In my family, I would venture a guess that Batman is the favorite superhero. We’ve watched loads of Batman films and TV shows, and played Batman video games. One of Batman’s signature abilities is a hand-to-hand fighting technique and speed that allows him to fight, successfully, large groups of assailants. Did you know that in the Bible, God empowers two men to fight like that?
In our study this week through 1st Samuel chapters 13 & 14, the Israelite army and their King Saul are in a very, very bad position. The much larger and much better equipped Philistine army is bearing down on them. It’s shaping up to be a terrible defeat.
In the previous post, Saul’s son, Jonathan, proposes a radical plan to his armor bearer. But Jonathan keeps this plan a secret. He suggests that the two of them trust in God, come out of hiding, and reveal themselves, just the two of them, to the enemy Philistines, who have an outpost on the high ground just above them. Jonathan’s plan, however, is not total madness. He is not suggesting that he and his armor bearer try to attack a much larger military force above them. Instead, Jonathan, as we read in the previous post, devises a method for determining if God is with them. If the Philistines say, “We’ll come down to you,” that means God is not in favor of this plan. But if the Philistines say, “Come up here,” that means God is with Jonathan and the armor bearer. And if God is with them, everything changes. Here’s what happens, reading from 1st Samuel chapter 14, verse 11,
“So both of them showed themselves to the Philistine outpost. ‘Look!’ said the Philistines. ‘The Hebrews are crawling out of the holes they were hiding in.’ The men of the outpost shouted to Jonathan and his armor-bearer, ‘Come up to us and we’ll teach you a lesson.’ So Jonathan said to his armor-bearer, ‘Climb up after me; the Lord has given them into the hand of Israel.’ Jonathan climbed up, using his hands and feet, with his armor-bearer right behind him.”
The Philistines are not in the least bit worried about two measly Israelites who must climb up a cliff wall to get to the Philistine encampment. The Philistines reveal their arrogance. They think, “We don’t need to pick you off the cliff wall. We’ll let you come the whole way up here, and then we’ll fight you face to face.” The Philistines in other words, give up the high ground without a fight, because they think they are so superior to these two Israelite soldiers that they, the Philistines, don’t need the high ground. From a human perspective, they are right. What the Philistines do not and cannot see, in their arrogance, is that it is not just the two Israelites who they will have to fight.
Jonathan and his armor bearer reach the top, battle ensues, and what happens in battle is wild. Here’s how verse 14 describes it, “The Philistines fell before Jonathan, and his armor-bearer followed and killed behind him. In that first attack Jonathan and his armor-bearer killed some twenty men in an area of about half an acre.”
Two men kill twenty men? That’s superhero level success. That’s impossible odds in any other battle. But this is not any other battle. God is with Jonathan and his armor bearer, and God empowers them to have victory over 20 men.
This supernatural-enabled warrior duo must have been a sight to behold. You and I are familiar with this kind of scene in the movies. The Philistines were seeing it in real life. They had likely never witnessed anything like it before. Jonathan and his armor bearer were moving so fast, so skillfully, with such deadly accuracy and force, that Philistines realize they have made a huge mistake. Look at verse 15,
“Then panic struck the whole army—those in the camp and field, and those in the outposts and raiding parties—and the ground shook. It was a panic sent by God.”
Not only did God empower Jonathan and his armor bearer to fight, God now sends a mysterious panic into the Philistine military, and what once was a mighty Philistine fighting force is scrambling.
But remember, this is all happening in the distance away from where King Saul and his 600 men were. With the Philistines in full flight mode, it was now obvious to Saul that something was up. In verses 16-23, Saul musters his men, and they discover the Philistines are so rattled by God’s mysterious panic that they are striking each other with swords. The Israelites are emboldened, come out of hiding and pursue the Philistines. We read in verse 23, “That day the Lord saved Israel.”
Just as we saw last week in chapters 11 & 12 when God helped Israel defeat the Ammonites, now in chapters 13 & 14, despite Saul’s impatience, and because of Jonathan’s faith in God, God helps Israel defeat the Philistines.
The story should stop right there with a wonderful victory and celebration. But Saul’s early God-honoring track record is starting to slip, and now Saul slips again. How? In verse 24 we learn that Saul had forbidden the soldiers to eat until evening and until they had victory over their enemies in battle. A very strange command, when you consider that anyone doing hard work, like fighting in hand-to-hand combat, needs calories for energy.
The troops are famished.
Can they eat now? Nope. Though the battle was won, the oath had two stipulations. The battle had to be won, and evening had to come. So we read in verses 25-26, that even though they found honey, and even though they are very hungry after fighting in battle, they keep the oath and do not eat, because it wasn’t evening yet.
Except one person.
“But Jonathan had not heard that his father had bound the people with the oath, so he reached out the end of the staff that was in his hand and dipped it into the honeycomb. He raised his hand to his mouth, and his eyes brightened. Then one of the soldiers told him, ‘Your father bound the army under a strict oath, saying, “Cursed be anyone who eats food today!” That is why the men are faint.’ Jonathan said, ‘My father has made trouble for the country. See how my eyes brightened when I tasted a little of this honey. How much better it would have been if the men had eaten today some of the plunder they took from their enemies. Would not the slaughter of the Philistines have been even greater?’”
Jonathan, the prince, publicly disagrees with his father, the King! Jonathan, of course, is correct. Saul had made a poor decision, a rash oath, barring the men from eating. The military victory for Israel would have been so much more decisive than it already was, if Saul had allowed his men to eat.
Obviously Saul put his men in a terrible position, having to fast while expending lots of energy, and some men simply couldn’t handle it. In verses 31-33, some of the soldiers plunder the Philistines’ livestock and eat uncooked meat. They are so hungry that they break the Mosaic Law which said that meat can only be consumed after the blood drains and cooks out. Israelites were not to consume blood, period, because that was what the pagan people around then did in their pagan worship rituals. The soldiers were sinning.
But some of the blame has to be placed on Saul who put his soldiers in a difficult position with his ridiculous oath. Saul seems to realize this. In verses 34-35, Saul commands that all the Philistine livestock be slaughtered and properly cooked and eaten. There Saul built his first altar to the Lord. Is this a proper breaking of the fast? It seems so. Maybe Saul, without admitting it out loud, is backtracking on the fast, admitting his fault without admitting it, and now allowing the soldiers to feast, as well as honoring God for the victory over the Philistines.
In verses 36-37, Saul wants to capitalize on the victory and further attack the Philistines. Don’t let them get away. Smart idea on Saul’s part. But a priest says, rightly, that they should inquire of God. Saul inquires of God, but God doesn’t answer. Why is God silent?
And how will Saul respond? Will he be impatient again, unable to wait on the Lord? We find out in the next post.
Engaging Scripture 