CHAPTER 14

(1087 B.C.)

JONATHANS EXPLOIT

¹Now it came to pass upon a day, that Jonathan the son of Saul said unto the young man who bore his armour, Come, and let us go over to the Philistines garrison, that is on the other side. But he told not his father. (Without a doubt, the Lord told Jonathan to do this. Williams says, If the last Chapter shows the folly and effects of unbelief, this Chapter shows the wisdom and results of Faith; for wherever Faith is found, God displays His Strength. Thus, the ugliness of unbelief in Saul is contrasted with the beauty of Faith in Jonathan.)

²And Saul tarried in the uttermost part of Gibeah under a pomegranate tree which is in Migron: and the people who were with him were about six hundred men (and, as we have said, without weapons);

³And Ahiah, the son of Ahitub, Ichabods brother, the son of Phinehas, the son of Eli, the LORDs Priest in Shiloh, wearing an Ephod. And the people knew not that Jonathan was gone (the Hebrew word here used for Ephod refers as well to the Breastplate, which contained the Urim and the Thummim, by which the Will of God was sought [Lev. 8:7-8]).

⁴And between the passages, by which Jonathan sought to go over unto the Philistines garrison, there was a sharp rock on the one side, and a sharp rock on the other side: and the name of the one was Bozez, and the name of the other Seneh. (Faith never lessens nor creates difficulties. Her path is open, very narrow, and made difficult by sharp rocks on either hand.)

⁵The forefront of the one was situate northward over against Michmash, and the other southward over against Gibeah.

⁶And Jonathan said to the young man who bore his armour, 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. (Williams says, Jonathan did not think of himself; and his words to his armor-bearer do not express doubt as to Gods ability to overcome them, but assurance. Faiths fair flower looks never so fair as when blooming in such a rocky and savaged defile, beset with enemies, such as is pictured here.)

⁷And his armourbearer said unto him, Do all that is in your heart: turn thee; behold, I am with you according to your heart. (The greatest asset a man or a woman of God can have is for individuals to follow them in their Faith. As well, it must be said, Woe be unto the individual who follows a man in his unbelief.)

⁸Then said Jonathan, Behold, we will pass over unto these men, and we will discover ourselves unto them (reveal themselves to the Philistines, which, no doubt, the Lord told him to do; it was quite true that Israel, at this time, was no more than a moral ruin; but Faith overcomes all of this, and reaches out toward God, expecting great and mighty things and God never fails).

⁹If they say thus unto us, Tarry until we come to you; then we will stand still in our place, and will not go up unto them.

¹⁰But if they say thus, Come up unto us; then we will go up: for the LORD has delivered them into our hand: and this shall be a sign unto us. (Faith is not presumption, and, in fact, is never presumptuous. Most of that today which is called faith is, in fact, presumption. It presumes upon that which God has not said and does not intend. True Faith never creates difficulties, nor leaps from the pinnacle of the Temple expecting God to bear the consequences. Thus, there was no boasting in Jonathan, as there is in presumption. There is only expectation from God.)

¹¹And both of them discovered themselves unto the garrison of the Philistines: and the Philistines said, Behold, the Hebrews come forth out of the holes where they had hid themselves (only two men!; but there is a third with them, yet unseen; it is the Lord).

¹²And the men of the garrison answered Jonathan and his armourbearer, and said, Come up to us, and we will show you a thing. And Jonathan said unto his armourbearer, Come up after me: for the LORD has delivered them into the hand of Israel (Faith always lifts men up, hence Jonathan saying, Come up after me).

¹³And Jonathan climbed up upon his hands and upon his feet, and his armourbearer after him: and they fell before Jonathan; and his armourbearer killed after him (evidently, the Lord turned the attention of the Philistines elsewhere in order that they not see the ascent of Jonathan and his armor-bearer).

¹⁴And that first slaughter, which Jonathan and his armourbearer made, was about twenty men, within as it were an half acre of land, which a yoke of oxen might plow (God will not begin to move until Faith begins to act).

THE MIRACULOUS VICTORY

¹⁵And there was trembling in the host, in the field, and among all the people: the garrison, and the spoilers, they also trembled, and the Earth quaked: so it was a very great trembling (Faiths great passion is always that God should manifest Himself; a supernatural terror seized the Philistines, for it was manifest that God and not Jonathan was the Author of these manifestations).

¹⁶And the watchmen of Saul in Gibeah of Benjamin looked; and, behold, the multitude melted away, and they went on beating down one another (the words melted away do not exactly give the meaning; the Philistines were not dispersing, but rather were reeling, moving to and fro purposeless, and in confusion; they also carry the idea of terror).

¹⁷Then said Saul unto the people who were with him, Number now, and see who is gone from us. And when they had numbered, behold, Jonathan and his armourbearer were not there (at the very moment that God is giving a tremendous victory to Israel with the Philistines being defeated, the flesh in the person of Saul is trying to find out whats going on; the flesh refers to the frail ability of man, which God can never bless [Rom. 8:8]).

¹⁸And Saul said unto Ahiah, Bring hither the Ark of God. For the Ark of God was at that time with the Children of Israel. (In Jonathan is seen the quietness and confidence of the new man, but in Saul the fussiness, excitement, folly, and impotence of the old man. Unbelief never knows what to do, but it can furnish itself with accessories of religious ceremony. It can build an Altar [Vs. 35], call for the Ark [Vs. 18], and lean upon the priestly member of a condemned house [Vs. 19], but it never knows what to do. It is all excitement, activity, and emotion, but no Faith.)

¹⁹And it came to pass, while Saul talked unto the Priest, that the noise that was in the host of the Philistines went on and increased: and Saul said unto the Priest, Withdraw your hand (Saul, impatient of delay, cannot wait till the Will of God is made known to him).

²⁰And Saul and all the people who were with him assembled themselves, and they came to the battle: and, behold, every mans sword was against his fellow (the Philistines were killing each other), and there was a very great discomfiture.

²¹Moreover the Hebrews who were with the Philistines before that time, which went up with them into the camp from the country round about, even they also turned to be with the Israelites who were with Saul and Jonathan (in this great Revival, one might say, the Children of God who had lost their way completely, going out into the world, now come back to the Lord as a result of Jonathans Faith).

²²Likewise all the men of Israel which had hid themselves in Mount Ephraim, when they heard that the Philistines fled, even they also followed hard after them in the battle (a move of God evidenced by Faith, which results in victory, brings out even the cowardly and the timid; but thats what Faith is supposed to do!).

²³So the LORD saved Israel that day: and the battle passed over unto Beth-aven (if the Lord can get someone to believe Him, He can do great things; to be sure, God, Who is Almighty, doesnt need the help of anyone; however, He has purposely allowed Believers to have a part in His great Work, and that great part is Faith [Rom. 10:17]).

SAULS FOOLISH OATH

²⁴And the men of Israel were distressed that day: for Saul had adjured the people, saying, Cursed be the man who eats any food until evening, that I may be avenged on my enemies. So none of the people tasted any food. (Now the flesh continues to hinder the Spirit of God. The flesh must do something, so Saul will forbid the people to eat any food. Carnal zeal hinders or limits victory, and when man intrudes himself into the Work of God bringing his own strength into it he stops it. His foolish command to put to death those who failed to obey his laws only made more visible the disobedience of his own heart to obey Gods Laws. Men love to make laws, and religious men most of all! And they love to force people to obey them, which has been the cause of so much heartache and even bloodshed down through the ages.)

²⁵And all they of the land came to a wood; and there was honey upon the ground. (In the path of Faith, there is honey; and in the path of unbelief, there is hunger. God furnishes ample refreshment upon the Heavenly Way, so that there was a stream of honey upon the very battlefield. But that which is an invitation of faith made it a duty, under sentence of death, to partake of it. The corrupt Christian Church is a sad illustration today of the same intrusion of mans will into Gods Kingdom.)

²⁶And when the people were come into the wood, behold, the honey dropped; but no man put his hand to his mouth: for the people feared the oath (man-made laws keep Gods People from accepting and, thereby, benefiting from that which God has provided; God help us!).

JONATHAN

²⁷But Jonathan heard not when his father charged the people with the oath: wherefore he put forth the end of the rod that was in his hand, and dipped it in an honeycomb, and put his hand to his mouth; and his eyes were enlightened (there are those today who, like happy Jonathan, live and fight with God, and whose Faith in Him leads them so far ahead on the Celestial Road that they neither hear nor heed the senseless laws which poor men, holding official office in Christendom, make).

²⁸Then answered one of the people, and said, Your father straitly charged the people with an oath, saying, Cursed be the man who eats any food this day. And the people were faint (unscriptural laws made by religious men only tend to make the people faint).

²⁹Then said Jonathan, My father has troubled the land: see, I pray you, how my eyes have been enlightened, because I tasted a little of this honey (has brought disaster to the land; this disaster was the incompleteness of the victory, owing to the people being too exhausted to continue the pursuit; once again, senseless religious laws, which have no Scriptural foundation, only tend to hinder the victory).

³⁰How much more, if haply the people had eaten freely to day of the spoil of their enemies which they found? for had there not been now a much greater slaughter among the Philistines? (Unscriptural religious laws only hinder Faith; they never help!)

³¹And they smote the Philistines that day from Michmash to Aijalon: and the people were very faint (insinuating that a much greater victory could have been brought about, were it not for Saul; as a Believer, you can be a hindrance or you can be a help).

THE SIN OF ISRAEL

³²And the people flew upon the spoil, and took sheep, and oxen, and calves, and killed them on the ground: and the people did eat them with the blood (without properly draining the blood from the carcasses, which was unlawful!).

³³Then they told Saul, saying, Behold, the people sin against the LORD, in that they eat with the blood. And he said, You have transgressed: roll a great stone unto me this day (the purpose of this stone was to raise up the carcasses of the slaughtered animals from the ground, so that the blood might drain away from them).

³⁴And Saul said, Disperse yourselves among the people, and say unto them, Bring me hither every man his ox, and every man his sheep, and kill them here, and eat; and sin not against the LORD in eating with the blood. And all the people brought every man his ox with him that night, and killed them there.

³⁵And Saul built an Altar unto the LORD: the same was the first Altar that he built unto the LORD (the Altar was a Type of the Cross on which Christ would die; however, it is not a magic talisman to be used at ones convenience).

³⁶And Saul said, Let us go down after the Philistines by night, and spoil them until the morning light, and let us not leave a man of them. And they said, Do whatsoever seems good unto you. Then said the Priest, Let us draw near hither unto God (to consult the Lord; Ahiah may have done this because he disapproved of Sauls project, or because generally God ought to be consulted before undertaking anything of importance; already this neglect on the part of Saul had led to no good results).

³⁷And Saul asked counsel of God, Shall I go down after the Philistines? will You deliver them into the hand of Israel? But He answered him not that day.

³⁸And Saul said, Draw you near hither, all the chief of the people: and know and see wherein this sin has been this day. (The fault is in him and him alone, and not the people!)

³⁹For, as the LORD lives, which saves Israel, though it be in Jonathan my son, he shall surely die. But there was not a man among all the people who answered him (thus, twice in the same day he is guilty of the sin of rash swearing; the people condemn him by their silence).

⁴⁰Then said he unto all Israel, Be you on one side, and I and Jonathan my son will be on the other side. And the people said unto Saul, Do what seems good unto you.

⁴¹Therefore Saul said unto the LORD God of Israel, Give a perfect lot (give us the answer). And Saul and Jonathan were taken: but the people escaped (it seems that the Urim and the Thummim were being used by the Priests to divine an answer; Saul is claiming that someone has sinned, and thats the reason the Lord will not answer him; so now, the answer is towards both Saul and Jonathan, but not in the way one would think).

⁴²And Saul said, Cast lots between me and Jonathan my son. And Jonathan was taken (while the Holy Spirit points out Jonathan, in no way does this imply that Jonathan has sinned; it is rather meant to portray the fact that it is Saul who has disobeyed the Lord, with his foolish rules, and just how foolish they have been).

THE PEOPLE SAVE JONATHAN FROM DEATH

⁴³Then Saul said to Jonathan, Tell me what you have done. And Jonathan told him, and said, I did but taste a little honey with the end of the rod that was in my hand, and, lo, I must die (the statement made by Jonathan could be in the form of a question, or even sarcastic resignation).

⁴⁴And Saul answered, God do so and more also: for you shall surely die, Jonathan (the flesh will always try to kill the Spirit!).

⁴⁵And the people said unto Saul, Shall Jonathan die, who has wrought this great salvation in Israel? God forbid: as the LORD lives, there shall not one hair of his head fall to the ground; for he has wrought with God this day. So the people rescued Jonathan, that he died not (the answer of the Lord through the people is, God forbid!).

SAULS VICTORIES

⁴⁶Then Saul went up from following the Philistines: and the Philistines went to their own place (so long as Jonathan by Faith took the lead, everything prospered, but when Saul, that is, unbelief, put himself at the head, the effect was to lose the full fruit of the victory).

⁴⁷So Saul took the kingdom over Israel, and fought against all his enemies on every side, against Moab, and against the children of Ammon, and against Edom, and against the kings of Zobah, and against the Philistines: and whithersoever he turned himself, he vexed them.

⁴⁸And he gathered an host, and smote the Amalekites, and delivered Israel out of the hands of them that spoiled them. (These Verses account for his victories. Even now, God would accept Saul and bless him greatly, if only he would turn with his whole heart to the Lord. But that was not to be!)

SAULS FAMILY

⁴⁹Now the sons of Saul were Jonathan, and Ishui, and Melchi-shua: and the names of his two daughters were these; the name of the first born Merab, and the name of the younger Michal:

⁵⁰And the name of Sauls wife was Ahinoam, the daughter of Ahimaaz: and the name of the Captain of his host was Abner, the son of Ner, Sauls uncle.

⁵¹And Kish was the father of Saul; and Ner the father of Abner was the son of Abiel.

⁵²And there was sore war against the Philistines all the days of Saul: and when Saul saw any strong man, or any valiant man, he took him unto him. (If the Philistines plague us all our days, it must tell us that flesh is attempting to thwart the Philistine instead of the Holy Spirit. If we walk after the flesh, we die. If we follow after the Spirit, we live [Rom. 8:1-2]. Ultimately, Saul would die at the hands of the Philistines. Ultimately, David would live at the hands of the Holy Spirit.

The principle is the same presently. To live a victorious life, the Believer must anchor his Faith exclusively in Christ and the Cross, which constitutes walking after the Spirit. That being done, the help of the Holy Spirit will be forthcoming, with great victories brought about in such a life [Rom. 8:1-2, 11; Gal. 6:14].)