This chapter is in absolute contrast with the preceding one. In Saul we have seen the foolishness and the weakness of the flesh; in Jonathan we find the wisdom and power of faith.
Jonathan’s career (1 Sam. 13:2-3) had begun with a victory, but at that time he was still associated with Saul’s military system; a thousand men were with him and two thousand with his father. Jonathan had overcome, but instead of being to the Lord’s glory his victory had been advantageous to Saul. It is always so when it comes to our association with the religious world; it takes advantage of this association to attribute the results of our struggles to itself; thus the victory of faith is annulled and the combat must be entered into anew.
In effect, this combat begins anew in 1 Samuel zzzszssss 14, but the first experience has not been lost on Jonathan. He says to his armorbearer: “Come and let us go over to the Philistines’ garrison which is on the other side. But he did not tell his father,” for faith does not expect any help from the world. By his individual action he separates himself from the political and religious world; from the religious world, for the priest, the ark, the ephod, and the altar were with Saul. But faith possesses God’s secret, which neither Saul, nor the priest, nor the people possess. Jonathan keeps his secret to himself; he cannot depend on any man, whoever he may be. On the other hand, he associates himself in thought and in all his actions, with Israel. Saul appealed to the “Hebrews” (1 Sam. 13:3); Jonathan says: “Jehovah has delivered them into the hand of Israel” (1 Sam. 14:12). Jonathan makes great progress in this chapter. His confidence is in God alone, in no way in himself. This is great faith, but we must seek the secret of his strength in his individual separation.
The sharp rocks of Bozez and Seneh, raising their insurmountable peaks opposite Michmash and Gibeah, are nothing to faith. Faith, moreover, has a clear, distinct view of this world: “Come, and let us go over to the garrison of these uncircumcised” (1 Sam. 14:6); it has just as clear a view of what God is, that is to say, a Savior: “There is no restraint to Jehovah to save by many or by few.”
Jonathan acts contrary to all the wisdom of the world; he waits for the Lord’s direction; he is in no wise uncertain; he knows that on the path of faith we may be called to advance or to stand still: “If they say thus to us, Stand still until we come to you, than we will stay in our place, and we will not go up to them. And if they say thus, Come up to us, then we will go up; for Jehovah has given them into our hand; and this shall be the sign to us” (1 Sam. 14:9-10).
Jonathan fights without human weapons, obliged as he is to use his hands and feet in order to climb up before the Philistines (1 Sam. 14:13), and in this condition he wins God’s victory.
As for Saul, in appearance he lacked nothing, but in reality he was lacking everything. God was not with him. The priesthood which seemed to support him had previously been judged (1 Sam. 2:31; 3:13); he himself had been rejected as king (1 Sam. 13:14). With him he had the army, that is to say, strength, but it was a strength that dissolved when the Philistines approached (1 Sam. 13:8), thus proving his weakness.
Jonathan was conscious of the judgment that the people deserved. “Perhaps,” he says to his young man, “Jehovah will work for us”; but when he adds: “There is no restraint to Jehovah to save,” he shows that he knows God’s power and mercy as to this judgment.
Let us not forget Jonathan’s companion. His faith is united with that of his leader, whose affection for the Lord and for His people he knows. His master’s devotion is sufficient for this single-hearted man and replaces all reasoning for him. Are not his words lovely: “Do all that is in thy heart; turn thee; behold, I am with thee according to thy heart” (1 Sam. 14:7)?
Faith does not dissemble, does not fear to show itself, to expose its designs: “Behold, we will pass over to the men, and we will show ourselves to them.” While displaying a boldness which in the eyes of the world is pure recklessness, Jonathan is wary of a path of self-will and seeks a sign to indicate the will of God. “This shall be the sign to us” (1 Sam. 14:10).
How could the Philistines be anything but blind to the true character of men of faith? “Behold,” they say, “the Hebrews come forth out of the holes where they had hid themselves.” The world despises and mocks believers.
Thus Jonathan climbs up unarmed: in his mind, he is but the representative of the true Israel against the world. (1 Sam. 14:12). The weapons that his young man carries behind him only serve to affirm the Lord’s victory. The enemies are terrified: the result of this victory—in appearance a victory over twenty men, but in reality over an entire people. It is often thus; we have only to enter into the conflict immediately before us, whether it he against one or against a thousand enemies, it matters little. God directs the results; they will go beyond all man’s expectation and thoughts. “The watchmen of Saul in Gibeah of Benjamin looked; and behold, the multitude melted away, and they went on slaying one another” (vs. 16).
In the presence of this extraordinary phenomenon Saul (vss. 17-19), void of faith, nevertheless thinks of inquiring of the Lord, but he gives up this idea in face of the increasing tumult. Poor Saul! He was sacrificing to the Lord when he ought to have waited for the prophet to do so (ch. 13:9), and now he esteems it useless to consult or seek the Lord when victory is at the door. In truth, in spite of all appearances he has not the least spark of faith. And whereas Jonathan’s victory gathers the deserters of Israel (vs. 21), separating them from the world which had brought them into bondage, and making of them soldiers in God’s cause; whereas Jonathan’s victory encourages the timid whose hearts have been reassured to pursue the enemy (vs. 22), their king, who lacks even the elements of religion, does not know how do anything but establish a carnal ordinance which deprives the people of God of a good portion of their strength. Ordinances established by the world of necessity weaken those who submit to them, for they always have a legal character: “Cursed be the man that eateth food until evening, and until I am avenged on mine enemies” (vs. 24). “Cursed”: isn’t that the law? “That I may be avenged”: isn’t that the flesh and man? What a contrast to Jonathan who sees only the salvation of the Lord for His people in the victory!
The result of Jonathan’s faith is that the Lord saves and works a great salvation in Israel (vs. 45). The result of Saul’s ordinance is that the people were distressed and very faint (vss. 24,28,31). The carnal ordinance is not long in bearing its consequences: the fast and weariness imposed on the people lead them to transgress the first principles of the Word of God; they slay sheep, and oxen, and calves on the ground and eat them with the blood (vs. 32). Saul does not want things to go so far and does not want Israel to act contrary to the divine ordinance. “Ye have acted perversely,” he says (vs. 33); “Sin not against Jehovah in eating with the blood” (vs. 34). But can he by seeking to palliate it remedy the evil that he had incited? Then in the very place of this profanation Saul builds his first altar to Jehovah (vs. 35), choosing to worship in the place where the Lord had been dishonored!
Jonathan had not heard the oath that Saul had forced the people to swear; faith is equally foreign to carnal ordinances as to the world’s entire religious system, and so faith continues its work in the liberty of the Spirit, and benefitting from the encouragements that God gives, it drinks of the brook in the way” (Ps. 110:7).
How could Jonathan, who receives the help prepared by God for the weariness of the battle and avails himself of it, fail to censure that which is paralyzing the people, this disastrous ordinance, even if it has proceeded from his father’s mouth? “My father has troubled the land.” Yes, the intervention of the flesh is only a source of trouble and a hindrance to victory.
Saul begins by ordering the pursuit of the Philistines during the night in order to destroy them utterly. The priest who earlier had withdrawn his hand (vs. 19) nevertheless has the courage to say: “Let us come near hither to God” (vs. 36). Saul inquires of the Lord who does not answer him. God allows everything in this adventure to have extreme consequences and to lead to Saul’s humiliation. He asks for “a perfect testimony” (vs. 41); finally he receives it, but the response condemns all the king’s actions. Saul himself sees nothing but Jonathan’s condemnation! This is how the flesh interprets the Word of God. The Lord protects His faithful servant, whereas the king according to the flesh is judged. The people deliver Jonathan because they recognize that he had wrought with God (vss. 44-46).
The carnal man is capable of a certain heroism so as to maintain his religion and the ordinances that he has established. One may perhaps see him, as here, not sparing those closest to him, but at the bottom it is only an effort of Satan to destroy the servants of God. God watches over His own and saves them, causing that witness be borne to them even by the mouth of the assembly of Israel, whose authority asserts itself here against the pretensions of the flesh.
Despite all this, God acts by means of Saul without wearying, according to the promise that He had made (1 Sam. 9:16), and this does not prevent Saul from continuing to rely on the flesh in order to fight the Philistines: “When Saul saw any mighty man, or any valiant man, he took him to himself.”
Thus this entire chapter teaches us that the flesh and faith, far from helping and assisting one another, can only enter into conflict and opposition one against the other.