1 SAMUEL 13-14 PURSUE GODS HEART WHEN NOBODY ELSE IS2017 Teaching by Jerry B Simmons

Teaching Transcript: 1 Samuel 13-14 Pursue Gods Heart When Nobody Else Is

You are listening to FerventWord, an online Bible study ministry with teachings and tools to help you grow deeper in your relationship with God. The following message was taught by Jerry Simmons in 2017. I want to begin by reading through a few verses that we finished off with last week, and then we'll move on into verse 16 and then the rest of the chapter. But let's begin this evening by looking at 1 Samuel chapter 13, verses 13 through 15.

1 Samuel chapter 13 verses 13 through 15. Here's what it says, And Samuel said to Saul, You have done foolishly. You have not kept the commandment of the Lord your God, which he commanded you. For now the Lord would have established your kingdom over Israel forever, but now your kingdom shall not continue. The Lord has sought for himself a man after his own heart.

And the Lord has commanded him to be commander over his people, because you have not kept what the Lord commanded you. Then Samuel arose and went up from Gilgal to Gibeah of Benjamin, and Saul numbered the people present with him, about 600 men. Here as we look at 1 Samuel chapter 13, we're continuing to consider the subject of pursuing God's heart.

And as we talk about the pursuit of God's heart, and we've been looking at that in many different ways over the past many weeks as we've been studying 1 Samuel, we've learned over and over again and looked forward really to this verse that being a man or a woman after God's own heart, to pursue God's heart really comes down to obedience to God. And here is where the theme of this book comes from that we've been looking at, because God through Samuel tells Saul that,

the Lord is going to take away the kingdom from Saul, and instead he's going to give the kingdom to a man after God's own heart, which we know to be David. And we're going to get into the life of David in the next couple chapters. But

But God's announcing it here. He's saying, look, you have not obeyed. I'm going to give the kingdom to one who will obey. And the way that God describes that is a man after my own heart, a man who pursues the heart of God. As Paul quotes from this in Acts chapter 13, he says that he was the one, that David was the one who would do God's will. And doing God's will and obedience to God is really what it comes down to when we talk about pursuing God's heart.

And so in contrast to the good examples that we've had, we looked at Hannah as a good example. She was a woman after God's own heart. And God used her to bring forth a prophet, Samuel. And Samuel, we've seen over and over again, is a man after God's own heart. And he was pursuing the heart of God and represented God well to the people. But now in contrast to those good examples and the good example to come, we have Saul. And we saw last week really Saul's

First, big downfall. We've seen some things that, you know, maybe would cause some concern in the chapters before, but really it was a flat-out disobedience as he decided to take on the role of a priest and offer a sacrifice, a burnt offering to the Lord because, well, he felt like he had to.

He said that he was compelled to because, well, the massive Philistine army was gathering against him. And in addition to that, the army that was with him, he had 3,000 soldiers with him, but they were all running away. And even as you see here in verse 15, he's left with 600 men. So the army is gathering against him. His army is scattering. And then he said to Samuel, and

It's also your fault, Samuel, because you were late because you said you were going to be here at this time and you weren't here. But we see that Saul jumped the gun and instead of waiting on the Lord and trusting in the Lord, he took matters into his own hands and disobeyed what God had called him to do. And that's when Samuel looks at him and says, you have done foolishly.

You've not kept the commandment. You've disobeyed God. And so your kingdom will not continue because of your disobedience. God would have blessed your kingdom. You could have had, you know, amazing things, the fullness of all that God had in store for you. But you were not a man who pursues God's heart. And so God's going to give the kingdom to another man.

Well, now as we go forward from this occasion, we're still in the same situation where the Philistine army has gathered. There's this massive army of the Philistines right there threatening Saul and Israel. And they're still in the midst of that situation, even though they've received this, you know, tragic news that Saul's kingdom is going to end. It doesn't end immediately. And so here is Saul now in his own strength, really, uh,

going to be trying to deal with this threat and this issue. And yet we see a good example, again, in contrast to Saul, in his son, Jonathan. And here we get to see Jonathan as a man after God's own heart. And so we'll be primarily looking at the example of Jonathan this evening. And the title of the message is, Pursue God's Heart,

when nobody else is. Even when Saul is not his dad, even when really the rest of the army and the rest of Israel are not really pursuing the heart of God. Here we have the example of Jonathan and he gets to go forward trusting God and accomplish a great victory for the nation of Israel. And so pursue God's heart even when nobody else is. That is, no matter what's happening in the lives of the people around us,

us. We need to ourselves be pursuing the heart of God and seeking to live out in obedience to God to fulfill the will of God. Well, let's move on now into verses 16 through 23, and that gives us point number one. Here's point number one. We live in defeat apart from God's work.

Here's one of the reasons why we need to pursue the heart of God, because without God working in our lives, without us experiencing the work of God, we're going to be living in defeat. And what we see here in these verses is the result of Saul's disobedience to God, his disregard for what God says, and the defeat that the nation as a whole is experiencing.

Starting in verse 16, it says,

So what it's describing here is there's the two army camps. You have the camp of the Philistines at Michmash. And remember from last week, that's a massive army. 3,000 chariots, maybe 30,000 chariots, 6,000 horsemen. It describes the foot soldiers as the multitude of the sand. So it's a massive army. And then here you have Saul and his army of 600 men.

He had 3,000 before. That's still not a large force against this massive Philistine force, but now they've dwindled to almost nothing. And there's just a few of them, but they're camped kind of on opposite sides of a valley, and they're able to see what's happening in each other's camp. And here is Saul and his army, his 600 guys,

camped there watching this massive Philistine army. And what I would ask you to consider here is they are completely helpless and powerless as they watch these raiders go out of the camp of the Philistines. And just maybe try to put yourself in their shoes for a moment. You know, being in Saul's shoes or maybe being in one of his soldiers' shoes or his commander's shoes, that

that here you are, you're part of the army to protect the nation. And here's these Philistines who have invaded and they're right in your face and there's nothing that you can do about it. And then furthermore, they are sending out raiding parties.

Now, raiding parties are going to go and they're just going to go attack whoever they want to attack and take over villages and take crops and do whatever they want. And here's this army of Israel with Saul as their commander. And they're sitting there helpless, defenseless. They are unable to stop these raids from happening. They're unable to prevent or protect even their own families. Here are these soldiers out on the field fighting.

They don't know that their own families might be in danger as they're, you know, here camped out against the Philistines. And so I can imagine, I see that like their hearts would be just devastated as they're watching the enemy raid their territory and destroy their families, destroy their

crops and their homes. And you can imagine the devastation that they would feel as they're watching this take place. This is part of the result of disobeying God. Now, we don't always see these results right away, but in this case, they did. God would have given them victory. And there would have been, God's already many times given them great victory over the Philistines. But

But now as a result of this disobedience, here they are in this place forced to just watch as these raiding parties go out to bring destruction to their homes and the land around them. Verse 19. Now there was no blacksmith to be found throughout all the land of Israel. For the Philistines said, lest the Hebrews make swords or spears.

So not only are they in this position where they're forced to just sit there while these raiding parties go out, but here it further goes on to tell us they're defenseless.

Not only are they helpless, not only are they just completely defeated and unable to do anything, but they don't even have any weapons so that if they wanted to try to do something, they're vastly outnumbered. But even if they weren't outnumbered, they don't have weapons because the Philistines have been such a threat and over them for so long that all of the blacksmiths are gone. They've taken them away.

So they're not allowed. It's illegal to be a blacksmith. And so there is no way for them to forge, you know, swords and to make spears. There's no way for them to do that. In fact, the Philistines had set up. So if you guys need something,

or some kind of iron work done, you got to come to us. We'll help you with your farming equipment, but we're not going to help you with anything else. And so here's the charge for that. And so they had to pay them and they were at the mercy of the Philistines for all types of iron work.

And so again, we're getting to see the picture here of, well, apart from God's work, we live in defeat. This is the reality. They are helpless. They are defenseless. They have no weapons to protect themselves or to protect the people around them. Verse 22 says,

So it came about on the day of battle that there was neither sword nor spear found in the hand of any of the people who were with Saul and Jonathan, but they were found with Saul and Jonathan, his son. And the garrison of the Philistines went out to the pass of Michmash. So here, there's no weapons in Israel except for Saul and Jonathan. This is...

Not very much. It's two guys have weapons and that's it. And they're in this position of helplessness, again, as a result of this disobedience to God. And again, that's why the point is in verse 16 through 23 here, we live in defeat. I said it again. We live in defeat. We live in defeat apart from God's work.

This is not just something that happened for them in describing their situation, but I would suggest that it's really important for us to be obedient to God and to walk in the will of God and in pursuit of God's heart because when we are disobedient to God, we put ourselves in a position that is similar to this where we are open to the enemy's attack. We put ourselves in a position where

We can do nothing about it except to watch the enemy bring devastation to our life and to the lives of those around us. And that's not...

a good place to be. It's not a good feeling to see the results of sin, to see the consequences of sin, to see the attacks of the enemy coming strong. It is a terrible place to be. And disobedience to God also leaves us powerless and weaponless. And so as we're watching this, we don't even have anything to fight with. We don't even have any help because, well, because we've not been seeking God's heart. We've not been pursuing the heart of God.

In our battles, Paul tells us that our warfare is not against flesh and blood, right? That's not what we battle against. We are in the midst of a spiritual battle. And if we're not pursuing the heart of God, we are helpless and powerless in that battle. We live in defeat, right?

apart from God's work. We are desperate for God's work in our lives. We are desperate for God to bring deliverance and to accomplish victories and to give power and to provide the weapons. And, you know, we have those promises, no weapon formed against you shall prosper. And those are great promises, but those are promises to those who are pursuing the heart of God. And so as we get started in talking about pursuing God's heart when nobody else is, I just want to

help us to reflect on this reality that the alternative, it's not always easy to pursue God's heart. It's going to be challenging. It's going to be difficult. But the alternative is not really an alternative. We choose it sometimes, but it's no real choice. If we'll think about it, if we'll understand what's at stake, we can choose victory or we can choose defeat in whether or not we pursue the heart of God.

Well, that'll bring us now to chapter 14 as we move forward into this book, and we'll be looking at verses 1 through 7 for point number 2, and that is trust that God can work. And so here we have the context of the whole army is basically just sitting there. Saul's just sitting there. The army's just sitting there. They have no weapons, but now we're going to look at this example of Jonathan, and Jonathan is going to trust that God can work.

Even though things look really bad, even though there is no power, even though there is no great, you know, hope or help, Jonathan hasn't given up. And he's going to trust that even in the midst of this situation where they're vastly outnumbered and that they're, you know, defenseless compared to their enemy, Jonathan is still able to trust that, you know, God, you could still do something. And he's going to give God an opportunity to do that. So trust that God is

can work. Pastor David Guzik says, the Israelites were in a military conflict where victory from all outward appearance was impossible. They were vastly outnumbered. They were greatly surpassed in military technology. Yet Jonathan is bold enough to go over to the Philistine garrison just to see what the Lord might want to do. Let's start in verse one. It says, 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 we are introduced now to Jonathan here in chapter 14, and he has an armor bearer with him. That was the normal thing of the day, the commanders and generals and such, they would have the one alongside of them who would carry their armor and be there to support them. And so Jonathan confides in this guy. He's not telling his dad, he's

He's just thinking out loud. He says, what if we just go over to check out the garrison of the Philistines? Let's go check out their camp. And maybe God wants to do something. Now, that's not said specifically here, but

But notice what he says, if you'll jump down to verse 6 for just a moment. It says, The whole reason why Jonathan got out of bed today and decides, let's go check out the garrison of the Philistines, is because this is his mindset. This is where he's at. He's saying,

I wonder if God would want to do some kind of deliverance today. And God's not limited. If he wants to save all of Israel with just the two of us, armor bearer, you and me, God could do that. And so right from the get-go, as he gets out of bed today, he says, I trust that God could work. I trust that God's able to handle this situation and he doesn't need a massive army to do it. He could do it with just me and you. And so he tells his armor bearer, hey, let's just go check it out.

He doesn't reveal everything yet to his armor bearer, maybe because he thought, well, if I tell my armor bearer, then he won't come with me. Probably not. But here we just see him go. He just says, let's go check it out. Let's go see what the situation is.

Now, again, we see the contrast with Saul in verse 2. It says,

So here you have the contrast. Jonathan saying, you know, I think that God could work. I trust God that he could handle this situation. And then let's go check it out. And then you have Saul who's saying, well, I guess there's nothing really for us to do. They're just kind of raiding and pillaging and destroying our families and cities and just sitting under the pomegranate tree.

Now, he's probably not relaxed. He's probably stressed out. You know, he's probably not in a hammock. He's freaked out, but just given up, just hopeless, just sitting there with the 600 men who are with him, not really thinking about the reality of God being able to bring deliverance in this situation.

So as Jonathan goes forward now in verse 4, it says, 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 Boaz, and the name of the other Senna. The front one faced northward opposite Michmash, and the other southward opposite Gibeah.

So now it describes some of the landscape. As Jonathan's on his way to the Philistine garrison, he comes to this place where there's a pass, but it's between these two rocks. And there's a lot of discussion about, you know, what exactly these rocks signify and stuff. But I think it's really just talking about the reality that this is a difficult place to be. It's not the ideal place to

you know, go launch an attack because they would be very vulnerable to the enemy heading up this ridge and going through this ravine.

The word bozes means shining, which is, it was the side that the sun was shining on, and so it was called shining. And then the other side was called thorny, and so you could imagine it was usually in the shade, and so there was the vegetations and thorny bushes. And so, difficult landscape, in other words. And so, the road ahead is not going to be easy. It's not going to be a quick, easy victory, but they have this place where they're at, and they're camped out here. And then in verse 6, it says,

Jonathan said to the young man who bore his armor, So now Jonathan says to his armor bearer, listen,

God is able to work in this situation. It's bleak, I know. We're way outnumbered. Outnumbered doesn't even begin to describe what position we're in. But God's able to work. He's not restricted from saving with just a few. He could do it. What do you think? And the armor bearer says, yeah, do all that's in your heart. I'm with you. I don't know how it's going to work out either. I don't know anything but...

Jonathan, I'm with you. Let's do this together. Let's trust God together. And so together, they're about to accomplish a great victory on behalf of Israel because of the work of the Lord, because they were bold enough to trust, to think that perhaps God wants to work. He's capable, fully capable for sure of working in this situation.

And you gotta love the words of Jonathan here, for nothing restrains the Lord from saving by many or by few. Dave Guzik describes this as wise, courage, and God. This is a courageous man we're looking at. Someone who believed that God was able to do the impossible. And this evening, I want us to consider the example of Jonathan for our own lives as well, that we need to trust that God can work.

Now, understand the situation here. God could have chosen not to work, and that would have been his right, and it wouldn't have been a bad situation. It wouldn't have been a negative mark for Jonathan. I mean, it wasn't that Jonathan was trying to force God to work or that Jonathan was trying to get God to do something he didn't want to do, but it starts out with him just believing that God can. And I think that's really important for us to consider because I really do think that a lot of times in our lives, we give up.

before we even give God a chance to work. We don't even get to find out whether or not God wants to work because we won't even start by just believing that God can work. And we need to approach the situations that we're in, even when nobody else is pursuing God's heart or believing in God or trusting in God or looking to God for victory. We need to begin with this place, with this understanding that God can accomplish this.

Now there is a question about whether he wants to and how he wants to and the way that he works, there's a lot of variety there, but let's just start with the basics and recognize and really believe that God can work in whatever situation that we face. So we face a lot of variety of different kinds of situations, of medical things, of financial things, of family things, of all kinds of circumstances, right?

And there are a lot of times that we just give up. And we're just like Saul, kind of just sitting under the pomegranate tree, just helplessly watching the enemy bring devastation, the enemy bring destruction to the things around us. And we've just given up. And we're devastated by what we're seeing. It's torturous to watch the enemy have these victories. But at the same time, we're not believing anything.

that God can work in the midst of this. And we're just succumbing to the loss. We're just surrendering to the enemy. Thomas Constable says, Jonathan was launching out in faith to obey God, but Saul was resting comfortably and failing to do God's will. And so again, we have this example of Jonathan launching out in faith to obey God. Let's just test the waters. Let's see God can work

Let's see if he wants to work. And that brings us now to verses 8 through 12, which is point number three, and that is give God opportunity to work. So it starts with, first of all, believing and understanding that God can work. You need to remember that God is the creator of the heavens and the earth. And don't give up on that situation. As hopeless as it looks, as bleak and as dark, as outnumbered as you might feel, you know, all of that, it's easy to give up. And the enemy wants us to give up.

It's something that I've shared many times, but there was that pastor who once said that, you know, the enemy can't take it from you, so he tries to get you to give up on it yourself. And I think he was speaking about marriage when he said that, the enemy can't take away your marriage. He

Might have been the context of ministry, but you get the point. It's really anything in your life. The enemy has no power in that regard, except for, you know, what the Lord allows. And so he can't force you to give up on God. He can't force you to give up on your family. He can't force you to, he can't, he doesn't have that kind of power, but he has a really loud bark and a really intimidating presence to try to get you to just give up on your own.

He can't take it from you. So why don't you just give it up? That's what he tries to convince you to do. And so we need to start with trusting that God can work. Don't give up on your situation. Don't give up on those things that you face. God is able to work in the midst of all of those things. But now take it the next step, and that is give God opportunity to work. Not only can God work, but now you need to find out what do you want to do, God? I know you're capable, but

of working miraculously in the situation, but what is it that you would like to do? And how do you want me to be a part of that? And that's what Jonathan is doing here. In verse eight, it says, then Jonathan said, very well, let us cross over to these men and we will show ourselves to them. 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.

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. Jonathan here believes that God can work. That's why he got out of bed today and went on this track to go explore and check out the garrison of the Philistines. But there's still the question of, does God want to work?

He's not being foolish and just trying to, you know, run with a sword screaming into the midst of a battle and hope that God blesses it. He's seeking to find out the will of God. And so he's testing. He says, look, this will be a sign for us. If we show ourselves and they say this, then we'll know God's with us and he wants us to go attack and he's going to give us victory. And if they say this, then okay, we'll know that, okay, this wasn't what God wanted to do today.

He's testing the waters. He's giving God opportunity to work. I think, again, this is a really good example for us that we would give God these kinds of opportunities.

Now there's different kinds of tests that we might, you know, come up with or think about and wrestle with, you know. Many would look at the example of Gideon and the fleece that he put out. And there's lots of discussion between scholars about whether or not that was a, you know, good thing to do or a godly thing to do or not. And in the case of Jonathan here, we can see very clearly that Jonathan didn't have the Lord appearing to him like Gideon had. So there is a big difference between these two. And

He just had a thought like, I know God could work. I wonder if God wants to. And so it's really wise for him to say, God, show us what you want us to do. Give us clear direction. Do you want us to take a step of faith like this? And remember, I always describe faith as obedience to God at his word. That's what faith is. And so he's looking for God and giving God an opportunity to speak and say, I'm here, I'm ready. If you want me to go, I'll go.

Even though, you know, it's crazy, this attack that we're thinking about, you know, but I'll go. And so he's willing to trust God. He believes that God can work. And here we see him giving God that opportunity. He's testing out what is your will, God?

I think about Paul as he was writing to the Romans. He told them, look, I've tried many times to come to you. And I've tried this, I've tried that. I tried many times to find a way within the will of God to come to you. And I like that picture that is described there, that Paul's like, but I really want to go to Rome. Can I go this way? And the Lord says, no. Can I go this way? No. Can I go this way? But he's aggressive at asking God. He's aggressive at like, I want to find out God's will. He's not just sitting there

waiting for, you know, the will of God to light up as a path, you know, before him, but he's asking, Lord, is this what you want? Is this what you want? Is this what you want? And here's Jonathan doing the same thing. Lord, is this what you want? And he's right there. He's ready to obey, and that's something really important. When you want to know the will of God, have your shoes on and be ready to obey as you're asking God for his will. Like, don't be in the posture of, you know, well, like Saul sitting under the pomegranate tree. Like, okay, God, I'll do your will, you know, if you show me. And, um,

And really what's happening a lot of times is we're just hoping that God shows us and that it's something we want to do. And if it's not something we want to do, you know, well, maybe I won't really pay that much attention to it. I probably just, you know, was thinking nonsense, probably wasn't really God speaking. And so...

No, no, have your shoes on. Be ready to go. And that's where, where does Jonathan ask God if he wants him to go into this battle? He's at the garrison. He's there. He's not back at the camp. He's already, you know, gone here. He's ready to obey. If the Lord wants to do this, I'm ready. I'm right on the verge here. I'm ready to engage in this battle. Well, verse 11, it tells us, 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.

Then the man of the garrison called to Jonathan and his armor bearer and said, come up to us and we will show you something. Jonathan said to his armor bearer, come up after me for the Lord has delivered them into the hand of Israel. Jonathan held on to the right perspective, recognizing God is going to do a work. The Lord has delivered them into the hand of Israel. God is at work here. And so he tells his armor bearer, let's go, come up after me. And, and, and I,

I don't know anything about what it's like to go into battle. But I see Jonathan here with kind of like an excitement, you know, just like a celebration here, like, all right, God's going to do this. Let's go. And he begins to advance against these Philistines. We see a great example here in Jonathan as he gives God opportunity to work. He also, you know, gave God the opportunity to say no. He gave God the opportunity to say yes, go and

Also the opportunity to say no, that he wasn't trying to put God in a position of testing God that, okay, God, I'm running and now you just, you got to do it. You know, I'm taking a jump and you got to catch me. And not waiting back in the camp for God to, you know, work out everything. He's right here on the verge of the battle saying, okay, Lord, show me what you want me to do. I'm ready to go to battle. I'll walk away if you don't want me to go into the battle. Whatever you want, Lord. And

He's giving God this opportunity to work. Dave Guzik says that Jonathan is showing wisdom, not unbelief in this. That God hasn't given him a specific clear word, and so he's just giving him the opportunity. He says he is humble enough to know that his heart might be wrong. So Jonathan asked God to guide him. I think that's really important for us to consider that Jonathan woke up today thinking, wow, God could do this. What if God wants to do this?

But he's not so arrogant as to just expect that, well, because this is what I think, this must be true. Saying, Lord, I want to let you lead. And so if you want us to go, we'll go. If you want us to stay, we'll stay. He gave God opportunity and authority in his life to lead him. And this is what we need to do as well, to present ourselves to God in a way that we believe. I trust that you can work. I know that you can accomplish miraculous things in this situation. Now, Lord, here am I.

would you like me to be part of this victory? Would you like me to be part of the work that you want to do? What would you have me to do? And to make ourselves available, to give God opportunity to work through us in the situations at hand.

Moving on now to verse 13 through 15, here we have point number four, and that is get to work. And this is important. I've shared this many times before also, but we can't think about the will of God and the work of God and think we're just going to sit here and then God's going to do everything. But here we see Jonathan engages in the battle. Verse 13, and Jonathan climbed up on his hands and knees with his armor bearer after him, and they fell before Jonathan. And as he came after him, his armor bearer killed them.

Here is Jonathan wakens with the realization God could do this. He gives God the opportunity and then he gets involved in the work.

Now, we see that God does a miraculous intervention here in verse 15. There's an earthquake that takes place, and it really shakes up the whole garrison, all of the raiders, you know, that are out scattered raiding all over the place. So all of the Philistines, wherever they're at within Israel's territory, they're all shook up now. They're all freaked out. God is really doing a mighty work.

But notice when that happens. It's after verse 13, right? Verse 15 comes after verse 13. In verse 13, Jonathan climbed up on his hands and knees. And so you see Jonathan heading into battle. He is getting involved in the work. He's not just believing that God can work. He's not just giving God opportunity to work. But now he's actually putting his own life at risk.

to get involved in the work and really put feet to his faith and say, okay, a few moments ago, I said, God could save with by many or by few, you know, nothing's, and anybody could say that. Theologically, I would suggest the army back at the camp would have probably agreed with that statement. Oh yeah, the Lord could save with many or by few, but, but

declaring that statement and acknowledging, oh yeah, that's a true statement, and then climbing up a cliff on your hands and knees to where the enemies up top, they have the strategic advantage with their numbers, with their weapons, but also with just the geography, that's a whole different thing. He really is trusting God to work, so much so that he's willing to be part of it himself. And this is the thing that

Sometimes we lack that. Theologically, we believe that God could work, but not so much so that we actually participate in the work, that we don't actually necessarily jump in and, well, you know, expend our own energy and expend our own selves and put our own selves at risk and take steps of faith ourselves. You know, that's risky. Can't take steps of faith. That's risky. You know, that's dangerous. What if I stumble? What if I fall? What if it doesn't work out? What if the, you know, the

ends don't meet or whatever the case might be. But here, Jonathan, first he trusts that God can work. Then he gives God opportunity to speak and direct. And when God does, he says, okay, now I'm going forward and I'm going to do this. And this is amazing faith that he demonstrates here, climbing up with his hands and knees. Again, he's personally, physically involved, working hard to get involved in this battle. His armor bearer comes with him and the enemy begins to fall before him.

His armor bearer is finishing him off as he's just boom, boom, boom, taking on each guy at a time. And within just a few moments, 20 of the enemy are dead in this half acre of land. Now 20, it's a lot for one or two guys to deal with, right? But it's not a lot compared to the army that they're facing. But now as they've engaged with these 20 soldiers, now God begins speaking.

to bring his forces, and the earth shakes, and the Philistines tremble in verse 15. You see, God really starts his work. He shows up in force after. Again, I think if I was Jonathan, I'd be like, okay, Lord, give him an earthquake, and then I'll rush up the hill. You know, it's like, you know, give that. You work first, and then I'll participate. But many times, we have to take steps of faith and trust that

God has told us to go, so let's go and then understand that God's with us. We may not see it. We may not recognize it, but it's as we get engaged in the work that God shows up in force. We need to test the waters. Take steps of faith. That was like the example of the priest who had to stand in the water. The ankles had to get wet, and then God began to part the river.

It wasn't like with Moses. He just held out his staff over the, yeah, and then the Red Sea parted. When they crossed the Jordan, the priests had to get into the water. Their feet had to get wet. And then God parted the Jordan River. And that's true so many times in the way that God works. He calls us to go out in faith, to trust him, to really take steps of faith. And that means our feet are gonna have to get wet. Our ankles are gonna have to get wet. We're gonna have to scramble up a hill. He's gonna show up. We can trust him to show up.

But he calls us to go at his word that he's going to show up. And as you give God opportunity to work, again, I said, have your tennis shoes on. Be ready to get into the work. Be ready to go because that's what God is gonna call you to as he gives you opportunity to participate in the victory that he wants to accomplish.

Dave Guzik again says, if we only want victory or want to be used by God when it is easy, we won't see much victory and we won't be used very much. Sometimes we're going to have to work really hard and scramble up a mountain on our hands and knees to try to reach the top to face odds that are impossible, outnumbered, facing an enemy with superior weapons, but God's on our side.

And we need to obey God and trust God in those things that he has called us to. And so Jonathan here is a great example. And he inspires us, I pray, as we look at these things tonight. But he also inspired the men who were there around him. And that brings us to the final point this evening. Verses 16 through 23. Point number five is others may be inspired to join in the work. Now notice I put the may in there.

Others aren't always inspired to do the work when you trust God and go forward in God's plan. But sometimes they are. And that's good to know. And what we see here is that it does inspire the rest of the army. Verse 16. Now the watchmen of Saul and Gibeah of Benjamin looked and there was the multitude melting away. And they went here and there.

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 armor bearer were not there. 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. 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.

So Jonathan here takes this step of faith. He wakes up today. He thinks, you know, God could work. I believe that God can work and maybe he wants to work. I'm going to give him an opportunity to do this victory. And so he goes, he ends up there at the garrison and God gives him the indication. Yes, go. And he climbs up the mountain and he begins this attack and God sends an earthquake. And now the multitude is melting away, it says in verse 16. I mean, so far, it's just Jonathan and his armor bearer and God.

and the multitude is melting away. And the camp at Israel is looking on saying, what on earth is going on? Suddenly the Philistines are scrambling. They're fleeing away. What is happening? And Saul does a roll call. Let's find out who's missing, who's gone, and who's responsible for this situation. And I like how it says, surprisingly, he's really shocked. It's my own son, Jonathan, who's missing.

He's the one engaged in this battle. Now, the interesting thing here is Saul now calls for the priest. Bring the ark of God. And as the priest comes and he's starting the process of inquiring from the Lord, the commotion gets so loud. Saul gets so impatient. He finally gives up and says, forget it. Withdraw your hand. Forget it. I just, we got to go. And so here's Saul, right?

Just a couple days earlier, he couldn't wait for Samuel to get there to do the sacrifice. He had to do it himself. And you remember, as we studied that passage, he encapsulated it with, you know, spiritual language. I mean, I had to inquire of the Lord before I went to battle because I'm so spiritual, right? And so he's got this impression of himself that he's spiritual, that he's waiting on the Lord, but he's really not. He's just taking matters into his own hands.

And so now, while Jonathan is out taking steps of faith, he's just sitting there, and then he reacts because there's a work going on. He's reacting to the situation, and as he's reacting to the situation, now he says, okay, okay, I want to hear from God. I want to hear from God. Quick, quick. But even then...

Okay, wait, wait, never mind. I don't have time to hear from God. I got to go. You know, it's, he's, he's so back and forth. He's so here or there and, and everywhere and not really trusting God. Again, just such a poor example of what it means to pursue God's heart. We understand why God says, I'm taking the kingdom away from you because you weren't seeking me to begin with. So that's why you haven't heard from me now that it's, it's too late. It's,

You've already missed that opportunity. Your son heard that opportunity because he was looking to me. He was trusting that I could do it. He was giving me opportunity to work. He was calling out to me. And this is one of the reasons why I always say, in the time of crisis, that's the worst time to try to hear from the Lord. Or not necessarily to try to hear from the Lord, but to try to learn how to hear from the Lord. I recommend, try to hear from the Lord now before the crisis.

So that when the crisis hits, you don't want to be like Saul. There's a crisis. Oh no, bring the ark here. I don't know what I'm going to do. Oh no, the noise is loud. Okay, never mind. I give up. Okay, I'm just going to do this. And there's this uncertainty, this panic, this desperateness because, well, he didn't start with a pursuit of God's heart. And we put ourselves in this situation when we are not pursuing God's heart. We put ourselves in the situation where we are

We're going to experience crises, right? That Jesus said that. We're going to experience tribulation. We all know that. In the parable of the wise and the foolish builders, right? He describes a storm in both lives. The wise and the fool. It's going to happen. The wise hear the words of the Lord and build their house upon the rock. They obey them. But it starts with the hearing and the obeying. It starts with that relationship. It starts with the real pursuit of God's will, of God's heart.

And so Saul here has no foundation. And so like sand, he's just back and forth. He's all over the place. And so he says, ah, get out of here. We can't, we don't have time for this. And then in verse 20, then Saul and all the people who were with him assembled and they went to the battle. Indeed, every man's sword was against his neighbor and there was a very great confusion. Moreover, the Hebrews who were with the Philistines before that time, who went up and

So here at the example of Jonathan and his armor bearer, and as they get the work started, as they trust God and God joins with them in the work, even though Saul was not pursuing the heart of God,

he still gets the opportunity to be inspired and involved in this work. And so Saul and the people with him assembled and they go into the battle and they're gonna get to participate in this victory. Now, Saul's gonna ruin it for everybody. We'll see that next week as we go forward in chapter 14. But they're engaged now in the battle because Jonathan was bold enough to trust God, to give God an opportunity to work and to personally actually get involved in that work and start the battle.

And now Saul and those 600 men joined them. They're still vastly outnumbered. Nothing else has changed. They didn't get weapons all of a sudden. So they're getting involved even though it wasn't their natural inclination. The work of God through Jonathan and his armor bearer is inspiring now the rest of the soldiers to join in the battle. But not only that, in verse 21, it's very interesting. Verse 21 again says, 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 some of the Jewish people were with the Philistines, whether they had like surrendered or whether they had just were forced labor or whether they were captured or we don't know all of the details. But here these Hebrews amongst the camp of the Philistines, they see what's going on. And now they're given boldness.

to fight. They are inspired as well as God is on the move. Now, it was started, it was sparked by Jonathan and his armor bearer trusting God and God works and now others are getting involved and even this group who are amongst the Philistines.

They rise up and they began to participate in this battle as well. And then verse 22, likewise, all the men of Israel who had hidden in the mountains of Ephraim. Remember last week, we saw that they were hiding in shrubs and hiding in holes and caves and anywhere they could hide. They were just running like crazy. Suddenly they're peeking their head out the cave door, you know, like what? What's happening? What's going on? There's a battle going on.

God's bringing a victory and they're getting involved in the battle too. And so people are coming out of the woodwork. They're getting involved, they're participating. And it was all sparked by the step of faith that Jonathan and his armor bearer took. Sometimes it's easy for us to be frustrated at how everybody's just laying around in their hammocks, not doing what they're supposed to be doing. But sometimes the Lord wants to use us to just trust him and put ourselves out there and get involved in the battle too.

And then God's going to use that to speak to the others who are just laying there that need to be in the battle but are not. And the Lord could use you to help others catch the vision and catch the fire and get on board with what God wants to do.

And God wanted to bring victory today. And so verse 23 tells us, so the Lord saved Israel that day and the battle shifted to Beth-Avon. The Lord saved Israel. Notice it doesn't say Jonathan saved Israel or the armor bearer or Saul or it was clearly a work of God. But it was a work of God that came about because there was a man who was willing to trust that God could work. Even though nobody else believed

was trusting God at that time. Even though nobody else was seeking God for some kind of victory or seeking God for some kind of vision, they weren't pursuing God's heart. There was a man who trusted that God could work. As he's looking at the defeat, as he's looking at the devastation of the situation that they're in, he's thinking to himself, you know, God, you can work. I know you can work. I know you can overcome this. You can bring great victory in the midst of this. And so I want to give you opportunity, Lord. I don't know if you want me to do this,

But I want to give you a chance to work if you want to work. And so he puts himself in a situation. He really makes himself vulnerable. I mean, he could have been in a dangerous situation there at the garrison of the Philistines. But Lord, I just want to give you this chance. Do you want to work? Do you want me to go into this battle? Do you want me to get this started? When God said, yeah, he said, okay. And he went. He scrambled up the hill. He expended energy, risked his life to do what God had set before him.

And it inspired many others to get involved in the work of the Lord as well. And God did a great victory. This evening, as we consider the example of Jonathan, I want to encourage you to pursue God's heart, even if nobody else is. Whatever situation you might be facing, it's devastating. It's a horrible place to sit there and watch the defeat, the devastation of the enemy rampaging. But God can work.

It's not beyond his reach. His arms are not too short that he could save. That's what he says in another place. Trust God that he could work. Now, when he works and how he works, that's all up to God. But we need to know first that God can work and then give God the opportunity to work. Lord, would you use me? And how do you want to use me? How do you want me to get involved? What do you want me to do? But as you seek the Lord for that opportunity, have your tennis shoes on.

your combat boots or whatever you need. Be ready to go because as God gives you that instruction, you need to go. Don't be looking to find out the will of God so you can decide if you want to obey the will of God. Be looking to find out the will of God so that you can immediately engage in God's will. Get to work. And you never know, God could use you to inspire the friends, the family, the people around you that are not engaged in the way that they should be. God can use you to stir them up

and get them involved in the work that God wants to do. We want to close out tonight with a time of worship. So Jonathan, you can come on up. And we want to just give you the opportunity now to seek the Lord about pursuing his heart and giving him an opportunity to work. And you know exactly what's on your heart as far as situations that you're facing and wonderings that you have. And you know what's going on there. So I want to encourage you during this time to just present those before the Lord.

Start by just trusting God you can work. You're able to bring deliverance. You're able to work miraculously. And so we can make ourselves available to God this evening. Give him an opportunity to lead us and to speak to us. And like we always do on Wednesday evenings, we want to give you the opportunity to minister to each other as well. And so maybe God wants to use one of you to encourage someone else and to help them, build them up and get them involved in the work of God. Or maybe you just need to reach out to someone and say, hey, can you pray? Because

I think maybe God does want to work and I just want to be available for that. And so if you want to share with one another or pray for one another during these worship songs, feel free to move about the cabin, engage with one another and the Lord as we seek him together for what he wants to do. Let's pursue God's heart. We pray you have been blessed by this Bible teaching. The power of God to change a life is found in the daily reading of his word. Visit ferventword.com to find more teachings and Bible study resources.