Now you'll remember where we
left off a few weeks ago in chapter 13, that Saul had broken the
kind of uneasy peace that they had with the Philistines. And
the Philistines, in anger, gathered a very large army, in excess
of 330,000 men. And Israel is terrified. All
the people are deserting Saul. They're going off hiding in caves
in thick brush and so forth, because they know they're facing
certain annihilation. That's where we pick up in chapter
14. Now it came to pass upon a day that Jonathan, the son
of Saul, said unto the young man that bare his armor, Come
and let us go over to the Philistine's garrison that is on the other
side. But he told not his father. And Saul tarried in the uttermost
part of Gibeah under a pomegranate tree, which is in Migron, and
the people that were with him were about six hundred men. And
Ahiah, the son of Ahitub, Ichabod's brother, the son of Phineas,
the son of Eli, the Lord's priest in Shiloh wearing an ephod, and
the people knew not that Jonathan was gone." Now, Saul at one time
had about 2,000 soldiers with him, and now he's only got 600.
So that tells you how many people are deserting Saul. About 1,400
of these chosen soldiers had deserted Saul in fear. And the
writers suggest that Saul is sitting under this tree, depressed,
just waiting to be killed. He's not really planning on doing
anything. He's going to sit there until the Philistines come and
kill him, while Jonathan secretly takes this action. Let's read
on in verse 4. Between the passages by which
Jonathan sought to go over into the Philistines' garrison, there
was a sharp rock on the one side and a sharp rock on the other
side. And the name of the one was Bozes, and the name of the
other, Sinion. The forefront of the one was
situated northward over against Michmash, and the other southward
over against Gibeah. And Jonathan said to the young
man that bared his armor, Come and let us go over unto the garrison
of these uncircumcised. It may be that the Lord will
work for us, for there is no restraint to the Lord to save
by many or by few." Now, right there is the believer's comfort
in any time of trial. The Lord is able. The Lord is
able to deliver. He's able to work for us, and
there is no restraint to his power. None whatsoever. God doesn't
need a mighty, large army of men. Our Lord has all power. He's omnipotent in himself. If God be for us, who can be
against us? Jonathan's saying the same thing
here that Paul says thousands of years later. If God be for
us, Who can be against us? It may be he'll work for us.
And I know this from God's word. God will save his people from
their sins. He will deliver them from the
curse of the law. Despite the blackness and utter
depths and depravity of their sin, despite it being an infinite
amount of sin, God's able and he will save his people from
their sins. He will deliver them from the
curse of the law. That's a promise from God's Word.
And I know this, that if the Lord's pleased, He's able to
deliver us from any trial, from any trouble on this earth. I
don't care how dire the situation may appear to us. God's able. Daniel and old King Darius learned
that one night, didn't they? After Daniel spent the night
in the lion's den. Darius Daniel knew it. Darius
found out by God's able. And that's just what Jonathan
says here. He's able. He doesn't need many. He can
be saved by many or by few because he's omnipotent. So verse 7,
his armor bearer said unto him, Do all that is in thine heart.
Turn thee. Behold, I am with thee according
to thine heart. Now, there's a faithful servant.
But you know, his faithfulness and his willingness to follow
Jonathan is based on the character of God that Jonathan just described
to him. And that's why we preach here
nothing but Christ. Christ and Him crucified. Because
if you know Christ, if you hear of Him and you know Him, you'll
follow Him and you'll be faithful to Him if you know Him, if you
hear Him. So verse 9, then said Jonathan,
Behold, we will pass over unto these men, and we will discover
ourselves unto them. If they say thus unto us, Tarry
until we come to you, Then we will stand still in our place
and will not go unto them. And the reason he says that is
because if they're coming out to us, it looks like they're
spoiling for a fight. So we won't go to them. We're
just going to kind of stay here in this defensive position. But
verse 10, if they say thus, come up unto us, then we will go up
for the Lord hath delivered them into our hand. And this should
be a sign unto us. This should be a sign unto us
that they have the spirit of fear unto them. They're not willing
to come out to just these two men. They're not willing to venture
out of their fortified position to come see these two men because
they're afraid. And this will be a sign to us
that the Lord has delivered them into our hand. So that's exactly
what they did in verse 11. And both of them discovered themselves
under the garrison of the Philistines. And the Philistines said, behold,
the Hebrews come forth out of the holes where they've hid themselves.
You know, they probably thought we starved them out and now they're
coming out. In verse 12, the men of the garrison answered
Jonathan and his armor-bearer and said, Come up to us and we
will show you a thing. We've got this secret thing we'll
show you. And Jonathan said unto his armor-bearer, Come up after
me, for the Lord hath delivered them into the hand of Israel.
Now here's how much Jonathan trusted the Lord. He tells his
servant that's with him, the Lord has delivered this army
that's in excess of 300,000 men into our hands. Just the two of us. He believed
God. And you know what? That was too,
too many. God didn't need them. The Lord
doesn't need help from any man. He is omnipotent. And that's why Jonathan is so
confident. So verse 13, Jonathan climbed
up upon his hands and upon his feet and his armor bearer after
him. And they fell before Jonathan
and his armor bearer slew them. And that first slaughter, with
Jonathan and his armor-bearer made, was about twenty men, within,
as it were, a half-acre of land, which a yoke of oxen might plow.
Now, Jonathan climbed up this rocky hill or mountain or something
on his hands and feet. It was so rocky and steep, he
couldn't just walk up. He kind of had to climb up on
his hands and feet. And when he got to the top, where that
garrison was, they killed twenty men. by themselves, just like
Samson did, took that jawbone of an ass and killed those many
Philistines. That's exactly what Jonathan,
his armor bearer, did. And those two men threw that
whole army that was camped all around them into an absolute
panic. These 300,000 men were in such
fear because of two Hebrews. that climbed to the top of that
mountain and killed those Philistines. Maybe they were afraid of an
army behind them, or I don't know what they were afraid of.
There were just two of them. But the Lord made them fearful. And
they were right to be afraid because of the power of the God
of Israel. Not just necessarily those two
men, but because of the God of Israel. And they were afraid.
Look at verse 15. And there was trembling in the
host, in the field and among all the people, the garrison
and the spoilers. They also trembled, and the earth
quaked, so was a very great trembling. The earth must have shook, and
the Philistines were so afraid, their knees literally knocked
together in fear. They were so afraid. In verse
16, the watchmen of Saul and Gibeah of Benjamin looked, and
behold, the multitude melted away, and they went on beating
down one another. Saul's watchmen They watched
that large army just melt away, just like the snow melts away
in the sunshine. You know, we've got kind of a
late snow. There's a little bit of snow
this morning. That snow's going to melt away, just vanish in the sunshine. Same way this army, it was just
vanishing before their eyes. Now remember, no one in Israel
had a sword. Except for Jonathan and Saul,
because remember when the Philistines were in power, they wouldn't
let any Israelite be a blacksmith, so they couldn't make swords.
And I'm sure the Philistines, they felt pretty comfortable.
I mean, they've got Israel outgunned. A man with a sword is going to
win a battle against an unarmed man every day of the week. You
know, I've been sick this week, so I was channel surfing, watching
movies, and I came upon a Rambo trilogy. That's fiction. An unarmed man is not going to
go defeat armed men. I mean, it just doesn't happen.
This is real life. They've got swords and Israel
doesn't. Didn't matter, did it? What they took so much confidence
in, those swords, the Lord made those Philistines turn on each
other with those swords and kill each other. And Israel never
even needed a sword. They didn't even need to pick
one up. The Philistines used their swords to kill each other.
Look over in Isaiah 54. This is a fulfillment of this
scripture right here in Isaiah 54. Verse 15. Behold, they shall
surely gather together. Now you can just bank on it.
They're going to gather together against you. But not by me. Not by the Lord. Whosoever shall
gather together against thee shall fall for thy sake. Behold,
I have created the smith that bloweth the coals in the fire,
and that bringeth forth an instrument for his work. And I have created
the waster to destroy. No weapon that is formed against
thee shall prosper." And that's exactly what happened over here
in 1 Samuel. Those weapons didn't prosper.
They used them to destroy one another. And here's our comfort. There isn't an army that can
stand against God's people. Satan, sin, death, hell. Christ has dominion over them
all. They all will gather together against you, but Christ has dominion
over them all. They're not going to harm you.
And we've seen so many instances like this in Scripture. I thought
of Cecil Roach. He loved to read stories like
this where he said God gave Israel the victory and they never fired
a shot. He just loved reading stories like that. And we do
too. And there's so many instances like this in Scripture. But throughout
the rest of this chapter, and it's kind of lengthy, we'll read
through it because I want us to get to it. There are some
pictures of Christ here that I want us to see that's a blessing
if we can get through it all. But now that the victory's basically
won, Saul's going to get into the act. You know, I mean, the
enemy's pretty much destroyed. Now he's going to get into the
act in verse 17. Then said Saul unto the people
that were with him, number now and see who's gone from us. And
when they had numbered, behold, Jonathan and his armor-bearer
were not there. And Saul said unto Ahiah, Bring
hither the ark of God. For the ark of God was at that
time with the children of Israel. And it came to pass, while Saul
talked with the priest, that the noise that was in the host
of the Philistines went on and increased. And Saul said unto
the priest, Withdraw thine hand." Now, what happened here, Saul
wanted to inquire of the Lord, to see whether he should take
that small band and go down there and engage the enemy. But before
the priest had time to inquire of the Lord, Saul told him to
quit. He said, withdraw your hand. Don't put your hand into
the bag, you know, and draw out the umen and the thermen. He
said, don't do that. Because the answer seemed obvious
to Saul. And he could hear what's happening
down there. He didn't figure he needed to hear from the Lord
through the priest because the answer seemed obvious to him.
And you know, the old Jews talk about this being one of the evil
acts of Saul. that caused God to take the kingdom
from him, and no question they're right. This was an evil act.
We should never make a move without inquiring of the will of the
Lord. When we run ahead of the will
of the Lord, we are certain to find disaster. And that's what
Saul's going to find. Now, he's not going to find it
this day. But eventually, he's going to find disaster in his
life because he ran ahead of the Lord right here. And we'll
see that by the time we get to the end of the chapter. But verse
20, And Saul and all the people that were with him assembled
themselves, and they came to battle. And behold, every man's
sword was against his fellow, and there was a very great discomfiture.
Moreover, the Hebrews that were with the Philistines before that
time, apparently there were some Hebrew traders that went over
with the Philistines, which went with them into the camp from
the country round about, even they also turned to be with the
Israelites that were with Saul and Jonathan. Likewise, all the
men of Israel which had hid themselves in Mount Ephraim, when they heard
that the Philistines fled, even they also followed hard after
them in the battle. So the Lord saved Israel that
day. And the battle passed over under Beth-haven. Now you notice
it doesn't say Saul saved Israel that day, does it? It doesn't
even say Jonathan saved Israel that day. The Lord saved Israel
that day. And spiritual Israel. The Lord
has saved spiritual Israel this day. Spiritual Israel. Everyone
that you know who ever had believed But the Lord Jesus Christ is
saved because the Lord Jesus Christ saved them by himself. The Lord saved Israel that day.
And verse 24, all the men of Israel were distressed that day.
And here they had gotten this great victory, but they are distressed.
For Saul had adjourned the people, saying, Cursed be the man that
eateth any food until evening, that I may be avenged on mine
enemies. So none of the people tasted any food. You see, Saul
didn't want the army to stop pursuing their enemy. He had
them on the ropes, and he didn't want to waste a moment. He didn't
even want his army to stop and eat. Now, I've never been in
the military, but I've watched a lot of movies, read a lot of
books, and I know this much about the military. An army travels
on its stomach. A man can only function so long
without food. I mean, his body just got to
have food to fuel, to be able to keep going. And Saul's men
are distressed because they need to eat. Their bodies are distressed.
But they didn't eat because Saul put a curse on any man who stopped
to eat. And that's going to be important.
We're going to see this here in a minute, how important it is, this curse
that Saul put on them if you stop to eat. And you know, when
you're hungry, Seeing food and not being able to eat, it makes
your hunger even worse, doesn't it? I know when I'm just hungry
and Jan's cooking, you know, she's about got dinner ready.
I might as well pick up the food, you know, out of the pan and
burn my fingers and just get stuff and burn my mouth, you
know, and she'll slap my hand and say, you're going to get
worms. And I just get distressed because I'm so hungry. Well,
that's what's happening to Saul's army. Look here at verse 25.
And all they of the land came to the wood and there was honey
upon the ground. And when the people were come
into the wood, behold, the honey dropped. But no man put his hand
in his mouth, for the people feared the oath." Remember, here
they're in the land flowing with milk and honey, and the beehives
are so full they're just dripping honey. But the people can't eat
because of this oath, this curse that Saul's put on them. So verse 27 here, and Jonathan
heard not when his father charged the people with the oath. Wherefore,
he put the end of the rod that was in his hand and dipped it
into a honeycomb, and he put his hand to his mouth, and his
eyes were enlightened." Now, Jonathan wasn't there when Saul
put this oath and this curse upon the people, and as he's
walking with the army, he's hungry, he jabs his spear or whatever
it was into the honeycomb, and he just eats it on the go. And
instantly he felt better. And you know how that is when
you're hungry, you get a little something to eat, you're just
mentally and physically sharper, you feel better. That's the way
Jonathan was. But, verse 28, Then answered
one of the people and said, Thy father straightly charged the
people with an oath, saying, Cursed be the man that eateth
any food this day. And the people were faint. Then
said Jonathan, My father hath troubled the land. See, I pray
you, how mine eyes have been enlightened because I tasted
a little of this honey. How much more, if haply the people
had eaten freely today of the spoil of their enemies which
they found? For had there not been now a much greater slaughter
among the Philistines?" Jonathan told the people, he said, that's
a dumb law. He said, we'd have had the energy
to kill even more of our enemies if we just had the time to have
a little bit of something to eat along the way. So verse 31,
they smoked the Philistines that day, from Micmash to Agilon,
and the people were very faint. Now it's got to be the end of
the day, they're so faint with hunger, and now has come the
time, you know, Saul said they could eat. And the people flew
upon the spoil, and they took sheep and oxen and calves and
slew them on the ground, and the people did eat them with
the blood. And the people are so hungry,
that they violated the law of God by eating the meat with the
blood. Either they ate it raw or, I
don't know what they, that sounds kind of gross, but maybe they
were so hungry they couldn't wait for the blood to drain from
that slaughtered animal and they couldn't wait to fully roast
the meat and they ate it mixed with the blood. And that's a
violation of God's law. So verse 33, then they told Saul,
saying, Behold, the people sin against the Lord, and that they
eat with the blood. And he said, Ye have transgressed.
roll a great stone unto me this day. And Saul said, Disperse
yourselves among the people, and say unto them, Bring me hither
every man his ox, and every man his sheep, and slay them here,
and eat, and sin not against the Lord, and eat him with the
blood. And all the people brought every man his ox with him that
night, and slew them there. And Saul built an altar unto
the Lord, the same as the first altar which he built unto the
Lord." Now, Saul insists on following the law. And he personally supervises
the slaughter of these animals and the cooking of them. And
he built an altar. He'd already offered sacrifices.
I guess you may as well go ahead and build altars, too. You see,
Saul cared more about his law than he did about God's law.
It was his law, his dumb law, that made the people break God's
law in the first place. And then after all this happens,
then he becomes real pious and cares so much about the law and
people violating the law. We're warned in Scripture, aren't
we? Beware of having a form of godliness and denying the power
thereof. And that's the tenor of Saul's
life. He has a form of godliness, but
denies the power thereof. So, after they had eaten, verse
36, Saul said, Let us go down after the Philistines by night,
and spoil them until the morning light, and let us not leave a
man of them. And they said, Do whatsoever
seemeth good unto thee. Then said the priest, let us
draw near hither unto God. Now first, Saul didn't want his
army to eat. Now he doesn't want them to rest.
How can these men fight? And even though he'd already
decided what to do, you know, the priest intervenes and says,
you know, this might not be such a good idea. Let's inquire of
the Lord. So Saul's going to hurriedly go through the motions,
you know, and then he's going to do what he wants to do anyway.
That's his plan. But verse 37, When Saul asked
counsel of God, Shall I go down after the Philistines? Wilt thou
deliver them into the hand of Israel? But he answered him not
that day. And Saul said, Draw ye near hither,
all the chief of the people, and know and see wherein this
sin hath been this day." Now, what Saul figures is the reason
that the Lord is not giving him an answer is because somebody
in Israel sinned. And not him, mind you. Somebody
else has sinned against God. So one of the people, you know,
sins. We've got to deal with this. Then the Lord will give
us an answer is what he figures. And he says in verse 39, for
as the Lord liveth, which saveth Israel, though it be Jonathan
my son, he shall surely die. But there was not a man among
all the people that answered him. Saul is so serious about
justice, he says, I'm going to kill anyone who's committed this
Even if it's my own son. Now the people knew that Jonathan
had eaten of that honey, but nobody's giving Jonathan up.
He's their hero. They're not going to give him
up. So verse 40, Then he said unto all Israel, Be ye on one
side, and I and Jonathan my son will be on the other side. He's
so confident that Jonathan is innocent. He knows he didn't
eat of the honey. He knows he didn't do anything wrong. He's
so confident Jonathan is innocent. He says, I'm going to put all
the people over here. and me and Jonathan on this side, and
we're going to cast a lot. And all the people said unto
Saul, Do what seemeth good unto thee. Therefore, Saul said unto
the Lord God of Israel, Give us a perfect lot. And when they
cast the lot, Saul and Jonathan were taken, but the people were
escaped. So the lot fell, and one of the
two of them is guilty. And then Saul said, Cast lots
between me and Jonathan, my son. And Jonathan was taken. Then
Saul said to Jonathan, Tell me what thou hast done. And Jonathan
told him, and said, I did but taste a little honey with the
end of the rod that was in my hand, and, lo, I must die. And
Saul answered, God do so, and more also, for thou shalt surely
die, Jonathan. And Jonathan, you'll notice,
he doesn't say, I'm innocent, because of ignorance of the law.
He doesn't say, well, you know, you shouldn't put me to death,
because it was just a little bit. He doesn't say that. He
doesn't protest his innocence. I've got to die. It's only right.
Jonathan loves his father, and he's willing to die so that his
father is not disgraced. That's exactly why he's willing
to die. But, verse 45, the people said unto Saul, So shall Jonathan
die, who hath wrought this great salvation in Israel? God forbid. As the Lord liveth, there shall
not one hair of his head fall to the ground. For he hath wrought
with God this day. So the people rescued Jonathan,
but he died not. And I'm sure Saul was pretty
happy that the people, you know, kind of gave him a way out that
he didn't have to kill his own son. And humanly speaking, they
were right to intervene. It was it was right that Jonathan
should not die. It's only right. The Lord used
him to deliver Israel that day. But, you know, all this took
so much time that the flistings got away. Verse 46, and Saul
went up from following after the Philistines, and the Philistines
went to their own place. And so much time had passed,
he couldn't follow after them anymore, and they escaped. But
deal with the problem here. It looks like the day's over,
and this is over and forgotten, but it's not. Saul backed up
his law with a curse upon himself. If the sentence of death is not
executed on the guilty, even if that guilty party is his own
son, he said, the curse is still going to be upon me. Well, Jonathan
was spared, wasn't he? What happened to the curse? Saul
might've forgotten about it, but the curse is still on him
because Jonathan was spared. The guilty party did not die.
And the Lord's going to use that curse to remove the kingdom from
Saul. Over here in verse 44, you see
what Saul said? God do so and more also. And that's exactly what God did
a little while later. Not only did Jonathan die in
battle, not only did the guilty die, but in the same day, in
the same battle, Saul died too. God did so and more and took
the kingdom from Saul and from his family. He did so and more
because Saul left this curse upon his head. And the good news
of the gospel, we went through all these verses to get right
here. The good news of the gospel is that God the Father is holy. He did not do the same thing
that Saul did. When the father imputed the sin
of his elect to his very own son, his only begotten son, God
spared not his own son, but delivered him up for Saul. God made his
son guilty and God did not spare him. The curse was put upon the
head of our substitute, and Christ died bearing our curse. Cursed is everyone who hangeth
upon a tree. He died the cursed death that
his people deserved, and he did so under the hand of the Father.
The Father did not spare him. The Father punished him because
of the sin that was laid on him. And it must be so. It must be. If the father had spared his
son, his beloved son, if the father had spared him, the curse
of the law would still be upon us. If the father had spared
his son, the kingdom would be lost. Even though his son never
personally committed a sin, if the father spared his son, the
kingdom would be lost. Because God violated his holiness.
He violated his character. will not violate his holiness,
even for his own son. You know, people, people are
so full of ourselves. You know, we think, well, God
will just overlook me, you know, and have, you know, just overlook
my sin. No, he won't. If God did not spare his own
son, you can rest assured he won't spare anyone outside of
him. You can just rest assured of that. And you know, Peter
tried to do the very same thing for our Lord that the Israelites
did for Jonathan. You know, the people refused
to let the darling of Israel be killed that day. He's their
hero. They're not going to let him
be killed. Peter tried to do the same thing, didn't he? He
tried to get the Lord to avoid going to Jerusalem to suffer
and die. He said, far be that from you.
And to God, that is so evil, that thought is so evil. It's
satanic. What did our Lord say when Peter
tried to get him to avoid? going to the cross. Get thee
behind me, Satan. That thought is so wicked, so
contrary to holiness, it's satanic. And Christ our Savior went there
willingly. Knowing full well what he was
going to, he went there willingly. Just like Jonathan, he didn't
claim to be innocent, did he? Christ didn't either. In all
that mock trial they put him on, he never one time protested
his innocence because he was guilty, because the Father made
him guilty of the sins of his people, of our sins. And Jonathan
was just like our Lord. He told his Father, Thy will
be done, the willing sacrifice. And I'm telling you, it's so
important that our Lord did not avoid suffering and dying as
a substitute for his people, because if he did, The curse
would still be on our heads and we could never get rid of it.
But I'm telling you, in Christ, the curse is gone. Look over
Genesis chapter 3. I want us to look at a couple
of scriptures here quickly. The curse is gone in our Lord
Jesus Christ. And the curse came upon us because
of one man's sin. In Genesis 13 verse, or I'm sorry,
Genesis 3 verse 17. And unto Adam God said, Because
thou hast hearkened unto the voice of thy wife, and hast eaten
of the tree of which I commanded thee, saying, Thou shalt not
eat of it, cursed is the ground for thy sake, and sorrow shalt
thou eat of it all the days of thy life. Thorns also and thistles
shalt bring forth to thee, and thou shalt eat of the herb of
the field, and the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till
thou return unto the ground. For out of it was thou taken,
for dust thou art, and unto dust Thou shalt return cursed." The
curse is pronounced on Adam and on all of creation. And all death
from that time until now, all death, all sickness, all sorrow
is a result of this curse. Look over Romans chapter 8. This
whole earth, right at this moment, is groaning under the burden
of this curse that Adam's sin put us under. In Romans 8 verse 19. For the earnest expectation of
the creature, and that word is creation, the earnest expectation
of the creation, waited for the manifestation of the sons of
God. For the creation was made subject to vanity, not willingly,
but by reason of him who hath subjected the same in hope. Because
the creation itself also shall be delivered from the bondage
of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God.
The whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until
now. And it does that because of the
curse. This horrible earthquake and
tsunami that happened over there in Japan, all that death and
devastation that happened that we see the pictures of, this
is horrible because of this curse right here. The earth groaning
and travailing under the weight of this curse caused that earthquake
and that tsunami. That's exactly what happened.
Because of Adam, death and devastation came upon men and we were cut
off from God. You know the story how Adam was
thrust out of the presence of God. God put that angel with
the sword that turned every way to keep Adam from coming back
into the presence of God. Never again on this earth to
see God's face because of the curse. We'll look over in Revelations
22 and we'll see what we have because of the second Adam. I
tell you, that curse is completely removed in Christ the second
Adam because of his substitutionary death for his people. In Revelation
22, verse 3, and there shall be no more curse. That's one
of the best verses in the whole Bible. There shall be no more
curse. But the throne of God and of
the Lamb shall be in it, and his servants shall serve him
And they shall see his face. That curse is completely removed. What we lost in Adam, we've gained
back that and more in Christ. Not only will we see his face,
we'll see his face eternally because the curse has been removed. All right. Lord bless you.