Sermon Tone Analysis

Introduction

There is a story in the Bible about a man named Daniel.

The Israelites were being taken into captivity by King Nebuchadnezzar.

King Nebuchadnezzar wanted men from the Israelites who were from royal families and nobility in order to serve him.........

The men were to endure training for three years before entering into the kings service

Daniel was one of these men

When the men were chosen, they were given what would have been a privilege of eating the same food that the king ate

Now

However, Daniel was a Godly man and the word tells us in

Daniel 1:8

Daniel instead wanted to eat and consume, IN HONOR OF GOD, what he knew would not defile him which was vegetables and water to drink.

You see the defilement would have been that the kings meat and food may have been cooked with the blood still in it, it may have been sacrificed to God’s before he ate it and thus because Daniel did not know, he chose to not submit himself to this possible defilement and made this special request of vegetables and water.

The guard was afraid that Daniel and his friends would end up looking really bad and unhealthy and the king would kill him.

Daniel assure him and asked him to test him and what he said for ten days.

At the end of those ten days, Daniel and his friends were healthier and better nourished than any of the young men who ate the royal food.

So the guard took away all the choice food from everyone else and gave them what Daniel and his friends were eating.

What we fuel our Spiritual fight with in our hearts makes all the difference in the world as we’ll learn today with Saul and Jonathan..........

Summary of what has happened so far

God, through Saul, had rescued the men of Jabesh Gilead in chapter 11 from the Ammonites

God, through Saul, had rescued the men of Jabesh Gilead in chapter 11 from the Ammonites

“Those who survived were scattered, so that no two of them were left together”

Saul became complacent so…..

Jonathan, his son, attacks the Philistines, chapter 13, forcing Saul to act and the Philistines to assemble for battle in overwhelming numbers

No mention of anyone of the Israelites dying through this point

Saul is only left with 600 men, and only two swords, Jonathan’s and Saul’s and Jonathan is not with Saul

Chapter 14, Saul is waiting under a pomegranate tree with the 600 men and Jonathan has with him his armor-bearer and they are not with Saul

Jonathan again, does not tell his father what he is doing, led by the sign God gave him, climbs a cliff, kills about 20 of the thousands of Philistines that surrounded them and the Lord brings a panic upon the Philistines and now they are on the run and even killing themselves

Saul now decides to engage bringing us to the end of our verses of last week

You’ll note that this is now twice that Jonathan attacks and there appears to be no mention in any of these battles of many or any Israelites losing their lives and God protecting and saving the people through Jonathan who has engaged the enemy…..This will be a very important point as we read our text today.

“So on that day the Lord saved Israel, and the battle moved on beyond Beth Aven”

Summary of what has happened so far

READ :24-52

Point 1: Our Fuel for Battle will consume us

The day that God gives the Philistines into the hands of the Israelites, without the Israelites doing much other than Jonathan, trusting in the Lord and engaging the enemy, is the day they go into distress.

Now distress normally comes when something is failing……with that in mind.....

The word tells us that they were distressed because of this oath Saul took.

The enemy was on the run, the Israelites had the advantage and Saul was not going to waste any time getting after them while they had this advantage.

The word tells us that Saul told those fighting with him, after the Lord had the Philistines killing each other and on the run…… “Cursed be anyone who eats food before evening comes, before I have avenged myself on my enemies!“

Now, this on the surface sounds like Saul is saying, let’s get after them now before they get away and we have no time to spare…LETS GO!

But this specific text sheds a great deal of light on the distress issue the Israelites were facing despite God giving the enemy into their hands…..  

Jesus says “A good man brings good things out of the good stored up in his heart, and an evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in his heart.

For the mouth speaks what the heart is full of”

Remember, I mentioned before that according to the scriptures, there is so far no mention of a defeat for the Israelites since Saul took over as king.

We also understand that the word Saul used, “vengeance”,  means payback or getting back at.

So in this case, if there was no defeat as of yet for the Israelites and so far God had protected them, despite Saul’s disobedience, what exactly is Saul seeking vengeance for?

What exactly is fueling this oath?

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Is it his reputation?

Is it his pride being hurt?  

“Fools show their annoyance at once, but the prudent overlook an insult”

“The heart of the righteous weighs its answers, but the mouth of the wicked gushes evil”

Now not all oaths are bad as long as they are God focused

There is frustration in Saul's heart that is fueling this oath and the battle he’s fighting which is coming from a hunger in Saul’s heart to satisfy something…………………

But what........

First:  The Philistines are camped out in Israel’s Promised Land.

The Israelites have no weapons because there is no blacksmith to be found in the whole land of Israel because the Philistines had not allowed it (13:19).

Saul was doing nothing about that.

Second:  Jonathan continues to move in faith while Saul continues to sit in unbelief.

Saul has been humiliated………..

But, he wants to continue performing his Kingly duties of delivering the Israelites from the hand of the Philistines which was what he was called to do, but he wants to continue his duties without relying on the Lord without acting in faith and to top it off Jonathan is showing him up before his men…

Saul appears to forget what Samuel told him and the Israelites in 12:14-15: “If you fear the Lord and serve and obey him and do not rebel against his commands, and if both you and the king who reigns over you follow the Lord your God – good!

But if you do not obey the Lord, and if you rebel against his commands, his hand will be against you, as it was against your ancestors.”

Perhaps the thing he did remember was what Samuel told him in 13:14 “But now your kingdom will not endure; the Lord has sought out a man after his own heart and appointed him ruler of his people, because you have not kept the Lord’s command.”

Since God had already taken the kingdom from him, what would that make him?

What would he return to?

When would this happen?

How would this happen?

So although we don’t know exactly what’s going on in Saul’s heart or his mind, we do know that this thing he was allowing to consume him and fuel this oath, fuel this distress, fuel the battle in his heart was wrong because of what it led to......

Practical Application........

Life and the battles of life draw energy from us.

Everything we do takes effort.

When we are tired, hurt, or challenged, the littlest things can tip the scales for us.

You know what I’m talking about…..

That driver cuts us off

Our kids don’t do what their told

We wanted something to go our way but it didn’t

We’re really hunger, haven’t eaten all day and someone needs something done or we get interrupted and all our mind is focused on is food LOL  

When we’ve allowed

When we’ve allowed anything that is bad company to consume our hearts it will fuel how we battle things in our life........

Our Fuel for Battle will consume us

Point 2: What consumes us we feed others

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Saul’s men were distressed - Fed by Saul’s Oath (driven by selfishness, pride, humiliation)

The scripture says....

1 Samuel 14:31-

1 Samuel 14:31-33a

New guy on the team making the senior starter look bad…starter wanted to beat him up and the team became divided not united

They pounced on the plunder and, taking sheep, cattle and calves, they butchered them on the ground and ate them, together with the blood.

New guy on the team making the senior starter look bad…starter wanted to beat him up and the team became divided not united

The oath Saul made, fueled by what consumed his heart affected his men.

Vengeance and prideful motives that we allow to fuel us, consume us, and feed our hearts will harm us and feed others serving only to harm others, especially our friends who seek council from our lives as believers and our families who we lead.

Person who intended to give good council to my wife about tithing but it was not Godly / scriptural council

We will not fight the enemy of sin correctly if we take it on as a personal vendetta, leaving God out of the picture.

“Do not take revenge, my dear friends, but leave room for God’s wrath, for it is written: (quoting ) It is mine to avenge; I will repay, says the Lord.”

There was an insecurity, an emptiness, a void, doubt that filled Saul’s heart and it is clear in this Oath he makes.