1st Samuel Ch 14

Recap CH 13

Chapter 13 Mr. Stead taught you guys

but I just want to go over it again real quick because it leads us right into ch 14 \

So lets remember that from chapter to chapter good amounts of time have gone by

its not like each chapter is a new day

these are recordings of things that took place over pretty long periods of time

Back in chapter 10 vs 8 is where we see Samuel give the command for Saul to be patient and wait 7 days for Samuel to come and make the sacrifices of peace offerings

It is also around the time where Saul had been anointed King of Israel

He was chosen in chapter 9 and anointed in ch 10

Then in ch 11 we see Saul have great victory over the Ammonites

ch 12 is when i taught last and we learned through Samuel some really applicable stuff , he was a man of Great biblical character

not perfect but still was known for His character

we also learned in ch 12 what it is Like to have confession in our Life as believers

confession is necessary for us to grow closer to God

and then last but not least we learned how to be fully committed to God and His kingdom

Samuel in ch 13: vs 20 laid it all out there for the people of Israel and told them to serve God with All their Heart

Now CH 13 we See where Saul Kind of Starts to throw all of those 3 things out the window

keep in mind back in Chapter 8 Samuel warned them of what was to come with this new earthly King

One of those things that Samuel warned them about was the army he was going to build

1 Samuel 8:11–12 “11 And he said, “This will be the behavior of the king who will reign over you: He will take your sons and appoint them for his own chariots and to be his horsemen, and some will run before his chariots. 12 He will appoint captains over his thousands and captains over his fifties, will set some to plow his ground and reap his harvest, and some to make his weapons of war and equipment for his chariots.”

we see that here in the beginning of Ch 13

Saul Starts choosing His army and using them

he sets up two different divisions

one for himself

and one for his son Jonathan

Saul and His men were somewhat pansies

they didn’t trust in the Lord and listen to what Samuel had told them

instead they Hid in caves and under rocks

Saul then takes it upon Himself to act in place of Samuel which was not His Job

Saul was not the priest , Samuel was and Saul did not have the Authority to offer up the Sacrifice

In vs 13 we see where Saul makes a huge mistake

Instead of being patient and waiting on the Lord he takes the matters into His own hands

Samuel rebukes Him and in vs 14 we see the first mention of King David, He’s referred to as “A man after His own Heart”

Lets go down to vs 16

Then Starting in vs 16 we see that there are no weapons for the Army

1 Samuel 13:20 “20 But all the Israelites would go down to the Philistines to sharpen each man’s plowshare, his mattock, his ax, and his sickle;”

in this verse we learned that the Israelites would go down to the enemies and have them service their weapons

and now in the day of battle id assume the philistines were not having it

they weren’t willing to help them out so all there weapons were probably useless

how could you have the enemy service your weapons ?

thats not a good thing

they should have been self sufficient

anyways thats Just my opinion

Further down in vs 22 we see that the only ones who had weapons were Saul and Jonathan

Poor Leadership

How can only the leaders be equipped but not the soldiers

so the stage was being set for ch 14 and thats what we are going to be getting into today

So Lets Get Started

Today we have three topics, One that stems from Faith which is the Power of God and Fear which Comes from Satan, the enemy

Faith/Power of God / Deliverance through Faith

1 Samuel 14:1 “1 Now it happened one day that Jonathan the son of Saul said to the young man who bore his armor, “Come, let us go over to the Philistines’ garrison that is on the other side.” But he did not tell his father.”

so back in these days

important men like Kings, princes , and other important people had armor bearers to carry there armor and weapons that they would need on the battlefield

they were also known to be courageous and fighters

kinda like a batman and robin

were gonna see further down in this passage how Johnathans armor bearer helped him defeat the philistines

he was also a man of faith and obedience

if he wasn’t they wouldn’t have had the success we are going to read about

again we will see that further down in the passage

1 Samuel 14:2 “2 And Saul was sitting in the outskirts of Gibeah under a pomegranate tree which is in Migron. The people who were with him were about six hundred men.”

Again here we see Saul being a bum chilling under a tree

In chapter 13 Saul took credit for the victory that came from Johnathan

Saul is starting to build a not so good reputation

a reputation that is only self pleasing

He also is starting His downfall

if we remember back in ch vs 13-14 Samuel told Saul His kingdom was over and that the Lord had already found someone after his own heart

Again referring to David

1 Samuel 14:3 “3 Ahijah the son of Ahitub, Ichabod’s brother, the son of Phinehas, the son of Eli, the Lord’s priest in Shiloh, was wearing an ephod. But the people did not know that Jonathan had gone.”

something to point out in this verse is that Ichabod’s brother the son of Phineas , the son of Eli, was wearing an ephod

an ephod usually was worn by the high priest which at the time was the Ahijah

now this priest had the ability to probably help Saul , but again Saul had already become out of touch with Himself as a leader

he didn’t use his resources properly

1 Samuel 14:4 “4 Between the passes, by which Jonathan sought to go over to the Philistines’ garrison, there was a sharp rock on one side and a sharp rock on the other side. And the name of one was Bozez, and the name of the other Seneh.”

1 Samuel 14:5 “5 The front of one faced northward opposite Michmash, and the other southward opposite Gibeah.”

1 Samuel 14:6 “6 Then Jonathan said to the young man who bore 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 restrains the Lord from saving by many or by few.””

Johnathan we said earlier is the one acting as the leader / man that his father Saul should have been acting like

He recognizes that anything is possible with God on their side

remember the philistines were pagan worshipers and they didn’t know the God of Israel

He knew that God would win them this battle

In the Last verse He says “For nothing restrains the Lord from saving by many or by few

Johnathan recognized that it didn’t matter if they fought with 2 men and were outnumbered by a hundred

as Long as God was on their side they were good

thats some pretty solid faith, because they were out numbered

If we remember at the beginning it said that Saul was with 600 men chilling under a pomegranate tree like a baby

Here is Johnathan by Himself with just His armor bearer ready to go smoke some philistines

1 Samuel 14:7 “7 So his armorbearer said to him, “Do all that is in your heart. Go then; here I am with you, according to your heart.””

In this verse look at the obedience his servant had toward Him

idk if i know anyone who would be that fearless and trusting in their higher authority

to be outnumbered but still have the ability to trust in what He says

Maybe it was because Johnathans armor bearer had the ability to see the he was trusting in the Lord

he had the ability to trust because he knew that Johnathan was in tune with God

He too recognized that the power was not Johnathans but Gods

For me when i read that it confirms to me that when we are seeking God and being a light , everyone around us has the ability to see that

especially those who are closest to us

A couple weeks ago i talked about character

when we have developed a reputation of Good biblical character , we develop a trust from those around us

The faith Johnathan had in this moment was not something that could be brushed off as crazy

even though his dad was being a bum

surround yourself with good armor bearers

people who will ride with you no matter what the circumstance is

and also call you out when you are wrong

get those people in your life

develop those relationships

1 Samuel 14:8 “8 Then Jonathan said, “Very well, let us cross over to these men, and we will show ourselves to them.”

1 Samuel 14:9 “9 If they say thus to us, ‘Wait until we come to you,’ then we will stand still in our place and not go up to them.”

1 Samuel 14:10 “10 But if they say thus, ‘Come up to us,’ then we will go up. For the Lord has delivered them into our hand, and this will be a sign to us.””

1 Samuel 14:11 “11 So both of them showed themselves to the garrison of the Philistines. And the Philistines said, “Look, the Hebrews are coming out of the holes where they have hidden.””

1 Samuel 14:12 “12 Then the men of the garrison called to Jonathan and his armorbearer, and said, “Come up to us, and we will show you something.” Jonathan said to his armorbearer, “Come up after me, for the Lord has delivered them into the hand of Israel.””

Again Johnathan even right as this little battle is about to take place looks at the armor bearer and was like don’t worry we already won

Crazy faith

they were outnumbered

1 Samuel 14:13 “13 And Jonathan climbed up on his hands and knees with his armorbearer after him; and they fell before Jonathan. And as he came after him, his armorbearer killed them.”

Johnathan is over there slaying these dudes

not alone but with his armor bearer watching his back

they were both kickin butt

Have any of you ever seen the movie Troy ?

Towards the beginning of the movie achilles is kind of His own man and he’s got his elite squad of killers

and at the beginning scene when they fight the people of troy they are the first boat to storm the beach

like maybe 30 guys

anyways they go up alone and start man handling the enemy

thats what i picture when i think of this

Just two dudes trusting in God and kicking butt

that must have been a pretty crazy thing to witness

1 Samuel 14:14 “14 That first slaughter which Jonathan and his armorbearer made was about twenty men within about half an acre of land.”

so two dudes completely outnumbered with the power of God on their side take on 20

they smoke them in the first skirmish

1 Samuel 14:15 “15 And there was trembling in the camp, in the field, and among all the people. The garrison and the raiders also trembled; and the earth quaked, so that it was a very great trembling.”

The fear of God has now come upon these Philisitines

they Just watched two dudes take on 20 and win

Now this is where I want to talk about the first topic

FAITH ( THE POWER OF GOD )

We have two awesome examples of faith here

Johnathan and His armor bearer

In the Military today in the Air-Force the relationship between these two men would be what we call wingmen

when aircraft fly into battle they typically don’t go alone

they always have a wingman

each one has an equal amount of trust in the other to do their Job

without that trust they wouldn’t be successful

thats why if any of you have ever seen top gun they are always flying in pairs

always with a wingman

anyways Johnathan and His wingman both give us such an awesome example of having Faith in the power of God

Lets brake down faith a little more

I know its something we have been kind of talking about a-lot lately but it keeps coming up

maybe the lord is trying to say something to each one of us

Faith lets brake it down because believe it or not there are different types of faith

The first Kind of faith i’m going to talk about is called

Dead faith: what is dead faith ?

James 2:17 “17 Thus also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead.”

James simply explains dead faith to us

its faith without works; its not talking about works like how can i earn my spot

its talking about faith that produces fruit

dead faith is obvious in people

they don’t produce the fruit that comes from true saving faith

if we are faithful to the Lord and what he has called us to do , we are going to produce it

think of before you were saved , would you do the same things you do after you are saved ? probably not (Expound)

again take Johnathan for example His faith produced a great victory while His dads faith was weak

Saul was over there chilling under a tree afraid to engage the enemy and super quick to take credit for the victory like we saw in ch 13

Men of dead faith don’t produce anything if anything they are the people that are constantly being dragged along by others

they are the people who are constantly in fear of Life

fear is another topic we will get into and fear is not from God its from the enemy and he uses it to obscure our ability to lean on God

Galatians 5:22–23 “22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law.”

Dad faith cannot embody the fruits of the spirit

true faith is going to be transforming

How many of us have lacked faith or had dead faith ?

We all go through seasons and God uses things in life to grow our faith

What are some things that God can use in our life to grow our faith ? So that we do not become dead in our faith ?

(1) How about teaching ? Through Listening to Gods word , coming here to church and Listening to someone teach the bible !

(2) through circumstance , what ever that may be , a tough day at school, someone you know or are close to is sick , you’ve been physically hurt, a friend what ever the circumstance , it has the ability to grow your faith

(3) How about through prayer , How many of us have experienced answered prayer ?

Ill share this quick story , Kelci for those of you who don’t know is pregnant

well around the time we found out , she woke up one day in pain not feeling good

so we went to the Hospital to see what was wrong

for those of you who don’t know Before we had Scotti we had a miscarriage

now we had that in the back of our mind and so we go to the Hospital , we are there for over 7 Hours and while we were there we were both pretty nervous because we didn’t know what to expect

anyways Kelci goes through a bunch of testing over the course of a few Hours and were there Just praying and honestly really worried

but we prayed multiple times and i remember sitting there in silence praying myself like lord please don’t let this happen to us again

and so finally a Dr. comes in and he’s in a good mood and he looks at us and says well are you guys expecting ? and we both said yes we are

and then he says well i don’t have bad news i have good news , he says there are two sacks forming

and we look at each-other like okay

then he says “ your more than likely having twins “

I start laughing and kelci just about starts crying

but anyways fast forward to a few weeks ago and we had our first ultra sound and it is confirmed that we are in deed having twins

now I share that story with you because in those moments leading up to that it was like we had faith that what ever happened was gonna be used for God but we also lacked a little bit of faith knowing that God was in control

so what did we do? we prayed and look at how God answered our prayer, with twins

what ever the circumstance , God will use that in your life to lean on Him and to grow your faith

God used that to grow our faith in a way that we were not expecting and honestly we are super stoked

we have to be like Johnathan , alert and awake and able to see that God is able when we are weak

Johnathan knew that , His faith lead to victory

thats when He will grow our faith the most

The Next one I want to talk about is a Demonic faith;

did you guys know that we are not the only ones who have faith and believe in God ?

James 2:19 “19 You believe that there is one God. You do well. Even the demons believe—and tremble!”

even the demons believe in God and tremble

they know God exists and is all powerful but the faith they have is not a Godly faith its a demonic faith

its rooted in rebellion

they know God is the creator, the ultimate power,

yet still chose to think that they are smarter and better than the one who created them

thats what satan Himself did in Isaiah ch 14 vs 12-15

satan is the master of the Demons

God is the master to the believers

Satan and His demonic influences think they are mightier than God

they place their faith in satan and not God

the whole idea is 2 Masters and we know that Gods word is very clear on serving two masters

you cant do it , you serve one or the other

a good example of that here and in a-lot of what we've gone through in 1st Samuel is the Philistines

they were pagan worshipers

they worshiped demonic idols

they had many occasions where they experienced God and his power yet still rejected Him for their “gods”

Matthew 6:24 “24 “No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be loyal to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon.”

this type of faith is not one that we want to be involved in

demonic faith serves the master of the world and that is satan

The third Type of faith I want to talk about Is Vain Faith;

Somewhat similar to dead faith but this type of faith is deceiving

its an empty faith

a faith that we can see from people who claim to Know God

who act like they know God

who do all the right things

but in their heart they are empty , they don’t truly believe in God because they don’t do the will of God

Lets look at Matthew ch 7

Matthew 7:21–23 “21 “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven. 22 Many will say to Me in that day, ‘Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?’ 23 And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!’”

so again we see that in church today ; quite often

people who do the right things act the right way

talk the talk

even use the name of Jesus

they will not enter into the Kingdom of heaven because their faith is vain

they don’t actually believe in the Lord because they don’t actually do his will

these people are inconsistent in their walk

Now its not for us to Judge but these people stick out like a sore thumb

people who act one way here at church and another at home

1 John 1:6“6 If we say that we have fellowship with Him, and walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth.”

1 John 4:20 “20 If someone says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen, how can he love God whom he has not seen?”

Knowing the Lord is much more than just saying you do

its much more than acting like you do

rooted in our relationship is True faith through the belief of Jesus and what he did on the cross

from that comes the real fruit

being obedient and obeying Him is doing the will of God and those of us who do His will will one day be in Heaven

Now the Fourth type of Faith ( Saving Faith )

What is Saving faith ?

John 3:16 “16 For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.”

Ephesians 2:8–10 “8 For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, 9 not of works, lest anyone should boast. 10 For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.”

rooted in Jesus is the gift from God of salvation

salvation comes through the death and resurrection of Jesus on the cross

and the confession that we are sinners

we are in need of a savior

our salvation is the greatest gift anyone can ever give us

its not something earned but it is something given to us

we as believers aren’t done when we become saved

it doesn’t end there through words

a transformation happens inside us and again we bear fruit that is proof transformation happened

we were created for good works it says in Ephesians

those good works embody the fruits of the spirit and call us to make more disciples of Jesus

they call us to share the Gospel of what Jesus did on the cross

God wants each and every person to believe in Him and enter into His kingdom

Johnathan and His armor bearer were great examples as men of True faith

they didn’t have dead faith, they didn’t have demonic faith, they had a saving faith

this allowed them to fully trust in God in this difficult time on the battlefield

it gave them the courage and the strength to go and be the Leaders they were called to be

I believe for everyone of us though we go through seasons to Find yourself friends Like Jonathans Armor bearer and Grow your faith and relationship with the Lord

Every-time he will meet you where it is needed

Now the Last thing we are going to talk about

Deliverance through Faith

1 Samuel 14:16 “16 Now the watchmen of Saul in Gibeah of Benjamin looked, and there was the multitude, melting away; and they went here and there.”

1 Samuel 14:17 “17 Then Saul said to the people who were with him, “Now call the roll and see who has gone from us.” And when they had called the roll, surprisingly, Jonathan and his armorbearer were not there.”

some of Saul’s men had seen the commotion and Saul has been informed

so Saul was curios as to who was behind the confusion

then he realizes His son Johnathan and His armor bearer were not there

1 Samuel 14:18 “18 And Saul said to Ahijah, “Bring the ark of God here” (for at that time the ark of God was with the children of Israel).”

1 Samuel 14:19 “19 Now it happened, while Saul talked to the priest, that the noise which was in the camp of the Philistines continued to increase; so Saul said to the priest, “Withdraw your hand.”

Here we see Saul for what ever reason stop the one good thing he was doing

He started to attempt to seek the Lord but for what ever reason he stopped and instead continued perusing the Philistines

1 Samuel 14:20 “20 Then Saul and all the people who were with him assembled, and they went to the battle; and indeed every man’s sword was against his neighbor, and there was very great confusion.”

confusion amongst the philistines they didn’t know what was going on

1 Samuel 14:21 “21 Moreover the Hebrews who were with the Philistines before that time, who went up with them into the camp from the surrounding country, they also joined the Israelites who were with Saul and Jonathan.”

So there was a group of Hebrews that had been with the philistines

even they withdrew from them and fought against the philistines

and now the philistines experienced there true allegiance

1 Samuel 14:22 “22 Likewise 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 Samuel 14:23 “23 So the Lord saved Israel that day, and the battle shifted to Beth Aven.”

So after reading this section We see the result of Faith ; I call it Deliverance through faith

The last verse here tells us that the Lord saved them that day

now when we go back earlier on in the section

again Johnathan and His armor bearer Had great faith

because of them God delivered them from the Hand of the enemy

their obedience and allegiance to God gave them the ability to have faith in God

and because of that God delivered them

In life today when we place our faith in the Lord , he’s always faithful to meet us where we need him

regardless of the circumstance and regardless of what happens

He will meet us.

Even when we look back in the Gospels we see stories of People having

Ref Matthew 17:14–21 “14 And when they had come to the multitude, a man came to Him, kneeling down to Him and saying, 15 “Lord, have mercy on my son, for he is an epileptic and suffers severely; for he often falls into the fire and often into the water. 16 So I brought him to Your disciples, but they could not cure him.” 17 Then Jesus answered and said, “O faithless and perverse generation, how long shall I be with you? How long shall I bear with you? Bring him here to Me.” 18 And Jesus rebuked the demon, and it came out of him; and the child was cured from that very hour. 19 Then the disciples came to Jesus privately and said, “Why could we not cast it out?” 20 So Jesus said to them, “Because of your unbelief; for assuredly, I say to you, if you have faith as a mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move; and nothing will be impossible for you. 21 However, this kind does not go out except by prayer and fasting.””

Again this is just one example but there are many

God is faithful to those who are faithful

what ever it is your going through

struggling with

having doubts

what ever fear you have

what ever the case may be what ever the circumstance may be

God is faithful to deliver us from anything as long as we have faith in Him