translate that phrase. “Disciple all the people groups of this world.” That’s our mission.

Now, I won’t venture to guess what percentage of people in each people group need to be reached with the gospel in order for that people group to be considered discipled, but I’m pretty sure it’s more than just a handful of people. We’re commanded not just to reach a few people or a remnant of people from each people group but to reach enough people from each people group so that the people group can be considered discipled. That’s what Jesus tells us to do—to “go and make disciples of all people groups.”

And lest we think this will never happen, Jesus seems to give us strong indication at the end of verse 20 that it will happen: “And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.” This task of discipling the people groups might be overwhelming to think about, but Jesus assures us that he’ll be with us—in the Person of the Holy Spirit—in order to empower us to at least make significant progress in accomplishing what he’s commanding.

Now, of course, I’m sure there are some who are thinking of verses in the Bible that might seem to contradict this teaching. For example, doesn’t Jesus tell us in Matthew 7:13-14, ¹³ “Enter by the narrow gate. For the gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many. ¹⁴ For the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few. Yes, Jesus says that. But, if you look at the context of that passage and especially at the parallel passage of Luke 13:26, there’s a surprisingly strong case to made for Jesus in Matthew 7 talking not about this world as a whole but rather about the Jews of the first century. Only a few Jews of the first century would embrace the gospel, but this puts no limitation on how many might embrace the gospel worldwide and in subsequent generations.

Now, to be clear, you don’t have to agree with every aspect of my interpretation of these passages in order to be a member in good standing of this church. There are extremely godly Christians—even within this church—who I imagine would interpret some of these verses differently. And that’s okay. This isn’t something to divide over. At the very least, I hope you do feel the weight of these verses.

Yet my point in sharing all of this—which I hope we can all agree on—is simply to say that just as just as Jonathan in our main passage of 1 Samuel 14 had every reason to be confident that his endeavor to defeat the Philistines would be successful since God had promised the Israelites that land, we also have every reason to be confident that we’ll be successful in our mission to spread the gospel worldwide.

So, let me encourage you to work toward the spread of the gospel with this in view. In the words of the nineteenth century missionary William Carey—often referred to as the “father of modern missions”—we should “expect great things from God” and therefore “attempt great things for God.” And it’s the former that leads to the latter. It’s as we “expect great things from God” that we’re encouraged to “attempt great things for God.” That’s what Jonathan did in 1 Samuel 14—he expected great things from God and therefore attempted great things for God. And that’s what we should do as well.

This might mean becoming a cross-cultural missionary like William Carey and personally endeavoring to spread the gospel in a distant nation. Or it might simply mean seeking to be faithful in spreading the gospel right here in the Pittsburgh area.

You know, maybe there are some Christians here who like the idea of sharing the gospel but there’s one big problem: the only people you ever spend time with are Christians. You don’t have many meaningful relationships with people who aren’t yet Christians. So, maybe you need to be more deliberate about cultivating those relationships. And maybe there are others here who have some decent relationships with non-Christians, but you’ve been very hesitant to tell them about Jesus. So, maybe you need to ask God to give you the courageous faith that Jonathan exhibits in 1 Samuel 14.

And maybe there are others here who have had some very encouraging interactions with non-Christians about the gospel, but those interactions are pretty brief and only seem to happen sporadically. Let me encourage you to consider going through the Gospel of John with people you know using The Word One to One resource that we train people to use at our church. And if you’d like more information about that, just let me know on a Connection Card, and I’d be delighted to give you more information. This is, hands down, my favorite tool for sharing the gospel with someone in a more extensive way.

Yet, regardless of what particular approach or method you choose to employ, my question for those who are Christians here today is, do you have a God-sized vision for the spread of the gospel in this world? Just as Jonathan had a God-sized vision in 1 Samuel 14, do you have a God-sized vision for what God will do in our world as a whole and even perhaps right here in the Pittsburgh area and through our church? And is that God-sized vision showing up in your efforts to spread the gospel and also in kinds of prayers you pray?

Because one thing’s for sure: all of this has to begin on our knees in prayer. It’s been said that “You can do more than pray after you have prayed but you cannot do more than pray until you have prayed.” I believe we can expect God to do glorious things in the world in terms of the advance of the gospel, but I don’t think we can expect him to do those things apart from our fervent prayers.