Day 1082: - Dare to be a Jonathan – 1 Samuel 14 vs 1 - 16

1 One day Jonathan, the son of Saul, said to the young man who carried his armour, “Come, let us go over to the Philistine garrison on the other side.” But he did not tell his father. 2-3 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. 4-5 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 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.

6 Jonathan said to the young man who carried his armour, “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.” 7 And his armour bearer said to him, “Do all that is in your heart. Do as you wish. Behold, I am with you heart and soul.” 8-10 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.” 11-12 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 armour bearer and said, “Come up to us, and we will show you something.”

And Jonathan said to his armour bearer, “Come up after me, for the Lord has given them into the hand of Israel.” 13-15 Then Jonathan climbed up on his hands and feet, and his armour bearer after him. And they fell before Jonathan, and his armour bearer killed them after him. And that first strike, which Jonathan and his armour 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. 1 Samuel 14:1-16 English Standard Version

The last chapter told how the land of Israel had been occupied by the Philistines, and that there were very few weapons among the Israelites. The Philistines, however, had an army of thirty thousand chariots and six thousand horsemen. And their foot-soldiers were 'like the sand on the seashore in multitude'. These statistics could make us wonder what was in the mind of Jonathan, King Saul's son, when he said to his armour bearer “let us go over to the Philistine garrison on the other side.” One may have thought that he intended to surrender, but what was his real intention? (vs 6)

Jonathan was one of the many servants of God who, throughout the ages, dared to believe that “nothing can hinder the Lord from saving by many or by few.” It was such a conviction which led to Christians setting out to take God's message of salvation through Christ Jesus to the huge populations of places like China and India. And it also led others to take the gospel to remote areas where cannibalism was practised. Often, those who set out on these ventures were few in number. But God did indeed use them to break Satan's sway over those places.

Today's story is also an example of little details the Bible often mentions which speak of the genuineness of the event being described. Details, such as the names by which the two rocky crags on each side of the pass were called, Bozez and Seneh. It also tells of the simple plan Jonathan used to decide whether to go ahead, or to withdraw. I don't think he was putting God to a test, but hoping that what happened would give him assurance to proceed.

And so it was that God gave Jonathan, and his loyal armour bearer, a victory that led to panic among the Philistines, and to an even greater victory as the day went on. May we learn from incidents like these that God can do great things even by means of just a few. May we dare to venture out in some service for the Lord, even if it seems the odds are heavily stacked against us.