1 Samuel 14, What’s Getting in Your Way?, Dr. John B. Carpenter

1 Samuel chapter 14, beginning of the entire chapter, hear the word of the Lord. One day,

Jonathan, the son of Saul, said to the young man who carried his armor, come, let us go over to the Philistine's garrison on the other side.

But he did not tell his father. Saul was staying in the outskirts of Gibeah near the pomegranate cave in Migron.

The people who were with him were about 600 men, including Ahijah, the son of Ahitob, Ichabod's brother, son of Phinehas, son of Eli, the priest of the

Lord at 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 Bozes and the name of the other, Sina. The one crag rose in the north in front of the

Mishmash and the other on the south in front of Gibeah. Jonathan said to the young man who carried his arbor, 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 a sign for us.

So both of them showed themselves to the garrison of the Philistines. And the Philistines said, look,

Hebrews are coming up 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 20 men within his, 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 garrison and even the raiders trembled and the earth quaked and it became a very great panic.

And the watchman of Saul in Gibeah of Benjamin looked and behold, the multitude was dispersing here and there.

And 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 turmoil 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 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 hid 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 Bethoven. And the men of Israel who 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'm avenged on my enemies.

So none of the people had tasted food. So 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.

And so he put out the tip of his 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 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 had found.

For now the defeat among the Philistines has not been great. They struck down the Philistines that day from Mishmash to Eidolon.

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. So every one of the people brought his ox with him that night and they slaughtered them there.

And Saul built the altar to the Lord. It was the first altar that he built to the Lord. Then Saul said, let us go down after the

Philistines by night and plunder them until the 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. 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 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.

But there was not a man among all the people who answered him. Then he said to all Israel, you shall be on one side and I and Jonathan, my son, will be on the other side.

And the people said to Saul, do what seems good to you. Therefore Saul said, oh

Lord God of Israel, why have you not answered your servant this day? If this guilt is in me or in Jonathan, my son, oh

Lord God of Israel, give Urim. But if this guilt is in your people Israel, give

Thummim. And Jonathan and Saul were taken, but the people escaped. Then Saul said, cast the lot between me and my son

Jonathan. And Jonathan was taken. 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 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 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.

Then Saul went up from pursuing the Philistines and the Philistines went to their own place. When Saul had taken the kingship over Israel, he fought against all his enemies on every side, against Moab, against the

Ammonites, against Edom, against the kings of Zobah and against the Philistines. Wherever he turned, he routed them.

And he did valiantly and struck the Amalekites and delivered Israel out of the hands of those who plundered them. Now, the sons of Saul were

Jonathan, Ishvi, and Malkishua. And the names of his two daughters were these.

The name of the firstborn was Merab, and the name of the younger, Michael. And the name of Saul's wife was

Ahinoam, the daughter of Ahimaaz. And the name of the commander of his army was

Abner, the son of Ner, Saul's uncle. Kish was the father of Saul. And Ner, the father of Abner, was the son of Abiel.

There was hard fighting against the Philistines all the days of Saul. And when Saul saw any young man or any valiant man, he attached him to himself.

May the Lord add his blessings to the reading of his holy word. Well, you're down, remember?

Story picks up from where we left off last week, and so will we. You're down, you're discouraged, you're helpless, taken advantage of, weak.

You aren't where you want to be. This isn't what you hoped for when you were planning your life.

Something is getting in your way. Maybe it's money. You don't have enough for the life you want.

But if all you wanted was money, something was wrong with your planning. Even if you get all the money you want, you'll still find something else in the way, something that money can't move out of the way.

What's in your way? It's not just that you don't have enough cash, the stuff and the house and the car that you've always wanted.

It's that you're not who you want to be. You aren't who you want to become because every time you try, something gets in your way.

Some youth want to be great athletes. They want to shoot the buzzer beater in the

NBA Finals, three -point shot, or catch the game -winning touchdown in the

Super Bowl, or run a world record in the Olympics. They want it, they really want it.

They have the posters on the wall, and they watch the TV, the games, and the track meets, and the

Olympics. But when it's 95 degrees out in July, they just can't make themselves go out and run.

Maybe for you it's not sports. Maybe it's reading the Bible, it's prayer, it's church.

It's what we call the ordinary means of grace. You want to draw nearer to God. You want to know

His Word better. You want to know Him better. You want to pray more regularly. But when it gets hard, like 95 -degree weather, running hard, it gets in the way.

So what is it? What gets in your way? What is the obstacle that you don't seem to be able to overcome?

Now, sometimes it's outside of us. If it's 95 degrees out and you need to run, well, that's outside of you, and that's an obstacle.

Are you willing to overcome it? If you will make less money by not working on Sunday mornings because you prioritize church, worship, being with other believers, hearing the

Word, if you make that choice, that loss of income is an obstacle.

Now, some preachers will promise you, well, you won't lose money, that God will bless you with more cash so that you will actually end up making more.

He'll give you more business the rest of the week because you put Him first on Sunday mornings.

And maybe He will. Or maybe He wants you to face that obstacle, to overcome that barrier of making less money by embracing it, to choose to make money -making less of a priority, to change your heart.

Maybe He wants you to overcome the love of money and to be able to pray, like from Psalm 73, whom have

I in heaven but you? And there is nothing on earth that I desire besides you.

Well, what's getting in your way? Maybe it's other people. Maybe they'd disapprove of you, they'd argue with you, they would accuse you, they would scold you.

If you did what you want to do. Now, sure, you can make less money.

You can make that choice. You're willing to do that. You're willing to prioritize church and so miss out on making a little more.

You're willing to do that. But are you willing to face the harsh words, the scowls, the disapproval of those who will make less money because of you?

And they aren't willing. They don't share your desire to serve God and not mammon.

And they will punish you for not going along. Are people in your way?

Maybe it's just lethargy, it's complacency. You're tired of resisting, like swimming upstream.

It's easier to go with the flow, to do what others pressure you to do, just kind of say, okay, and go along, to get along, give up.

You're waiting. You're hoping that the course of life will take you where you want to be, will take you to a place where it's easier for you to be a

Christian, will help you read the Word and pray and be part of a church. But you've lost the gumption, the motivation to dare strive for it, to sacrifice for it.

What's in your way is something that's not in you anymore.

What's getting in your way? There might be something different for each of you, but the real question is, what are you doing to overcome it?

And we see that here in 1 Samuel chapter 14 in five parts. First, daring.

Second, recovering. Third, not presuming. Then, ransoming.

And finally, fighting. And finally, what you need to get over what's getting in your way is daring.

That's what Jonathan had. Now, Israel is down. They're down to 600 troops, and those 600 are trembling in fear.

But Jonathan is different. He decides to be audacious, like he was before. Last chapter, remember, when he attacked that Philistine garrison, which provoked the

Philistines to counterattack. It just gets us in the situation we're in here. Instead of being intimidated by the

Philistines and their enormous army and their superior equipment and weapons, he takes his assistant, his sidekick, his armor bearer, they call it here, and he decides to do it again.

This time, just the two of them. Come, let us go over to the Philistine garrison on the other side.

Apparently, the other side of a canyon or some kind of ravine, something like that, in verse one. He didn't tell his father, probably because he was afraid

Saul would veto the idea. That's too risky. Little chance of success. Let's wait.

Let's kind of just hope things somehow turn out in our favor. Saul is camped outside of Gibeah.

Literally, in Hebrew, it just says in the pomegranate. They supplied the word cave here, like he was in a cave.

More likely, it's under a tree. With him was a priest, a hijah, Ichabod's brother.

It's interesting. Usually, you don't identify somebody by who their brother is in the Bible, but this is to remind us of Ichabod.

Remember Ichabod? Remember he was the boy who was born on the day his father,

Phineas, was killed by the Philistines, and the Israelite army was routed, and the

Ark of the Covenant was captured, and when his mother heard that news, she started to give birth, went into labor, and her last words were to name him

Ichabod. Where's the glory? As in, the glory has departed.

We're reminded of that here because it looks a lot like we're on the verge of another crushing defeat.

What's Saul gonna do about it? Nothing. He's sitting under a tree, waiting and hoping.

In chapter 14, Saul wouldn't wait enough. Remember, he got impatient, had to offer the sacrifice, which he wasn't supposed to do.

He wouldn't wait on the Lord. Here in chapter 15, he's waiting too much, hoping something will happen.

All his decisions here are foolish. They're the wrong ones. He's like some people just hope that whatever happens, something will happen out of their control that will help things go their way, get the thing that's in their way out of their way.

But Jonathan takes action without the rest of the people. That's daring. It's daring because to get to the

Philistines, he has to cross some kind of a canyon. He'll have to do some rock climbing, first go down one cliff.

It's so prominent, this cliff, they actually have a name for it. Now think about that. You don't name a cliff unless it's pretty prominent.

You don't go around usually naming cliffs, but they named these two that he has to go down one and up on the other. So he has to rock climb down one and then across this ravine or canyon and then up the other cliff, which they've also named.

It's so daring, no one thinks that anyone will attack that way, that the canyon is an insurmountable barrier.

Jonathan's daring ideas to cross the canyon and then attack into the middle of the Philistine camp. He says, come, to a sidekick here, come, let us go over to the garrison of those uncircumcised, those people who are not in a covenant with God.

And he says in verse six, it may be, he's not presumptuous. He's not assuming.

He doesn't yet have any idea that God has promised them this. He's just daring.

It may be that the Lord will work for us. What's getting in the way?

The trembling, timid troops back in the camp would say, are you serious? What's getting in the way? Well, first, there's more

Philistine soldiers than we can count. There's our lack of weapons. There's all our deserters. We're diminishing.

We've diminished so small already. We're down to 600 troops. All of them are intimidated and trembling. And then there's that canyon.

There's a lot in our way. And that's how they were thinking. What Jonathan was thinking at the end of verse six, nothing can hinder the

Lord from saving by many or by few. What gets in God's way?

Well, nothing. It doesn't matter whether you're down to 600 or six or one lone disciple, brave enough to come to the cross.

Still, nothing can hinder the Lord from saving. That's what Jonathan thinks. And he says, hey, let's climb down Bozes.

You know Bozes? We so big we named it. And across the canyon, up Sinai, and then attack this army that's as many as the sand of the seashore, that huge, just you and me.

What a proposal to make to your friend. And the loyal sidekick says in verse seven, do all that is in your heart.

Do as you wish. Behold, I am with you, heart and soul. He's daring too. This unnamed hero.

The church needs unnamed heroes, sidekicks who go with the daring, heart and soul.

We call them church members. Well, so they do. Jonathan thinks that instead of hiding behind the rocks, apparently this is while they're on their way, the first idea where you would think you would hide among the rocks and try to get as close as you can, you know, hiding and then sneak up on them.

But instead he thinks, hey, let's reveal ourselves out in the open, come out from hiding. And so they'll see us.

And then in verse nine, he has a test. It's not quite like Gideon's fleece. It's like, kind of like that, not quite like that, which is a test whether to attack or not.

Remember Gideon's fleece? Here, Jonathan's already decided to attack. So here he's asking

God about how he should do it. It may be that the Lord will work for us. He's not certain, but he is certain that nothing can hinder the

Lord from saving by many or by few. The test here was how to attack.

Do we go up to them or do we draw them down to us? Well, let's ask the

Lord for a test. Compare this now to Gideon's test, whether the wool was wet or dry in contrast to the ground, which is about inanimate objects.

So the variable in Gideon's test was water. Was water in the wool and not in the ground?

Or the next thing was water in the ground but not in the wool that God could control, right?

There's nothing particularly controversial about that. That was Gideon's test. Tests depend on the variable that changes depending on the question, on the conditions given.

Notice here in verse nine what the variable is because this is important. What's the variable in Jonathan's test?

Jonathan's test is if, this is the variable, they say to us.

It's not whether something like when the ground is wet, the fleece is dry and vice versa. No, it's what they say, whether the people respond, these

Philistines respond in a certain way. If they say, wait until we come to you, if they say that, well, that's the variable, then we will,

Jonathan says, we will stand in our place. We'll draw them out and try to defend ourselves here against overwhelming numbers, no promise of victory, just daring.

If they respond like that, again, that's the variable. But in verse 10, if, again, their response being the variable, they respond in a different way.

They say, come up to us, then we will go up to them.

So what Jonathan and the sidekick do depends on what the Philistines say, on how they respond.

If they say, come up, we'll go up. And he says, because if they do that, we will know the

Lord has given them into our hands. It'll be God's promise that he's given us victory.

Whether we have that promise then, Jonathan is saying, it depends on what they say.

But what does they say depend on? Think about that. Think, why are you laboring over this so much?

What is this little thing? No, this is important. Some say that God will not override free will.

People have free will and they say, well, God has bound himself to honor people's free will.

So he can't determine what people will say or do and then he, because he's just gotta let them do their own thing and hope he can do whatever around people's free will.

That's the way a lot of people think, that people's free will is out of God's control. But here, the condition or the variable that Jonathan lays out on how they will attack,

Jonathan is a sidekick, will attack, and whether they will know that God has given them the victory, the variable depends on God determining how the

Philistines respond. The Philistines' words are, as Jonathan assumes, under God's control.

Yes, they respond freely. They say what is natural for them to say.

Not as though they were compelled to say something that was against, I wanna say something, but God makes me say this. No, but God put them there.

He was in control of everything that shaped how they would respond. God just shaped what

Jonathan would choose to make as his sign that the Lord would save. The Philistines chose to say what

Jonathan chose because God first chose. In verse 11, they say, look,

Hebrews are coming up out of the holes where they have hidden themselves. They're probably laughing, mocking, scoffing, insulting, look, they're coming out of their holes.

They've been hiding from us all this time. These Hebrews, they're cowards, hiding from us. Mighty Philistines.

They hailed them in verse 12 and said, hey, you down there, and said of their own free will, they said of their own free will, exactly what

God's plan in hand had predestined they would say. Come up to us and we will show you a thing.

Well, it still takes daring for Jonathan and his sidekick to go up, even though the sign has been fulfilled, but Jonathan has daring and he says to his sidekick there, come up after me for the

Lord has given them into the hand of Israel. Notice, by the way, it's not just about him.

It's not the Lord has given them into my hand because I'm so mighty, but about the people of God. He's given them into the hand of Israel.

And then in verse 13, he rock climbs up the other cliff, hoping the Philistines don't shoot arrows and throw spears at him, but they were probably too arrogant for that.

We can take him when he gets up here. And then when he gets to the top, Jonathan apparently knocks them down and the sidekick finishes them off.

20 altogether over the space of about an acre. Jonathan did it because he had faith.

Martin Luther said, faith is a living, daring confidence in God's grace. So sure and certain a man would stake his life on it a thousand times.

Jonathan's daring confidence in God, got him over the obstacle and started the chain of events that led to the victory.

Remember, he and his sidekick scaled a canyon where the Philistines would never expect an attack where they probably likely undefended.

And so they are apparently, Jonathan and his sidekick are apparently in the middle of the Philistine army and their camp. And the result was when this attack just by the two of them, but they don't know that the

Philistines don't know that. And the attack has been behind their front lines, right? You have guards, garrisons around an army camp.

And the result was suddenly Jonathan and his sidekick are in the middle of all that, killing the

Philistine soldiers. And they, Philistines, panic. You know, they were on the watch for attacks from there and from there, there were scouts looking out for anybody coming after them, but not from there.

How did the Israelites get there? And they didn't know there were just two of them. They assumed a whole army was in their midst.

The raiders, these bands of terrorists that we saw in last chapter, they were trembling, probably caught off guard in their tents, sleeping late after a raid out somewhere.

And suddenly there's Jonathan and his sidekick out there killing people right outside their tent.

In verse 15, and the Philistines are running around, they're not knowing what to do. They apparently, apparently there was an earthquake at the time, so the earth trembled.

And so adding to this, this sense of panic, and so it became very great.

All of this, these chain of events touched off by Jonathan's living, daring confidence in God's grace so sure and certain that he staked his life on it.

Jonathan's daring leads to Israel's recovering, second recovering.

Remember, Israel had been down. What do you do when you're down? Or when there's something that's insurmountable in your way and you need to recover?

You be daring. You take action. You go out and run in 95 degree weather.

You work the job, you pray, you read scripture, you get involved in church.

You don't just sit around. Start the recovery by doing.

Well, Israel's watchman, the scouts, they could see Philistines camp from a distance. This horde of the

Philistines was dispersing. This helter -skelter looks very confused, disorderly, very un -military -like in verse 16.

There's chaos among the Philistines. The Israel army, they don't know why. They can't figure out what's going on. Maybe some of our guys took it upon themselves to attack, and so Saul thinks, not, hey, let's go take advantage of their vulnerability, attack now, but hey, let's take a head count.

Let's take a roll, see if any of our guys went on an unimproved raid, and they found out that Jonathan and his sidekick were gone.

So after the head count, now imagine Jonathan and his sidekick are over there fighting, and Saul, rather than being daring himself, well, first he takes roll, and then once he figures out that Jonathan is attacking, still, he doesn't join the attack because in a hija, the brother of glory has departed, to bring in the

Ark of the Covenant to the camp there, and while he's dithering, he's talking to the priest, he's getting the priest to do some kind of ritual, the turmoil in the

Philistine camp is just getting louder and louder, and finally, in verse 19, Saul tells the priest, withdraw your hand, in other words, stop doing whatever ritual you're doing, and finally, he decides to attack, finally, in verse 20.

Then Saul and all the people who were with him rallied and went into the battle.

The rally begins the recovery. When Israel attacks, they find the

Philistines fighting among themselves, says every Philistine's sword was against his fellow, panic makes people do irrational things, like we saw three years ago with COVID, remember?

Which didn't turn out to be particularly dangerous for normal, healthy people, mostly dangerous to select people with conditions that are known to them, like the elderly, but you couldn't reason with people because of the panic, and people didn't think seriously about most of them, clearly, about what was going on.

It wasn't nothing, but it wasn't all that it was made out to be, but because of the panic, you couldn't reason.

Panicking people do irrational things, like wear a mask while driving in a car alone. Well, here, it makes the

Philistines turn on each other. Remember, the Philistines are a coalition of five city -states, and in their chaos, they come out of their tents and not knowing what's going on, they're in a panic, and they don't recognize each other, and they begin attacking each other, and so there was a very great confusion, and then in verse 21, there were some

Hebrews, people probably ethnically related to Israel, perhaps not

Israelites themselves, but ethnically close, who had allied with the Philistines, and when this chaos and this panic spread, and they're fighting among each other, and then

Israel finally starts to attack the Philistines, they switch sides and joined

Israel under Saul and started fighting the Philistines, so all of a sudden, all just because of Jonathan's daring, the whole battle is turned.

The Philistines were getting in Israel's way, but now a battle that looked for certain before, at the end of chapter 13, remember, they have almost no weapons, they have only 600 troops, they're all intimidated, so many men are deserting, and now it's all turned around because of Jonathan's daring.

Israel is now recovering because in verse 23, the Lord saved Israel that day. The Lord saved

Israel that day. Now, sure, he used Jonathan's daring, but the recovering is happening because the

Lord did it. There could have been more recovering that day if not for Saul's presuming, third, presuming.

The men of Israel were hard -pressed, they were burdened by Saul's presuming, like Israel had been burdened by Pharaoh in Egypt, making them make bricks.

When he finally leads Israel, when Saul finally leads Israel to attack, he thinks it will be a good idea to put the burden of a fast on Israel.

After all, I guess this is what he was thinking, I don't really know exactly, but you would think, well, you fast to seek

God's blessing, we've got to have God's blessing, right? You think, well, that's a good thing, but think how foolishly it comes out. Well, you fast to seek

God's blessing, to seek his will, to focus on spiritual things, to overcome an enemy, usually a spiritual enemy, to get

God's favor, to overcome it, and there's a time for fasting, but times of fasting are for prayer, for retreat, for being alone with God.

You don't fast and advance at the same time. You certainly don't fast in the middle of a battle.

Here, practically, you run out of energy. But there's a kind of pseudo -spiritual person who doesn't consider the practical.

Some of these people think if being practical is being worldly and it's unspiritual, you should never do it, as though God didn't create the world and cause and effect, create your body's need for energy.

Some Christians tell missionaries or pastors to not consider their pay, that they're supposed to trust the

Lord and not be practical about their needs. Some people think that churches shouldn't incorporate because that's practical, which they think is worldly, but the property has to belong to somebody, and if there's no corporate body, then it has to belong to some individual.

Some people think that any practical considerations should be avoided when interpreting the Bible, and so they'll interpret it in impractical ways and accuse you of putting science, putting reality ahead of the word of God, if you don't agree with their misinterpretation.

Here, practically, the Israelites need energy. They need to eat to fight and to run for the whole day, but Saul, in his presumption, imposed a fast on them, burdened them with a fast.

He said, "'Cursed be the man who eats food "'until it is evening, and I am avenged on my enemies.'"

Notice, by the way, that unlike Jonathan, who said that the Lord had given the

Philistines into the hand of Israel, Saul sounds like it's all about him, my enemies.

He's presuming it's all about him. So the Israelite soldiers don't eat, so they begin to run out of gas, even when they went through a forest, in verse 25, chasing the

Philistines, and there was honey on the ground. This is perfect honey, perfect, simple carbohydrates, there for the scooping up, provided by providence, to meet their practical needs.

There it is. But they couldn't eat it because of Saul's foolish curse. Jonathan, on the other hand, hadn't heard about the curse since he was busy fighting the

Philistines with his psychic, and so when he saw the honey, he dipped some of it out with his staff, and he ate it, and in verse 27, his eyes became bright.

Ah, it's a great example, by the way, of the very vivid, the visual way the

Old Testament is written. His eye, you can see that, right? Someone being refreshed, eyes becoming bright.

He was refreshed and recharged, he's ready to go. Now, all the Israelite soldiers could have been refreshed, but instead, because of Saul's presumption, they were faint, they're just dragging themselves along, they can hardly go on any longer.

Only then did someone tell Jonathan about the curse, and he said, in verse 29, 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. Not as great as it would have been, if not for Saul's presuming.

So they chased them down all the way to Ejelon, before it was Bethabod North, and now the

Philistines are starting to flee back home, all the way to Ejelon, which is about halfway back to Philistia, chasing them back to their homeland.

But fain and famished, as soon as the sun has gone down, the Israelite soldiers pounced on the captured livestock and ate it as fast as they could, even with the blood still in it, which in the

Old Testament is breaking the law, thus sinning against the Lord, and all that is the fruit of Saul's idea, his presumptuous idea of how to get

God's favor. He was, you know, he was thinking, how do we get God's favor in this battle? I know, we'll fast. And the result of that was they got less victory, and the men ended up sinning against the

Lord at the end. And they told Saul that his soldiers were eating meat with the blood in it, and he accuses them, you have dealt treacherously.

He provides a rock to slaughter the animals, and so the blood will drain out, and so they don't sin, and he tells them, do not sin against the

Lord, by eating with the blood. Well, that's fine, he's right, but he doesn't admit that it was his foolish curse that tempted them to do that.

So Saul built an altar so they could sacrifice, but he doesn't see that his curse has brought a curse on Israel.

Saul had presumption without faith, and Jonathan had faith without presumption.

Saul's presumptuous curse will mean that someone will need ransoming, fourth, ransoming.

Saul, after a slow start, wants to keep going at night. After his famished men have gotten recharged because of his foolish curse, and he says in verse 36, let us not leave a man of them, of the

Philistines, and he reminds them, you can get a lot more spoil when you attack at night, we get more of their stuff. And they said, do whatever seems good to you.

They probably want some more spoil. But the priest reminds him to seek God's will, and so Saul asks

God in verse 37, shall I go down after the Philistines? Will you give them into the hand of Israel?

But God didn't answer. You know, they use the urim and the thummim. I don't know exactly how it works.

It's like dice or whatever, something like that, but if it turns out, and God didn't answer, which is a sign something is wrong, that there's sin in Israel.

And Saul declares another foolish vow in verse 39. For as the Lord lives who saves Israel, though it be in Jonathan my son, he shall surely die.

Now, I don't think he suspected his son of anything. I think he meant it like, this is how serious

I am about this. I'm willing to sacrifice what is dearest to me.

I'm so earnest, serious about this. Take me seriously. Like some people say,

I swear on my children's lives, not at all dreaming that I'll actually give them up. But some of the people knew that Jonathan had eaten some honey.

That's why he was still going at the end of the day, strong. And the rest of them were just dragging.

So just to prove how serious he is, Saul says in verse 20, let's put all the rest of you, all the rest of you

Israelites on one side, me and Jonathan on the other. And the people say, do what seems good to you, the snicker of this time.

And Saul asked the Lord in verse 41, why have you not answered today? Whose fault is it?

And to his shock, the Lord chooses him and Jonathan. The people escape.

The sin is not in them. They're not cursed. Then Jonathan is chosen and he confesses to have eaten some honey.

And so the curse falls on him. Jonathan is cursed. And so Jonathan resigns to pay the price for his father's curse, to pay the price for this father's curse.

Here I am, I will die. Remember as we saw in Judges, they believe you absolutely have to keep your word.

If you make a vow, you have to fulfill it. No matter how much it hurts, you made the vow, you must fulfill it, no matter what you have to do to fulfill it.

Now, of course, the lesson Saul should have learned from Jephthah, remember the story of Jephthah, sacrifice his daughter.

When he said, whoever comes out of the house first, I'll sacrifice him. And he ended up having to do it.

The lesson Saul should have learned from that, which we should learn too, is don't make foolish vows.

If you know you have to keep your word, be careful what you say. Well, Saul declares in verse 44,

God do so to me and more also, you shall surely die, Jonathan. Now imagine earlier in chapters 10 and 11,

Saul wouldn't do anything of the mockers who reviled him, but now he's willing to kill his own son just to keep his foolish vow.

But the people overcome him. In verse 45, shall

Saul die, who has worked this great salvation in Israel? If it wasn't for Jonathan, if it wasn't for his faith, for his daring, this victory wouldn't have happened.

Far from it, they're pleading, they're insisting, they're demanding. As the

Lord lives, they say, there shall not one hair of his head fall to the ground.

They insist because he has worked with God this day.

Now, sure, he's under a curse because he showed, because of Saul's curse, but because he showed he had faith in the

Lord, faith that gave him a living, daring confidence in God's grace, so sure and certain that he staked his life on it.

Because he has faith, he is ransomed. The cursed are ransomed because of their faith.

You are cursed because of your sins. The curse is getting in your way.

But when you have faith, that living, daring confidence in the

Lord who can save you by few, who can save you by the one final sacrifice made for you, when you have faith in him, then you are ransomed and that curse is taken out of the way.

What you need to get what's in your way out of the way is faith.

What's in your way? Is it fighting? Fifth, fighting.

You don't want to fight. You don't want to face disapproval, criticism for seeking first the kingdom of God.

But in this world, you have fighting. To enter the kingdom of God, you have to go through fighting.

Israel was down, enemies all around. There's Moab, there's Ammonites, there's Edom, there's

Zobah, there's the Philistines, the Amalekites. It just never stopped. Saul fought them, even though he was dithering and kind of foolish in these two chapters here.

For the rest of his life as a king, he fought them valiantly. He attacked them all around.

He spared Israel from being raided, from being looted. And he attached other valiant fighters to himself.

He surrounded himself with family and with fighters. Jesus said, in this world, you have tribulation.

You have fighting, you have trouble. You're surrounded by enemies, the world, the flesh, and the devil.

And if someone promises you that you can have peace now and prosperity, that everyone will like you, favor with everyone, you don't have to fight.

You can have victory just for the speaking it. And by giving them a donation, don't forget that part, they're false teachers.

And they're part of the enemies that you're surrounded by. And you'll have to fight them.

It will sometimes be hard and take discipline and self -denial and make others upset.

But be valiant, be daring, fight hard.

Look for other strong, valiant believers to attach yourself to.

Join the church and be attached. What's getting in your way?

Don't worry too much about the enemies outside. Jesus told us that he's overcome the world. He's cast

Satan out of heaven so we can trample him down. The worst enemy that keeps us down is the one inside, the flesh, that sinful nature that makes us, when we want to do good, have evil right at hand.

That weakness in our hearts that loves money, its passions and desires. The pride that makes us love others' approval too much.

It tells us to trust in ourselves, to be presumptuous, to not believe, to have a dead faith that doesn't dare have confidence in God's grace, that doesn't stake our life on it.

That's what's getting in our way. But the good news is that those who are in Christ have crucified the flesh, crucified it when

Christ was crucified, with its passions and desires, so that you can overcome it and you can have that living, daring confidence in God's grace, so sure and certain that you could stake your life on it a thousand times.

When you have that confidence, you know that nothing can get in God's way.