The world only recognizes its own brand of faith.
And it doesn't even call it faith, just calls it being reasonable.
The world cannot recognize what faith in God looks like.
It looks like foolishness to the world.
The world has faith.
And like any faith, the world has a faith that leads to action.
But the calculus is all completely different.
The object of the faith is numbers and statistics and past experience, but it's no less a decision of faith than Jonathan's decision was one of faith.
The following message was recorded at King's Tree Church.
May the Spirit use it to help you see, savor, and sing the beauty of God in the crucified and risen Jesus Christ.
And the rest of us can turn to First Samuel chapter fourteen.
That's where we'll be this morning.
First Samuel chapter 14.
We're gonna go through the entire chapter this morning because it's all one story.
And it is an excellent example of uh just good Hebrew storytelling here.
And um, and I mentioned story specifically, because if you remember the beginning of this series, we talked about how yes, these are historical accounts.
All this stuff really did happen in space and in time.
But the Holy Spirit-inspired author is writing these down as a story, he's including certain events.
certain conversations in order to teach us, the audience, something.
There's a purpose to the story here.
And today we're going to find that the story is contrasting Saul and his son Jonathan, specifically the faith of Saul and his son Jonathan.
Let me pray here, but before we go any further, and then we'll get into it.
Heavenly Father, I am so thankful for your mercy.
I'm so thankful for the faith that you allow us to have and you give to us and you strengthen in us through a very variety of circumstances.
Um, of course, various trials being one of the main things that that tests and strengthens uh our faith through steadfastness and it's working out.
Um, I thank you for what we're going to look at this morning.
Father, bless me and anoint the words that I speak.
May they be true.
And accord with your word, accord with reality, and uh may they not only be true but also effective in the hearts of those who hear uh to to produce the work that ought to come
from faith.
We pray it in Jesus' name, amen.
So, like I said, this chapter this morning is gonna contrast the face of Saul and the face of Jonathan.
Now, I I almost said the facelessness of Saul and the face of Jonathan, but that wouldn't quite be correct, because there's really no such thing as facelessness.
There's right face, that's faith in God, and there's wrong face, that's faith in anything other than God, but ultimately.
As human beings, we have to exercise faith.
We cannot know the outcomes of any of our actions with absolute certainty.
And therefore, faith is needed for our human condition.
God's designed it that way purposefully.
And we'll talk a bit more about that as we get into the story this morning.
So contrasting Saul's faith and Jonathan's faith.
Now, before we jump in,
Let's get a little reminder of where we were last time because we were left at a bit of a cliffhanger.
The battle lines were being drawn up.
And at Giba, we had Saul and his army, now whittled down to only 600 men.
And to make matters worse, they didn't have any real weapons with them.
They had sharpened farming implements.
On the other hand, two miles here over, we had the Philistines at Mishmash.
And they had.
as many troops as the sands of the sea.
And they also had 6,000 horses and 3,000 chariots, and they were well equipped.
So the odds were very poorly set against the Israelites.
And this battle was brewing and about to happen, and we are thinking this is not looking good for Israel.
That's the context before chapter 14.
So let me jump right into 141 through 15.
And I'll be skipping a few verses here and there
just to make the story more coherent and so we can get through it all this morning.
Verse 1.
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 Giba in the pomegranate cave at Migrom.
Verse 6.
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.
Verse 11.
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 the people, the garrisons, and even the raiders trembled, the earthquaked, and it became a very great panic.
So how does our story start off?
Well, really similarly to chapter thirteen.
It starts off with Jonathan taking the initiative.
He sees an opening, he goes and attacks the Philistines, and in doing so, he starts his
Chain reaction, which is going to end in their victory.
But we already start off with a stark contrast between Saul and Jonathan, don't we?
Jonathan has one man with him, and he's roving the front lines of the battle looking for an opportunity to attack.
All the while, where is Saul?
He has the 600 men, all 600 men, and he's back hiding in a cave.
Brought all the troops to him to hide in the cave.
Once again,
Saul has neglected his duty before the Lord.
And once again, it's clear he's placing his face in numbers in the troops that are around him.
And so the Lord uses Jonathan.
Now, what I want you to see here is that Jonathan's success is not due to his military prowess or his strategy.
In fact, assaulting a high-up place by crawling up on your hands and feet is not a great strategy, but rather his victory comes to him because he has rightly
Placed faith.
Look at his statement he makes before going into attack.
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.
Now, what you're going to notice about this is that Jonathan is demonstrating the same faith that we're going to see David demonstrate later on in the book of Samuel, before
David goes to fight Goliath.
What does he say when he goes to fight Goliath?
David says, Who is this uncircumcised Philistine that he should defy the armies of the living God?
One thing to notice here is that when they call their enemies uncircumcised, that's not just like an insult against their enemies.
There's a lot more to it than that.
This is actually a statement of faith in God to protect and to prosper his chosen people.
You see, Jonathan is not getting his confidence in this battle from nowhere.
Rather, this comes from his knowledge of God's character, his knowledge of God's saving purposes.
And this is based off of promises that God himself has made.
This is not a blind faith that Jonathan exercises here.
It's a faith based in God's words.
Jonathan is thinking back about Abraham and the promises God gave to Abraham.
When God set apart a people holy to himself and established that through the mark of circumcision.
This was a physical sign that Israel was a people set apart, special to God.
And along with that distinguishing mark came promises.
That's where Jonathan's mind is going.
Genesis 17, 7.
Let me read to you what it sounded like when this happened.
This is now flashback God talking to Abraham.
I will establish my covenant between me and you, and your offspring after you, throughout their generations, for an everlasting covenant, to be God to you, and to be your offspring
and to your offspring after you.
And I will give you and your offspring after you the land of your sojourning.
That's what Jonathan's banking on, all the land of Canaan, for an everlasting possession, and I will be their God.
Verse 10.
This is the covenant which you shall keep.
Between you and your offspring after you, every male among you shall be circumcised.
So shall my covenant be in your flesh, an everlasting covenant.
See, God's covenant promise to bless Israel is marked in their flesh through the sign of circumcision.
And that's what Jonathan's talking about.
That's where his mind is going.
That's where his faith is going.
He looks to the Philistines and says: These are not God's promised people.
What are they doing here in this land?
God's promised us this land.
They don't bear in their bodies the mark of being God's chosen people.
God has actually chosen to destroy them.
And so, with full faith, Jonathan says, with full faith in what God promised to Abraham, I'm going to go into this battle despite my few numbers.
Notice his faith then.
It's not in a religion.
It's not in a system.
It's not in the world's means of salvation.
Rather, it's in
Personal faith in God Himself because of what God has said.
You even get that sense when you look at Jonathan.
He uses the term Yahweh.
He uses God's personal name here several times, and we really don't see Saul talking like that so much.
Now let's zoom in a little bit deeper on the faith he displays and look at some elements that are present here because again, they contrast with Saul's later on.
Firstly, I want you to notice the confidence.
And the lack of anxiety and the decisiveness we see in Jonathan.
He sees the situation, he takes in, and immediately he comes to this conclusion.
There's no second guessing himself here.
How does he do that?
Where does that confidence come from?
Well, it's it's the logical outworking of his faith.
So Jonathan says, I know God's real.
I believe what God has said.
God has promised Abraham and his offspring this land.
God has even appointed my father to defeat the surrounding Philistine armies.
I know that.
And so Jonathan absolutely knows that God wants these Philistines defeated.
He has that faith firmly planted.
Well, from there, then he just makes a logical decision based off of that.
God wants to bless Israel, destroy the Philistines.
Why not use me to do that?
Why not use my armor bearer and I?
We're available, we're willing, let's go for it.
He doesn't use the calculus of the world and take his numbers into account.
Rather, he's just thinking on the promises of God.
That's where his confidence comes in, because he knows God and he knows what he says.
The faith can be very strong when your knowledge of God is strong.
You know what to base your actions off of.
Now, in the eyes of the world, this faith looks like foolishness, like an impossible gamble, maybe like blind faith.
But it's not blind faith, rather, it's the world that is blind to faith in God.
You see, the world only recognizes its own brand of faith.
And it doesn't even call it faith, it just calls it being reasonable.
The world cannot recognize what faith in God looks like.
It looks like foolishness to the world.
And I kind of mentioned this at the beginning of the sermon.
The world has faith.
And like any faith, the world has a faith that leads to action.
But the calculus is all completely different.
Oftentimes the faith of the world is based on numbers, probability, statistics, past experiences, things like this.
If I have, say, 10,000 troops and I'm going against an army of a thousand troops, I think, yeah, I'm gonna go do that fight.
I'll probably win that fight.
Not 100%.
We could all get sick and die, or the ground could open up and we could fall in.
But by all worldly accounts, 10,000 versus 1,000.
That seems reasonable.
That is a decision made upon faith.
The object of the faith is numbers and statistics and past experience, but it's no less a decision of faith than Jonathan's decision was one of faith.
Since we do not know the future for certain, since we cannot control outcomes, we can only contribute to their outworking, but we cannot control outcomes.
Because of these things, ultimately, as humans, we have to hope in an outcome and then act in faith.
Can't cause something to happen.
That's faith.
When when we walk, when I walk, sometimes I'll trip, right?
That proves that I'm not making the walking happen, but rather I'm having faith that walking will happen when I try to walk.
But I can't guarantee that it happens.
I need faith to even to walk, trusting that my movements will result in walking.
Every action we take requires some type of faith.
God's designed the world that way.
And you know, even doubt in God.
We can see it like that, but you can also just see it as faith in something other than God, right?
There's no just kind of vacuum where faith is non-present.
Well, this contrast is especially clear between Jonathan and Saul, this rightly placed faith and wrongly placed faith, especially when we consider Saul's actions from chapter
13.
Remember why Saul disobeyed God in chapter 13?
Wasn't faithlessness, it was rather the world's.
Faith.
It was faith in the numbers.
Remember, Saul saw that his troops were scared and they're actually leaving him.
His numbers were going down.
In his mind, that meant his chances of winning the fight were also going down.
He was looking to the world means of faith.
He wasn't thinking to himself, No, God's anointed me king of Israel.
God's told me I'm going to defeat the Philistines.
Rather, he thought, My people are leaving, I've got to do something quick.
And so what did Saul do in chapter 13?
He acted from faith.
Faith in the world rather than God, and gave an unlawful sacrifice in order to hold on to the men that he still had.
Jeremiah 17, 5 reads, Cursed is the man who trusts in man and makes flesh his strength, whose heart turns away from the Lord.
Blessed is the man whose trust is in man, or blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord, whose trust is the Lord.
So Jonathan and Saul both acted in faith.
Jonathan's
Faith was right, and so led to right action.
And Saul's faith was wrong, so leading to wrong action, even though it made sense to preserve his troops from an earthly perspective.
Now, the last thing I want to point out about Jonathan's faith before we move on is how it affected those around him, namely his armor bearer.
As Jonathan acted in faith, his armor bearer was lifted up.
Into this shared faith and able to participate in this great victory before the Lord.
Look what his armor bearer said: Do all that is in your heart.
Do as you wish.
Behold, I am with you, heart and soul.
Jonathan's faith strengthened and uplifted and benefited his armor bearer, and his armor bearer was blessed along with this faith, brought into this great victory.
So Jonathan's faith sends confident based.
not on the world's reckoning, but rather based in God's character, and it blessed those around him.
Let's move on now to Saul's side of the story.
Chapter 16, Saul starts to notice that the Philistines are in trouble.
And the watchmen of Saul and Giba 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 out from us.
And when they had counted, behold, Jonathan, his armor bearer, uh 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 his 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
And went into the battle.
And behold, every Philistine's sword was against his fellow, and there was very great confusion.
Let's just pause here.
How is this different from what we saw Jonathan doing?
Well, where is Saul's faith?
Now you might be tempted at first to say, well, it's in God.
He, after all, he called for the ark.
But I don't think that's what we see here in Saul, or really ever.
He doesn't seem to trust in God.
Saul trusts in outcomes.
He trusts in religious ritual.
He actually just seems to trust in whatever seems to suit his purposes best at the time.
Sometimes it's God.
Sometimes it's truth, uh, troops.
But his faith is never settled in the person of God.
Look what he does here.
He calls for the ark, presumably so that God can help him in battle, but then
Look how fickle his faith is.
While he is talking to the priest, in the middle of asking the priest for the ark, he looks up and sees the Philistine campus in confusion.
And he thinks, wait, now's the time to strike.
So he changes his mind.
No, no, no, withdraw your hand.
Leave the ark.
Let's just go for it.
And they charge in to press the attack.
You see how fickle that faith is there?
One moment he thinks religion can help.
So that's where he leans, the ark.
But then in the very same sentence, the circumstance changes.
He doesn't need that advantage anymore.
So he says, Yeah, let's just go do it ourselves.
With this changed circumstance comes a changed object of faith.
That's worldly faith for you.
It's fickle.
It changes with the circumstance.
Maybe one moment it looks like praying and tithing and going to church is gonna help out.
And then the next place we're back to worldly power and mammon and things of this nature.
It reminds me of James 1, 6.
For the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea that is driven and tossed by the wind.
He is a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways.
Isn't that just a perfect description of Saul for you right there?
He has none of this solid, non-anxious confidence we see in Jonathan, but rather for him, it's bring the ark.
No, no, no, no, no, take it back.
Let's just go.
There's more to come.
We're gonna see this plenty in this story.
Verse twenty four.
And the men of Israel had been hard pressed that day, so Saul had laid an oath on the people, saying, Cursed be the man who eats food until it is evening and I am avenged on my
enemies.
So none of the people had tasted food.
Now when all the people came to the forest, behold there was honey on the ground.
And when the people entered the forest, behold the honey was dropping.
But no one put his hand to his mouth, for the people feared the oath.
But Jonathan had not heard his father charge the people with the oath.
So he put out the tip of the staff that was in his hand and dipped it in the honeycomb, and put his hand to his mouth, and his eyes became bright.
Then one of the people said, Your father strictly charged and the people with an oath, saying, Cursed be the man who eats food this day.
And the people were faint.
Then Jonathan said,
My father has troubled the land.
See how my eyes have become bright because I tasted a little of this honey?
How much better if the people had eaten freely today of the spoil of their enemies that they found?
For now the defeat among the Philistines has not been great.
So what we see happen here is Saul's forces rally.
He because of this momentum in battle, he gains back some of the people he's lost.
He likes that.
And now he wants to press the attack.
On the Philistines, right?
They're on their heels.
But what's he notice going on?
He notices, the people are kind of getting a little tired.
They're kind of flagging here.
We can't let that happen.
We've got to go.
This is our chance.
We got to move.
So when Saul sees that everyone's feeling a little bit uh sluggish because they're getting tired, he says, No, no, no one can eat anything until this evening when we've been
avenged, when when I've been avenged on my
Enemies.
He forces them to take this vow.
Again, what do we have here?
An anxious and hasty decision made not from a confidence in God, but rather from a a f the frantic need of the moment.
That was the foundation for his decision.
Saul's faith, again, it's determined by the circumstance.
The armies rallied, the time is now, let's push.
We can't stop and take a rest.
And so, with the authority of the anointed one of Israel and the king,
Which they are obligated to do this now, he says they cannot eat.
Want you to notice here this earthly calculus, this reliance on numbers and circumstance.
He's not considering what would God want for the troops.
If Jesus was in charge of this battle, he'd have let them rest and eat.
But he's not considering that.
He's not thinking about God's promises to Abraham.
He's not comfortably resting in God's person.
He's acting like God doesn't even exist.
And that everything depends on him to bring about this victory.
No rest before the Lord, no godly faith, just this kind of anxious, panic decisions.
And how does this misplaced faith affect those around him?
Are they lifted up and strengthened like Jonathan's armor bearer?
No, they're mistreated, they're hard-pressed, they're starving, they're fearful.
Such is the effect of false faith on those around us.
And that's where I just kind of want to bring this in a little closer to home and consider the faith in our own lives and what it's communicating about us.
So for for fathers, parents, husbands and wives, and young people and old people, ask yourself and think about your actions.
Where's your faith?
What do your actions teach about your faith?
Where do your children see you placing your faith?
Is it in
Worldly things.
Are you acting anxious and fretful and calculating, constantly fearing outcomes?
Like Saul with a fickle faith, is that your faith is varied as as a situation is, maybe God some days, and then maybe the world the next.
I've done that many times.
You go to God for comfort, pray.
Uh doesn't really feel better.
And so next thing you know, you're seeking reassurance from the world.
And like Saul,
You know, for me, the comfort often comes from numbers or the amount of resources you have or probable outcomes.
I'm so quick to be comforted by the world's resources, but why not by my Father in heaven who knows my needs and promises to provide for them?
Why does sometimes checking the numbers in my bank account make me feel more secure than the promise from God that says?
Be content with what you have, for I have said to you I will never leave you or forsake you.
Or why does searching to alleviate my concern about some health concern for my children on the internet?
Internet searches there.
Why would that help to comfort me more than the promise from God that says all things that happen to me and to those who love God are going to work out for good?
Do I trust my salary, my home insurance, or my
Health insurance, more than I trust my Father who's in heaven?
I fear that sometimes I do.
That's wrong.
What we need to do is have a faith like Jonathan in the character of God and in his promises, not like Saul and the circumstance.
And then we just got to ask ourselves: whatever we're mirroring, whatever faith we're acting out of, how does it affect those around us?
Are we bringing our family and friends up?
Into the confidence and strength and joy and peaceful decision making of faith, modeling that for them and gathering them up into that?
Or are we harming them, making fickle decisions based off of anxiety and modeling that for our children and families?
Again, maybe you've seen this in your own life.
I have.
Lose my temper at someone in the family.
Why?
It's actually because I'm.
anxious about tomorrow.
I'm thinking with worldly faith, not with faith in God.
And the result is, well then that's not good for my family.
Or maybe I have a bad attitude someday.
Well, why is that?
It's because I'm not trusting in God to be doing what he should be doing, right?
That's discontentment.
Discontentment is saying, God, you're not doing what you should be doing.
And how does it affect those around me?
Well it brings them down.
They're not caught up in joyful faith.
They're brought down.
Faith affects not only ourselves, but also those around us.
Faith in God, like Jonathan, blesses those around us.
Faith in anything else, like Saul, hurts those around us.
And we haven't even seen the full extent of the hurt that Saul is going to bring.
Let's continue in thirty-one through thirty five.
Thirty-one.
They struck down the Philistines that day from Mishmash to Ihalom.
And the people were very faint.
The people pounced on the spoil and took sheep and oxen and calves and slaughtered them on the ground, and the people ate them with the blood.
Then they told Saul, Behold, the people are sinning against the Lord by eating with the blood.
And he said, You have dealt treacherously.
Roll a great stone to me here.
And Saul said, Disperse yourselves among the people, and say to them,
Let every man bring his ox or his sheep and slaughter them here and eat, and do not sin against the Lord by eating with the blood.
For every one of the people brought his ox, or so every one of the people brought his ox with him that night, and they slaughtered them there.
And Saul built an altar to the Lord.
It was the first altar that he built to the Lord.
What a responsibility that leaders have.
Look at this.
The king of Israel, because of his poor decision and his rash vow, he leads Israel into sin.
This would not have been the case had he acted more wisely, but now they are sinning against the Lord.
His rash oath leads to the people starving.
They're starving when they're done fighting.
They pounce on the plunder like wild animals, and they're eating this meat in an impure way without draining the blood from it.
God had spoken very clearly on that to Israel.
In Leviticus.
And the laws he gave to the nation of Israel in the Old Testament, they were not to eat meat with the blood still in it.
That was impure.
Rather, they need to drain the blood out thoroughly before they'd eat the meat.
And you'd do this by killing the animal on a stone.
That way the blood runs out over the stone, down onto the ground, and it's clean to eat.
They weren't doing that.
Slaughtering the animals on the ground and the pool of their own blood, eating it there, that was an impure way to eat.
Now, if we look at Saul's response here again, and this might seem like faithfulness to God.
He gets a stone so the blood can be properly drained.
But I wonder, does Saul really care about the fact that they're sinning against God, or is he just concerned with the consequences of God's anger?
I think we can say it's the latter.
I think he was just concerned with the consequences of God's anger, one, because of his track record, but two, because of this little detail.
That the author puts in at the end of 35.
I think this is just another religious act, simply to get what he wanted.
35.
And Saul built an altar to the Lord.
It was the first altar that he built to the Lord.
Just interesting, the author put that in there.
Uh, he never apparently Saul never bothered to make an altar to God before now.
But now, when the chips are down, he's so close to victory, he can't have God's anger screwing this up.
What's he do?
He
He goes by the book.
It's similar to him calling for the ark, right?
Religious piety now seems to be what is necessary for success.
And so Saul turns back to what appears to be religious pantomime.
Well, the people get their rest, they get their food, but now Saul's ready to get back into the fight.
Because it wasn't actually completed.
There's still some Philistines left.
So 36, Saul says, Let us go down after the Philistines.
By night and plunder them until morning light.
Let us not leave a man of them.
And they said, Do whatever seems good to you.
But the priest said, Let us draw near to God here.
Okay, just notice this again.
Saul's willing to drop the religious stuff now and rush back into battle.
God's anger is out of the way.
Good.
Let's press the attack again.
Does he even think about consulting the Lord here?
No, he doesn't.
The priest has to say, Whoa, whoa, Saul.
Maybe we should, you know, ask God before we just jump back into fighting.
Of course, Saul says, yes, yes, of course we should.
Right?
Look how he's so back and forth.
Bring the ark.
We need God's blessing.
Never mind, leave the ark.
Let's just go for it.
And then, the people are getting tired.
Let's let's make an oath to make them keep fighting.
no, my oath is making them sin.
Okay, we'll bring a stone here and sacrifice the animals.
And then let's get back into the battle.
What?
We should ask the Lord for help for okay, let's ask the Lord first.
He's it's like he's got no place to set his foot, back and forth, no solid faith.
Like he said in James, he's tossed back and forth.
What happens then?
37.
And Saul inquired of God, Shall I go down after the Philistines?
Will you give them into the hand of Israel?
But he did not answer him that day.
And Saul said, Come here, all of you leaders of the people, and know and see how this sin has arisen today.
For as the Lord lives who saves Israel, though it be in Jonathan, my son, he shall surely die.
What happens here is when Jonathan asks God about the, or rather, when Saul asks God about the battle, he doesn't get any response back from God.
And so Saul's immediate thought was, Oh, someone's broken the oath.
That's why God's not responding to our prayers.
And so he gathers all Israel together and says, We're going to figure out who broke this oath and we're going to kill them.
Even if it's me and my son Jonathan.
Doesn't matter, the person who broke this oath is going to die before the Lord.
And so they cast lots, and surprisingly, at least to Saul, the lot falls on Jonathan.
He sees that Jonathan is the one who's broken the oath.
What happens now?
43.
Then Saul said to Jonathan, Tell me what you have done.
And Jonathan told him, I tasted a little honey with the tip of the staff that was in my hand.
Here I am.
I will die.
And Saul said, God do so to me more, God do so to me and more also.
You shall surely die, Jonathan.
Then the people said to Saul, Shall Jonathan die, who has worked this great salvation in Israel?
Far from it.
As the Lord lives, there shall not be one hair of his head fall to the ground, for he has worked with God this day.
So the people ransomed Jonathan so that he did not die and
Then Saul went up from pursuing the Philistines, and the Philistines went to their own place.
Now we see the full effect of this rash vow, of this panicked decision Saul had made on his own family.
Now, as as readers of scriptures, the audience were reminded of Judges chapter 11 with Jepta's tragic vow.
Jephthah was also using religious means, but
Utilizing worldly calculus.
He thought, if I make a big sacrifice to God, then God's gonna give me a big, a big win in this battle.
And so what Jephthah do?
He said to God, Whatever comes from my home after this battle, I'll sacrifice to you.
It's the exact same thing.
Worldly calculus, utilizing religious means as a as a means to an end.
With Jephthah, his daughter came out from the house and he completed his vow there, his rash vow.
Hurt his child.
We're seeing the story repeating right here with Saul.
His rash religious vow made with worldly calculus is now going to hurt his child.
And yet, here is a shiny example once again of Jonathan's faith, his settled confidence in God.
When he's condemned, he makes no excuses, says, Here I am, I will die.
Remember what Saul did in chapter 13 when he was called out?
By Samuel for making the unlawful sacrifice.
He said, the people were leaving.
And and Samuel, you were late.
And the Philistines were rather were rallying.
And uh I had to force myself to do this.
He was making every excuse in the book.
I'm sure Jonathan could have made plenty of good excuses.
I hadn't heard out the vow.
I was trying to get energy to go defeat your enemies.
That's not what we see Jonathan do.
He says.
If I broke a vow taken before the Lord, then here I am.
I will die.
You couldn't have a greater difference between Jonathan and Saul here.
Jonathan, faithful, settled, non-anxious, decisive.
He knows God.
He loves God.
He's content with what God brings.
Saul, fickle, flustered, anxious, unsure, going back on his decisions almost constantly.
Not quite sure even how to really interact with God.
And what ends up happening here?
Well, actually, some of those things end up being good, not for him, but for Jonathan, because once again he goes back on his decision.
Doesn't follow through and kill Jonathan.
Why?
Because the people oppose him.
They say, You're not going to kill Jonathan.
Jonathan's the one who just is responsible for this victory.
And so, in very characteristic
Saul-like fashion, because there's some pressure put on him from the crowd, he goes back on his decision, and Jonathan goes free.
Unfortunately, some of the Philistines also go free at the end of this.
Then the battle's over.
That's how the battle ends.
It's won by Jonathan's faith.
It's almost lost and spoiled because of Saul's worldly faith.
And in fact, ironically, if you go back and read.
Verse 30, ironically, we see that this vow Saul had the Israelites take is the reason why the Philistines weren't fully defeated.
It could have been an even greater victory had he been a little more faithful to God.
But the chapter's not over.
This is a surprise.
What's it say here?
At the end of the chapter, we see this between 47 and 52.
When Saul had taken the kingship over Israel,
He fought against all his enemies on every side, against Moab, against the Amor Ammonites, against Edom, against the kings of Zoba, and against the Philistines.
Wherever he turned he routed them, and he did valiantly, and struck the Amalekites, and delivered Israel out of the hand of those who plundered them.
Then it mentions some of his family, and fifty two.
A valiant man, he attached him to himself.
It seems a little out of place here, doesn't it?
This looks like the summaries that kings will get when they at the end of their life, when they die and their reign is over.
That's actually exactly what this is.
This is the formula the author would use when a king's reign is over, summing up his past victories.
And indeed, as we look at this, we see God has done just what he promised he would do.
God does
Deliver Israel from their surrounding enemies through Saul, even though he's a king like the nations, God's faithful to do what he said he would do.
That's good, but we're still wondering why is this happening now?
Saul's reign doesn't end until chapter 31.
So why do we have the summary of his end of his reign right now?
This is done symbolically by the author, symbolizing that for all intents and purposes, Saul's reign is.
Now over.
His kingship is literally ripped away from him and given to David in the next chapter, in chapter 15.
What we've just read, 14, this is our last story with Saul acting as official king over Israel with God's blessing.
And so the inspired author decides that here is the proper place to formally recognize the end of Saul's reign and sum up his accomplishments.
As far as the author is concerned, Saul's time as king is over and it's being passed on to David.
And that's going to lead us directly into chapter 15.
But then as we close here, I just want to give some special thought this morning to the challenges this text presents to us.
And we just need to consider what type of faith are we exercising from day to day?
Is it like Jonathan or is it like Saul?
Are we confident
And secure in God's character and his promises.
And does that lead us to non-anxious decisions done in faith?
In all we do, right?
Working, receiving bad news, navigating higher costs of living, things that can frustrate us easily, making daily decisions.
Where's our faith in all this?
Do we, like Saul, exercise a worldly faith, navigating just like the world does around us, considering only what brings gain or ease?
Relying fully on numbers and statistics?
Like Saul, do we go to God when it seems advantageous to us and then the next moment go to worldly means for salvation when the circumstance changes?
Where do we get our comfort?
Where do we go before we make decisions?
Do we exercise godly faith?
Looking to the promises of Scripture, looking to Jesus act.
Of self-sacrificial love on the cross, and then saying, if God does this for me, then what can be against me?
What could cause me to fear?
What can actually separate me from the influence of Christ's love if he's already done that for me?
Do we look there and then act out of that security and confidence?
We should be looking to the Lord's salvation as we act.
Or again, do we have a worldly faith?
How can I keep this?
How can I protect that?
How can I guard against this?
Maybe I'll do this.
No, because that might cause this, and then this would happen.
Back and forth like Saul, acting as if God isn't even a part of the equation.
King's tree, let us be people who act from a secure confidence in Jesus Christ based upon his words and his actions.
If we've seen him to be trustworthy, let's trust in him.
He's merciful.
He's kind.
He's never done anything wrong.
One that I like to think about is he's never done anything incorrectly.
I sometimes I think, I'm doing it right.
God's never done anything.
Jesus has never done anything incorrectly.
for that to be the bedrock of the decisions we make day to day.
And what a blessing that'll be to those around you, to your family.
How do you bless your wife?
How do you bless your husband?
How do you bless your children?
Act out of a confidence.
in the Lord Jesus and his goodness in every area of your life.
Let's pray now that God would grant us the grace for that to be the case.
Lord, thank you that first of all, whether we trust you or not, you're worthy of it.
And sometimes it's just nice to know that when we are faithless or placing our faith in the wrong things, you are faithful all the time.
And we can go off the deep end and ruin our lives if we want.
But you remain constant and faithful.
You never change.
We thank you for that.
But we pray, God, for the right sort of faith that is placed in you.
And not the circumstance.
And we pray we'd be like Jonathan, ignoring the calculus the world might bring, and rather acting off of promises that you have given us and the character we've seen to be true in
you.
Jesus Christ is trustworthy.
He's a trustworthy person who is God of all.
And so please, Lord, let us trust him.
Let us trust Jesus in all that we do.
And we know that.
You will work that in us through the power of the Holy Spirit.
And so we pray that you would bless us in that way.
Thank you for who you are, and again we pray for this grace in Jesus' name.
Amen.
Thank you for listening to this message from Kingstree Church in Sabina, Ohio.
To see more of the beauty of God and the crucified and risen Jesus Christ, come worship with us on Sundays at 10 AM or visit our website at Kingstreechurch.org.