Climb Move January 30/31, 2016 Digging Deeper Climb: Move Written by: Robert Ismon Brown Connections Pastor for Education

Transcription

1 Climb Move January 30/31, 2016 Digging Deeper Climb: Move Written by: Robert Ismon Brown Connections Pastor for Education Background Notes Key Scripture Text: 1 Samuel 14:1-15 Introduction Some obstacles of our climb to the summit are long-standing. They are fierce, obstinate opponents, long entrenched in the foothills and on cliffs as we ascend. In this reality we share the pilgrim experience of our ancient ancestors, the Israelites. For them the stubborn opponents were the Philistines, and this week s study devotes space to the background of a single text from 1 Samuel 14, and to the maverick prince named Jonathan, son of King Saul. He was a youthful spirit who lived outside the box with unswerving faith in the God of his people. From him we learn the practices of moving through the opposition when the organized armies of his father seemed unable to break the inertia of their reluctance to do so. The story we will hear is reminiscent of an earlier condition faced by Moses when the sojourning Israelites were slowly moving toward Canaan, roughly a month away from engaging the inhabitants in battle for the Godpromised occupation of the land. From the book of Deuteronomy we hear the words of motivation from Yahweh through His servant: 6 The LORD our God said to us at Horeb, "You have stayed long enough at this mountain. 7 Break camp and advance into the hill country of the Amorites; go to all the neighboring peoples in the Arabah, in the mountains, in the western foothills, in the Negev and along the coast, to the land of the Canaanites and to Lebanon, as far as the great river, the Euphrates. 8 See, I have given you this land. Go in and take possession of the land that the LORD swore he would give to your fathers-- to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob-- and to their descendants after them" (Deuteronomy 1:6-8). Immobility has many root causes, and among them is fear, a sense of inadequacy, complacency, laziness, and lack of God-given ambition. The operative phrase in this text is long enough, followed by the command advance. Much mountain language shapes the account: mountains, foothills, hill country These represent the challenges of an organized offensive to take the promised land. In a climactic sentence, the Deuteronomic writer preserves the urgency: Go in and take possession. Throughout the paragraph the audience hears the reminders that God swore to give what the Israelites must now rise to occupy. Staying too long at the foot of the mountain creates a lethargy and a willingness to accept present realities as norms rather than move to the alter them. The morally sedentary life is as debilitating as the physical one. Spiritual strength, along with its zeal, declines. What the people consider normal weakens, collapsing into the safe status quo. Prominent signs of losing ground are glossed over or ignored. It takes a strong leader to move the people when the mountain will not move. Above all else, there is the constant need to resist the amnesia which forgets that God is always on the move, active in the world He has made, carving out His long-term purpose on the landscape of human lives. His promise is the divine piston which drives forward the creative engine of change, working through the lives of His people for the greater good of the world. The question remains: Will His people pull up stakes, break camp, leave the solitary behind, and seize the inheritance He wants to give them? Or, will they shrink into ordinariness, allowing the chaos of a thousands voices to deter the call to higher ground? Our study this week builds on scores of biblical stories found throughout the text of Scripture. They glisten with familiar names: Abraham, Esther, and the many impaired human lives touched by Jesus throughout his -1-

2 public ministry. Yes, they ultimately bring us to Jesus who commanded the moving of a stone so that his dead friend Lazarus might come forth, moved to life by the one for whom life was the moving gift of love. And so this week we explore a single narrative in this hopeful anthology of a people being moved by the purposes of God. Text (1 Samuel 14:1-15) One day Jonathan son of Saul said to the young man bearing his armor, "Come, let's go over to the Philistine outpost on the other side." But he did not tell his father. 2 Saul was staying on the outskirts of Gibeah under a pomegranate tree in Migron. With him were about six hundred men, 3 among whom was Ahijah, who was wearing an ephod. He was a son of Ichabod's brother Ahitub son of Phinehas, the son of Eli, the LORD's priest in Shiloh. No one was aware that Jonathan had left. 4 On each side of the pass that Jonathan intended to cross to reach the Philistine outpost was a cliff; one was called Bozez, and the other Seneh. 5 One cliff stood to the north toward Micmash, the other to the south toward Geba. 6 Jonathan said to his young armor-bearer, "Come, let's go over to the outpost of those uncircumcised fellows. Perhaps the LORD will act in our behalf. Nothing can hinder the LORD from saving, whether by many or by few." 7 "Do all that you have in mind," his armor-bearer said. "Go ahead; I am with you heart and soul." 8 Jonathan said, "Come, then; we will cross over toward the men and let them see us. 9 If they say to us, 'Wait there until we come to you,' we will stay where we are and not go up to them. 10 But if they say, 'Come up to us,' we will climb up, because that will be our sign that the LORD has given them into our hands." 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." 12 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." 13 Jonathan climbed up, using his hands and feet, with his armor-bearer right behind him. The Philistines fell before Jonathan, and his armor-bearer followed and killed behind him. 14 In that first attack Jonathan and his armor-bearer killed some twenty men in an area of about half an acre. 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. Philistine Paralysis To appreciate the boldness and fidelity of Jonathan s actions in this narrative, a bit of background on the Philistine threat is necessary. By the time Saul became Israel s first king, the battle lines were already formed with a people called the Philistines. If we place his reign in BCE, then Saul participated in no less than four major military engagements with these entrenched combatants: 1) to chase them from Israelite territory (1 Samuel 13:3), 2) to regain a foothold in Israel (1 Samuel 13:5-14:46), 3) for the conquest of Israel (1 Samuel 17:1-54), and 4) for one last attempt to conquer Israel, ending in Saul and Jonathan s ignominious death (1 Samuel 31:1-13). But Saul was neither the first nor the last king to tangle with the Philistines. When Israel left Egypt and began the journey to Canaan, they purposely avoided these opponents by taking a southern route into the southern Sinai according to Yahweh s directions (Exodus 13:17). After the battles for occupation were completed in the book of Joshua, not all the nation groups in Canaan were defeated: These are the nations the LORD left to test all those Israelites who had not experienced any of the wars in Canaan 2 (he did this only to teach warfare to the descendants of the Israelites who had not had previous battle experience): 3 the five rulers of the Philistines, all the Canaanites, the Sidonians, and the Hivites living in the Lebanon mountains from Mount Baal Hermon to Lebo Hamath. 4 They were left to test the Israelites to see whether they would obey the LORD's commands, which he had given their forefathers through Moses. 5 The Israelites lived among the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites. 6 They took their daughters in marriage and gave their own daughters to their sons, and served their gods (Judges 3:1-6). As the reader can see from this summary in Judges, a residue of native peoples remained in the land and became a source of aggravation and temptation to the newly settled Israelites. To remedy the cyclical defeats at the hands of these antagonists, God sent military strongmen (called judges, from the Hebrew Shophetîm) to deliver His people. Time and time again, we read about these contests (Judges 3:31; 10:6-11; 13:1-5; 14:1-4; 15:3-16:30), climaxing with the tragic-comic efforts of the shophēt Samson to defeat the Philistines. When the book of 1 Samuel opens, Samuel becomes the new judge who faithfully receives aid from Yahweh and who buttresses the courage of the confederation of twelve tribes, absent a king, to defeat this worrisome -2-

3 nemesis of Israel (1 Samuel 4:1-7:14). But the failed priesthood of Eli and a fatal battle that led to the loss of the Ark of the Covenant sapped the morale of a people unable to climb the mountain of Philistine oppression. Into this vacuum of desperation comes the cry for a king a real king to rule Israel: 5 They said to him [Samuel], "You are old, and your sons do not walk in your ways; now appoint a king to lead us, such as all the other nations have." 6 But when they said, "Give us a king to lead us," this displeased Samuel; so he prayed to the LORD (1 Samuel 8:5-6). The end result of this petition was the anointing of Saul to be king, accompanied by his prince-son Jonathan (1 Samuel 10:1): 16 [Yahweh said to Samuel] "About this time tomorrow I will send you a man from the land of Benjamin. Anoint him leader over my people Israel; he will deliver my people from the hand of the Philistines. I have looked upon my people, for their cry has reached me" (1 Samuel 9:16). The language God uses echoes what we read in the days Israel s servitude to the Egyptians before the exodus under Moses. But Saul turns out to be no Moses! His mental state of recurring mania and depression, coupled with bouts of self-doubt, rage, and indecision interrupts his competence as a warrior-king. The outcomes of the battles he wages with the Philistine armies are uneven, due in large measure to an unreliable heart and disobedience to God. Samuel makes every effort, until his death, to support Saul s efforts and rehabilitate him, but in the end Saul must go it alone until he dies in battle (1 Samuel 10:2-31:13), leaving his successor, David son of Jesse, to complete the task of defeating the Philistines (2 Samuel 5:17-25; 21:18-22). From a geo-political perspective, the Philistines were a people of Aegean origin who settled on the southern coast of Palestine in the 12th century BCE, about the time when the Israelites arrived. According to biblical tradition (Deuteronomy 2:23; Jeremiah 47:4), the Philistines came from Caphtor (possibly Crete, although there is no archaeological evidence of a Philistine occupation of the island). The first records of the Philistines are inscriptions and reliefs in the mortuary temple of Ramses III at Madinat Habu, where they appear under the name prst, as one of the Sea Peoples that invaded Egypt about 1190 BCE after ravaging nearby Anatolia, Cyprus, and Syria. After being repulsed by the Egyptians, they settled possibly with Egypt s permission on the coastal plain of Palestine from Joppa (modern Tel Aviv Yafo) southward to Gaza. This area comprised the five cities (the Pentapolis) of the Philistine confederacy (Gaza, Ashkelon, Ashdod, Gath, and Ekron) and was known as Philistia, or the Land of the Philistines. It was from this designation that the whole region was later called Palestine by the Greeks. According to Eric H. Cline, in his riveting account, the presence of the Philistines in Canaan was part of a much larger epic crisis in the 12 th century BCE. His book on the subject is worth reading. 1 This brief overview of the Philistine threat underscores the fact that many of the impediments faced by God s people are systemic and long-standing, rooted in historical realities which impacted the wider world. It also illustrates the role of such obstacles in strengthening the resolve and shaping the character of His people in their struggles to climb the mountain of His purposes and will. As God s mountain climbers, we are clearly part of something much bigger than ourselves, an even stronger motivation to leave the solace of inactivity and move forward within His plan for our lives and for the world. Jonathan: Man-on-the-Move for the Summit Upstream from our text in 1 Samuel 14 is the assemblage of troops by Jonathan s father, King Saul. The paragraphs in 1 Samuel 13:1-23 set the stage for Jonathan s exploits yet to come. 2 Saul chose three thousand men from Israel; two thousand were with him at Micmash and in the hill country of Bethel, and a thousand were with Jonathan at Gibeah in Benjamin. The rest of the men he sent back to their homes. 3 Jonathan attacked the Philistine outpost at Geba, and the Philistines heard about it. Then Saul had the trumpet blown throughout the land and said, "Let the Hebrews hear!" 4 So all Israel heard the news: "Saul has attacked the Philistine outpost, and now Israel has become a stench to the Philistines." And the people were summoned to join Saul at Gilgal. 5 The Philistines assembled to fight Israel, with three thousand chariots, six thousand charioteers, and soldiers as numerous as the sand on the seashore. They went up and camped at Micmash, east of Beth Aven. 6 When the men of Israel saw that their situation was critical and that their army was hard pressed, they hid in caves and thickets, among the rocks, and in pits and cisterns. 7 Some Hebrews even crossed the Jordan to the land of Gad and Gilead. 1 Eric H. Clines, 1177 B.C.: The Year Civilization Collapsed (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2014). -3-

4 Saul remained at Gilgal, and all the troops with him were quaking with fear. 8 He waited seven days, the time set by Samuel; but Samuel did not come to Gilgal, and Saul's men began to scatter. 9 So he said, "Bring me the burnt offering and the fellowship offerings." And Saul offered up the burnt offering. 10 Just as he finished making the offering, Samuel arrived, and Saul went out to greet him. 11 "What have you done?" asked Samuel. Saul replied, "When I saw that the men were scattering, and that you did not come at the set time, and that the Philistines were assembling at Micmash, 12 I thought, 'Now the Philistines will come down against me at Gilgal, and I have not sought the LORD's favor.' So I felt compelled to offer the burnt offering." 13 "You acted foolishly," Samuel said. "You have not kept the command the LORD your God gave you; if you had, he would have established your kingdom over Israel for all time. 14 But now your kingdom will not endure; the LORD has sought out a man after his own heart and appointed him leader of his people, because you have not kept the LORD's command." 15 Then Samuel left Gilgal and went up to Gibeah in Benjamin, and Saul counted the men who were with him. They numbered about six hundred. 16 Saul and his son Jonathan and the men with them were staying in Gibeah in Benjamin, while the Philistines camped at Micmash. 17 Raiding parties went out from the Philistine camp in three detachments. One turned toward Ophrah in the vicinity of Shual, 18 another toward Beth Horon, and the third toward the borderland overlooking the Valley of Zeboim facing the desert. 19 Not a blacksmith could be found in the whole land of Israel, because the Philistines had said, "Otherwise the Hebrews will make swords or spears!" 20 So all Israel went down to the Philistines to have their plowshares, mattocks, axes and sickles sharpened. 21 The price was two thirds of a shekel for sharpening plowshares and mattocks, and a third of a shekel for sharpening forks and axes and for repointing goads. 22 So on the day of the battle not a soldier with Saul and Jonathan had a sword or spear in his hand; only Saul and his son Jonathan had them. 23 Now a detachment of Philistines had gone out to the pass at Micmash. In this episode Saul proves himself an unreliable warrior-king, even though he is fresh from the popular acclamation of his coronation as king. He bides his time at Gilgal, waiting for the prophet-judge Samuel to arrive. Impatient for the official pre-battle ceremony led by Samuel, he presumes to initiate the sacrifice by himself, a role not included in his royal résumé. After seven days, filled with anxiety, the king s actions reveal a heart not fully devoted to the proper ways of Israelite worship, and as result his kingship is doomed before it scarcely begins. To be a king requires obedience to Yahweh above all else. Saul moves, but not under the direction of God. Samuel is God s official spokesperson, not to be gainsaid or disobeyed. Failing to heed the prophet is the same as failing to heed God. As Samuel reminds him, God must have as king a man of his own choosing. What follows is the Battle of Michmash Pass. Geba and Michmash were cities within the borders of Benjamin, the tribe from which Saul and Jonathan came. They were a mile or two apart in the hill country south of Bethel. Separating them was a deep ravine, a narrow strategically important pass from the Jordan River valley into the hills of Ephraim. The Philistine commanded the high ground, the hilltop site overlooking the ravine from the north, but the Israelites were encamped to the south. Sporadically (and with annoyance), the Philistines, in order to control Israelite land and likely in response to the rebellion noted in 13:3, made guerilla raids on the surrounding countryside by sending units north, west, and east. Raids westward followed the road toward Beth-horon, sticking to the main highway running from Bethel past Beth-horon down into the Philistine Plain. In consequence, the Philistine army denied Israel the ability to arm itself, magnifying the restrictions of Philistine rule, but also setting up the scene for the victory by Israel. -4-

5 The historian includes the background (13:19-22) for the lack of sword or spear in the hands of Israelite troops on the day of battle, since the Philistines had a monopoly on the equipment for sharpening even the most basic farm implements, requiring that Israel pay their hostile neighbors for that service. The Philistines would not sharpen swords! Only Saul and Jonathan had ready weapons for battle (13:22). With that military deficiency handicapping the troops of Israel, the text tells us, Now the Philistine garrison had marched out to the pass Michmash (13:23). The Day Jonathan Decided to Move (1 Samuel 14). With full knowledge of his father King Saul s ill-prepared army, Jonathan decided one day to take action and to move against the Philistines, accompanied only by his attendant who carried his armaments (14:1). He did this without his father s knowledge or the awareness of anyone else (14:3). Given the previous narrative of Saul s disobedience to God at the beginning of his reign, his son demonstrated a clear lack of confidence in his father s ability to extricate himself from the present crisis with the Philistines. But that reality did not restrain Jonathan, nor was he constrained by Saul s lack of initiative. To underscore this huge contrast between father and son, the writer proceeds to offer a short picture of Saul in 14:2-3. In that portrait, we see Saul on the outskirts, under a pomegranate tree, in company with the leading priest who wore the regalia of his office, the ephod, which would have included the breastplate holding the sacred stones for divining the will of God in critical situations like this one. There are parallels to this scenario in other non-biblical literature of the period which depict the ruler sitting on the threshing floor at the gate of the city, occupying his throne, dressed in robes (see also 1 Kings 22:10). Being in this specific location was a sign that the king was waiting for a divine appearance, a theophany, which like magic might deliver Israel from its disastrous predicament. The tragedy of the moment was the refusal of Saul to obey God previously and the consequential loss of Samuel s blessing which led also to the loss of his kingship. Faced with that calamity to his rule, Saul behaves in religious and magical ways, desperately hoping that a miracle would happen. Saul was delusional, living in a spiritual fantasy land, supposing that help, like a rabbit s foot, would somehow come to him. Such a scenario helps us understand Jonathan s preemptive action, his move to execute what would become a heroic deed. The young man believed in God s help, as we shall see, but he also knew that sitting under a pomegranate tree, imagining divine intervention, would not bring victory over the Philistines. He knew that no religious chaplain or talisman would turn the tide and move the nation to the summit of military success. He knew that there is no climbing without moving. What Jonathan has in mind is a pass or ford that will allow him to cross the wadi (see map above). He sees a large outcropping of rock called Seneh, and within the pass on his side a second rock called Bozes. If we look at the names, they suggest the difficulty of crossing. Senneh in Hebrew means the thorny one, from the Aramaic word for thornbush, while bôsēs means the gleaming one, from a term indicating glitter, shine, or gleam, but also with a second meaning, the miry one or simply the swap. There s plenty of reason to pause at this juncture and wonder if the movement is even possible! And so Jonathan utters these words of wisdom in 14:6: "Come, let's go over to the outpost of those uncircumcised fellows. Perhaps the LORD will act in our behalf. Nothing can hinder the LORD from saving, whether by many or by few" (14:6). Let us go is the equivalent of move! Jonathan believes that the will of God is revealed through human initiative not through human inactivity. The word perhaps (from the Hebrew ûlay) is an adverb usually expressing a hope; but also a fear or doubt. This adverb is often associated in Scripture with personal or national crises. Sarah expressed hope that Hagar would produce a child for her (Gen 16:2), and Balak hoped to curse Israel through Balaam (Num 22:6, 11). Jacob feared that Isaac would discover his deceit (Gen 27:12), and Job wondered if perhaps his children had cursed God (Job 1:5). The word can also expresses mockery (Isa -5-

6 47:12; 1Kings 18:27). The tentative nature of Jonathan s words is not directed to God but to his attendant, showing that the outcome of their movements would not depend on them, but on God Who is free and sovereign in all situations. Perhaps is the sign of God s free and providential will in response to our faithful willingness to move within His will. In the young prince s mind, size doesn t limit what God can do. If the number of men on the move is only two, that places no obstacle in Yahweh s path to accomplish His purposes to defeat the enemy. Generations later, when another Jewish army of resistance faced the overwhelming force of a fierce army of occupation (the Syrians under Antiochus), the leader Judas Maccabaeus, uttered nearly identical words: And Judas said: It is as easy for many to be overpowered by a few, nor is it difficult before Heaven (i.e. God) to save by many or by few! For not on the size of the army does victory in battle depend: rather it is from Heaven that strength comes! (1 Maccabees 3:18-19). In his determination to move, Jonathan does not act alone, for his military attendant fully supports the action, with heart and soul (14:7). What Jonathan proposes next is to cross over the wadi, exposing their movements to the enemy on purpose (14:8). The intention is two-fold: 1) to prompt a response from the enemy who sees their opponents in motion, no doubt wondering what they are planning; and, 2) to discern the will of God through the enemy s response. Unlike his father who sits under the royal tree, waiting for a sign and a solution, Jonathan moves into the fray, accompanied by another person of like-minded faith, keeping his eyes wide open to the movements of God as discerned in what s happening on the ground. He sees God as one already on the move, among the cliffs and wadis, and in the initiatives of two courageous men. Two outcomes are possible the text tells us through the young man s words. Either the Philistines will ask them to wait while making an approach, or, the Philistines will ask them to climb up. From these possibilities, Jonathan will discern the will of God and what his next steps should be. The call to climb would be taken as a sign that Yahweh has given them into our hands (14:10). The call to wait would signal no further actions. Using this method of divination, the two men rely on God s final word, while taking the necessary steps to discover it. Such an interactive approach to knowing God s purpose involves movement in either case. Move and know! Jesus once told his audience, in response to doubts about his mission: If anyone chooses to do God's will, he will find out whether my teaching comes from God or whether I speak on my own (John 7:17) To know the will of God requires doing God s will first. The discovery follows the doing the moving! Then, in 14:11-12 the Philistines see the two men, and make their reply: Come up to us and we ll teach you a lesson, preceded by highly sarcastic remarks among themselves about the Israelites crawling out of their holes. The writer offers that sidebar conversation for the benefit of the reader, but it is unheard by Jonathan and his companion. Instead, Jonathan discerns God s purpose by this Philistine response and confidently commands his attendant to Climb up after me; Yahweh has given them into the hand of Israel (14:12). This command and contemplated outcome are highly generous, since all Israel is said to be the benefactors of the action of only two men, as if Jonathan is saying, We are going to do this, but all of our people will share in the victory. There is no self-serving opinion or attempts at grandiose glory, no fool-hearty heroism, only the assurance that Yahweh, the true warrior-king, will honor the movement of those who trust in Him. The words Jonathan climbed up underscore the overall theme of our series: Climb! He not only invites his attendant to do it, he leads from the front, not from behind. What follows this extraordinary move is defeat for the first Philistine attackers at the hands of Jonathan and his cohort. The enemy is said to fall before and behind, implying that the enemy met them on all sides! Bear in mind this happened during an ascent! The Philistines had the high ground and thus a military advantage. Yet, the hopefulness of two men who knew God s will and were willing to obey it saved the day. They were two men who made the first move, counting on God to reciprocate. And He did! Concurrent with the movements of the Israelite duo was the intervention of the God of Israel who provoked an earthquake -6-

7 simultaneous with the seemingly small military action of Jonathan. Of course the Philistines had no idea how many soldiers they faced or with what force. They likely knew the handicap posed by the lack of sharpened weapons, and they also assumed that high ground would impede any assault by Israel. Describing the Philistine response to the half acre incursion (14:14b), the writer tells us panic struck the whole army. The Hebrew words used here mean an awesome convulsion (hẹrdat elōhîm, literally a shuddering of God ). The idea is that the convulsion had reached superhuman proportions. There is a divine participation in Jonathan s exploit. 2 Without question, God acted, and yet He fully acted alongside the movements of His two faithful partners. As a result, the entire encampment of the Philistines along with the army in the field, fled. Outposts were emptied. Raiding parties ceased (14:15). If the text ended here, without the written sequel in 14:16-46, there would have been a happy ending for Saul. Instead, Saul observes the confusion following Jonathan s movements against the Philistines, and imagines the worst. Lapsing into his magical way of thinking, Saul summons his priest and asks for a word from God. It is not clear what Saul hoped to find out from using these oracular devices. He doesn t even know clearly what God has already done through his son! But Saul fails to follow through, interrupts the session and, according to 14:20, marches recklessly into battle. Once more we have a contrast between the posture of Jonathan and that of his father the king (see 13:9; 14:24). However, God prevents disaster, saving Saul from himself, by once more creating a very great panic (14:20) in which the Philistines this time turn on each other in the confusion so that the Israelite army, lacking suitable weapons, wins the advantage and also the day. The story about the battle of Michmash Pass leaves no doubt why victory came. It had nothing to do with military superiority. Face it, the Israelite army was inadequately armed (13:19-22), while the Philistines had chariotry, cavalry, and an army like the sand on the seashore on number (13:5). The hope of the underdog is in their God as Jonathan affirmed all along (14:6). From the writer we are aware that Yahweh is guiding Jonathan s initial movement (14:9-10, 12b), and when the battle is at its height, he demonstrates the decisive quality not to be the hero, but to follow the lead of his divine Warrior. Twice in the story God sends His panic, the divine convulsion. And so, at the end of the day, the writer reminds us: Yahweh gained victory for Israel (14:23a). The theology of our text, illustrated in many other places throughout Scripture, is that God has His human agents in times of warfare. In this case it was Jonathan (and his companion). It was he who invoked the crisis in the first place (13:3), and it was he who starts the fight and stirs the other troops to battle. But the exploits of Jonathan are part of a bigger story which reveals itself in 14:23b-46, and without these the full significance might well escape us. We encourage you to read the rest of the story in those later passages. Conclusion Jonathan and his attendant were foxhole companions. They were small and seemingly inconsequential. A strict chain of command could have bound them to the failed policies of Saul, and yet a stronger covenant bound them to the God of Israel. And so they decided to take action, to move in the face of Philistine threats. Unlike Saul, this heroic duo had feet rooted in earth but awed to heaven. 3 In one telling phrase the text tells us that Jonathan climbed upon his hands and feet up the ascent to meet the enemy (14:13). His heart already clung to heaven, now it was time to keep himself well-grounded on the topography of earth which would bring him to the place of battle, sword in hand. His father Saul would only cling to the rituals of his priest who looked more like a fortune-teller than a man of faith. One day out of the many days of turmoil and enemy threat, Jonathan decided to move. Certain events in history are defining moments radically altering the world. For us are the crucifixion and resurrection of Christ, 2 P. Kyle McCarter, Jr., 1 Samuel: The Anchor Bible (Vol. 8) (Garden City, New York: 1980), p Acknowledgments to Walter Brueggeman for this wonderful description. See his book with the same title. -7-

8 Martin Luther's nailing his 95 Theses on Castle Church door, the bombing of Pearl Harbor, Armstrong's walk on the moon, and the 9-11 terrorist attack. There are others. Some days are more significant than others. They may not always make national headlines, yet the impact upon us can provoke significant outcomes, like the day I had my stroke in early 2015, while others experience unexpected death. In Shakespeare s famous play, Julius Caesar, we hear the familiar words of Brutus who conspired with Cassius in the final phase of their civil war with the forces of Octavian and Marcus Antonius. Cassius has been urging that they group their forces at Sardis and take advantage of that secure location to catch their breath. Brutus, however, advocates heading off the enemy at Philippi before Octavian can recruit more men. Brutus's main point is that, since "the enemy increaseth every day" and "We, at the height, are ready to decline" (lines ), he and Cassius must act now while the ratio of forces is most advantageous. And so he says: There is a tide in the affairs of men. Which, taken at the flood, leads on to fortune; Omitted, all the voyage of their life Is bound in shallows and in miseries. On such a full sea are we now afloat, And we must take the current when it serves, Or lose our ventures. Even though our days may not be as noteworthy as others, the Bible says, "This is the day the LORD has made. Let us rejoice and be glad in it" (Ps. 118:24). We must learn to see each day as a precious gift. Moses exhorted the people of God to pray for wisdom that we would understand how to number our days. (Ps. 90:12). Our day may not be historic, but each day is holy and significant. Jonathan had his day one day and he was willing to move. He understood the principle of numbering his days. In 1 Samuel 14, we discovered that he was an incredible soldier who possessed an amazing faith in Yahweh. There came a day in his life when Jonathan decided that life was too precious to waste. One historic day Jonathan chose to become a climber on the move with God. Did the young prince know that God would save through two seismic events? Likely not. But God s method of creating success from Jonathan s movement did not depend on the other s understanding in order for it to be effective. In an earlier passage from 1 Samuel the writer-scribe speaks through a poem composed by Hannah the mother of the future Samuel: "It is not by strength that one prevails; 10 those who oppose the LORD will be shattered. He will thunder against them from heaven; the LORD will judge the ends of the earth. He will give strength to his king and exalt the horn of his anointed" (1 Samuel 2:9-10). Strength to climb the mountain is a gift from the Lord, and the ability to accomplish great things by our movements depends on the same gracious gift. There is a time to sit still and wait, and there is a time to take action and move. Saul suffered the inertia of royalty that is too certain of its privilege in the big scheme of things; too confident that he ruled by divine right; too confident that religious postures were just as good as moving on, too arrogant in Israelite exceptionalism. His son came from a different mould, one that honored both assurance and action, who saw himself a co-worker with the covenant God of Israel. He learned the lesson his father had failed to grasp: To obey is better than sacrifice (1 Samuel 15:22). Jonathan s story did not end here. He would one day become the closest companion of David, the man who would succeed his father as king of Israel. Together they would reinforce both their military prowess and their trust in Yahweh, the warrior-king. Little did Jonathan know one day that his decision to move would ultimately shape the long-term destiny of a nation, and that though his father would ultimately lose his throne, David would ascend to it. He not only moved; his movement set in motion a host of intersecting events that were central to the life of his people. By being on the move, he made the right move at the right time. -8-

9 Moving also meant leaving the safety of the craggy rocks, the holes where others in Israel took refuge. It meant exposing oneself to public view in order to engage with the enemy. It also meant the possibility of ridicule, as was the case when the Philistines taunted Jonathan at his first appearance. But visibility proved an enormous advantage, for it also exposed the position of the enemy who called Jonathan up to meet him in battle. The risk of movement proved worthwhile, an advantage when the moment of engagement came. By moving, we share in God s involvement with the world. Paul once told his Athenian audience: In him we live and move and have our being he is not far from every one of us (Acts 17:28). For the early disciples of Jesus, their obedience to follow him, when he called, turned a motion into a movement. The Jesus movement made considerable progress throughout the Roman Empire in the first century. Because they moved out into the whole world to proclaim the good news (Matthew 28:19-20; Acts 1:8), fulfilling the Great Commission, they became instruments for the Holy Spirit to bring his own seismic event: They turned the world upside down (Acts 17:6). Their story reminds us of Jonathan and serves to illuminate our hearts to imitate the same commitment to action. Glory to God! Amen. -9-