Ep. 81 - Jonathan Defeats the Philistines (Part 2)

Last we left our story, the Philistines were on the run. After Jonathan had attacked one of their garrisons, the Philistines invaded Israel with a ginormous army. King Saul tried to get his own army together but failed miserably. Because once the Israelites saw how massive the Philistine army was, they were like “nope” and most of them hid. But as bad as that was, Saul managed to make things worse. Saul decided to perform a sacrifice himself…something that only priests were supposed to do. And when Samuel saw that, he was like “nope” and went home. And when all was said and done, poor King Saul had only 600 men left. But then, just when Saul was scrambling to make his next big mistake, Jonathan and his armour-bearer decided to go on the attack. Without telling anyone, they snuck out of the camp and attacked the nearest Philistine garrison. And through Jonathan’s faith combined with God’s blessing, Jonathan and his armour-bearer killed all the men in the garrison. When the Philistine army heard about it, they got super scared. And then, when God caused an earthquake…the Philistines got super duper scared. And in their panic, the Philistines attacked each other! Over in King Saul’s camp, of course they had no idea of anything that Jonathan was doing. But then suddenly, they noticed the huge Philistine army break out into some kind of commotion…and then seemed to be running away. And so King Saul, not wanting to lose the chance to attack a fleeing enemy, ordered his band of 600 men to go on the attack. Would the confusion last long enough for the Philistines to be defeated? Would Saul’s tiny army be enough to push them all out of Israel? Well, let’s find out.

Well, once King Saul and his men reached the fleeing Philistines, they finally realized that not only were the Philistines running…but they were fighting each other too. And so King Saul and his tiny army really pressed his attack against the confused Philistines. But King Saul and his 600 men were not alone for long. Because the Bible says that, “all the men of Israel who had hidden in the mountains of Ephraim, when they heard that the Philistines fled, they also followed hard after them in the battle.” (1 Sam. 14:22) So all men who had at first gotten scared of the big Philistine army…once they saw that the Philistines were running… suddenly decided…ya know what…now seems like a good time to show a little bit of bravery! And they came out of their holes and caves and wherever else they were hiding to join the attack. So now not only was the Philistine army fighting itself, but it was fighting probably hundreds of thousands of Israelites. Things definitely weren’t looking good for the Philistines. And as the Bible says, “So the Lord saved Israel that day…” (14:23)

But of course, right when things were finally turning around is right when our good friend King Saul had his next not-so-bright idea. Seeing that the Philistines were on the run and not wanting to lose the chance to get some of the credit, King Saul made a totally unnecessary vow, saying, “Cursed is the man who eats any food until evening, before I have taken vengeance on my enemies.” (14:24) Basically Saul wanted all the Israelites to stay busy attacking the Philistines until as many of the Philistines were killed as possible. No breaks…not even for eating. But of course, killing as many Philistines as possible wasn’t the only reason that Saul made his oath. Did you kidzos catch what Saul said at the end there…ya know…”before I have taken vengeance on my enemies”? Ya…so even though Jonathan had been the one to first attack the Philistines, and even though God had caused the Philistines to fight each other and had done most of the work…who was Saul trying to make this victory about? Ya that’s right…Saul. Saul was making it all about him. Saul thought that if his oath could manage to get them an even bigger victory, that Saul would at least get some of the credit. As far as Saul was concerned, it wasn’t a real victory unless King Saul had gained the victory.

But who got the credit aside, as the day wore on, Saul’s crazy oath became a real problem. Because it was a lot of work for the Israelites running around and chasing the Philistines. And since they couldn’t eat anything, the Israelites were getting more and more tired. You can just imagine having to run around and fight all day without a single bite to eat! And as they got towards the end of the day, while doing their best to chase the Philistines, the exhausted Israelites came to a big forest. And strangely, as they entered the forest, the Israelites noticed that there was a ton of honey just laying on the ground everywhere. Now, I don’t know what kind of forest this was (because I don’t know about you kidzos but I’ve never walked into a forest with honey just lying around), but as the Bible tells us, the honey was dripping…and just begging for the hungry Israelites to take some. But no one did…because even though they really could have used it to keep their strength up, they were afraid of Saul’s oath.

As the Israelites were staring longingly at the honey, along came Jonathan. Of course, Jonathan and his armour-bearer had been off doing their own thing, and they hadn’t heard anything about an oath. So when a tired and hungry Jonathan came running into the forest, he looked down at the honey, and quickly grabbed a honeycomb, dipped it in the honey, and ate it. Of course, the Israelites who saw this were besides themselves. What was Jonathan doing? Didn’t he know about the King’s oath? And one of the Israelites went up to Jonathan, and said, “Your father strictly charged the people with an oath, saying, ‘Cursed is the man who east food this day.’” (14:28) Hearing this, a surprised Jonathan looked around at his fellow Israelites…noticing how hungry they all looked…and that they were starting to look faint. And then Jonathan replied to the man, and said, “My father has troubled the land. Look now, how my countenance has brightened because I tasted a little of this honey. How much better if the people had eaten freely today of the spoil of their enemies which they found! For now would there not have been a much greater slaughter among the Philistines?” (14:29-30) Jonathan was disappointed in his father. He couldn’t understand why he would have made that crazy oath. Wasn’t the whole point to defeat the Philistines? Shouldn’t his father have known that not eating would have slowed thing down? But they didn’t have time to talk about it. And they all went on chasing the Philistines as best they could.

At the end of the day, once Saul’s oath had finally come to and end and all the Israelites had had a chance to eat something, Saul then said to the Israelites, “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.” (14:36) Saul wanted the Israelites, who were finally feeling a little bit better, to continue their attack all through night until morning. And the people seemed willing to do this, but then the high priest, who had been with Saul ever since he’d called for the Ark to be brought to the garrison, interrupted and said, “Let us draw near to God here.” (14:36) Basically saying, hey maybe before we continue to attack the Philistines we should ask God about it. Of course, Saul couldn’t say no to that. And so Saul, with everyone around, asked for God’s direction, saying, “Shall I go down after the Philistines? Will You deliver them into the hand of Israel?” (14:37) Unsurprisingly, though much to Saul’s frustration, God did not answer him. Now the Bible doesn’t exactly tell us why God didn’t answer Saul here, but we can make an educated guess. Saul hadn’t exactly been following God’s law or instruction recently. And had even been trying to take credit for this amazing victory. So of course God wasn’t going to answer Saul.

But as we already found out in the last episode, Saul wasn’t exactly the kind of guy who could easily admit that he’d done something wrong. So to Saul it was obvious that God’s silence wasn’t because of anything that he’d done, right? No no no…it was someone else’s fault. Someone must have broken his oath…someone must have eaten something when they weren’t supposed to. Yah…that’s gotta be it! And Saul went to the other Israelite leaders, and said, “Come over here, all your chiefs of the people, and know and see what this sin was today. For as the Lord lives, who saves Israel, though it be in Jonathan my son, he shall surely die.” (14:38-39) Saul seemed to think that this was an Achan situation. Ya know Achan…the guy who had kept some of the treasures from Jericho…and caused the Israelites to lose the next battle because there was sin in the camp. Saul thought that someone in the Israelite camp had broken the oath…someone in the camp had sinned, and Saul wanted to know who it was. But of course, as Saul stood there accusing them, no one in the camp said a word. As the Bible says it, “Not a man among all the people answered him.” (14:39)

Probably sensing that most of the Israelites actually thought that in fact Saul was the problem, Saul decided (like how they discovered Achan at Jericho) that they’d cast lots to find out who was responsible for God’s silence. But unlike how they did it for Achan, there would only be only two lots cast. King Saul put himself and Jonathan on one lot, and then all the rest of the Israelites were on the other lot. And when the lots were cast, low and behold, Saul and Jonathan were picked. So then, they cast the two lots between Saul and Jonathan. And wouldn’t you know it, Jonathan was picked. And Saul turned to his son Jonathan, and said, “Tell me what you have done.” (14:43) And Jonathan answered his father, and said, “I only tasted a little honey with the end of the rod that was in my hand. So now I must die!” (14:43)

Now, it’s interesting that God allowed the lot to fall to Jonathan. I mean, it’s not like Jonathan had really done anything wrong. But what it did do was really put King Saul into a pickle. In truth, Saul’s oath had been foolish and had caused the attack to slow down. In truth, Saul had broken God’s law. In truth, if anyone had sinned that day, it was Saul. And not only was Jonathan Saul’s son, but Jonathan (with God’s blessing) had been the true hero of the day. Through Jonathan’s bravery, God had rescued Israel. So, when God caused the lot fell to Jonathan, Saul had a decision to make – would he follow through and kill his own son just because Jonathan broke his crazy oath, or would Saul admit that he’d made a mistake? Saul made his decision, turned to his son, and said, “God do so and more also; for you shall surely die, Jonathan.” (14:44) Saul would sacrifice even his own son just so that he wouldn’t have to admit that maybe…just maybe…he’d done something wrong.

And if Saul had had his way, that’s exactly what would have happened. But thankfully, it was not to be. This whole drama with the lots and the death pronouncement had happened in front of all the Israelites who had fought that day. And when they saw the king pronounce the death sentence on Jonathan…the hero of the day…the one who’d saved them all from certain defeat…well they just couldn’t stand by and let it happen. And risking the king’s anger, the people said to Saul, “Shall Jonathan die, who had accomplished this great deliverance in Israel? Certainly not! As the Lord lives, not one hair of his head shall fall to the ground, for he had worked with God this day.” (14:45) The people just were not going to allow Saul to kill Jonathan, and they stepped in and rescued him. Of course, just like in any monarchy, when everyone is united against the king…there’s really nothing that the king can do. And so, thoroughly embarrassed and humiliated, Saul gave up on trying to punish Jonathan…and also gave up on continuing the attack against the Philistines. The defeated Philistines who had survived the day headed back home, and King Saul, who had also been defeated (though in a different way), also went back to his home…probably to sulk for a while. 

So King Saul was only 3 years into his reign. And so far he’d managed to break God’s law, get on bad terms with God’s prophet, almost get wiped out by the Philistines, slow down an attack against the Philistines, and almost kill his own son. On top of all that, there had already been a mini-rebellion against his reign. Boy…things sure weren’t going well. So, why was Saul having such a hard time? And for that matter, why had God allowed the Israelites to get so close to being completely taken over by the Philistines? Well, if you kidzos will remember, God had warned the Israelites against having a king. He’d told them that the king would take their stuff, take their sons and daughters, and eventually make them all servants. But those were just the things that the king would do to the people…and seeing how things were going with King Saul, it was easy to see how they were going to get there. But the main reason that God didn’t want them to have a king was that God wanted the Israelites to continually depend on Him...and not to depend on a king. The Israelites wanted to feel safe from all their enemies on all sides. They wanted a king to help them get their act together and to fight their battles so they wouldn’t have to worry about being attacked all the time. But this wasn’t what God wanted. God didn’t want the Israelites to feel safe all the time. God wanted the Israelites to keep on feeling that they could be attacked at any time. Because then the Israelites would have to depend on God for their safety. This way, the Israelites would be constantly reminded of where their real strength came from. And that’s why when the Philistines attacked, God let things get as far as they did…to remind them that even though they had a king now that they still had to depend on Him. So not only was King Saul constantly panicking and making crazy decisions, but he was also trying to take the credit from God…he was fighting against the very thing that God was trying to teach the Israelites. And that’s why things weren’t going so well.

And ya know…it’s the same with us kidzos. It might sound a bit harsh, but God doesn’t necessarily want us to feel safe all the time either. And it’s not to say that God wants us to be stressed and worried all the time…definitely not. But ya know, when everything is going well, when there’s always money in the bank, when there’s always food on the table, when nothing bad ever happens…that’s when we feel safe and that’s often when we forget that its God who provides for us. And so, God can sometimes let things get to a point where it looks like all is lost…until we finally get on our knees and ask Him to save us…to learn to depend on Him for safety…just like what happened to the Israelites all those years ago.