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. 11:7), 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. 35:10); “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. 13:19; 1 Sam. 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. 13:7), and also the traitors who allied themselves with the enemy (1 Sam. 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.