Faith and Faithlessness

 •  2 min. read  •  grade level: 9
Listen from:
• BibleTruthPublishers.com
Jonathan made a move in faith and smote an enemy garrison, which caused the oppressors to stir. Saul promptly summoned a national gathering, perhaps expecting that the people would come together “with one consent,” as when the Ammonites were aggressive (1 Sam. 11:77And he took a yoke of oxen, and hewed them in pieces, and sent them throughout all the coasts of Israel by the hands of messengers, saying, Whosoever cometh not forth after Saul and after Samuel, so shall it be done unto his oxen. And the fear of the Lord fell on the people, and they came out with one consent. (1 Samuel 11:7)), and with the same good result. His language, however, was extraordinary. “Let the Hebrews hear.” The Spirit says in the following verse, “All Israel heard.” “Israel” was the name of grace (Gen. 35:1010And God said unto him, Thy name is Jacob: thy name shall not be called any more Jacob, but Israel shall be thy name: and he called his name Israel. (Genesis 35:10)); “Hebrews” was a term merely reminiscent of the fact that Abraham, their father, originally came into the land from across the Euphrates. But many things had happened since Abraham's day. His seed had, by the grace of God, crossed both the Red Sea and the Jordan and were now God's covenant people in the land of promise. Did not these mighty facts count for something? But Saul had no real sense in his soul of the people's true relationship with the Lord. It is not surprising that the Philistines should speak of them in contempt as “Hebrews” (1 Sam. 13:1919Now there was no smith found throughout all the land of Israel: for the Philistines said, Lest the Hebrews make them swords or spears: (1 Samuel 13:19); 1 Sam. 14:1111And both of them discovered themselves unto the garrison of the Philistines: and the Philistines said, Behold, the Hebrews come forth out of the holes where they had hid themselves. (1 Samuel 14:11)), and it seems morally suitable that the Holy Spirit should so describe the cowards who fled eastward across Jordan when danger threatened (1 Sam. 13:77And some of the Hebrews went over Jordan to the land of Gad and Gilead. As for Saul, he was yet in Gilgal, and all the people followed him trembling. (1 Samuel 13:7)), and also the traitors who allied themselves with the enemy (1 Sam. 14:2121Moreover the Hebrews that were with the Philistines before that time, which went up with them into the camp from the country round about, even they also turned to be with the Israelites that were with Saul and Jonathan. (1 Samuel 14:21)), but should Israel's king so speak of the people of God?
The tribes gathered up. There was no faith however, for when they heard that the Philistines were in motion with “thirty thousand chariots, and six thousand horsemen, and people as the sand which is on the seashore in multitude,” they trembled and scattered, some even hiding themselves “in caves, and in thickets, and in rocks.” We are not always prepared for the consequences of a movement of the Spirit of God. There are dangers to be faced and reproach to be borne; and faith in God's true saints sometimes falters at such moments. The disciples trembled for the consequences when the Lord spoke so trenchantly against hypocrisy and unreality in Matthew 15, and they said to Him: “Knowest Thou that the Pharisees were offended, after they heard this saying?” The enemy always will be offended when God is moving, but true faith goes forward and fears no foe.