How many of you read Choose-Your-Own-Adventure books when you were younger? You opened up the book to page one, and from that point on you were never really sure where the book was going to go. You could choose to go explore the jungle (turn to page 35) or head into town first (turn to page 67). And if while heading into town you got run over by a 16 ton dump truck then you would die, and it was obvious that you had made the wrong choice.
The passage that we are going to be looking at this afternoon
is found in First Samuel 14:1-23. At this point in Israel’s history, Saul
was the established king. He is the first sovereign of Israel appointed by God.
This story is placed directly between two stories about Saul’s disobedience. In
chapter 13, Saul offers a sacrifice impatiently as he gives up waiting for
Samuel. In chapter 15 we see Saul attacking the Amalekites under the command of
God, but not completely destroying everything like he was supposed to. In both
of these cases Samuel berates him for his actions.
Alright, here's our passage. One day Jonathan the son of Saul said to the young man who carried his armor, "Come, let us go over to the Philistine garrison on the other side." But he did not tell his father. Saul was staying in the outskirts of Gibeah in the pomegranate cave at Migron. The people who were with him were about six hundred men, including Ahijah the son of Ahitub, Ichabod's brother, son of Phinehas, son of Eli, the priest of the LORD in Shiloh, wearing an ephod. And the people did not know that Jonathan had gone. Within the passes, by which Jonathan sought to go over to the Philistine garrison, there was a rocky crag on the one side and a rocky crag on the other side. The name of the one was Bozez, and the name of the other Seneh. The one crag rose on the north in front of Michmash, and the other on the south in front of Geba. Jonathan said to the young man who carried his armor, "Come, let us go over to the garrison of these uncircumcised. It may be that the LORD will work for us, for nothing can hinder the LORD from saving by many or by few." And his armor-bearer said to him, "Do all that is in your heart. Do as you wish. Behold, I am with you heart and soul." Then Jonathan said, "Behold, we will cross over to the men, and we will show ourselves to them. If they say to us, 'Wait until we come to you,' then we will stand still in our place, and we will not go up to them. But if they say, 'Come up to us,' then we will go up, for the LORD has given them into our hand. And this shall be the sign to us." So both of them showed themselves to the garrison of the Philistines. And the Philistines said, "Look, Hebrews are coming out of the holes where they have hidden themselves." And the men of the garrison hailed Jonathan and his armor-bearer and said, "Come up to us, and we will show you a thing." And Jonathan said to his armor-bearer, "Come up after me, for the LORD has given them into the hand of Israel." Then Jonathan climbed up on his hands and feet, and his armor-bearer after him. And they fell before Jonathan, and his armor-bearer killed them after him. And that first strike, which Jonathan and his armor-bearer made, killed about twenty men within as it were half a furrow's length in an acre of land. And there was a panic in the camp, in the field, and among all the people. The garrison and even the raiders trembled, the earth quaked, and it became a very great panic. And the watchmen of Saul in Gibeah of Benjamin looked, and behold, the multitude was dispersing here and there. Then Saul said to the people who were with him, "Count and see who has gone from us." And when they had counted, behold, Jonathan and his armor-bearer were not there. So Saul said to Ahijah, "Bring the ark of God here." For the ark of God went at that time with the people of Israel. Now while Saul was talking to the priest, the tumult in the camp of the Philistines increased more and more. So Saul said to the priest, "Withdraw your hand." Then Saul and all the people who were with him rallied and went into the battle. And behold, every Philistine's sword was against his fellow, and there was very great confusion. Now the Hebrews who had been with the Philistines before that time and who had gone up with them into the camp, even they also turned to be with the Israelites who were with Saul and Jonathan. Likewise, when all the men of Israel who had hidden themselves in the hill country of Ephraim heard that the Philistines were fleeing, they too followed hard after them in the battle. So the LORD saved Israel that day. And the battle passed beyond Beth-aven.
In this entire passage we see a contrast between Jonathan
and Saul. Saul was looking for God’s will as he waited, while Jonathan was
looking as he went. Saul waited for something to happen, while Jonathan went
and made something happen. Saul stayed behind in safe territory, while Jonathan
went into dangerous and unknown territory, outside the average Israelite’s
comfort zone.
The very thing that motivated Jonathan into action was his
knowledge of what God wanted. He knew that it was not God’s desire that His
people would be in bondage to an ungodly and pagan nation. The exploits of Joshua
entering the Promised Land, as well as the mighty heroes that God raised up
throughout the book of Judges, all under the sanction of God, testify to God’s
desire that His people be free from their enemies. Even the Law, given to
Moses, commanded the people of Israel to be holy and to remove the ungodly
influence of the nations that formerly occupied the land of Canaan. So, before
going out on this mission, Jonathan knew what God’s general will was. And in
the same way, this is often all that we can know before stepping out in His
service. And how do we know this? By knowing the one infallible revelation that
He has given us. By reading and meditating on the Word. There is no substitute
to it for knowing the heart of God. For example, the Bible doesn’t tell us anything
about who we are to marry but it does tell us something about marriage. It
doesn’t tell us what job we should have, but it tells us what attitude we
should have towards work. In the same way, it doesn’t tell us exactly what
God’s specific will is in every single circumstance, but what it does do is
show us His general will. You hear this impressed on you at every turn, but
that’s because it is so eminently important. You need to be reading the Bible
regularly. Chewing on it, resting on it, memorizing it, soaking in it.
Especially when we leave PRBI in less than four weeks, and leave the Bible
culture that is here. What are some desires we do know He has? Matthew 28:18-20
says to go and make disciples. 2 Peter 3:9 says that God desires that none
should perish, but that all should reach repentance. We need the mindset of
God. Jonathan was an integral part of rescuing God’s people from their enemies
in this story because he knew what God’s desire was. If this was the
Choose-Your-Own-Adventure book, Jonathan had an idea of where the plot line was
headed.
However, simply knowing God’s will is not enough. James
2:14-17 tells us that faith without actions is not nearly enough, in fact it is
dead. This knowledge galvanized Jonathan into action. He knew what God wanted
for the people of Israel. So, while King Saul was sitting under the pomegranate
tree, Jonathan figured he would rather be a part of the solution than a part of
the problem. His father, King Saul, was the leader of the people of Israel. He
was the one who should have been taking this initiative to free his people from
their bondage. His entire army, the entire nation of Israel, was counting on
Saul to be their guy. But he didn’t step up to the plate. Jonathan was the one
willing to take a risk. At this point he didn’t know how things were going to
turn out. My favourite part of this passage is in verse 6 where Jonathan says,
“It may be that the Lord will work for us”. The New Living Translation puts it
this way: “Perhaps the LORD will help us”. Jonathan was taking a big risk here.
He didn’t know at this point if God was going to bless his idea, all he knew
was that something needed to change, and this was how he figured it might be
done. In this case, he was risking his own life. Now, I don’t want to minimize
the Holy Spirit’s leading in our lives, but I also don’t want to limit Him to
only leading through nudges and still, quiet whispers. When I did my mall visit
for evangelism class two years ago, I waited for the Holy Spirit’s nudging
before I talked to anybody. Over that three hour period I spoke maybe fifty
words to three different people. None of those were even remotely spiritual
conversations. I just didn’t feel the Holy Spirit nudging me towards somebody. Who
knows what might have gone differently if I had gone in with a mindset of, “I
know that God’s will is that none should perish, but that all should reach
repentance” instead of “Let’s see what God is going to do today.” I was like
Saul sitting under the pomegranate tree. In the movie “The Incredibles”, a
little boy is found sitting on his tricycle outside of the retired superhero,
Mr. Incredible’s house. Mr. Incredible asks him, “Well, what are *you* waiting
for?” The kid answers, “I don't know. Something amazing, I guess.” Mr
Incredible replies saying, “Me too, kid.” Are we sitting on our tricycles
outside of God’s house just waiting for Him to do something amazing? Or are we
leaving comfort and safety behind, even if all that means is stepping out in
the face of the fear of man? Once again to the Choose-Your-Own-Adventure book,
Jonathan was making a choice. Instead of being paralyzed by the fear of what
the next page would bring, already knowing where the story was headed he made a
choice. He turned to page 94.
Jonathan said that nothing can hinder the Lord from saving.
This, however, was not a discouragement from going out. Rather, he saw that as
an encouragement. God has chosen to use people to do His work. If nothing can
hinder the Lord from saving, surely He can do all of this rescuing on His own,
right? Yeah, He could. But He’s chosen not to, all throughout Scripture. Joseph
in Egypt, Moses in the Exodus, Judges, Esther, the prophets, John the Baptist,
Peter, Paul, and even ultimately our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ – all were chosen by God to rescue His people. God uses people to
accomplish His purposes; all throughout the Bible and even now.
After Jonathan took this first step of faith, we see God
come more clearly into the picture. Jonathan recognized what God’s will was,
and started heading in that direction, but then he relied on God for the rest.
I’ve found three categories that this help came from. First, He encouraged
Jonathan in his mission in a couple of different ways. Jonathan was encouraged
through his armour-bearer. This is Jonathan’s mission that he’s going out on.
This mission wasn’t necessarily the armour-bearer’s vision, although it might
have been. His faith however was just as strong as Jonathan’s as he said, “Do
all that is in your heart. Do as you wish. Behold, I am with you heart and
soul.” Jonathan was encouraged and helped on his way by his armour-bearer.
Jonathan also expected that God was going to open up the way for him, if God
was going to work through him. Remember, Jonathan has already made his decision
to do something, and is well on His way. It’s only after he’s initiated that he
wants to make sure that God is with him. This doesn’t seem to be a call to lay
out a fleece like Gideon did, but he did expect God to open up the doors for
him. This sign from God wasn’t exactly a talking donkey, after all the
Philistines had added on more words than what Jonathan had asked for, and these
weren’t exactly encouraging words either. God opened up the way for them to get
up there. And if you’ll notice, in both cases Jonathan and his armour-bearer
were going to fight. Whether they went up or stayed down, there was going to be
blood shed on that day.
If the first thing God did was encourage Jonathan and his
armour-bearer, the second thing he did was empower them. Jonathan was working
within his strengths in this tale. 1 Samuel 13, especially verse 2, tells us
that he was the successful and ambitious commander of 1,000 men earlier in this
campaign. 13:22 informs us that Saul and Jonathan were the only two men in
Israel to carry a sword. 1 Samuel 14:49 and 31:2 tell us that he was not Saul’s
only son, and that the other sons were also warriors, but Jonathan had been specially
groomed in warfare as the heir-apparent to the throne. These other brothers
hadn’t been given swords or overall command of groups of soldiers. However,
despite this expertise in military affairs, the odds were still astronomically
against Jonathan and his armour-bearer. No matter what the movies try to
portray, 20 prepared, alerted warriors are going to defeat 2 opponents any day
of the week. Jonathan was a skilled soldier, but the Philistines were a
well-oiled, well-equipped fighting machine that had done a good job of
suppressing the Israelites for years. God took the skills and strengths of
Jonathan and his armour-bearer and enhanced them for carrying out this mission.
Jonathan would have been able to do a little damage on his own, but with God’s empowering
he was able to spark a monumental victory. What are your strengths? Do you know
them? What if instead of asking God to strengthen our weaknesses so that we are
all well-rounded people, we work within our strengths so that God can make
those strengths even stronger? God used Jonathan and his strengths to rescue
His people. And He pushed those strengths to be even greater than they were on
Jonathan’s own power. So God encouraged Jonathan, and then He empowered him.
Finally, the third aspect where we see God’s work is at the
end of verse 23. We see here that all of this was under God’s guidance. “So the
LORD saved Israel that day.” God ensured that the outcome was according to His
purposes. We blatantly see His working in the earthquake and the great panic
that descended upon the Philistine camp, but He was guiding all of the
developments of this story. It wasn’t Jonathan who saved Israel that day; it
wasn’t Saul who saved Israel that day. It was God. His hand was over the whole
event, and He had it end up the way that He wanted it. But, seeing as He’s
chosen to partner with people to save His people, it was Jonathan’s first step
of faith that set the whole thing off. Coming back to our little
Choose-Your-Own-Adventure book, it didn’t really matter which page Jonathan
chose to turn to. God was directing what was going to happen on those pages
anyways.
So where does this hit us today? We are headed out into the
summer in three and a half weeks. If you remember nothing else from this
sermon, I’m begging you to realize how vital it is that you are spending as
much time with Scripture as possible. Make a plan for how you can do this over
the summer before graduation hits. Last year I would get up as early as 3:30 in
the morning on days that I was working 16 hours, to make sure that I had the
time to be reading the Word. I don’t say this to boast, but I say it to show
that no matter your circumstances, you can make time for it if it’s important
enough. That’s the one application I really want to stress. However, there is
another place as well. Too often I have heard people say that they don’t feel a
specific calling to minister in a specific area, and therefore they sit back
and relax when it comes to ministry. Why don’t you take a look at your
strengths then? Is there a way that you can minister to your brothers and
sisters, or even unbelievers with those giftings? If there’s not a ministry
that you would fit into, why not take a step out and begin a new one?
In this story of Jonathan, we really do see an example of
radical faith lived out. What were the aspects once again? First, we see how
very important it is that we know what God’s desires are. The way that we can
know this is by spending time in the Word. Then we see Jonathan stepping out
and acting on this knowledge of God’s desires. He doesn’t wait for a burning
bush. And finally we see God’s actions in the story – encouraging and
empowering Jonathan, and ensuring that the outcome is for His glory. When I
read those Choose-Your-Own-Adventure books, I always stuck my finger into the
pages where there were decisions made. That way, if I got vaporized by aliens,
eaten by cannibals, or killed in a fiery train wreck I could go back and reset.
I could make another choice. We don’t have that option when it comes to living
life, but praise God that He’s the one who decides what the next page is going
to look like.
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