The Battle of Faith and Folly

Prayer for the Church and the Battle Over the Abortion Amendment

I'm going to read to us two verses this morning from 1 Samuel 14, verses 6 and 7. The word of the Lord says,.

Thank you, Josh, for talking about stuff that was in the news yesterday, but this has been a very big week for us as the church. Our state has been under siege with people who desire to put abortion in our Constitution, and just this week that abortion amendment died, and the battle was won.

Yeah.

And it occurs to me, as I have been and we have been in this battle for our state and for the lives of the unborn, that as I've been in meeting after meeting with people talking about this, that it seemed to me that the greatest asset in this fight was the people of God, was the people in the churches, and it was with great sadness that I looked around and I didn't see a lot of people participating.

I didn't see a lot of pastors who were there, who were working on this, but the other thing that occurred to me in the midst of that is that in all our plans and all the things that we tried to do, all the materials that we printed, the signs that we made, the thing in my mind that seemed to be the thing that I was just hopeful that we would not forget was that the battle belongs to the Lord, and that we needed to be on our knees and we needed to be praying, even when the night seemed the darkest, even when the circumstances seemed to be out of control or headed in the wrong direction, that our faith in God, that He would win the battle, was the thing that just impressed upon me, and I wondered, are we praying enough?

Are we praying enough? In the end, God, who is sovereign, has decided, and with that, at least for a time, that abortion amendment is dead. Now, I'm sure that after they eat each other for a while in their fury and their anger at one another, the other side will come back and they will try and put that on the ballot again.

We can be praying now for our legislators, that they will enact some type of legislation that will prevent them from doing it again, so I urge you to continue to pray. In fact, I'll invite you to come and pray with us every Sunday morning.

We gather at 9 .30. We sit right back over there and we just pray together, and come and feel like you can pray, too. Yeah, I'll start off and Josh will pray and Lani will pray, but jump in there. Don't wait.

Just bring your request to the Lord. That's what that time is all about. That is the place where the church prays every week, and it is for everyone here. So Josh reminded me last week, I have 52 verses in chapter 14, so if I spend one minute per verse, I've gone over.

So here we go. My intent is to do 45 minutes here. I've streamlined this. It's mostly the text and one simple application that is not too far-fetched, is so obvious in the text. And so let's move on.

Jonathan’s Faith and Saul’s Failure to Lead

I wanted to entitle this the double-double-down, playing off of Josh's sermon last week, where he said bad leaders double down. And we certainly have seen the doubling down in politics this week, on the news this week.

And in the midst of all that's happening, my question is, is like, have we been here before? Does history repeat itself? And is there wisdom for us to look back and go, what happened last time? What did the church do last time that something like this happened?

Did we do it right? Did we get down on our knees and pray? Did we seek the God who is the one who wins the battle? But it's an interesting question if history repeats itself. Because sometimes I look back and sometimes it seems like it does, right?

Think about it. Is history repeating itself? Now, I can say with certainty, even though it seems like it does, that history does repeat itself when we don't learn from it. And when we ignorantly repeat the bad mistakes others have demonstrated to be bad mistakes, right?

Winston Churchill said, those who fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it. He's saying history doesn't repeat itself. Ignorant men repeat failures of the past. And perhaps that's why the Bible is so valuable to us.

And that's a quote from my wife. And it's why the enemy, the sin, the world, and the devil wants to erase the Bible. They want to get rid of it, right? Because the Bible reveals...it's the story of God, but it reveals man as he truly is, right?

It reveals us with our warts and all. Failures in the Bible are not glossed over. So, therefore, it is a treasure trove for us, for modern man, to look at what to do and definitely what not to do, right?

That's why we're studying the book of 1 Samuel. Now, this week, there are some questions that the characters in our story need to ask. They need to ask, what makes a godly leader? They need to ask, what are the missteps that others have made in the past?

And if I avoid those mistakes, maybe my leadership can be more successful. And in our story this week, we have two characters, two men, Jonathan and Saul. One of these men has listened and learned. He's learned the character of God from stories that have been passed down to him.

And his actions reflect a deep faith in that God that he's learned about. The other man is going to try and use religious means to control God. And the more religious he gets, the more out of control his world becomes.

His belief is more like superstition. He's looking for a spiritual fix that he can apply to his situation that will be easy, that will make him look good, all the while avoiding anything that might look like humility or repentance.

In fact, his religiosity is fake. It's just pretending. He actually doesn't have anything that he can put his faith in because he doesn't believe. And in regards to the past and past mistakes, it really seems like he's not paying attention.

So let's jump into the text this morning. We're in 1 Samuel chapter 14, and I will read the first section. On one day, Jonathan, the son of Saul, said to the young man who carried his armor, he said, come, let us go over to the Philistine garrison on the other side.

But he did not tell his father. Now, who is this armor bearer, right? It seems like this might be someone like a golf pro has who wanders around behind him pulling his cart and pulling out the required wood or iron, the appropriate one.

This is not some guy who walks behind Jonathan and says, you know, I think the three axe is better than the five sword in this situation, right? This is not that. Actually, an armor bearer was more like a lieutenant in the army, and they were assigned to very important people, right?

Very important generals, people that they didn't want to lose. And this armor bearer would watch the back of their commander, and they would come behind and they would deliver the killing blow, right?

Now, last week or two weeks ago, I was lamenting because I had this long narrative on Samuel delivering a rebuke. And I was like, man, there's no action in this. This week, I get all the action, all right?

So you've got Jonathan, and he's saying, hey, we're going to go up to that Philistine garrison over there, just you and me, all right? Now, I'm going to go ahead of you, and I'm going to be slashing. And it's not like the movies, okay?

They're not doing back flips. They're not spinning around and doing all this stuff. That's a good way to get yourself killed in the Bronze or Iron Age, right? Because you would just get swarmed, and you would die, all right?

But these two guys take on a formidable, more than them, garrison, and they're marching in here. So Jonathan's going to be trying to take somebody down, and his armor bearer's right behind him, delivering the killing blow, okay?

That's how they did this, okay? So verse two, it says, Saul was staying, or that's yeshuv in the Hebrew, which means.

Sitting.

That's the greater usage than staying. He was sitting. Who was the last person who was sitting in this book? It was Eli, sitting at the gates of the temple, or the gates of the tabernacle, the gates of the city, okay?

So Saul is sitting in the outskirts of Gebeah in the pomegranate cave at Migron. The people who were with him were about 600 men. And this 600 points back to the remaining number of men after Benjamin was slaughtered by their countrymen.

So this points to disaster. Okay, it says in verse three, including Ahijah, the son of Ahitub, Ichabod's father, son of Phinehas, son of Eli, the priest of the Lord in Shiloh, and he is wearing an ephod.

Wait a second. Saul has, as his priest, a disqualified man from the line of Eli, okay? Because if you've been with us all the way through this story, we know that Eli was cursed. His family line was cursed.

He's never to be, they're never to be priest again. This is also pointing to disaster. And I'm thinking, Saul, what are you doing? Why didn't you ask Samuel to be your priest and your prophet on the battlefield?

Where is Samuel? Okay, we'll continue reading. It says, and the people did not know that Jonathan had gone. So Jonathan is, we don't know how long one day is, between last week when we saw him take out another Philistine garrison, but he's been waiting and waiting, and the battle's gotten worse and worse because Saul pulled back to Gilgal, waited for Samuel, gave the Philistines the opportunity to regroup, and they took out all the supply lines.

They spread out.

And very strategically, they did something really, really smart. And so Jonathan's looking at this going, what happened?

And he's waiting.

He's waiting for Saul to do something. Saul's not doing anything. He's just sitting there. So Jonathan decides, man, somebody has to do something. Now it says, verse four, within the passes by which Jonathan sought to go to the Philistine garrison, there was a rocky crag on the one side and a rocky crag on the other.

The name of one was Bozes, which means, it either means shiny in the Aramaic, which it could be that it's full sun exposure on this side, no place to hide. It could also mean slippery in the Hebrew. So you got one side that's named Slippery, and then the name of the other is Senenna, which means thorny.

So you've got Slippery on one side, Thorny on the other side. And the crag rose on the north in front of Michmash, and on the other, the south in front of Geba. So this exposed and difficult valley is the path that Jonathan and his armor bearer are going to take to attack the garrison.

And I'm thinking, maybe that's why they got so far, because the enemy thought nobody's going to be so stupid to attack from this direction, right? And then Jonathan says to his young man, who carried his armor, come, let us go over to the garrison of these uncircumcised, these pagan people, these people who don't believe in Yahweh.

And it may be that the Lord will work for us, for nothing can hinder the Lord from saving by many or by few. I think that this, if you were to find a key verse within this whole chapter, this is it. That statement by Jonathan is amazing, right?

And I've quoted it several times this week. Nothing can hinder the Lord from saving by many or by few, by many or by few. Now, this comment points me back to the story of Gideon, right?

Why?

Gideon calls, or God calls Gideon to be a judge as he's hiding in the winepress, threshing out his grain. He is hiding from the Midianites. The story, we find it in Judges 6, verses 2 through 6, is so similar to what's happening right here in 1 Samuel.

It says, in the hand of Midian overpowered Israel. And because of Midian, the people of Israel made themselves dens that are in the mountains and caves and strongholds. Where is Saul sitting? In a cave.

For wherever the Israelites planted crops, the Midianites and the Amalekites and the people of the east would come up against them and they would encamp against them and devour the produce of the land as far as Gaza and leave no sustenance in the land of Israel and no sheep or ox or donkey.

For they would come up with their livestock in their tents and they would come like locusts in number. Both they and their camels could not be counted. So they laid waste to the land as they came in. And Israel was brought very low because of Midian and the people of Israel cried out for help to the Lord.

So in the same way, the Philistines have come in. Remember last chapter, they said they took away all of their swords, right? They killed all their blacksmiths so that the people of Israel had to go to the Philistines to get their plows and their shovels sharpened.

And of course, they probably didn't do a very good job because they had a monopoly on it. They paid a huge, huge price to get it done. They were oppressed by these people, just like the Midians, Midianites.

So what does Gideon do? God calls Gideon and the first thing he does is he destroys an altar of Baal and he gets the name Jerubbabel, which means let Baal contend against him or contender of Baal. And he sounds the trumpet to his countrymen and 32 ,000 men rallied to Gideon.

And then God says, no, no, no, this is not going to work. You've got too many men. He goes, ask everybody, ask all the men, who is afraid? So Gideon asked and 22 ,000 men go, I'm afraid. He goes, go home, go straight home.

And then God looks at the 10 ,000 he has left and he goes, nope, still too many. And so what does he do? He says, let's do a drinking test, okay? Let's have all the men, all these 10 ,000 men, let's have them go down to the river and watch how they drink, okay?

Now the guys who go down and get on all fours and they lick it up like a dog, put those guys to the side. I want those guys. The guys who kneel down and they get it up in their hand and they kind of drink like this, send them home, okay, straight home.

Gideon has 300 guys left and God says, that'll do, that'll do. And how does he destroy the Midianite army? He throws it into chaos and God wins the victory. So Jonathan, I think Jonathan is when he says by many or by few, I think he's thinking back to Gideon and going, you know what?

Gideon only had 300. He destroyed thousands and thousands of Midianites and Amalekites. So let's just go up to this. Let's you and me go up here. 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. I got your back. Listen to the loyalty and the allegiance that this guy has. He encourages his commander. Yes, let's do this. And Jonathan says, behold, we will cross over to the men.

We'll 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. 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 assigned to us. Now, is this like Gideon here where he's testing the Lord? And I would say, no, Gideon is putting out a fleece because he doubts God. But Jonathan is not doubting God.

Remember, he says nothing can hinder the Lord from saving by many or few. What he's doing is he's not being presumptuous upon the Lord. He said, I know that the Lord wants us to do this, but this might not be the time.

And if they start coming at us, we're going to head out.

We're going to run.

But if they call us up, then we're going to go up and we're going to know that God has put them into our hand. And that's what happens. Both of them showed themselves to the garrison and the Philistines.

They stuck their heads up just like whack-a-mole, right? They stuck their heads up. And the Philistines said, look, the Hebrews are coming out of the holes which they have hidden themselves. And the men of the garrison hailed Jonathan and his armor bearer.

I'm sure they're laughing here. They say, come up to us and we'll show you something. I wonder what they were going to show him. And Jonathan said to his armor bearer, come up after me, for the Lord has given them into the hand of Israel.

And Jonathan climbed up on his hands and feet. They had to scramble up this ravine. And the armor bearer was after him. And they, the Philistines, fell before Jonathan and his armor bearer. And the armor bearer killed them after him.

And that first strike with which Jonathan and his armor bearer made killed about 20 men within half a furrow's length in an acre of land. So I think that that's about half an acre of land and half a furrow's length as far as the width.

So they just went, they just plowed through. And half an acre, they killed 20 people. And there was great panic in the camp and in the field and among the people in the garrison. And even the raiders trembled.

And then the earthquake, and it became a very great panic. Okay, now we have to see and recognize that our idea of warfare is heavily influenced by Hollywood. So we see this in the movie all the time.

We go, yeah, this is only 20 men. Although if you read in Chronicles, the mighty men, they're like killing like 300 people. So, but two on 20 was remarkable still. Now, let's shift scenes. We'll go from Jonathan, who started the battle.

And now we're shifting to Saul. And we're gonna watch him double, double down, okay? Last chapter, we saw he sacrificed without Samuel, which was not good. So you'd think that he's done with the religious practices after getting severely rebuked, that he's done overstepping his role as acting like a priest.

Oh no, Saul is gonna double, double down, all right? So here we see, meanwhile, verse 16, and the watchman of Saul and Gebeah 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's gone from us. And when they had counted, behold, Saul, or behold, Jonathan and his armor bearer were not there. 18, important. So Saul said to Ahijah, bring the ark.

What?

Bring the ark of God here. And then it says, for the ark of God went at that time with the people of Israel, okay? One, this is such a bad idea, such a bad idea. Saul doesn't seem to have a clue. He doesn't remember what happened in 1 Samuel 4.

He continues to do the same thing that brought judgment, but thinking that there's gonna be a different result, right? And my favorite phrase, quote, insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results.

That is attributed to Einstein, and I think that's brilliant because that's what we see that Saul is doing. Now, the scriptures say that the ark was in Kiriath-Jerim, and it says later that David is the one who brings it from there into Jerusalem.

So this could actually be a misprint. It could be actually talking about the ephod that Ahijah is carrying because it says in verse 19, while Saul was talking to the priest, the torment of the camp of the Philistines increased more and more.

So Saul said to the priest, withdraw your hand, okay? So it could be that he's using the ephod here, right? Or it could be that they have taken the ark from Kiriath-Jerim, and they're gonna bring it back at some time.

Either way, it looks like Saul is collecting all of these religious artifacts to himself, right? To give him strength in battle, right? And he's looking to those things. But of course, when things get bad, when the torment starts to get into a frenzy, he says, nevermind.

I'm not waiting on God. I have zero patience. We need to get out there, all right? So verse 20, then Saul said to all the people who were rallied with him and went into the battle, and behold, every Philistine's sword was against his fellow, and there was great confusion.

God is defeating the Philistines in the same way he did in chapter seven, and the Midianites in Judges. Remember the thunder in chapter seven. Now, the Hebrews who had been with the Philistines before that time, who had gone up with them into the camp, even they turned to be with the Israelites who were with Saul and Jonathan.

Likewise, all the men of Israel who'd hidden themselves in the caves in the hill country of Ephraim heard that the Philistines were fleeing, and they too followed hard after them in battle. Boy, it's really easy, really easy to take a stand when you're winning, right?

Otherwise, you're hiding in a cave. And then it says 23, so the Lord saved Israel that day, and the battle passed beyond Beth -Avon, which is the northern boundary of Benjamin. The next section, Saul makes a vow.

He calls for a fast. He says, no more eating. Verse 24, and the men of Israel who had been hard-pressed that day. Okay, this is important. The men of Israel had been hard-pressed that day. They were tired, they were worn out.

So, so Saul had laid an oath on the people saying, cursed be the man who eats food until this evening, and I am avenged on my enemies. Notice he's saying, why is cursed is the man who eats food until I am avenged on my enemies.

This is very selfish. This is a great time, Saul, to be asking the Lord what you want, but you don't. Instead, Saul is acting as a melek, right? He's acting as a king, the top of the food chain. He was called to be God's Nagid, who is to be a prince under God, but he is not acting or asking God, which is ironic because his name means ask.

So, none of the people had tasted food. Now, Saul makes this vow, and I'm wondering, does he even know the story of Jephthah, right? Judges 11, 30. Even more recent than the story of Gideon is the story of Jephthah, who makes a vow to the Lord.

He says, if you give, if God, if you will give the Ammonites into my hand, then whatever comes out of the doors of my house to meet me when I return from peace, in peace from the Ammonites, shall be the Lord's, and I will offer it up for a burnt offering, okay?

Here's another rash vow in Israel's history, and yet Saul makes a rash vow. Verse 25. 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.

The honeycomb was so full of honey, it's just dripping onto the ground. But no one put his hand to his mouth, for the people feared the oath. But Jonathan had not heard his father's charge to the people with the oath, so he put out the tip of his staff that was in his hand, and he dipped it in the honeycomb, and he put it in his mouth, and his eyes became bright, okay?

This is not magic honey, right? Honey is good, though. And honey does sustain you, right? And what it's saying is it's giving him energy here. 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. Notice it says, and the people were faint there, because we're gonna see that repeated again. Then Jonathan said, my father has troubled the land. Okay, this is the same language that Joshua uses of Achan when he steals stuff that was supposed to be destroyed.

And then they try and go to battle again against Ai, and they are defeated. And Joshua calls Achan a troubler. So Jonathan, using the same word, my father has troubled the land. See how my eyes have become bright, because I tasted a little of this honey, just a little bit.

How much better if the people had eaten freely today from the spoil of their enemies that they found? What he's saying is it wouldn't have cost us anything. We could have still pressed the battle. If we just, we wouldn't have to cook food, and that would have slowed us down.

But if we'd just gotten the rations off of the enemy and eaten them as we were fighting, what does he say? Now the defeat of the Philistines has not been great. Our battle, we would have been so much more effective.

Then it says in 31, they struck down the Philistines that day from Michmash to Ahijalon, which is way, way west, which is outside of the territory of Benjamin, almost to the Philistine territory. And then it says, and the people were very faint.

Okay, so that's repeated again. The people pounced upon the spoil and took the sheep and the ox and the calves, and they slaughtered them on the ground, and the people ate them with the blood. So they're just devouring these animals.

Okay, they're like crazy, ravenous men.

They're feral.

The people pounced upon the spoil. Then Saul said, behold, then they told Saul, behold, the people are sinning against the Lord by eating with the blood. And suddenly Saul becomes an authority on God's law, deflecting from his rash oath that caused, that led the people into sin.

And he says, you guys, you have dealt treacherously, blaming them, right? He says, roll a big stone over here to me. And then Saul said, disperse yourselves among the people and say to them, let every man bring the ox or sheep and slaughter them here and eat, and do not sin against the Lord by eating the blood.

So they propped the animal up on the big stone so that the blood could run out of it instead of pull up inside the animal as it's laying on the ground. 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. Okay, what does that mean? So Saul builds an altar, which is the practice of the patriarchs and the judges. They, when they had a victory, they would build an altar or a monument there.

It's interesting though, it says that this is the first altar that he built to the Lord. The word in Hebrew for first is actually the word for begin, or he began to build an altar to the Lord. I love Hebrew because of the range of meaning.

So certain words, even though they mean one thing right here, they're associated to a whole family of other words. This word, this specific word that they use for first or began is also associated with the word profane.

So it's really interesting for a Hebrew reader to read this and go, this was the first, or he began to build an altar to the Lord, or this is a profane altar to the Lord. Interesting. 36, then Saul said, let us go down after the Philistines by night and plunder them until the morning light, and let us not leave a man among them.

Man, yes, let's do it. And the people say, whatever. Contrast this to Jonathan's armor bearer. Man, I'm with you heart and soul. Hear the allegiance, the loyalty. But Saul has just run his men ragged to the point where they're ravenous and they're consuming raw meat with blood in it.

And he says, man, let's take them out. Let's pursue them all night long and plunder them until the morning and not leave a man among them. And they go, whatever. But the priest says to him, hey, let's draw near to God.

So Saul inquired of God, shall I go down after the Philistines? Will you give them into the hand of Israel? But God did not answer him that day. Remember that. He did not answer him that day because it's important.

And Saul says, come here, all you leaders. God's not answering me. So somebody has sinned. Somebody has sinned. He says, come to me, all you leaders, 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.

This guy just can't say anything that's worth any kind of value here. Man, that's gonna come back to bite him. He says, but there was not a man among the people who answered him. So nobody confessed. Then he said to all of Israel, you shall be on one side and I and Jonathan will be on the other side.

Bring that ephod over here. We're gonna roll the dice and we're gonna see who is guilty. Therefore Saul said, O Lord God of Israel, why have you not answered your servant this day? This guilt is in me or Jonathan my son.

O Lord God of Israel, give Urim. But if the guilt is on the people, give Thummim. So they're using the Urim and the Thummim, these two stones that were in the ephod to determine who is guilty. And then Saul said, cast the lot.

And then Jonathan and Saul were taken and the people escaped. So the people are not guilty, but Jonathan and Saul are under the microscope. Then it said, cast the lot between me and my son Jonathan and Jonathan was taken.

So here's my question. If God is not answering Saul, the power behind the Urim and the Thummim is God, right? They're not magic stones, right? So if God is not answering Saul, did the Urim and the Thummim work?

Because Jonathan is guilty of breaking the oath, but Saul has sinned. Saul should have said, hey, you know what? I made a bad oath. My oath was wrong. I caused everyone to sin. I need to repent. But he doesn't do that.

He is in a corner. And he doubles down. Now he has to kill his son. But my question is, does Saul have another option? Is this the only option that he has? Well, Samuel told him that he should write down all of the law of the Lord and that he should read it regularly.

Leviticus 5, it says, if anyone utters with his lips a rash vow to do evil or to do good, any sort of rash oath that people swear, and it is hidden from him, when he comes to know it and he realizes his guilt in any of these, when he realizes his guilt in any of these and confesses the sin that he has committed, he shall bring an offering.

He shall bring to the Lord as his compensation for the sin that he's committed, a female from the flock, a lamb or a goat for a sin offering. And the priest shall make atonement for him and for his sin.

If Saul had just realized, oops, I made a mistake. Now, how hard is this for us, right? Because you've done it and I've done it too, right? We make a mistake and we don't wanna admit that we made a mistake.

And so we double, double down, right? We don't confess. We don't come to the Lord and ask for repentance, knowing that that's an option. We have an option to take. It's actually a better option. But in our wisdom, we say, no, you know what?

I'm gonna double down. Now, then Saul said to Jonathan, tell me what you've done. And Jonathan said to him, I tasted a little honey with the tip of the staff that was in my hand. Here I am. So now I will die.