1 Samuel 13:15-14:46
Use this guide to help your group discussion as you meet this week.
Transcript
Good morning. My name is Chad. I'm one of the pastors here. If you will grab a Bible and go to First Samuel chapter 13. Um, when my wife and I were going to get married, uh, I remember sitting down with the the pianist who was going to be playing for us.
He was just a guy from our Church and he was he was really good at piano and he was asking questions of like, "All right, so what songs when everybody's sitting down and stuff, what songs do you want me to play? What do you want me to to do?" And I was sitting there, it was me, I think my mom was there, I know my EI was there, my my grandmother. And uh, he just asked questions of like, "What kind of um, what songs you want?" And I started just saying like, well, I just listed off, you know, hymns that I that I appreciated. And I know what you're thinking. You know, I was a 21-year-old uh man.
So, I had thought a lot about my wedding and uh you know, really had planned this sort of thing since I was little. I never done any of this. So, I just was like, I guess I like these songs. And I was listening them off and my my grandmother was squirming a little bit. And then I said, you know, that I like the hymn In the Garden.
And she goes, stop. Just stop. and she said the opening line of that hymn is I come to the garden alone chat you are getting married you are not alone and she just took over from that point she was just like no eras all of that you here are the songs that you need to play and she just started and what she did was and I've had several moments like that in my life where someone just says stop what you want is dumb what you should want is this better thing and I'm reminded of that as we read this text this morning uh that there's a there's something in it as I was studying it that felt like that stop the thing you want is dumb and there's some better thing and what we're looking at in this text is we're in 1st Samuel and really 1st Samuel 13:14 and 15 are kind of a big long story together and it's showing the the downfall of Saul and it's going to continue but this is kind of this big long picture of trying to help us see some of how what Saul did and some of just the events of of the this time in history, but also uh how he messes things up and how it he loses the kingdom. And we saw the beginning of that last week. And we're going to continue in that.
And today we're going to see him paired uh kind of against contrasted against Jonathan, his son, uh as we read through the story. And so what we're going to do is we're going to read through this text all of chapter 14. It's a lot. There's a lot going on. So, we're going to read, we're going to talk, we're going to read, we're going to talk.
We're try to understand what's going on here. And then we're going to as we finish up, we're just going to kind of zoom out and see something that's going on in redemptive history that we see in this text, but that really points us towards a greater hope in Jesus. So that's that's the hope for today is that we would understand this text a little better, that we would uh see what's going on in it, and then collectively as Christians as we look at this text that we would look and see something about Christ uh that that I think um this text helps us appreciate. And so I'm going to pray uh just quickly and ask the Lord for help and then we're going to we're going to go and we got a lot of reading to do.
So everybody buckle up and get ready. Lord, we ask for help. Uh we ask that you would help us to see in your word Christ reflected and the hope of the Gospel displayed in the middle of you working out uh redemptive history in your people. And we ask for your help this morning just that we would we would listen that we would think clearly and that your spirit would minister to us to help us to to come away from sin and to walk closer in faith in a way that honors you in Jesus name. Amen.
All right. Chapter 13 19. It says, "Now there was no blacksmith to be found throughout all the land of Israel. For the Philistines said, lest the Hebrews make themselves swords or spears." So, if you'll remember where we left off, Jonathan had led a successful attack on a garrison at Gibba.
And then the Philistines had marched in. And it says they were as numerous as the sand on the seashore. They had 30,000 chariots. They just march into Israel in force. And then all the people start scattering from Saul.
Saul makes a sacrifice he shouldn't make. He ends up with 600 and he's hiding. And most of the other people are hiding in sistns and tombs and and caves. I mean, they're just scattered as the Philistines have marched in. But what we just read was the Philistines marched their army in, but they had already been exerting an immense amount of influence and control over the people of Israel to the point that the Philistines say, "You can't have blacksmiths." And the Israelites are forced to comply with that.
That the Philistines have so much control over this area that they have outlawed blacksmiths, which is really interesting to me that the Israelites have a king but no blacksmiths. So the Israelites got together like we're have a king now. And they're the Philistines are like neat. We aren't scared of you. Like they just they don't have any sort of real control here.
So it says, it says verse 20, but every one of the Israelites went down to the Philistines to sharpen his plowshare. It's the thing that rides behind an ax, his madic, which is like a pickaxe, his axe or his sickle. And the charge was 2/3 of a shekele for the plow shares and for the maddox, and a third of a shekele for sharpening the axes and for setting the goats. So that's neat. It's cheaper, you know, if you just need your axe sharpened.
It's only going to cost you a third of a shekele, you know, and I'm willing to bet there are some Israelites who are like, I remember when it used to be a fourth of a shekele. Anyway, this is a real thing that happened in history and they've jotted down for us how much it actually costs. Okay. Verse 22. So on the day of the battle, there was neither sword nor spear found in the hand of any of the people with Saul and Jonathan, but Saul and Jonathan his son had them.
So Saul and Jonathan have swords or spears or maybe both, but nobody else does. Everybody else has a sickle, a pickaxe, an axe, or some sort of pruning shear or plow share that they've mangled into something, tied it to a stick, and are going to try to smack somebody in the head with it. Like that. This army does not look good. There's 600 of them, and there's two swords.
It's not it's not going well for them. And that's the situation that they're in. And the garrison of the Philistines was out went out to the pass of Mcmash. So the Philistines had been on the move and now we're told that they're in this area, this pass of Mcmash one day. This verse uh verse one of chapter 14.
one day. So during this whole setup, 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. So Jonathan, his armor bearer, said, "Let's go check out what the Philistines are up to." Saul was staying in the outskirts of Giba in the pomegranate cave at Migran. The people who were with him were about 600 men, including Ahijah, the son of Ahitub, Icabad's brother, son of Phineas, son of Eli, the priest of the Lord, and Shiloh, wearing an ephod. All right, let's see this for a second.
It's already been prophesied to the line of Eli that the priesthood is taken from them. And it's already been prophesied to Saul that the kingship is going to be taken from him. So, we have a rejected king and a rejected priest hiding in a cave. There's 600 soldiers with them, so they probably aren't all in the cave, but they've basically set up camp hiding from the Philistines in in fear and with a very small force, especially compared to the amount of the force that the Philistines have. But one of the things you got to realize is it's not just that Saul's like in a bad spot and rightfully scared.
There's a reality to as the king of Israel and as the people of Israel, they are being disobedient because this is in the law. This is in Deuteronomy chapter 20 says, "When you go out to war against your enemies and see horses and chariots and an army larger than your own, you shall not be afraid of them. For the Lord your God is with you who brought you up out of the land of Egypt." So, it was it was for the king to to have his own copy of the law to keep reading it and to know how he's supposed to handle situations like this. That rest of that chapter in Deuteronomy goes into how to send people home from your army. The priest is supposed to show up and start dismissing people because they don't need them because the Lord their God will fight for them.
That's that's what there's to understand. That's the situation that they to see that they're in, but they they don't. And honestly, I think for us, one of the ways that we can wrap our head around some of how this can apply to us is that as Christians, I think this is how we're supposed to see missionary work. that we actually aren't supposed to stare the odds down and go, "Well, that's a really hard country to get into. Those people really don't want to hear it.
That's really dangerous. That's really violent." I mean, we're supposed to we can notice that stuff, but then we're supposed to move forward in faith that the Lord conquers and can protect and can do what he wants. But in this situation, Saul is hiding. He doesn't have a very big force. And it says this, "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 Sinn. The one crag rose on the north in front of Mcmash and the other on the south in front of Gibb. So, it's a rocky area and there are basically caverns and jutted out crags that are hanging over and they said there's one this way and one that way and he's trying to work his way through.
Verse six, Jonathan said to the young man who carried his armor. Okay, so he had uh people who had armor have armor bearers. Uh if you're familiar with the idea of like a knight and a squire, it's similar that when you have certain pieces of armor, do you need someone to help you get them off like to tie them on in the back and to put them back on? So they usually had someone who was helping you do some of that if you were more important and had nicer armor. And so Saul has armor, his son has armor, and that's it.
There's not a whole lot of other pieces of armor or military paraphernalia in this entire army. But so Jonathan has someone who helps him get his armor on and off, tie him up, get him ready to go. And it's just interesting to think before a battle that you're like, "Hey, could you lace me up in the back?" But that's what's happening. And so that's who's with him, his armor bearer.
So he says, this is what Jonathan says, "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. So, Jonathan gets it. First of all, he calls them the uncircumcised, meaning that he's understanding we're the covenant people of God. We're the people who have the marks of the covenant, the sign of the covenant.
We belong to him. And he says, "These people don't." He says, "So, let's go over there, just me and you, and maybe God will do something because God can do whatever he wants." It doesn't nothing stops him whether we have a lot or a little. And it feels almost like Jonathan might have been saying that to his dad like, "Hey, don't worry about how many people we got. Nothing can stop the Lord." But we we don't know. We just see at his armor bearer and says, "I'm tired of sitting around.
Let's see if God wants to do something." And nothing can stop him so he can work with us if if he wants to. So, let's go over there and see if he'll work through us. 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." So, one of the very first ride-or- die friends in history, he says, "If you're rolling, I'm rolling.
Do what you want. I'm with you." And y'all, if you We didn't know much about Jonathan or his armor bearer, but now we should all be in love with them. These guys are great. Jonathan says, "We're going to trust the Lord and we're going to go." And his friend says, "Let's roll.
I'm with you." And they're going to go see what the Lord's going to do. And that's what they're doing. And they head out. So Jonathan's going to come up with a plan. It says this, verse eight.
Then Jonathan said,"Behold, we will cross over to the men, and we will show ourselves to them. And if they say to us,"Wait until we come to you, then we'll stand still in our place, and we will not go up to them. But if they say to us, "Come up to us," then we will go up, for the Lord has given them into our hand, and this shall be the sign to us." Okay, Jonathan just makes up a scenario. He's like, "We're going to pop out. Show ourselves." If they're like, "Stay there," then okay.
But if they say, "Come to us," then we'll know God wants us to go kill them and he's handed them over to us. He's walking in faith. This is just a story. I don't think this is meant for you to start living your life coming up with weird scenarios and just being like, "This is how we'll know what God wants us to do." But he we are to see that he just trusts the Lord and he's trusting the Lord can do whatever he wants. And so he's just walking it out in faith.
So it's more of a descriptive story rather than a prescriptive story. We get to walk in the Holy Spirit. It's a little bit different for us. So uh but that's what he does. He just says we're going to do this.
So now let's see what happens. Verse 11. 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 have hidden themselves." So, these are some cocky fellows uh who have been walking around apparently looking for some Hebrews to kill and they've all hidden.
So, they see two guys that Jonathan and his armor bearer pop out and they look at each other go, "Oh, hey, look. They've crawled out of their holes. Neat. And then they say, where we at?" So, they said they've come out of the holes where they've hid themselves.
Verse 12. 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." Said, "Hey, come here. We want to show you something." Now, we are not ever going to find out whether they actually wanted to show him something. That may have been a trick, you guys. I don't know.
They might have been cocky enough to think, "We'll just get these two up here." And they were going to show them something like how big their army was or whatever or what it's like to get stabbed. I don't know what they were planning on showing them, but they say, "Come up here. We want to show you something." And Jonathan said to his armor bearer, "Oh, wait. Sorry." Then Jonathan climbed climbed up. Oh, wait.
Nope. Hold on. I can read. Give me a second. I was right.
And Jonathan said to his armor bearer, "Come up after me, for the Lord has given them into the hand of Israel." So he says, "Oh, the Lord's handing them over to Israel." Then Jonathan climbed up on his hands and feet and his armor bearer after him. So he has to scale basically some kind of a cliffside to get up there, which if they know you're coming is one of the worst ways to attack somebody. But the he the Lord's handed him over to him. The Philistines just wait for him to come up. And it says, "And they fell before Jonathan and his armor bearer killed them after him." So Jonathan starts working his way through all the Philistines that he's running into and he's dropping them and then his armor bear is coming behind them and dispatching them.
So they're injured and then no more. That's the way they're working their way through this this group. And that first strike which Jonathan and his armor bearer made killed about 20 men within as it were half a furrow's length in an acre of land. Okay.
So God is handing them over to Jonathan. And we're a little bit messed up because we've watched way too many movies where one person just beats up 20 people. And so we're like just 20. And it's like 20 y'all like this is difficult to do. Fighting one person and winning is hard.
Fighting two people is more than twice as hard. It gets it gets exponentially more difficult. There's 20 and they just are cutting through them. So, you can use movies you've seen to help you picture what it looked like, but you also need to know that this is difficult and that the Lord is handing them over, that this is a display of God's work on their behalf as they're cutting through this first strike.
and it's not a very big place. And suddenly there's a whole bunch of dead Philistines. Verse 15. 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. So this first strike happens. People start freaking out. They're looking over and they're seeing that they're being attacked and they're watching Philistines die.
And then I'm assuming they're watching the Philistines run. and a panic hits. Then the earthquakes and it goes from a panic to a very great panic. It It's falling apart very quickly. And the panic's in the camp and the field and even among the raiders.
And who who are they? I don't know. But they seem to be highlighted as more scary people who shouldn't have panicked, but they're also panicking that it's just working its way through the camp. And so everyone is freaking out and starting to break apart.
This is what it says. Verse 16. And the watchmen of Saul and Giba of Benjamin looked, and behold, the multitude was dispersing here and there. So, he's got some scouts watching the camp, and they're not on the march.
They're panicking. He's watching as the camp just starts to break up. 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, he says, "Line up formations.
Tell me who's missing." So they line up in formations. He's got different leaders. This wouldn't have taken forever to count. And they find Jonathan and his armor bearer aren't here. So he's trying to figure out what's going on over there.
And who's left? Have people gone to start fighting? What's going on? 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 tumbolt 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.
Okay, we get a little glimpse of how Saul operates. He's hanging out. He gets the news that this is breaking apart. He says, "Count, see what's going on." He realizes Jonathan and his armor bearer aren't there. Then he yells for the priest, "Bring the ark.
Bring the ark. Bring the ark." While he's getting that all set up and the priest is trying to figure out, they're going to try to see like what does the Lord want us to do? We're going to inquire of God. They're bringing it over here. Let's figure out what's going to happen.
Then it starts happening more and he just yells at the priest, "Stop." So he's like, "Bring the ark." And then he's like, "Quit. We're not doing that." And then he then he takes off. And you can just kind of see that Saul doesn't ever really know what to do. He He's not cool, calm, collected. Him hiding in the baggage when they were calling him to be king is kind of a good picture of what he's like.
He just seems to kind of he's just trying to figure it out as he goes. And he doesn't really ever seem like he's got clarity. And some of it, I think, is that Saul doesn't know who God is. Doesn't know how to trust him. He's not He's anchoring it in himself and he's anchoring it in the people around him and how things are going.
He's always based in his circumstances. And so he's whipped around rather than being able to just kind of see ahead and stay steady. But they go into battle and behold, every Philistine's sword was against his fellow, and there was very great confusion. Okay, so the Lord is at work in this panic.
He's at work in this confusion, and they they don't know they don't know what to do. People are running, people are shouting, they're starting to stab each other, they feel like they're under attack. If if you're in a camp and suddenly it's very obvious because of all the stuff that's going on that you're under attack, but they're there's only two guys that actually are on the other team at this first little bit of moment before the other people start coming. And it seems like they're all just seeing people running, seeing swords moving. Everybody's panicking.
and they're starting to attack each other, which is a picture of how God works because the Israelites don't need swords if they'll just trust the Lord. These guys have swords and they'll stab each other with them. Verse 21. 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. So, there are some Hebrews who had basically been captured or conscripted and they were just with the Philistines and all of a sudden when the Philistines start stabbing each other, they're like, "Well, we're not just going to let you stab each other.
We're going to help. You know, we will also stab you." And so, they hop in. Likewise, when all the men of Israel who had hidden themselves in the hill country of Ephereim 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 Aan. So all of a sudden, remember when they were like, "Hey, look, they've come out of their caves." They do that and they also join in fighting the Philistines and the Lord saves them and the battle breaks up.
And now we're going to hear more about how the rest of this day plays out. Verse 24. And the men of Israel had been hardpressed that day. So Saul had laid an oath on the people, saying, "Cursed be the man who eats food until it is evening, and I am avenged on my enemies." So apparently, prior to coming in with his 598 soldiers and one sword, Saul says, "No one's allowed to eat until it's night time, and you'll be cursed." That's how he sends them into battle. So none of the people had tasted food.
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, but no one put his hand to his mouth, for the people feared the oath. So they've been told, "Nobody's allowed to eat." They're on the march. They've been fighting.
At first, that's fine. You're riding in the battle, whatever. Then it's like, "Okay, this is getting harder and harder." As they're chasing people, they enter into the forest. And y'all, it's like entering Willy Wonka's chocolate factory. Honey was the sweetest thing they had.
It's the sweetest thing they knew. This is they they enter into a magical dream forest where it's flowing with milk and honey. Like, it's actually happening, you guys. The honey's here, and they're not allowed to have it because there's been this curse that's breaking that up, that's messing up this hope that they would have been able to enjoy. They they come in and honey's just dripping.
Maybe the only time in their life they ever saw this and they're like, "I'll be cursed if I eat it." I just want y'all to feel sad with them. This is sad. But Jonathan had not heard his father charge the people with the oath because he was out, you know, trusting the Lord and winning a battle. So he put out the tip of the staff that was in his hand and dipped it in the honeycomb and put it his hand to his mouth and his eyes became bright. 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." So they're working.
Jon, they've all caught up with Jonathan now. Jonathan, they're going through, they're fighting. Jonathan sees this. He starts eating some honey and he's like, "This is good." That's his eyes became bright. He was like, you know, like a cartoon like it was nice.
And then one of the guys is like, "Hey, your dad said not to do that." And they're all, you can almost see all these tired guys. It says the people are faint. They're all sitting there like, and they're like, "He he said you'd be cursed if you ate food." And then Jonathan said, "My father has troubled the land. See how my eyes have become bright because I tasted a little of this honey. How much better if the people had eaten freely today of the spoil of their enemies that they found for now the defeat among the Philistines has not been great.
He just like why why would he say that? Like he's made this harder. We've got to go fight. Why is he making it harder?
If people could have just eaten, we we'd have more strength. We like it. We're all tired. We're not catching them like we ought to. That's basically his response.
We could have done more. My father's troubled the land. Verse 31. They struck down the Philistines that day from Mcmash to Halon. And the people were very faint.
So earlier they were faint. Now they're very faint. The people pounced on the spoil. So it is evening now. That day's ended.
That's why they did this this day to here. And then the people pounced on the spoil and took sheep and oxen and calves and slaughtered them on the ground which is bad. And the people ate them with the blood. That's why it's bad. They were to slaughter the animals in a way that would drain the blood out.
They start just killing them and starting to eat. And they told Saul, "Behold, the people are sinning against the Lord by eating with the blood." And he said, "You have dealt treacherously. Roll a great stone to me here." And Saul said, "Disperse yourselves among the people and say to them, "Let every man bring his ox or his sheep and slaughter them here and eat, and do not sin against the Lord by eating with the blood." 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. And it was the first altar that he had built to the Lord.
So he brings a big stone. They start slaughtering them the way they're supposed to to drain their blood out so they can eat them. And the reason they had pounced on them and started eating was because as soon as the sun dipped down, they all said, "It's time to eat." And they were very, very hungry and very, very faint and they handled it poorly. Verse 36. Then Saul said, "Let us go down after the Philistines by night and plunder them until the morning light.
Let us not leave a man of them." And they said, "Do whatever seems good to you." So they've eaten, rested a little bit, and he says, "Let's go while it's still dark and attack them. We'll plunder them now." But the priest said, "Let us draw near to God here." So he says, "Wait, let's ask God if we should do that." And Saul inquired of God, "Shall I go down after the Philistines? Will you give them into the hand of Israel?" But he did not answer him that day. And Saul said, "Come here all you leaders of the people and know and see how this sin has arisen today." So Saul's inquiring of the Lord. Priest is inquiring of the Lord.
And the Lord's not answering. So he says, "Something's gone wrong. We've sinned. Somebody's broken faith. There's a problem." So he summons all the leaders and says, "Y'all come here.
For as the Lord lives who saves Israel, though it be in Jonathan, my son, he shall surely die." But there was not a man among all the people who answered him. Okay. So he says, "Everybody get here." And then he says, "Even if it's Jonathan, we're going to kill him." Nobody says anything. But I do think there was one guy in the crowd who had a flashback to Jonathan eating honey and was like, but they all just kind of watching to see how this is going to play out. They also ate blood.
So it's a little unclear as to what's going on here. Then he said to all Israel, "You shall be on one side, and I and Jonathan, my son, will be on the other side." The people said to Saul, "Do what seems good to you." Therefore Saul said, "Oh Lord, God of Israel, why have you not answered your servant this day? If this guilt is in me or in Jonathan, my son, oh Lord, God of Israel, give Uram. But if it the guilt is in your people Israel, give Thumbum." And that's the way they would cast lots and the priests would do it. And Jonathan and Saul were taken, but the people escaped.
So they cast a lot, and it falls to Jonathan and Saul. Then Saul said, "Cast a lot between me and my son Jonathan." And Jonathan was taken. Now, I wonder if there was a moment there where the the men of the military who were watching this were hoping that it would land on Saul. He lands on Jonathan. Then Saul said to Jonathan, "Tell me what you have done." And Jonathan told him, "I tasted a little honey with the tip of the staff that was in my hand.
Here I am. I will die." Now, that's a curse that Saul pronounced. God doesn't respond to Saul and the lot falls to Jonathan. Meaning that the curse that God that Saul pronounced as the Lord's anointed and as the king and in the position he's in is effectual. It's real.
It actually applies. So there's a curse that only exists because of Saul and it falls on Jonathan who in this story has been great, who's led the way that Saul should have led, who's accomplished what Saul should have accomplished, but the curse is on him. Now, he did break the nature of the curse, but when you're reading the story, it seems as if that curse should have never existed. Then Saul said to Jonathan, "Tell me what you have done." And Jonathan told him, "I tasted a little honey with the tip of the staff that was in my hand. Here I am.
I will die." And Saul said, "God, do so to me and more also. You shall surely die." Jonathan. Then the people said to Saul, "Shall Jonathan die who has worked this great salvation in Israel? Far from it. As the Lord lives, there shall not be one hair of his head fall to the ground, for he has worked with God this day." So the people ransomed Jonathan so that he did not die.
Then Saul went up from pursuing the Philistines, and the Philistines went to their own place. And what we have in that section of text is the accounting of an interaction that happens and no commentary from the Bible on what should have happened. It seems as if Saul shouldn't have made that curse. And then you really shouldn't keep promises that are to do bad things. But also, there are times where there are curses placed and people should reap the consequences of them.
So, it's one of those things where it's like Saul shouldn't just listen to his men as they say that we shouldn't do something if it's the right thing to do, but he does give in to what they want, which also seems like the right thing to do. And it's this big convoluted mess. And that's kind of what you get when Saul's in charge. That's some of what seems to be playing out in the story is that if Saul's in charge, it he places a curse, but then it lands on Jonathan. But he said even if it's Jonathan, we'll kill him.
And then it lands on Jonathan because Jonathan, you know, gets sideways with the curse. And then he says, "Okay, well, I definitely will and God will do more to me even if I don't." And then all the people say, "No, you won't." And he says, "Okay." And in some ways, the curse that he places on Jonathan, we do see that Jonathan, the kingship doesn't go to him, and he does die. And it seems like there's possible possibility that some of this curse still follows him. I I don't I don't know. the curse seems real enough that the Lord doesn't answer and the lot falls to Jonathan.
And I I do think that there's a there's a glimmer of a reflection of Christ here where he's the one who does everything right and then he goes and absorbs a curse that should have never been there that was caused by someone else. and that at the end rather than all the people ransoming him, he actually does die and ransoms all the people. So there I I do see that that moment set up there where I I I don't think that's really what the text is doing, but I can't help as we read the Bible, we we we are meant to look to Christ to understand Christ as we understand the text. And that's how Jesus reads the Bible. He says that these Scriptures point to him.
But in the big picture of redemptive history here, there's something playing out that I want us to see as we look at verse 47 and and through the end of the chapter. When Saul had taken the kingship over Israel, he fought against all his enemies on every side, against Moab, against the Ammonites, against Edom, against the kings of Zoba, and against the Philistines. Wherever he turned, he routed them. and he did valiantly and struck the Amalachites and delivered Israel out of the hand of those who plundered them. So, the story that's working through here and telling us about Saul takes a moment to pause and give kind of a recap of some of his kingship and some of what he does before it goes into how this place where he does valiantly with the Amalachites, he also really messes it up, which is what we'll look at next week in chapter 15.
But he does fight off Israel's enemies. Verse 49. Now the sons of Saul were Jonathan, Ishvi, and Malashua. And the names of his two daughters were these. The name of the firstborn was Marab and the name of the younger Michael.
And the name of Saul's wife was Ahanoam, the daughter of uh Aimaz. And the name of his the commander of his army was Abner, the son of Nurr, Saul's uncle. Kish, so his cousin was his general. Kish was the father of Saul. Ander, the father of Abnner, was a son of Abio.
There was hard fighting against the Philistines all the days of Saul. And when Saul saw any strong man or any valiant man, he attached him to himself. So Saul, for all his faults, we're given this section here that says he was fighting nonstop and he routed people and he delivered them from those who had plundered them and he fights the Philistines nonstop. And I realized as I'm reading this text and there's so many things going on that one of the things that was happening to me as I read it and as I read the beginning of it where it says that there's no blacksmiths in Israel and the ending where it says he's fighting non-stop is that I honestly what I want is for Saul to just be good at fighting. And it gets the end and it says he's routed them and he's kicked off the people plundering them.
I'm I'm like yeah okay. So he can mess things up, but as long as he's good at that, that seems good. Like I read the beginning of the story and it's like what I want is for Israelite, the Israelites to be so powerful. Like that they all have swords. I want a montage of battles where the Israelites start having more and more gear the whole time.
That's what I That's what I want to see. I want to see by the end of it to be like a really good-look army, shined up, polished. and they're all outfitted and Israel has grown in strength. That's what I'm reading this desiring. And as I was considering that, I was reminded of a prophecy in Isaiah chapter 2.
I want to read it to y'all talking about the future Messiah, talking about the future kingdom of Israel. says, "It shall come to pass in the latter days that the mountain of the house of the Lord shall be established as the highest of the mountains and shall be lifted up above the hills and all the nations shall flow to it." It's going to be the center of existence. And many people shall come and say, "Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob, that he may teach us his ways and that we may walk in his paths. For out of Zion shall go forth the law and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem. So saying in the latter days in the future there's going to be a kingdom set up where the king reigns.
The Jerusalem will be the center of existence. Verse four it says he shall judge between the nations and shall decide disputes for many peoples and they shall beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks. Nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war anymore. My grandmother's saying, "Stop. What you want is bad.
There's something better." And I'm reading this and I'm realizing that y'all, that's the story of human history. that God created us and we began in a garden where there was peace and joy and life and fruitfulness and then we rebel and go into sin and death and violence and pain and sorrow enter the world. And all of human history is taking plowshares and trying to turn them into swords. All of human history is taking gardening tools and having to try to arm ourselves with them, which has happened throughout history over and over and over and over again, which has happened in your story over and over again. We still can see the remnants of the garden, the things that are beautiful, the things that are good, the things that are delightful, the ways that God is at work in grace and goodness.
And then we also see all this brokenness, this violence, this hatred, this sin, this despair, this sorrow. And so much of our stories, if you'll think about it, is basically something that was going to be good having to be twisted because of something terrible so that we might defend ourselves. that some of your story is, yeah, this was beautiful, but now this is why I react this way in these situations because this thing happened and it's just how I had to take my gardening tool and turn it into something to fight with. And that throughout human history, we've taken gardening tools for cultivation, for peace, for delight, for enjoyment, and we've had to learn how to fight with them. And where I was setting my sights was, could we just be tough enough that we're capable of fighting well?
And there's a coming king who says, "We're going to do something unheard of in human history. We're going to turn swords into plowshares. We're going to get to go back to the garden." that because of the work of Jesus, he's actually going to undo the brokenness in the world to the point that there gets to be a garden again where nations no longer learn war, where the Naval Academy doesn't exist, where we aren't having to teach our children how to fight and defend themselves. We're not having to outfit all the ladies in our in our society with ways to protect themselves and to defend themselves because of how awful all the situations are. We aren't having to constantly try to figure out what could have been a garden and how do we turn our weap our our tools into weapons so that we can protect ourselves.
We actually get to go back to where he has redeemed. And he does that in our souls too because of the work of Jesus who's working in this redemptive story that the promise of David is coming is going to come to Christ and he's going to show up and he's going to live perfectly and he's going to die so that we might be redeemed and he's going to ransom a people for himself and he's going to work in our souls to straighten out what's broken. And then he's going to do that ultimately so that we have a home and a future and an eternity where we don't need warriors because we have a king who has set everything right. The band's going to come back up and we're going to sing. I want us to sing as people who have a better hope.
I want us to sing as people who have a greater king. I want us to sing as people who have an eternity that is coming where everything is set right. And if you have not trusted Christ, if you have not looked to him to see what only he can do because he is the king who has come that ultimately brings this redemption, I will tell you that if you do, he'll begin to do this in your soul. He'll begin to straighten things back out. And then ultimately, he'll fulfill his promise that there's a kingdom with him at the center where there is no war.
There's just peace and joy and hope. and it's better than anything we could hope for as we try to play this out here. Let's pray. Lord, may we be confident in faith. May we trust in you as sovereign, as good, as holy.
And Lord, in all the places where we've set our sights too low, in all the places where we're willing to accept this brokenness and we don't have a better mental picture of how it could be better, Lord, we ask that your spirit would go to work to help us to see how you can redeem in miraculous ways that undoes the brokenness. And may you give us the faith to trust you to do that in our relationships, in our attitudes. Lord, may we not accept, well, this is just how it is, so this is just how I have to act, or this thing happened to me, so I just have to be like this, like I'm stuck in this spot. May we come to you and say, Lord, you can turn a sword into a plowshare, and will you do that?
And then, Lord, may we look forward to the day when you rule the nations and they learn war no more. And may we sing as a redeemed people longing for that redemption in a way that honors you in Jesus name. Amen.