I invite you to turn tonight in your Bibles to 1st Samuel chapter 14, 1st Samuel chapter 14 as we're continuing our study through this marvelous book, 1st Samuel chapter 14. And you'll find that on page 300 in those Bibles in front of you, page 300. We'll read together the first 23 verses of 1st Samuel 14. Let's give our attention tonight to the Word of the Lord. One day, Jonathan, the son of Saul, said to the young man who carried his armor, Come, let us go over to the Philistine garrison on the other side. But he did not tell his father. Saul was staying in the outskirts of Gibeah in the pomegranate cave at Migron. The people who were with him were about 600 men, including Ahijah, the son of Ahitub, Ichabod's brother, son of Phineas, son of Eli, the priest of the Lord in Shiloh, wearing an ephod. And the people did not know that Jonathan had gone. Within the passes by which Jonathan sought to go over to the Philistine garrison, there was a rocky crag on the one side and a rocky crag on the other side. The name of the one was Bozes and the name of the other, Sennah. The one crag rose on the north in front of Michmash and the other on the south in front of Geba. Jonathan said to the young man who carried his armor, Come, let us go over to the garrison of these uncircumcised. It may be that the Lord will work for us, for nothing can hinder the Lord from saving by many or by few. And his armor bearer said to him, Do all that is in your heart. Do as you wish. Behold, I am with you heart and soul. Then Jonathan said, Behold, we will cross over to the men and we will show ourselves to them. If they say to us, wait until we come to you, then we will stand still in our place, and we will not go up to them. But if they say, come up to us, then we will go up, for the Lord has given them into our hand, and this shall be a sign to us. So both of them showed themselves to the garrison of the Philistines. And the Philistines said, look, Hebrews are coming out of the holes where they've hidden themselves. And the men of the garrison hailed Jonathan and his armor bearer and said, come up to us, and we will show you a thing. And Jonathan said to his armor bearer, come up after me, for the Lord has given them into the hand of Israel. Then Jonathan climbed up on his hands and feet, and his armor bearer after him. And they fell before Jonathan, and his armor bearer killed them after him. And that first strike, which Jonathan and his armor bearer made, killed about 20 men within, as it were, a half furlong's length of an acre of land. And there was a panic in the camp, in the field, and among all the people. the garrison and even the raiders trembled the earth quaked and it became a very great panic and the watchman of Saul in in Gibeah Benjamin looked and behold the multitude was dispersing here and there then Saul said to the people who were with him count and see who has gone from us and when they had counted behold Jonathan and his armor bearer were not there so Saul said to Ahijah bring the ark of God here for the ark of God went at that time with the people of Israel now while Saul was talking to the priest the tumult in the camp of the Philistines increased more and more so Saul said to the priest withdraw your hand then Saul and all the people who were with him rallied and went into the battle and behold every Philistine sword was against his fellow and there was a very great confusion now the Hebrews who had been with the Philistines before that time and who had gone up with them into the camp even they also turned to be with the Israelites who were with Saul and Jonathan. Likewise, when all the men of Israel who had hidden themselves in the hill country of Ephraim heard that the Philistines were fleeing, they too followed hard after them in the battle. So the Lord saved Israel that day and the battle passed beyond Beth-Avon. And there ends the reading of God's word. What we have tonight in front of us is one of the greatest contrasts that is given in the scriptures. A contrast really between faith and unbelief and this is one of the beautiful things in the scriptures is that often what the scriptures are doing is giving us contrast so that we will see things very clearly so that we will understand things better principles setting often side by side the things that please God and the things that do not and that's what we have here in front of us tonight putting it in context We have Israel's choice for their leader in Saul, and then we have this figure that seemingly out of the blue shows up and does remarkable things, telling us that this is the Lord's choice of a leader. It's immensely helpful for us tonight because it's meant for us to see how God's deliverance comes and through what kind of person it comes and how he shows himself strong, as we sang out from that psalm there tonight, 145, how His strength is shown and His power and His wisdom through all the messes that we often make in life. And so this is really the point of the passage tonight, that the Lord is working to deliver His people through the fearless faith of Jonathan. What does that mean for us? Why is that so important to study? What is he teaching us through this? Well, we're going to look at that tonight by seeing here the cowering of Saul, the courage of Jonathan, and then the salvation of the Lord. Do you remember the pathetic scene last time? And I mean it when I say that. It was an absolutely pathetic scene. That here was the king of Israel tasked to conquer the Philistines and what a joke it's become already. Here we are left off with Israel scattered right before their enemies and they have come out for battle like the sand on the seashore blanketing the land and Saul panicked, remember. And Saul in panic forced himself to make the sacrifice to try to secure God's blessing, breaking everything that the Levitical law had required. A king was never to perform the sacrifice. Only the priest was to perform the sacrifice. and he had completely disobeyed and disregarded the law of God. A terrible thing he had done and we studied. And right then and there, it was such a significant event. In the very first moment, you think about this, after he had been hailed and crowned, Samuel comes out and says, what have you done? The kingdom's taken from you. The kingdom is taken and it's going to another. One God chooses. And we looked at last time the importance of that. Well, this is the follow-up scene now. Philistines have blanketed the land. Saul is in hiding. The scene is important because Israel really is held up by Saul's inaction. Nothing's happening. The guy's cowering off and hidden out of the pomegranate cave. Another pathetic scene. I mean, just to give you a sense of this, Can you imagine if Jesus came to the earth and was hiding in a cave? This is how bad it is. This is their choice of a king. This is what's happened. Now you'll remember last time that it was said that Israel had no weapons. Only two people had swords. Saul and Jonathan. Two swords. We were introduced last time to Jonathan seemingly out of nowhere. He is a remarkable figure. He's the figure you really enjoy studying as a pastor. It's just a beautiful figure in the Scriptures. He was the one last time that went out and had secured the victory and struck down a garrison of the Philistines. But it was Saul, of course, who had messed everything up. So here we are. This pathetic scene continues to unfold, and Saul is here cowering before all the enemies of Israel. And that's where we pick up in chapter 14, Where we read that one day, Jonathan, the son of Saul, said to a young man who carried his armor, Come, let us go over to the Philistine garrison on the other side. What a stellar son. It's one of these remarkable things, that how did Saul have a son like this? I mean, it's a mind-boggling thought. How did Saul have a son like this? I have to say at times I've seen in the ministry some of the most remarkable things that some of the men who have been spiritually lazy and have not led well in their homes and have had really no spirituality in their homes, I've seen at times some of the greatest sons come out of there. Just an absolute marvel of God's grace. And this is the sort of thing that we see here, is here is this son Jonathan who is absolutely remarkable in every way remarkable I'm not saying he was sinless I'm saying he's remarkable a lot of grace has been shown here the introduction comes here with Jonathan but before we look at him I want you to look at the the contrast it's working back and forth here the text Samuel knows just what he's doing in verses 2 through 3 are packed with detail to help us again get a good look at Saul. Saul was staying in the outskirts of Gibeah in the pomegranate cave at Migron. The people who were with him were about 600 men, including Ahijah, the son of Ahitub, Ichabod's brother, son of Phinehas, son of Eli, the priest of the Lord in Shiloh, wearing an ephod. This is not a pointless detail. i hope you know by now this is remarkable detail the people did not know that jonathan had left 600 warriors are with saul in the cave in a pomegranate cave i was studying this week and i thought this is your king this is your king you wanted a king like all the other nations you got everything you could outwardly choose that you wanted and the guy's a complete coward in other words the first thing to say is here first thing i want you to notice about him is he's totally afraid he's completely afraid fear is one of the absolute worst qualities in a leader. I mean that. It really is. Because fear leads to inactivity. Fear cripples people. We know this. What leader has worth anything has ever let fear govern his decisions? A leader may go down, but the best leaders are willing to go down on principle. The best leaders are willing to go down standing and doing what is right. The best leaders are going to do, who have ever lived in the history of mankind, who have ever demonstrated any good qualities of leadership, you know have lived for something and followed their principles and did what was right, even when everyone may have questioned it, they did what was right. You never saw Churchill in a cave. This is the anointed of Israel. But here's the worst thing. Not only are 600 warriors with him, Ahijah, the son of Ahitub, Ichabod's brother, the son of Phinehas, the son of Eli, the priest wearing an ephod, you should say, who? Who? Those guys are his spiritual advisors? The cursed house of Eli? Who in Israel did not know that Eli's house had been cursed? Where's Samuel? The judgment was all over the house of Eli. He had said this judgment's on the house of Eli. So here he has him as the priest instructing him in the faith and the curse line and the mention of Ichabod can't be messed. The glory has departed from Israel. This is the depth of Saul's spiritual life and who his advisors are. Saul has brought back the house of Eli and put them in place. Samuel is not his priest. So, no fear. I mean, complete fear, excuse me, and absolutely no spiritual understanding. He's as dead as a doornail. Listen carefully to the three qualities of Saul. He's scared, he's inactive, and he's spiritually ignorant. This is your king, Israel. This is your king. How in the world will Israel ever succeed with someone like that on the throne? The mind-boggling thing here is how important this is for the church today. It seems to me that we have so many enemies coming against the church. I had an Abound in Grace listener report to me this last week and say, I finally understand why the Psalms are constantly crying out because of the enemy. I finally get it. I'm seeing it. The church and the leaders today have to think a lot about a passage like this to think, are we held up in a cave in these days? Are we afraid that we're going to offend with the gospel? Are we scared and compromised to the whims of the culture for all the talk of being missional and for all the talk about being concerned about outreach and evangelism? Are we active? You know this. Read the stats. Liberal churches are absolutely dying in this country and emptying out. The only churches that will stand in the future are those who are not afraid and who are active and who stand for something and who are spiritually strong. I think that's so evident. How can we miss it? Unprincipled Saul, pragmatic, spiritually ignorant. Doesn't even know the basics of the faith. that's hard to hear but it's exactly so important to see because that's what makes the contrast so powerful the contrast here is absolutely remarkable jonathan stands out in the most powerful way and that's why i love i love seeing these juxtaposed and seeing these figures a father and a son look at this frustrated by all this frustrated that nothing's happening he says to his armor bearer. Listen, one, not 600. One, come with me and let's go over to the garrison of the Philistines. And you say, are you crazy? What are you doing? You're going to get killed out there. You're going to get slaughtered on it. Two of you are going to go up to the garrison of the Philistines. is that arrogance or is that boldness within the passes by which jonathan sought to go over to the philistine garrison there was this rocky crag and one side and a rocky crag on the other we have historical names here that are provided that israel knew all about and could read all about this and knew just where these places were one crag was on the north in front of michmash and the other on the south in front of geba this was to say that there was this great barrier between the armies and there was this area there that nobody in strategic military advance would ever bring their militaries through. They left this place alone. In fact, it's most likely that in this area Saul was held up in the cave. Come, let's go over to the garrison of these uncircumcised. That's teasing us a little. Who is this uncircumcised Philistine who's defied the armies of the living God hear it who said that boys and girls David let's go to the garrison of these uncircumcised kind of confidence is this who are these people who stood against the Lord who are these people who've had the gall to stand up to him and his armies you get a sense of the righteous anger that we talked about before there is no fear here but what i love about it is as opposed to saul who is scared and inactive jonathan is bold and active look at what's driving him why does he want to go well he doesn't tell saul he knows he'd never convince him Notice what he says. It's the best verse in this chapter where he says, it may be that the Lord will work for us for nothing can hinder the Lord from saving by many or by few. What an absolutely remarkable statement, isn't it? What an absolutely remarkable statement. Jonathan recognizes that whatever is about to happen, the Lord is the one doing the work. And the Lord is the one fighting the battle. The Lord has always fought the battle. This is how the children of Israel came out of Egypt. This is how they were saved at the Red Sea. But as opposed to Saul who forced himself by trying to manipulate God's favor by performing the sacrifice, what has Jonathan done? So notice the contrast here. Saul tried to manipulate God by forcing his blessing, by doing the sacrifice, what is Jonathan doing? What's he doing? He's demonstrating faith. Faith. Look at the faith here. The Lord is the one who does the work. I'm just the instrument. There is nothing about this situation that says he should have attempted this no no military one armor bearer and he has one sword but his is drawn and saul's is in the sheath and he goes in absolute confidence that if the lord decides to work the victory the victory will be worked for he can save by few what faith what faith i love this because contrary to saul he's saying if the lord decides that i go down that's fine too if the lord decides that the battle should not be won that's his choice but i'm going down in his will i'm not sitting idle i'm advancing i'm not hiding in a cave i'm going to go with a great weapon of faith as saul sits with ichabod it's the contrast is just startling i've always thought in life and i fought this myself we're so pragmatic we look at every single circumstance in life pragmatically what will work and if we don't think it's going to work we're not going to do it and we sit timid and fearful of the outcome, what if we weren't so calculated about outcomes? What if we weren't so calculated about outcomes and said, I'm going to do what's right and I'm going to go on the path of trusting the Lord regardless of what may happen? That's not what we do. Imagine if you looked at life that way. acting in faith is always the right path trusting the lord is always the right path leaning on your own understanding makes you sit in a cave in fear and in bitterness and frustration and with little spiritual guidance if i'm going down i'm going down in faith says jonathan and what a place to be i would say it's not a blind faith saul has a corrupt priesthood with him but jonathan has something far better a knowledge of how god has worked before what do i mean how did he know that god can save through a few see i believe uh what makes this passage so remarkable is is that jonathan demonstrates to us a thorough knowledge of israel's history a thorough knowledge of the scriptures a thorough knowledge of his god a thorough knowledge of how his god works many writers have observed and i think they're spot on with this that this all echoes the story of Gideon listen to this let me just read it for you and boys and girls you'll hear it all the themes right here the people with you said the Lord to Gideon are too many for me to give the Midianites into their hand lest Israel boast over me saying my own hand has saved me now therefore proclaim in the ears of the people saying whoever is fearful and trembling let him return home and hurry away from mount gilead then 22 000 of the people returned and 10 000 remained and the lord said to gideon there's still too many take them down to the water and i will test them for there and any one of whom i say to you this one shall go with you shall go with you and any one of whom i say to you this one shall not go with you shall not go so he brought the people down to the water and the lord said to Gideon, everyone who laps the water with his tongue as a dog laps, you shall set by himself. Likewise, everyone who kneels down to drink, and the number of those who lapped, putting their hands to their mouths, was 300 men. But all the rest of the people knelt down to drink water. And the Lord said, take the lappers. With the 300 men who lapped, I will save you. take the lappers. Let the others go home. So the people took provisions in their hand and their trumpets and they sent all the rest of Israel, every man to his tent, but retained the 300 men. And the whole point is to say, Jonathan knew his Lord and Jonathan knows that the Lord loves to deliver in what seems like foolishness. And can't we study the Scriptures to see it everywhere? How did the Lord save Hezekiah when he was on his deathbed or when the enemy came? One in a cave. One with a sword pulled. One with no faith, no courage, inactive, ignorant, and his son full of faith, believing God's redemption from the past and knows that if the Lord decides he'll win he'll win what happens here's what we'll do we are going to see here we're going to walk out there and if they say come up to us then we know that the lord has given them and if they if they say we will come to you then we're not going that will be assigned to us and i believe that's important the point will be in a minute to show jonathan was not presuming here he was clearly indicating of whether the lord could say no about this so jonathan said behold we will cross over to the men and we will show ourselves and they said this so look what happens if they say to us wait we will come to you then we will stand and the philistine said look the hebrews are coming out of the holes where they've hidden themselves and the men of the garrison hailed jonathan and his armor bearer and said come up to us and we'll show you a thing. Arrogant, aren't they? Just arrogant. Let's go. We've got them. We've got them. So Jonathan pulls out his sword and we read that he climbed on his hands and feet and his armor bear after him and they fell before jonathan we read that he struck down 20 men and as he strikes them down god decides to shake the earth that's all it took by the way an earthquake you all know how scared you get with earthquakes i don't like earthquakes all it took one shaking of the earth and the whole thing dispersed and they panicked and they fled and everyone could hear the tumult of everyone running. Saul hears about this. What is going on among the Philistines? Something's happened. They're scattering. What does Saul do? Saul says to Ahijah, bring the ark of God here. What? You've got to be kidding. Oh, that makes quite a bit of sense, actually. It was Eli's sons who had thrust the ark on the battlefield. It was Eli's sons. They've reinstated this. Pull out the ark. Use it. Well, the priest comes and tries to give him instruction. And as the tumult gets louder and louder, Paul says, withdraw your hand. I don't want to leave and listen. With no knowledge of history, Eli's sons did that with the ark. The ark was used as a magic wand back in chapter 4 when the Philistines had come out to battle. Saul won't even listen. He goes out and takes part in the battle. And because of Jonathan, salvation came to Israel that day. All because of Jonathan's faith. What do we learn here? What do we learn here? Well, a few things in closing tonight. Number one is, how can we miss that Jonathan is not a type of Christ? What a figure. Not as if Christ needed faith, you know that. He's the Savior. But how can we miss that it took one to go out boldly on the battlefield and win the victory? somebody who would step out. As a matter of fact, this is the story I couldn't get out of my head. Jesus knew it was His time. John 18, He crossed over the brook Kidron and stepped toward the soldiers. When Jesus had spoken these words, He went out with His disciples across the brook Kidron where there was a garden which He and His disciples entered. Now Judas, who betrayed Him, knew the place for Jesus often met there with His disciples. So Judas, having procured a band of soldiers and some officers from the chief priests and the Pharisees were there with lanterns and torches and weapons. Then Jesus, knowing all this would happen to him, went forward. Who does that? And said to them, whom do you seek? They answered Him, Jesus of Nazareth. Jesus said, I am. Judas, who betrayed Him, was standing with them. When Jesus said to them, I am, they drew back and fell to the ground. He had already defeated. But He let them get up. Whom do you seek? He said again. They said, Jesus of Nazareth. I told you, I am. so if you seek me let these men go and that day he took all the blows that were ever necessary for you to be saved you see it is the story in complete confidence as you heard this morning that he was doing god's will that he would fight the battle and that he would win and you see this is the kind of king we have with no sword with no weapon but only his righteous life he laid it down to secure the victory that you enjoy today what does that mean for us i think we need to stop cowering before our enemies in other words you have a victor adam adam where are you i'm hiding we don't hide anymore it's a victory like this that should inspire us the church today christians more than ever should be strong in their faith this is the victor that you have we need this kind of confidence to know there is a king who's one for us a king who has struck down satan a king who has promised to crush his head ultimately on the end and has already done it in principle and we need to respond in the kind of faith that we see in jonathan bold courageous that doesn't sit off in a cave that is not pragmatic unprincipled and inactive the alternative is those things tucked away in fear thinking that what we're doing will never work but god loves to deliver through foolish means he loves to deliver you through the preaching of the gospel he loves to deliver you through a message of this savior to save those who believe how could we miss that it's so clear here that the Lord loves this kind of trust in his work and in his power that he will give the success if he desires and if not then we go down in faith many died in faith and they're victors aren't they either way we go forward knowing that the glory belongs to the lord and in that kind of confidence well there's no better place to be may you go out this week with that kind of confidence let's pray heavenly father thank you for a glorious passage tonight and thank you for demonstrating your great power and your wisdom over the foolishness of our fear we're thankful for a savior we're thankful for your everlasting love and we're thankful that you do give us these examples that we might be bold that we might have courage we might take courage for jesus has defeated the world and in that victory we go forward so let us not be inactive in our faith let us be actively lord stepping up to what you call us to do and when the enemy is strong for us we look to our Savior, realizing that the great victory belongs to Him. In Jesus' name, we pray. Amen.