1 Sam. 14
There is a remarkable similarity between Jonathan in the Old Testament and Barnabas in the New. Both were gracious and affectionate; both were signally used of God in their day, but both manifested deplorable weakness in a moment of crisis. Barnabas broke with Paul, a special vessel of the Spirit in his time. Jonathan parted with David, Jehovah's choice for the throne of Israel. In both cases natural affection was the snare; Barnabas could not give up John Mark, and Jonathan could not give up Saul.
The breakdown of these truly excellent saints is recorded for our instruction. Perhaps there is nothing that so hinders full loyalty to Christ as natural affection. We find it so difficult to give Him the place of absolute supremacy in our hearts and lives. Levi is specially commended in Deut. 33:8-118And of Levi he said, Let thy Thummim and thy Urim be with thy holy one, whom thou didst prove at Massah, and with whom thou didst strive at the waters of Meribah; 9Who said unto his father and to his mother, I have not seen him; neither did he acknowledge his brethren, nor knew his own children: for they have observed thy word, and kept thy covenant. 10They shall teach Jacob thy judgments, and Israel thy law: they shall put incense before thee, and whole burnt sacrifice upon thine altar. 11Bless, Lord, his substance, and accept the work of his hands: smite through the loins of them that rise against him, and of them that hate him, that they rise not again. (Deuteronomy 33:8‑11) because in the day of the golden calf he "said unto his father and to his mother, I have not seen him; neither did he acknowledge his brethren, nor knew his own children.”
In Luke 14:2626If any man come to me, and hate not his father, and mother, and wife, and children, and brethren, and sisters, yea, and his own life also, he cannot be my disciple. (Luke 14:26), the Lord Jesus points out a similar path for all who would be His disciples. The natural must be subservient to the spiritual if we would follow him. The rejected One—our God in "the likeness of sinful flesh"—laid it down emphatically, "He that loveth father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me." Matt. 10:3737He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me: and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. (Matthew 10:37). What a test for our hearts!
Jonathan means "Jehovah hath given" (as real a gift from God to Israel as Paul to the Church). He came forward at a very evil time in Israel. The king of the people's choice was already a failure. The very enemy from which he was specially appointed to save Israel (1 Sam. 9:1616To morrow about this time I will send thee a man out of the land of Benjamin, and thou shalt anoint him to be captain over my people Israel, that he may save my people out of the hand of the Philistines: for I have looked upon my people, because their cry is come unto me. (1 Samuel 9:16)) was oppressing the nation sorely. The people had everywhere been disarmed (the king and his son only being permitted to keep their swords), and even the blacksmiths' shops were closed by order of the Philistines lest they should forge weapons.
God's time had not yet come for David to be brought upon the scene, and the whole position seemed utterly hopeless. The awfulness of this will only be realized as we remember that Israel was God's chosen people for the blessing and guidance of all the nations upon earth. They had become utterly degraded and impotent by unfaithfulness to God. Is there any picture here of the present forlorn and powerless condition of the Church of God?
God is never without resource. In every emergency He has His man. So Jonathan was raised up, that fair flower which God caused to blossom in the wilderness of Israel at that sorrowful moment. In 1 Sam. 14 he so acquitted himself that the people declared "he hath wrought with God this day." v. 45. It is a great thing to work with God, and it must not be confounded with working for God. To work with God is to have His mind for the moment, so that the worker moves as God moves, and along the line that He marks out. We see this illustrated in the Acts of the Apostles, and it is the secret of spiritual success. Such discernment is the fruit of exercise of heart before God. It cannot be acquired otherwise.
Jonathan was distressed by the condition of things in Israel. We doubt not prayer was behind it when he said to his armor-bearer one day, "Come, and let us go over to the Philistines' garrison that is on the other side." It was a step of faith: two men with only one sword between them, marching out to attack a powerful foe encamped on craggy heights, practically inaccessible!
"He Told Not His Father”
There was no real wish to hide anything, but men who have no faith themselves are apt to discourage and hinder those who have. David certainly never would have gone down into the Valley of Elah had he paid heed to Saul (1 Sam. 17:3333And Saul said to David, Thou art not able to go against this Philistine to fight with him: for thou art but a youth, and he a man of war from his youth. (1 Samuel 17:33)). It was better to have the cooperation of a lowly soul such as the unnamed armor-bearer if possessed of like faith, than the sanction and support of a monarch who had no faith at all. Saul had the forms of religion about him. Jehovah's priest was there wearing an ephod, and the ark was not far away. But what is the value of forms if power is lacking? The past and present history of Christendom is a sufficient answer.
Let it be noted that both Jonathan and his armor-bearer were young men.
Young Men
We are apt to connect conspicuous faith with age and experience. But Scripture abounds with examples of extraordinary faith in young men. David wrote the majority of his Psalms before he attained the age of thirty. Daniel and his pious companions were still in their youth when they made their stand for God. Elihu gave utterance to more sound wisdom than Job's more venerable friends, and of Timothy Paul was able to say, "I have no man likeminded, who will naturally care for your state.... Ye know the proof of him." Phil. 2:19-2319But I trust in the Lord Jesus to send Timotheus shortly unto you, that I also may be of good comfort, when I know your state. 20For I have no man likeminded, who will naturally care for your state. 21For all seek their own, not the things which are Jesus Christ's. 22But ye know the proof of him, that, as a son with the father, he hath served with me in the gospel. 23Him therefore I hope to send presently, so soon as I shall see how it will go with me. (Philippians 2:19‑23).
We would, therefore, encourage our younger brethren to exercise themselves spiritually about the condition of things around them, and also concerning the deep, deep need. They may then be prepared to say with Isaiah, "Here am I; send me." Isa. 6:88Also I heard the voice of the Lord, saying, Whom shall I send, and who will go for us? Then said I, Here am I; send me. (Isaiah 6:8). The only person expressly called a "man of God" in the New Testament was the comparatively youthful Timothy (1 Tim. 6:1111But thou, O man of God, flee these things; and follow after righteousness, godliness, faith, love, patience, meekness. (1 Timothy 6:11)). Yet he was a timid, sensitive person, not unlike Jeremiah in an earlier day. But grace knows how to strengthen and make bold the one whose heart is right towards God, and who yearns to be used of Him. Jonathan and his armor-bearer set out that day with very little deliberation.
A Simple Faith
"Come, and let us go over unto the garrison of these uncircumcised: it may be that the Lord will work for us: for there is no restraint to the Lord to save by many or by few." 1 Sam. 14:66And Jonathan said to the young man that bare his armor, Come, and let us go over unto the garrison of these uncircumcised: it may be that the Lord will work for us: for there is no restraint to the Lord to save by many or by few. (1 Samuel 14:6). To Jonathan, the Philistines, whatever their numbers and prowess, were simply "these uncircumcised." They were men not in relationship with God. On the other hand, Israel was in relationship with God, hence the twice-repeated covenant name "Jehovah." Faith in Jonathan, therefore, could see no difficulty. If God was not with the Philistines, they had no real power. If God was indeed with Israel, then almighty power was at hand, if only there were faith to use it. How charmingly simple is all this!
Have we learned the lesson? Do we deplore the lack of power visible in the Church today? Is not the Church still the temple of God, and does not the Spirit of God still abide therein? (1 Cor. 3:1616Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you? (1 Corinthians 3:16).) What do we want more than just the simple faith to go forward in dependence upon Him?
Jonathan felt, and rightly, that if God were moving, numbers mattered nothing. "There is no restraint to the Lord to save by many or by few." Gideon accomplished the deliverance of Israel with only three hundred men, furnished, not with weapons, but with pitchers, lamps, and trumpets (Judg. 7). Paul reminds us that "neither is he that planteth anything, neither he that watereth; but God that giveth the increase." 1 Cot 3:7. Two or three humble men, without visible resources, moving about preaching the gospel of Christ, were once described as "these that have turned the world upside down." Acts 17:66And when they found them not, they drew Jason and certain brethren unto the rulers of the city, crying, These that have turned the world upside down are come hither also; (Acts 17:6).
Moreover, Jonathan had the consciousness in his soul of his link with the people of God—with Israel. Hence his words in verse 12, "The Lord hath delivered them into the hand of Israel." We observe the same feature in David when he went forth to encounter the giant, "that all the earth may know that there is a God in Israel.... He will give you into our hands." 1 Sam. 17:46, 4746This day will the Lord deliver thee into mine hand; and I will smite thee, and take thine head from thee; and I will give the carcases of the host of the Philistines this day unto the fowls of the air, and to the wild beasts of the earth; that all the earth may know that there is a God in Israel. 47And all this assembly shall know that the Lord saveth not with sword and spear: for the battle is the Lord's, and he will give you into our hands. (1 Samuel 17:46‑47). In both cases there was no independent action. The faith was indeed their own, but they acted for and with the nation that God owned as His. Saul was utterly destitute of this feeling, hence his words in 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), "mine enemies.”
In all our labors and conflicts, let us never forget that we are part of a great, divine unity, the body of Christ. The mass of our brethren may possibly be in a spiritually low condition, but they are our brethren nevertheless. The Church, whatever its state, is still owned of God in the earth. We serve, therefore, as representing it, and for its edification and blessing.
Jonathan asked God for a sign, and He was graciously pleased to grant it. The two men proposed to discover themselves to the enemy, and if the enemy said, "Tarry until we come to you," they would remain where they were, and see what God would do. But if the enemy said, "Come up unto us," they would accept the call as assurance from God of a complete victory. Let us not miss the lesson of this sign. "Come up unto us" was the language of complacent security. A single boulder would have easily destroyed two men clambering painfully up rugged rocks, yet no boulder was rolled down upon them, so secure did the Philistines feel, and so deep was their contempt for the two climbers. Nothing is more deadly than a human sense of strength and security. But nothing is more blessed than a spiritual sense of weakness and dependence upon God. Let us cultivate the latter increasingly.
As soon as Jonathan and his armor-bearer reached the top, they began to slay, and simultaneously the Lord caused an earthquake. Panic ensued. The Philistines fled hither and thither, apparently killing one another as they went. Thus did God work for the discomfiture of the insolent foe.
Saul's watchmen reported the commotion, but the king was not in the secret. Neither was the priest, who at the king's bidding brought thither the ark and began to inquire of God, receiving, however, no answer. God was not interested in these religious formalists, but was acting altogether apart from them, as He has frequently done down to our own day.
Success Invariably Attracts Numbers
Those of God's people who had gone over to the Philistines (the inspired writer calls them, in contempt, "Hebrews," not "Israelites"), and others who had hid themselves, now turned out to share the victory. Both traitors and cowards were now willing to identify themselves with God's side, since that side was triumphant. It has always been so, but immeasurably more pleasing to God are the godly minority who cleave to Him, and are willing to accept both reproach and peril for His name's sake. The God-fearing ones of Mal. 3:1616Then they that feared the Lord spake often one to another: and the Lord hearkened, and heard it, and a book of remembrance was written before him for them that feared the Lord, and that thought upon his name. (Malachi 3:16) and "the rest in Thyatira" (Rev. 2:2424But unto you I say, and unto the rest in Thyatira, as many as have not this doctrine, and which have not known the depths of Satan, as they speak; I will put upon you none other burden. (Revelation 2:24)) are examples of this.
The remainder of 1 Sam. 14 is rather the story of Saul than of Jonathan. The poor benighted king almost turned the victory into disaster. The meddling of flesh in divine movements is always to be dreaded. Saul's foolish prohibition of all food until the work was finished led to frightful license on the part of the people, as all unnecessary prohibitions are apt to do. Jonathan had his eyes opened by disobeying his father (for he ate some honey). David says, on the contrary, "The commandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes." Psa. 19:88The statutes of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart: the commandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes. (Psalm 19:8). This means that true enlightenment is found in the path of obedience to God.
The forms of religion were still acknowledged by the king. He built an altar (the first he ever built to the Lord), and instructed the priest to inquire of God about the further pursuit of the Philistines. Finding himself divinely ignored, he suspected divine displeasure somewhere. But he was so utterly far from God that the thought never occurred to his mind that he was the offender. How deceitful is the flesh!
When the lot was taken, he positively passed sentence of death upon Jonathan! Ignorance and folly could scarcely have gone further. But the common sense of the people revolted against the king's stupidity. "Shall Jonathan die, who hath wrought this great salvation in Israel? God forbid." So the matter ended. Saul went home, and the Philistines got away without further chastisement.
The whole chapter is deeply humiliating in its exposure of the helplessness and folly of religious flesh, and is blessedly exhilarating in its precious assurance of what God can do with even the feeblest instruments who are right in heart towards Him, and who are able to trust Him wholly.