1 Samuel 14:24-46

Sovereign Grace Family Church

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October 30, 2022

1 Samuel 14:24-46

00:12: Amen.
00:12: Alright, let's open our Bibles to Samuel, 1 Samuel chapter 14, and we ended with chapter 14, verse 23 last week where it said, So the Lord delivered Israel that day, and the battle spread beyond Beth-haven.
00:43: I know normally we read the whole chapter, but because this chapter has been so long and I knew that we would not get through it all, that's why I'm not reading it in its entirety.
00:53: My plan is to try to finish this chapter today, but if not, we'll just keep going until we get there and move on.
01:02: And because I'm probably going to slow down some, because the intention originally was to try to finish in 31 weeks, but now, there's really no reason to, so I'm going to slow down when we get to some areas that we could spend a little bit more time, preferably, probably chapter 15 when we get to Saul's disobedience, and when David fights the Philistine, we'll probably spend a couple of weeks there as well.
01:37: All right, so here we are, chapter 14, verse 24, it says, Now the men of Israel were hard-pressed on that day.
01:47: So Saul had put the people under oath, saying, Cursed be the man who eats food before evening until I avenge myself on my enemies.
01:56: So last week, what brought us to where we're at today? Does anybody remember? That's right.
02:10: Jonathan attacked the garrison, and why was the garrison put in place? Because King Saul wasn't doing his job.
02:19: King Saul's job was, by God, had commissioned him to go out and be the deliverer of Israel.
02:24: He was not doing, per se, what he should have been pursuing these people immediately as they were setting up garrisons.
02:32: Understand that sometimes in our mind, we think that they had quick knowledge of who was setting up outposts and stuff the way that we would today.
02:43: You've got to remember, there was no text message, no email.
02:46: They had guys that ran with letters and couriers and heralders, and it may be weeks before someone got to somebody to let them know, hey, man, these guys have set up a garrison.
02:56: Or in the case of when they sent the heralder of Nahash, when he had set up on the other side in Gilead, remember when Saul actually did the first great deliverance? It took them a week.
03:10: They said, hey, give us a week to send somebody and a week to come back so they could figure out if there was going to be somebody to deliver them.
03:16: So this is why these garrisons get set up in all these different places.
03:20: As a matter of fact, the garrison that was set up was down in this area, and he is going to attack.
03:28: This is Michmash.
03:30: And if you remember last week, it was called a crack.
03:34: And in that valley, they're going to fight between here and here is what they're going to do.
03:41: So that's what brings us to where we're at today.
03:43: So when Saul says this, back up, you're going to see a contrast in verse 23 and 24.
03:49: It says, so the Lord delivered Israel that day, and the battle spread beyond Beth-haven.
03:55: But then listen to this.
03:57: The Lord had delivered them, but then it says in verse 24, now the men were hard-pressed on that day.
04:03: And why were they hard-pressed? What does it say? The Lord delivered them, but who hard-pressed the people? Saul did.
04:13: And how did he do it? He put them under an oath.
04:19: Put them under an oath.
04:20: Are oaths wrong? No.
04:23: What kind of oaths do we take? If you go before, you're going to be on jury duty.
04:33: You take an oath.
04:34: Right? Is that wrong? No.
04:38: You're taking an oath almost to tell the whole truth, nothing but the truth.
04:42: So oaths in and of themselves are not wrong.
04:46: Look, are vows wrong? No.
04:49: Anybody here married? You took a vow to your wife.
04:52: You better say, yeah, they're good.
04:55: Yeah.
04:56: Vows are good.
04:57: When they line up with scripture, they're good.
04:59: Correct.
05:00: When they're righteous and when they have a way of upholding the standard of righteousness.
05:09: Now, I wouldn't even say that in our judicial system, when we take an oath or a vow, our judicial system is in such a way that it's to reflect righteousness, justice, right? Okay.
05:22: So here it is.
05:23: Saul puts them under oath and he says, curse be the man who eats food before evening until I have avenged myself on my enemies.
05:35: What's the problem with that? Who's the focus? It's Saul.
05:42: Whose enemies are they? They're God's enemies.
05:46: He's the deliverer.
05:48: He's made this.
05:49: Once again, we've seen Saul's progression of, okay, I'm going to be the deliverer of Israel for God.
05:56: Now these enemies are not God's enemies.
06:00: They're his enemies.
06:02: And he's using, as me and Lee said yesterday, you're going to see these pronouns come up.
06:06: Me, myself, and I.
06:08: It's all going to be about Saul.
06:11: So once again, we're seeing, remember, we had this upward part of Saul starting with humility, right? Started with humility.
06:31: He said, I'm not the one that can be good enough to be the king of Israel.
06:38: Y'all remember that? He said, no, how can I be? I'm the smallest individual.
06:41: Then he winds up being delivered.
06:43: Remember, he gets here with Nahash chapter 11.
06:46: That was the pinnacle.
06:48: That was the pinnacle.
06:50: And all we have seen since then has been this right here.
06:57: And that's what we're going to continually see is the continual downward spiral.
07:02: What causes the downward spiral of Saul? What? Unbelief.
07:13: Unbelief.
07:14: What causes a downward spiral in anybody's life? Unbelief.
07:19: Unbelief.
07:20: It's not backsliding, okay? Backsliding ain't even a biblical term.
07:25: I just want y'all to understand that is a man-made fallacy.
07:31: The only three times that word is even used in scripture, it's used in the book of Jeremiah, and it says, one, I think it's in chapter seven, two times in chapter seven, it talks about your backslidings, and it's only in the King James, if I remember correctly.
07:51: I'm here to save you from your backslidings, stop you, oh, backsliding nation, and it's used another time a few chapters later.
08:01: Three times.
08:02: And actually, that word translated backsliding is erroneously translated backsliding.
08:12: The word that's used there is Tawab, and it means apostatize.
08:17: That's the word.
08:18: It means, and what does apostatize mean? Faithlessness.
08:22: So some of your translations, if you were to go back and read in Jeremiah, when that word's used, it says faithless, faithless, faithless.
08:29: That's the accurate translation.
08:30: So what are we seeing from Paul? Paul ain't backsliding.
08:32: I mean, Saul.
08:33: He ain't backsliding.
08:34: He is departing from the faith.
08:37: God gave him the ability and commissioned him to do a task, and he's going, I'm going to do it my way.
08:43: I'm going to do it my way.
08:44: When it came to waiting in Gilgal for seven days till Samuel came, what did he do? Did he wait? He waited six days in faith, and in the morning of the seventh, what did he do? He became faithless, and says, oh, I waited, and Samuel said, well, I'm here, and you did it anyway.
09:01: You see what I'm saying? His faith did not see it to the end.
09:05: Just like in the New Testament theology, it's not how you begin, it's how you end.
09:11: Look, everybody can start this race well, but does everybody finish the race well? All right? Understand? Okay.
09:20: So here we are, he makes him, curses a man who eats food before evening until I have avenged myself on my enemies.
09:27: So none of the people tasted food, and all the people of the land entered the forest, and there was honey on the ground.
09:35: Now, I would understand that some translations may have people of in italics.
09:43: Some may just say, and the land, they entered the land.
09:47: People of the land, I mean, the people were going into the forest.
09:51: Does everybody say people of the land there? Okay.
09:56: They entered the forest, and understand, it says there's honey on the ground.
10:02: What did honey always represent when they came into the land? When...
10:09: What's that? God's promise.
10:10: God's promise and prosperity.
10:12: When he says, hey, I'm going to take you across to Jordan, what am I going to lead you into the land of what? Milk and honey.
10:19: So when you come into a land, and it's dripping with honey and filled with milk, what should the Israelites have thought? Oh, wow.
10:27: Well, that's true.
10:28: Oh, wow.
10:29: Look, God has provided.
10:30: I mean, imagine you're walking into the forest, and we're not talking about seeing a honeycomb hanging there.
10:37: What does it say? Dude, it's on the ground.
10:40: That means it's in abundance.
10:42: It's in abundance.
10:44: So we see Saul's foolishness, or his order was foolishness, okay? Hey, look, you're not going to eat anything until I have avenged my enemies.
10:54: I would say that the vow itself is not sinful.
11:04: In this case, it was not sinful.
11:06: What's the motivating fact about Saul that makes this sinful? His motivation.
11:13: Yeah.
11:13: Which is motivated out of pride.
11:15: But me, me, me, me, me, me.
11:16: So what he's going to do, he's got men that are fighting, okay? We're not talking about making a stroll across the parking lot here.
11:24: You got men that are going to be fighting for hours on end, chasing men through valleys, up rocks, up hills, and we're fixing to see shortly, if we get that far, it's going to be some 20 miles they chase these men.
11:38: Imagine working all day, and not just working all day, but running 20 miles through valleys and hills and mountainous ranges and not eat.
11:49: He has actually laid a burden on the people that was absolutely unnecessary.
11:56: Unnecessary.
12:01: Verse 26, and when the people entered the forest, behold, there was a flow of honey.
12:07: But no man put his hand to his mouth, for the people feared the oath.
12:14: And the oath was, if you eat anything, Saul's going to put you to death.
12:18: For the people feared the oath.
12:19: But Jonathan had not heard when his father put the people under oath, therefore, he put out the end of his staff that was in his hand and dipped it into the honeycomb and put it to his mouth and his eyes brightened.
12:36: So here it is, Jonathan, his son, the valiant warrior, the man of faith, he sees the provision of the Lord on the ground as they're fighting.
12:45: He's running, his armor bearer with him.
12:48: He's got a spear in his hand.
12:50: I can just see him, you know, he's running with his spear, the spike in this way.
12:53: He just kind of spins it around, reaches down as he is either moving fast or chasing the Philistines, scoops up a little bit of honey, puts it on his hand, puts it in his mouth, and what does the text say happens? His eyes brighten.
13:07: Why would that have happened? Common sense.
13:11: Why? He was hungry.
13:13: He was hungry.
13:14: He was hungry.
13:15: He was starving.
13:16: He had been fighting.
13:17: Remember, him and his armor bearer had already killed how many within an acre? Last week? Within a half acre, they killed 20 men at that garrison, him and his armor bearer.
13:29: So he is hungry.
13:31: He's ready to eat.
13:32: And he sees that down there.
13:33: He goes, oh, wow.
13:34: In his mind, okay, and I know we're trying to understand what he's thinking.
13:37: We know this.
13:38: He goes, wow, God has provided me something to eat.
13:41: He reaches down, pops it up there, puts it in his hand.
13:43: He is brightened up, whether it be because of the sugar, whatever we know, we know this.
13:48: It energizes him.
13:50: And he's going to say that here shortly.
13:53: It says, and his eyes brightened.
13:56: Then one of the people said, your father strictly put the people under oath, saying, curse and be the one who eats food today.
14:04: And the people were weary.
14:07: Why were the people weary? I'd say two reasons.
14:12: They were hungry.
14:14: And the other, they were put under this oath that if I eat, I'm going to die.
14:19: I mean, imagine this, somebody catches you reaching down there, taking a little scoop of the honeycomb.
14:24: Next thing you know, Jerk King's going to be off with your head, okay? So your father strictly put an oath, cursed is the man who eats food today.
14:35: And the people were weary.
14:36: And verse 29, it says, and then Jonathan said, my father has troubled the land.
14:44: Jonathan has great insight here.
14:48: He says, not only is my dad foolish, but he's troubled the land.
14:57: Not just who's here, but anybody that's fighting in that land, we would understand that to mean the people, okay? He has troubled the land.
15:06: He's made the people more weary than they should have.
15:08: He said, see now how my eyes have brightened because I've tasted just a little of this.
15:14: And look what he says in verse 30.
15:17: How much more if only the people had eaten freely today of the spoil of their enemies which they had found.
15:26: How much more of what is he speaking of? How much more? No, how much more of Philistines would they have killed had they had eaten that day and been energized? Had they been eaten? Dude, they're weary.
15:43: Hey, if they would have eaten today, they could have killed more of these guys because they would not have been weary.
15:49: He says, how much more would it have been had the people had eaten of the spoil? Hey, was there anything wrong with them from eating from the spoil? Hey, they go into there, they kill everybody.
16:01: They find food, bread, wine, roasted lamb, beef, whatever.
16:08: Was anything wrong with them for eating the spoil? No, I mean, that's what they did.
16:14: You're going to see shortly that's what happens.
16:16: That was their job.
16:18: They were supposed to go in.
16:18: When God says you go in and you run these people out of the land unless God gives a specific command, which he does in chapter 15, and that's what makes it so grievous with Saul.
16:29: When they go in, they could take whatever spoil they want.
16:32: If they go in, they kill those people.
16:34: They could take swords, armor, shields, spears.
16:40: They could take goats, cattle, they could take whatever they wanted.
16:43: It was theirs once they ran the people out unless God says that those things are deemed to Koram, which is devoted for destruction, and we'll get to that in chapter 15.
16:53: That's the only time that they were not able.
16:56: When they went into Jericho, were they allowed to keep any of the spoil? What's that? No.
17:03: No.
17:03: Why? Because God said it.
17:06: Devoted to destruction.
17:07: Devoted to destruction.
17:08: Everything, when they went into Jericho, was devoted to destruction, and what did Achan do? He kept that little isle of gold.
17:19: Then you go, man, they killed Achan.
17:22: Back up.
17:23: They killed Achan and all of his family.
17:25: Why did they kill his family? They were complicit.
17:29: Where did he hide it? In the tent with his family.
17:35: He pulled back the floor, put it under there, covered it back up.
17:39: The family knew, and they put them all to death for it.
17:43: Why? Because God deemed that spoil, everything in there, was to be given to God for destruction.
17:50: Verse 29 says that, I'm sorry, verse 30, how much more they would have been freely, they would have fought freely, only if the people had eaten freely the day of that spoil.
18:02: For now, the slaughter among the Philistines has not been great.
18:05: So you understand when he says how much more, and you get down here at the end, the slaughter had not been great, meaning had they eaten, the slaughter would have been great.
18:14: Then verse 31, they struck among the Philistines that day from Mekmash to Ajiwon.
18:24: There's no J in the ayah.
18:30: So they went from here, this is where all that fighting went.
18:42: You see what they're trying to do, they're pushing back this garrison that they had started about to here.
18:52: They're pushing that garrison and that army of the Philistines back to where? Back to Palestine or Philistia.
19:02: They're pushing them back where they're supposed to go, they ain't supposed to be in our land.
19:05: So they're pushing them back.
19:08: Now that right there is about 20 miles.
19:12: That's what I was saying earlier, how far these guys had been scrapping, not including when they started down there in Gibeah and pushed them up through Mekmash and the crag and now pushing out that direction.
19:24: So now we get to verse 32.
19:30: They had fought them that day, they pushed them back to Ajiwon and the people were very weary.
19:39: Common sense says, why were they weary? They hadn't eaten.
19:44: They hadn't eaten.
19:45: Verse 32, the people then rushed greedily upon the spoil.
19:50: They took the sheep, the oxen, the calves, they slew them on the ground and the people ate them with the blood.
20:01: That's some hungry folk.
20:04: Now there's a couple of ways of understanding that.
20:10: Could it be that they went in there, stuck the little calf or little lamb right there in the neck and started chewing on it, fur and all? Possibly.
20:24: Kind of hard for me to believe that, but it might be, okay? But it could be the way that they slew them or killed them.
20:31: They didn't kill them in such a way to drain the blood.
20:34: Remember, what was under the old covenant or under this covenant that they're under, what did it say they were supposed to do? They were not supposed to...
20:42: I think it's in Leviticus chapter 7.
20:47: Leviticus chapter 7, I think Deuteronomy chapter 12, verses 16, somewhere around there, it talks about don't eat the meat with the blood in it.
20:56: And why? Because the blood is worth a life.
20:58: The blood needs to be drained.
20:59: So even when they went to the temple or the tabernacle and they were to make a sacrifice and that sacrifice then was partialed out, part of that meat would go to the priest, what did they have to do? There was a specific way of doing it.
21:13: They cut the neck, they held up, they drained the blood out.
21:16: Remember, there was at times, there was so much blood when they were making sacrifices, they had to stop because they couldn't get the blood out of the temple.
21:23: They get it to run down to the Kidron Valley that they had to stop sacrificing because they were draining the blood because you're not supposed to eat bloody meat, right? So that could be how we could understand it is two ways.
21:37: My position would be they weren't waiting for the blood to be drained out.
21:41: They just started killing and roasting and eating.
21:45: Now, you and I look at eating a piece of rare meat.
21:48: We think when it's got some red juice coming out of it that that's blood.
21:51: Just to let you know, that ain't blood coming out of the meat.
21:54: That's the myoglobin, not to get too technical, but it's the myoglobin proteins that come out of the meat.
21:59: I prefer mine to be a little cold in the middle and warm on the outside.
22:03: That's how I like my meat.
22:04: So but that's not eating it with the blood.
22:07: In this case, they slaughtered it.
22:09: They did not drain the blood.
22:12: They cooked it and began to eat it.
22:13: What was the, was there a penalty for eating meat that had not been drained? Yeah.
22:24: What was it? Death.
22:26: Hey, what was, what was every penalty for breaking the Mosaic legislation? Death.
22:33: So anytime they don't put somebody to death, that was a gracious concession by God.
22:39: Is every violation of the Mosaic legislation a moral infraction against God by his people? Yes.
22:51: I don't care if they wove two fabrics together.
22:54: That's a moral infraction and it deserves to be put to death.
22:58: It actually says in Leviticus, if a person was to eat it with the blood, they were to be cut off from the people.
23:05: And most every time, my understanding of it, over 90% of the time when it talks about being cut off from their people, it was being put to death.
23:17: Look, if you, if a person, if a person refused circumcision to his family, what was supposed to be, what was supposed to happen to the family? The men.
23:30: Put to death.
23:31: Why? Because that was part of the Mosaic legislation.
23:34: That was it.
23:36: Look, circumcision is a sign of the Abrahamic covenant.
23:39: If you don't want to be under the Abrahamic covenant, you are to be put, cut off from your people and to be excluded and killed.
23:45: That was, that was the law.
23:47: So they were to be put to death.
23:50: But we see here, there's a, no one was for the, is the sin of the men eating the animals with blood, do they own that sin? That, did that come out correctly? Whose fault is it for them ultimately eating the meat with blood? Actually it's theirs.
24:16: I agree with you in the sense that who created the environment to which they, they compromised their law abiding.
24:28: It was Saul.
24:29: Saul, sure, they're guilty of what they did, but who led them into that temptation? Saul did, by putting them under a burden, making them fight.
24:40: Look, you were never supposed to muzzle the mouths of the ox while he's in the threshing floor.
24:44: That is actually talking about when the ox was beating the barley or the wheat to get the wheat out.
24:51: So we use that same principle.
24:52: If a man's fighting in the field and they're fighting and shouldn't he be able to eat? Sure.
24:58: Why? Because dude, he's going to be hungry just like that ox threshing the floor.
25:02: So it's Saul led them into this.
25:05: Saul's guilty for that.
25:07: But the men are guilty for their own sin of violating the Mosaic legislation.
25:11: So then it says the people ate with their blood, with blood in it.
25:16: And here's Saul.
25:18: Then they told Saul saying, behold, the people are sinning against the Lord by eating with the blood.
25:26: And he said, you have acted treacherously.
25:30: Roll a great stone to me today.
25:35: Saul says, you have acted treacherously.
25:38: He should have once again, he should have put the blame on himself is what they did was wrong.
25:43: Yes.
25:43: But y'all are doing what you're doing because of my bad decisions.
25:47: He's not said that.
25:48: He said, look, he doesn't come out and say that.
25:50: But what he's fixing to do, he's going to try to make right the wrong that he's done.
25:55: That's why he says, roll a stone here today.
25:59: And then Saul says in verse 34, disperse yourselves among the people and say to them, each one of you bring his ox, his sheep and slaughter it here and eat and do not sin against the Lord by eating with the blood.
26:15: My understanding of it is he brings the stone there.
26:18: If these men were going through there under the first spoil and just sticking the animals on the ground to kill them to eat was the blood by default.
26:28: The blood cannot drain.
26:29: Will we agree? Yes or no? Yeah.
26:32: You bring a stone, you stick it in the neck up here.
26:36: Let's say the stone was this high.
26:37: You stick it in the neck here.
26:39: What happens just by default of gravity? The blood begins to drain out.
26:45: So you see what Saul's trying to do here.
26:46: Look, I know you're hungry.
26:48: You bring him here to this stone.
26:49: We'll slaughter him on this stone.
26:51: The blood will go out.
26:53: And how do we know that? Because he says, don't sin against the Lord by eating with the blood.
26:56: So all the people that night brought each one of his ox with him and he slaughtered it there.
27:03: And in verse 35 it says, and Saul built an altar to the Lord and it was the first altar which he built to the Lord.
27:10: Now when we say altar, altars don't always mean a place of sacrifice or a place of worship.
27:18: I would understand this as more so of being a monument and what Saul was making for what has taken place.
27:24: If you want to disagree with me, I'm fine with that, but it would be hard to believe that Saul is making an altar of sacrifice here when there's really no sacrifice.
27:37: This altar that he has made in this area was for the men to eat.
27:41: Now we do see at times they set up, remember Ebenezers? What did that mean? Eben means stone and Ezer meaning help.
27:52: So they would set up these monuments where the Lord helped them.
27:55: The Lord was gracious to us today.
27:57: And that's how I would understand that is this is a monument.
28:00: And this monument he made to the Lord for either the slaughter or for providing provision.
28:06: But then we get into verse 36, it says, then Saul said, let us go down after the Philistines by night and take spoil among them until the morning light.
28:18: And let us not leave a man of them there.
28:21: And they said, do whatever seems right to you.
28:24: So the priest said, let us draw near to God.
28:27: Who was the priest, remember? It was the rejected priest of Eli's house.
28:35: Remember what little device he was wearing just last or last chapter? Or actually it was in this chapter.
28:42: What device did he have with him? What's that? For casting lots.
28:49: The technical term is the oomen and the thurman, that's it.
28:56: And what it was, it was a way of asking the Lord questions and they would throw them sort of like dice and that would give the answer if the Lord didn't speak audibly.
29:06: That's how we would understand that.
29:07: And here's how I would, as we read, we'll see.
29:11: He says, let us draw near to God.
29:14: So Saul inquired of God, shall I go down and will you give them into the hand of Israel? And understand this, what does it say? Somebody tell me what it says.
29:27: The end of verse 37.
29:30: It says he asked God and then what does it say God did? God didn't answer him.
29:35: God did not answer him.
29:37: Who, if we back up just a few chapters, who was the voice of God in Saul's life? Samuel.
29:46: Who's no longer in Samuel's life at this point? I mean in Saul's life? Samuel.
29:51: So who does he get to put in his entourage to be the voice of God in his life? A rejected priest.
30:03: A rejected priest.
30:04: So now you have a God, a rejected king.
30:07: Remember last week I put on the calendar, you had a rejected priest and a rejected king.
30:11: And now you've got them trying to work together because they don't really want to go to Samuel.
30:16: Because Samuel's already told him, hey man, you've been acting foolishly.
30:20: You're doing things on your own.
30:23: So the Lord did not answer Saul that day.
30:27: Verse 38, Saul said, draw near here all you chiefs and investigate and see how this sin has happened today.
30:36: So Saul understands that man, something's going on.
30:39: I'm asking God, should I go in to take out these Philistines? I'm asking him, should I go? He hasn't answered me.
30:47: There's something going on.
30:48: So what does he do? He says, let's investigate and see what's going on.
30:51: There's a sin in the camp.
30:54: For as the Lord lives who delivers Israel, though it is Jonathan my son, he shall surely die.
31:01: But no one answered him on that day.
31:05: Alright, so we had the foolish vow of putting the men under, don't eat, right? How stupid is this vow? That's pretty stupid.
31:19: He's saying, whatever this is, whoever this sin is, even if it's my son Jonathan, put him to death.
31:27: That's pretty stupid.
31:28: Is that not self-centered? He's willing to put his own son to death to save his own hide and to save his own reputation.
31:38: That is almost as foolish as Jephthah.
31:43: What did Jephthah do? Back in Judges.
31:48: Actually, not first person, yeah, but it wound up being a person.
31:52: He said, the first thing that comes out of my house, I'm going to offer it as a burnt offering to the Lord.
31:58: Not dedicated to the Lord, a burnt offering to the Lord.
32:04: So when Jephthah comes home after making a great slaughter that God already said he was going to give him, he didn't need to try to coerce God by saying, hey, if you give me this great slaughter, I'll give you a burnt offering or whatever comes into my house.
32:15: He was probably hoping that the beautiful young goat was going to come out as he come running down the street.
32:20: As he come running down the street, who's the first person that comes out of his house? His daughter.
32:25: Now, we're going to see in Jephthah's case, he didn't have anybody around him to say, hey dude, you're an absolute fool.
32:35: Don't offer your daughter as a burnt sacrifice.
32:38: And I know there's some debate about what Jephthah did as far as a burnt sacrifice.
32:43: I just want you to know, if you believe that he did not offer her up as a burnt sacrifice, that would be the only time in Holy Scripture that the word burnt offering means that they did not burn the thing.
32:58: The only time.
32:59: Are you raising your hand or scratching your head or am I making your head hurt? Okay, that would be the only time, all right? So Jephthah makes a foolish vow.
33:10: He carries it out.
33:12: Let's see what Saul does.
33:16: It says, where am I at, where did I go? Then he said to all of Israel, you stand on one side and Jonathan, my son, and me will be on the other side.
33:31: So here it is.
33:31: He separates the people.
33:34: The people said to Saul, do what seems good in your eyes.
33:36: Therefore, Saul said to the Lord, the God of Israel, give a perfect lot.
33:41: Hey, does anybody's translation, I think the new revised standard version, maybe the NIV, does anybody say that he uses the umam and the thuram in there? Does anybody have that translation in there? The perfect lot? That's it.
34:01: They actually use that, okay? That's the device.
34:06: Cast it and give us a perfect lot.
34:08: In other words, tell us who it is.
34:11: So they cast it and give us the perfect lot, meaning show us who it is, and Jonathan and Saul were taken.
34:17: So Jonathan was on one side, people, they cast it, it's Jonathan.
34:22: So now Saul says, cast lots between me and Jonathan.
34:29: So the priest cast a lot between him and Jonathan, it says Jonathan was taken, and then here it is in verse 43.
34:38: Then Saul said to Jonathan, tell me what you have done.
34:41: So Jonathan told him, I indeed tasted a little honey with the end of my staff that was in my hand.
34:49: Here I am.
34:50: I must die.
34:52: You understand that Jonathan is a very courageous dude.
34:58: He says, hey, I understand what you said.
35:01: You said whoever did this got to die.
35:04: All right, here I am, dad.
35:06: That's what you got to do.
35:08: So be it.
35:13: He says in verse 44, Saul said, may God do this to me and more also, for you surely shall die, Jonathan.
35:22: Can you imagine that? Imagine being willing to put your son to death for your stupidity.
35:34: Hey, did Saul have to put the people under an oath to go into the land to run these six or seven miles in a circle and then run 20 miles out of it? Did he need to put those people under that oath in order to manipulate God to get those Philistines to run out of the land? No.
36:00: And why? God had already told him, just like Jephthah, just like Gideon, just like all those other judges that didn't believe God when he told them to go do what you need to do the first time.
36:12: He didn't do it.
36:14: Why? Once again, so what are we seeing about Saul's trajectory? What's causing this? Which comes from where? Faithlessness.
36:29: He's unfaithful.
36:31: Unfaithful.
36:35: And he says in verse 45, but the people said to Saul.
36:37: Look at what the people stand in the way.
36:40: But the people said to Saul, must Jonathan die who has brought this great deliverance in Israel? I would imagine that that probably didn't help matters at first because who was supposed to be, who did the first raid last week? Who did the first raid against the garrison last week? Jonathan.
37:02: Who did this raid against the one in the garrison where they were holding up the pass in Micmash? Jonathan.
37:08: When Saul blew the horn the first time his son went and slaughtered the guys, who did Saul say did it? Saul has, I have made a great deliverance today.
37:18: So here it is.
37:19: The people realized here, who gave the deliverance? Ultimately God, but who was the instrument? Who was the vessel? Jonathan.
37:28: So I would imagine Saul, why didn't he say it was me? Must Jonathan die who has brought this great deliverance in Israel? And the answer from the people is far from it.
37:43: As the Lord lives, not a hair on his head shall fall to the ground, for he has, here it is, he's worked for God this day.
37:51: He didn't work for Saul.
37:54: He didn't work for the armies.
37:56: He worked for God.
37:58: So the people rescued Jonathan and he did not die.
38:01: And Saul went up from pursuing the Philistines and the Philistines went to their own place.
38:05: So basically at this point Saul tucks his tail and says, all right, all right, I'm going to go back to my own place.
38:15: Yes, sir.
38:15: It goes back to verse 6, doesn't it? In 14.
38:19: Many saving the few.
38:20: Yep.
38:21: Yeah.
38:21: Is God bound to save by few or many? Is he? Either way.
38:27: God's going to do how he's going to do it.
38:28: Whether it be with the jawbone of a donkey or whether it be with, I think it was last week I said, or an ox goad, or whether it be with a man who hides a knife up under his toga.
38:43: Yeah.
38:43: Whatever God wants to use, he's going to use it in this case.
38:46: He used, first and foremost, he used Jonathan and his armor bearer.
38:51: And then again, he uses Jonathan to initiate this great defeat of the garrison.
38:57: And the people saw that what Jonathan was doing was good.
39:00: And what did they do? They're like, oh wow, God's delivering us through this man.
39:03: And what do they do? They follow Jonathan.
39:05: That's why I do believe that if you, if we were to set up this and we've got three minutes, if you were going to set this up in an act, okay, chapters 1 through 7, remember was the rise of Samuel, 8 through 15 was the rise of Saul, or an fall of Saul, then from 16 on to the end of the chapter, chapter 31 would have been David.
39:27: But if that was the acts, inside of those acts, sometimes you would have, like I said, if this was a movie or something, you would have a supporting role.
39:35: Okay.
39:36: Well, in the chapters 8 through 15, the best supporting role right now is Jonathan.
39:43: Jonathan is the one who is the contrast between Saul, who is what? Unfaithful, and what is Jonathan? Faithful.
39:54: Jonathan sees the same thing Saul sees.
39:57: He sees this garrison and goes, oh wow, I need to offer a sacrifice to the Lord, so maybe God will then give me the victory.
40:05: And what does Jonathan say? He's already given him to us.
40:10: He's told us to go kill him.
40:11: Let's do it.
40:12: They see the same thing, but their two reactions are different.
40:16: One has faith and the other does not.
40:18: One believes and the other does not.
40:21: One's working for God and the other one's working for who? Himself.
40:28: Any comments, questions, protests, demonstrations? All right.
40:37: Lay your pray for us.
40:49: The study this morning will lead to us in our lives and keep us from preaching that will come to those that need to hear your word.
41:09: In Jesus' name, amen.
41:12: Amen.