1 Samuel 14 vs 1-27

1 Samuel Chapter 14 Verses 1 – 3

 We aren’t told what stirred Jonathan up to do this, and truly on the

surface, it doesn’t seem too wise. The Philistines had superior

equipment, they had the advantage of location (we’ll see that in a

moment), Jonathan and his armor bearer are only two men against a

garrison of Philistines, and he doesn’t tell anyone that he’s going…

 Some would easily conclude that this is impulsive, unwise and

irrational and they’d be right if it didn’t work, but it does. Sometimes

God will ask you to do things others, all others, might not understand.

I have to think that Jonathan was stirred up by the Lord because in a

few verses it will be at the Lord’s guidance that Jonathan goes through

with this. It could also be that Jonathan was stirred up because his

father was unstirrable… (lounging near the victory of another in

Gibeah).

 Here he is, Saul, doing nothing with an army of 600 men under a

pomegranate tree…, when a garrison of 20 Philistine men display

superiority over them… This is interesting. Here we have two sides of

the same coin. Two men in positions of power. One has odds of 2

against 20 and says, “Hey, the Lord says this is the way…, lets go…”

The other has odds of 600 against 20 and says, “Ah, let’s not

advance…” Crazy, right!?

 What’s Saul waiting on? Odds of 60,000 to 20? God has equipped him

right then, right now…, just like us. What God has called you to do,

He has enabled you to do whether you perceive it or not! Which is

first and foremost to trust Him at His Word and choose His ways in the

situation and moment, that’s primary…, you’ll never know your

specific calling until you agree with mankind’s universal calling…,

and yet so often we just don’t…, we wait for more reinforcement,

better odds!

 Perhaps there’s a meaningful point in the name of the priest that is

lounging with Saul. Ichabod, it was his brother that was with Saul, the

meaning of that name is “The Glory Has Departed…”

1 Samuel Chapter 14 Verses 4 – 5

 The term, “An Uphill Battle,” was coined for situations such as this.

On one side, straight uphill, on the other, straight uphill. So, the

position that Jonathan and his armor bearer find themselves in is

difficult and the enemy has a strategic advantage. Any time you set

out to do what the Lord has stirred you up to do, you will almost

certainly face immediate distraction, diversion and difficulty… Be

ready for it…, and know, it’s just a test… First step in following the

Lord is deciding that hard work or leadership or difficulty is not

going to stop you from following the Lord!

1 Samuel Chapter 14 Verses 6 – 7

 What a line! “For nothing restrains the Lord from saving by many or

by few.” Ok question. What does God need in order to bring about

victory? How many weapons? How many soldiers? How much fire

power? Nothing and none! How many prayers do I need to pray

before God will have enough motivation to accomplish His will? How

many hours of ministry do I need to put in before God will move on

the hearts of the lost? The questions can just keep coming….!

 The point is that God is able to do exceedingly, this is Ephesians 3:20,

“Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that

we ask or think, according to the power that works IN us,” not the

power that works that IS us! We pray, we minister, we work, we do all

in the hopeful confident knowledge that nothing restrains God!

 Now the difficult part of that truth is that sometimes God doesn’t

move on the hearts, God doesn’t delivery, God doesn’t give what we

so desire…, and its then that we must still conclude in hopeful

confident knowledge that what God is doing may not be better for us

today but is greater for the Kingdom in glorifying God! And man oh

man does my flesh hate that and so does the enemy who testifies

constantly that God is not good… But nothing, nothing restrains

God… And He needs nothing more than an agreement the size of a

mustard seed to split a mountain like a cantaloupe… And I know that.

1 Samuel Chapter 14 Verses 8 – 10

 Interesting proposition by Jonathan… A couple points here because

there’s probably no small controversy over these verses. First,

Jonathan is putting this out there from a position of faith… Remember

his last statement? This is very different than what we see in other

“tests” of God’s provision such as was with Gideon. Second, Jonathan

is taking this step by step. Not knowing step two, he’s good with step

one…, and then we will think about step two…, which is also

indicative of faith… So, this is how it goes…

1 Samuel Chapter 14 Verses 11 – 14

 I love this metaphor…, this picture…, the man of God on his hands

and knees, seemingly in a place of great desperation or at best

disadvantage, BESTS the 20 men against the people of God who are

fully armed and fully upright… It’s just an awesome picture!!!

Reminds me of Joshua 23:10, “One man of you shall chase a

thousand, for the Lord your God is He who fights for you, as He

promised you!” Isaiah 30:17, “One thousand shall flee at the threat of

one…, till you are left as a banner on a hill!”

1 Samuel Chapter 14 Verses 15 – 23

 Ok, all this…, check this out…, God stirred up Jonathan to do a thing.

Through the doing of the thing, Jonathan inquired of the Lord, trusted

the Lord, and bravely carried out his oath at the guidance of the Lord.

AND, he’s victorious, BUT, but wait…., there’s more…, the mustard

seed has been delivered, the rest of this is the hand of God!

 The Philistines, not the garrison, but the entire contingent of the

remaining Philistine force, they tremble, so much so that the earth

shook under their feet! They melted…, and the Lord gave the greater

victory! It’s an awesome truth! Many times, I wait on the Lord to

move on my behalf in a big way and yet I’ve left undone the me

moving on God’s behalf.

 There’s a promise given in James 4:7-8 that says, “Submit to God.

Resist the devil and he will flee from you. Draw near to God and He

will draw near to you!” We want to jump right to step four skipping

steps one to three. Step one, submit to God. Many are blocked right

there…. Step two, resist the devil…, that weeds out even more….

Step three, draw near to God…, then GOD WILL DRAW NEAR TO

YOU!

 I want the enemies of the will of God in my life to melt, how about

you? Ok, then what has God stirred you up to do today? Told you to

do today? Don’t know. Simple. It’s all right here in His Word… Start

there… May I just add one more thing here to these notes? The greater

work is not the moving out, it’s the waiting. It’s the surrendering. It’s

the submitting. It’s the serving RIGHT WHERE YOU’RE AT! Some,

most people think the great calling of God on a life is what you

accomplish for the Lord. It’s not. The great calling of God on a life is

to be wholly serving Him right where you are and being a servant to

those that are around you in the day…

1 Samuel Chapter 14 Verse 24

 There’s no practical or spiritual or rational reason why Saul does

this. It’s an example of someone who has the ability to bless or the

ability to heavy hand…, to harm the people. Now, if you ask Saul, I

bet he’d say something like, “I wasn’t trying to hurt anyone. I was

trying to unify.” Or some sort of excuse or defense like that. This is

exactly what happens with the unwise. With the heavy-handed leader.

They never see their actions for what they do to others. They only see

their actions for what was their original intention. That creates, and

worse it sustains, harm and it is NOT Godly…, not good leadership.

Heck, its not even good humanship!!

 What would have been a good and spiritual thing for Saul to do? For

him alone to fast. For him alone to suffer. To bless the people and to

suffer in silence towards His God. Causing others to suffer reveals

his focus on himself…, while causing yourself to suffer reveals your

focus on the Lord…

1 Samuel Chapter 14 Verses 25 – 26

 Check this out, this enrages me in the inner most part of who I am.

God has provided honey. Honey is a Biblical food. It is a holy food.

It is sweet, extremely good for the human body, it is beautiful… What

do we call someone who is dear to us? Banana!? NO! We call them

HONEY!

 God provides a blessing but because of Saul, that blessing is blocked.

In fact, it’s forbidden by Saul… That enrages me in a way that passes

human anger…

 Standing in the way of what God has and wants to and can and does

provide and yet it cannot be received because of the pride and self-

focus and nonsense and foolishness and harshness of some

person…!? Is that not the primary aim of the devil himself. This is

cruel… plain and simple. And Saul would swear up and down that he

didn’t mean to do this… This scene is one of the reasons, if not THE

reason, I am thrilled that Saul gets 2 chapters in the Bible while David

gets 40… I know I should be more graceful but I can’t wait for Saul to

be in the past… Cruelty is the character of the darkness and it should

be abhorred by every Christian…

1 Samuel Chapter 14 Verses 27 – 30

 Jonathan breaking through a bit here… Loving the people… A man

after God’s own heart… Even though it’s him that has the brightened

countenance, his mind and thoughts and comments are about the well-

being of others… No wonder why he and David would be such great

life-long friends…

 The people were faint on a day where they should have, COULD

HAVE, been strong… If that statement doesn’t drum something up in

your heart of hearts, then may I boldly suggest that your heart has

been dumbed down by pride…

1 Samuel Chapter 14 Verses 31 – 35

 There is SO much wrong with Saul’s thought-pattern as he comes off

so holy to rectify a situation he himself is completely responsible for

and yet completely unaccountable for… This is the definition of

shaking my head because to say anything to him, to correct him,

would be immediately met with a, “What are you talking about?! I’m

the one trying to worship God here!” There is no correcting the

fool… But get this, there is no end to the welcome of correction of

the wise!

1 Samuel Chapter 14 Verses 36 – 37

 I wonder why? No, I don’t. But I bet Saul wonders why… Isaiah 1:15

says, “When you spread out your hands, I will hide My eyes from you;

Even though you make many prayers, I will not hear. Your hands are

full of blood.” Full of the cruelty of pride. We ought to, first of all we

ought to be willing, which leads to wanting, which leads to doing, we

ought to examine ourselves in the solitary vision of God Most

Holy… Be corrected. Be led. Be filled. Be given LIFE though the pure

presence of God…

 There’s not one Christian that doesn’t pray. Not one Christian that

doesn’t inquire of God and petition God… But many cannot hear Him

and many inquiries are met with silence on the part of God and the

reason has nothing to do with God but everything to do with hearts

that yearn for His presence but reject His Spirit…

1 Samuel Chapter 14 Verses 38 – 44

 The casting of lots was a common practice to discern the will of God.

Now, the lots were cast and they separated Jonathan from Saul. Now,

do you think that God was willing for Saul to see that Jonathan had

sinned? NO! Is that what Saul saw!? Yes. The perfect lot was God

revealing to Saul that Jonathan was in the right and it was Saul that

was separated from the right one, Jonathan… But Saul saw things

differently. Why?

 His perspective and ability to discern the will of God was TWISTED!

This is how people can read Bible verses and conclude the wackiest

things! Before you can hear God, discern God’s will, your heart has

to be merged into His lane. If not, well, look at what Saul is ready to

do… He is ready to destroy the best thing about his life…

1 Samuel Chapter 14 Verses 45 – 46

 The people stand against Saul and it is only by the mercy of God that

Saul didn’t just kill them all. Let me just say this…, if you are

walking with God and the people of God stand in opposition to

you, that is not persecution, that is time for you to listen. Humble

yourself and be corrected. If you err on the side of serving the people

around you even thinking that you are right in the Lord, let me tell

you, you don’t err at all… Go and learn what that point means!

1 Samuel Chapter 14 Verses 47 – 52

 Saul was chosen by the people because he was tall, dark and

handsome but his spirit was a spirit of harassment and dominance. He

had a heart to take, not to give. We would be wise to not choose those

that have influence over us in our lives as poorly as the nation of Israel

did in their history.

 His strength was formidable but it was shallow. How about yours?

Because of this, Saul’s kingdom will not last. One more chapter is all

he gets…