“Now it came to pass upon a day, that Jonathan the son of Saul said unto the young man that bare his armor, Come, and let us go over to the Philistines’ garrison, that is on the other side” (1 Samuel 14:11Now it came to pass upon a day, that Jonathan the son of Saul said unto the young man that bare his armor, Come, and let us go over to the Philistines' garrison, that is on the other side. But he told not his father. (1 Samuel 14:1)). This was certainly bold; “but he told not his father.” No, if Saul had his own nature which led him to keep silence, Jonathan had faith. There was One to whom he did tell; but it was not to his father. All the history shows his dutifulness even to the close of his life; but this only the more enhances his silence on such an occasion as this. Jonathan was as estranged in spirit from his father as he slave to him in nature. Probably without staying to account to himself for his silence, he was not led to say a word to him of that which lay on his heart for Israel. “And Saul tarried in the uttermost part of Gibeah under a pomegranate tree which is in Migron: and the people that were with him were about six hundred men.” The secret of God is not with the king nor with the priest. The people knew not that Jonathan was gone any more than either.
“And between the passages, by which Jonathan sought to go over unto the Philistines’garrison, there was a sharp rock on the one side, and a sharp rock on the other side.” The Spirit of God notices for our instruction the immense difficulties in the way. “And Jonathan said to the young man that bare his armor, Come, and let us go over unto the garrison of these uncircumcised.” It was only so that he looked upon them. He did not call them even Philistines, but “these uncircumcised.” This was right. His eyes saw them as God saw them; for him it was no question of their strength or weakness, but they had not the sign of the good-for-nothingness of the flesh. There was no circumcision, no form even outward of relationship with God. Hence he says, “Let us go over unto the garrison of these uncircumcised: it may be that Jehovah will work for us: for there is no restraint to Jehovah to save by many or by few.” Genuine faith speaks with simplicity, and God uses it to act on the souls of others as here on the armorbearer. “And his armorbearer said unto him, Do all that is in thine heart: turn thee; behold, I am with thee according to thy heart. Then said Jonathan, Behold, we will pass over unto these men, and we will discover ourselves unto them.” There is thus not only the courage of faith, but there is also the counting on God. “If they say thus unto us, Tarry until we come to you; then we will stand still in our place, and will not go up unto them. But if they say thus, Come up unto us; then we will go up: for Jehovah hath delivered them into our hand: and this shall be a sign unto us. And both of them discovered themselves”—the very last thing that nature would have led them to do.
“And 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.” The language in which the Philistines spoke of Israel was the same as that which Saul had employed before, and as God used for those who basely left their true ground through fear. “And the men of the garrison answered Jonathan and his armorbearer, and said, Come up to us, and we will show you a thing. And Jonathan said unto his armorbearer, Come up after me: for Jehovah hath delivered them into the hand of Israel”—not of Jonathan, but “into the hand of Israel.” Here we see not only faith, but the largeness and unselfishness of faith. It is a man whose heart was set on God's blessing His people; and this was the right thing “And Jonathan climbed up upon his hands and upon his feet, and his armorbearer after him and they fell before Jonathan; and his armorbearer slew after him. And that first slaughter, which Jonathan and his armorbearer made, was about twenty men, within as it were an half acre of land, which a yoke of oxen might plow. And there was trembling in the host, in the field, and among all the people.”
Thus it was not merely that strength was given by God to these two faithful men, but there was a mighty work of God independently of them or of any which goes along with it, and this is a thing that we can count on. Do you think such faith in men or power of God in answer to it is done with; beloved brethren? Not in the least. The God who then employed Jonathan and his armorbearer to mow down the Philistines in their garrison has quite as grave a task to accomplish now. Accordingly He is at work in the hearts of the people; He prepares in one way or another. He either gives the conviction that strikes terror into the heart of the adversary, even when he looks ever so bold, or He works savingly according to the circumstances of the case. So here there was trembling in the host over the field. It was not merely a question of man's fear. This certainly would not have made the field itself tremble. “And the earth quaked,” as we are told; “so it was a very great trembling.”
“And the watchmen of Saul in Gibeah of Benjamin looked; and, behold, the multitude melted away, and they went on beating down one another. Then said Saul unto the people that were with him, Number now, and see who is gone from us. And when they had numbered, behold, Jonathan and his armorbearer were not there. And Saul said unto Ahiah, Bring hither the ark of God. For the ark of God was at that time with the children of Israel. And it came to pass, while Saul talked unto the priest, that the noise that was in the host of the Philistines went on and increased: and Saul said unto the priest, Withdraw thine hand. And Saul and all the people that were with him assembled themselves, and they came to the battle.” After all, the priest and the ark gave the king no sufficient light. He could not get satisfaction as to the cause of the mysterious trembling. It was very evident that the light of God did not shine there; so he betook himself to another resource. As we find afterward, lots were cast.
But first of all observe that it is said, “Moreover the Hebrews that were with the Philistines before that time.” Here again how wonderfully accurate is the Scripture? The secret of it is quite plain. These men were with the Philistines. What business had Israelites there? We could understand the Philistines coming in among them, but it was an act of treachery or guilty weakness when the Israelites went with the Philistines. Their enemies might be sent as an infliction, and allowed to come into their midst to their sore trouble; but what could possibly justify Israelites going in among the Philistines? And if they did so, did they not deserve a better name than that of Hebrews? Thus the Spirit of God calls them. And what makes it more striking is, that in verse 28 it is said, “Even they also turned to be with the Israelites.” The Spirit of God evidently treats them as most unworthy, yet “even they also turned to be with the Israelites.” It is not now with “the Hebrews,” but with “the Israelites that were with Saul and Jonathan.” “Likewise all the men of Israel,” which similarly is most striking.—“Likewise all the men of Israel which had hid themselves in mount Ephraim, when they heard that the Philistines fled, even they also followed hard after them in the battle.” Mark the difference. God is so righteously measured in all His ways that the men that had gone thoroughly wrong were called the “Hebrews.” As long as they played a false part, they had forfeited the name at least if not the relationship of Israel. But if these had no longer the recognition of that blessed name, the people who had merely yielded to terror regained it when they resumed the ways which became the sons of Israel. No doubt they had been unworthy in the past; nevertheless now they are called by the name of divine honor.
Again we read (1 Sam. 14:2424And the men of Israel were distressed that day: for Saul had adjured the people, saying, Cursed be the man that eateth any food until evening, that I may be avenged on mine enemies. So none of the people tasted any food. (1 Samuel 14:24)) that “the men of Israel were distressed that day: for Saul had adjured the people, saying, Cursed be the man.” How sorrowful in such a day of blessing and victory to see the king thus spoiling it! Here we see what the king did. The only part he contributed was to afflict and vex and hinder the people of Israel, and most of all him who deserved best of all. Such is the effect where unbelief meddles in the day that faith reaps good things from God. “Saul had adjured the people, saying, Cursed be the man that eateth any food until evening, that I may be avenged on mine enemies.” There is not a word about the Lord's grace. His feeling is, “That I may be avenged on mine enemies.” This was what Saul's heart was set upon. Where was his old modesty now? Thus acted the man that seemed of old the humblest person in all Israel. Now that he had been but a little while in power all thought of God was gone. The people were no longer even in outward name connected by him with God; and when grace had wrought outside him to work this great deliverance, it was merely Saul being avenged on Saul's enemies. Where was God then in his thoughts? He was in none of them, we may boldly say.
And this very thing gave occasion to a most instructive incident recorded in the rest of the chapter. Jonathan was in the secret of the Lord, but he was not privy to the oath with which Saul had bound the people. As Saul knew not what was between God and his own son, so Jonathan was a stranger outside to his father's adjuration, and hence unwillingly transgressed. “Jonathan heard not,” as it is said, “when his father charged the people with the oath: wherefore he put forth the end of the rod that was in his hand, and dipped it in an honeycomb, and put his hand to his mouth; and his eyes were enlightened. Then answered one of the people, and said, Thy father straitly charged the people with an oath, saying, Cursed be the man that eateth any food this day. And the people were faint.” With all his love and respect to his father, Jonathan could not but feel the deep injury that was done. “Then said Jonathan, My father bath troubled the land: see, I pray you, how mine eyes have been enlightened, because I tasted a little of this honey. How much more, if haply the people had eaten freely to-day of the spoil of their enemies which they found?”
The true reason for the introduction of this remarkable incident seems to have been to show how Jonathan was found thus completely at issue with his father. Now Jonathan is the object of the Spirit of God in the passage. He was indeed a man filled with the Spirit of Christ, acting in the power of faith, delivering Israel as the great instrument of God, the vessel of faith at that moment in Israel. Yet here we have a solemn fact. In the chapter before, Saul stood convicted and abashed before the prophet. Here he receives a holy rebuke of his own son, who alone was in the secret of the Lord—rebuked therefore as himself the wrongdoer who put a savior of Israel under sentence of death on the very day that he had saved them. I am not speaking, of course, of any actual expostulation at that time directed to his father: this would not have been becoming; but the circumstances of the case wrung it out of the reluctant heart of the son. Clearly therefore the people's choice of a king was only a distress to the choicest among the people, to the faithful son of Saul himself.
In what follows we find the heart of Saul, and what it was even to his own son. We know what it cost the people. The people flew upon the spoil, and in consequence of the restriction be had made were guilty of a real sin; namely, eating the blood contrary to the law of Jehovah. “They told Saul, saying, Behold, the people sin against Jehovah.” It was the natural consequence of his own misguided oath. It began with a curse on Jonathan, and it ended with dragging the people into a sin against Jehovah. And he said, Ye have transgressed: roll a great stone unto me this day. And Saul said, Disperse yourselves among the people, and say unto them, Bring me hither every man his ox, and every man his sheep, and slay them here, and eat; and sin not against Jehovah in eating with the blood.” When this was done he “built an altar unto Jehovah.” The same—the Holy Spirit significantly adds—“the same was the first altar that he built unto Jehovah.” Was it, not a long time before he set about it? Was it not a very sorrowful thing too, that the king should have built an altar on the day when he was the occasion not merely of bringing his own son, the most blessed of Jehovah, under the sentence of death, but of the people sinning against one of the most fundamental principles of God's law? There was nothing more sacred in all its system than that man was not to eat of blood.
Another day was coming when, in consequence of the Lord Jesus changing everything by His grace that went down into death, to this very thing should men be called, as life to their souls. “Except ye eat the flesh and drink the blood of the Son of Man, ye have no life in you”; but this was when He came to save. When it was a question of the law and the first man, blood must not be touched on peril of death. When grace gives the Son, and God's righteousness is established by His death, it is ruin and the proof of no life if we drink not of His blood.
Saul then, after he had done this mischief, busies himself to find out how the sin had been committed. “Then said the priest, Let us draw near hither unto God. And Saul asked counsel of God, Shall I go down after the Philistines? wilt thou deliver them into the hand of Israel?” But there was no answer from God. Saul therefore, knowing thence that a positive hindrance stood in the way, only thinks of himself and seeks to ascertain who was the guilty soul. And God, being righteous, even though it was a wrong thing so to have brought in an oath which obstructed the effects of the victory, did not refuse to make manifest the person that had sinned against the oath. “And Saul said, Draw ye near hither, all the chief of the people: and know and see wherein this sin hath been this day. For, as Jehovah liveth, which saveth Israel, though it be in Jonathan my son, he shall surely die.” Little knew he what his rash vow had brought on his son.
The consequence was that the lot fell on Jonathan. “Then Saul said to Jonathan, Tell me what thou hast done. And Jonathan told him, and said, I did but taste a little honey with the end of the rod that was in mine hand, and, lo, I must die. And Saul answered, God do so and more also: for thou shalt surely die, Jonathan. And the people said unto Saul, Shall Jonathan die, who hath wrought this great salvation in Israel? God forbid; as Jehovah liveth, there shall not one hair of his head fall to the ground; for he hath wrought with God this day.” This witness was true. But clearly the authority of the king was broken, and God's name was not to be profaned, even unwittingly. Though he wist it not, yet was Jonathan guilty. Saul had in the most solemn manner pledged his word for the death, even if it had been of Jonathan his son on the one hand, and it was perfectly certain on the other that the lot fell on Jonathan his son. But it was only the more manifest on that day that the king of their choice was not only a useless incubus, but a distress to Israel and a dishonor to Jehovah. He had openly disgraced the law and Jehovah's champion, his own son, not to speak of the people.