1 Samuel 14.
1892 18 To the professing church the history of Saul affords an instructive lesson. In it we may learn something of the conduct of the flesh when, under the most favourable circumstances, it takes the lead among the professed people of God. Far happier would it be to trace the way of the Spirit in a man subject to the will of God; but Saul reigned before David. We have already noticed that his first act, when confirmed in the kingdom, was an open transgression of the commandment of God to tarry for Samuel, and a public display that he could be independent of Him and could fulfil his kingly duties without the counsel of the Lord communicated through him. The impatience of the flesh and its desire to be unfettered in its operations thus early displayed themselves, and were accompanied with an astonishing want of conscience and with no little hollowness of heart.
At the very time when Saul was setting at nought the word of God by His prophet, he went forth to meet and salute (bless) him, apparently well satisfied with himself for showing him this outward honour. The immediate and solemn reproof which he received, the judgment that was at once pronounced on him, "thy kingdom shall not continue" (xiii. 13-14), are surely warnings against a too common lack of reverence and godly fear. What must it be to go ostensibly to meet and bless the Lord while living and acting contrary to His revealed will?
If Saul would not humble himself at this reproof (and there does not appear a sign of it), and if he would not take a true measure of his solitary helplessness brought about by his disobedience, the Philistines did. They could desire nothing better than for such a man to he the captain over Israel. They could ravage the country with impunity, and did at once send out spoilers in all directions; so that caves and thickets, rocks and pits, were sought for as shelter by the majority of Saul's trembling followers. The few that were left were disarmed, the king and his son only being allowed to retain their weapons. Was this in contempt? It might be so; but the over-ruling hand of the Lord brought blessing out of it for His afflicted people. Their enemies might safely trust a man after the flesh with a sword; it was another thing to leave one in the hand of a man after the Spirit, a man of simple faith, who looked not at the strength of the foe but up to God. Such was Jonathan, the reserve of grace for the hour of need. To him the Philistines were but "the uncircumcised" who had no connection with the Lord; and apart from Him all mere creatures are "as void as air." He believed that the Lord would work for Israel, for it had pleased Him to make them His people, and there was no restraint to Him to save by many or by few. A sword in the hand of such a man (like the word of God in the hands of those who know it and use it as the sword of the Spirit) was mighty through God to the overthrow of these powerful foes. Accompanied by his armour-bearer only, he advanced upon them, and they fell before him. "And there was trembling in the host: the garrison and the spoilers, they also trembled, and the earth quaked; so it was a very great trembling."
And where was Saul? Where the flesh always is, not in the secret of the Spirit at all. Jonathan's action was altogether irregular according to nature. "He told not his father." Significant words! He sought neither the sanction nor the co-operation of the flesh. Saul felt it, no doubt, and we fear, from subsequent events, only waited his time to resent it, and to assert his authority; for the natural heart can be cruel when its pride is wounded. In the meanwhile he could not fail to perceive that the energy of faith had brought Jonathan into a place which officially belonged to him, and the flesh is sensitive as to the maintenance of official importance. He must therefore do something; so he said to Ahiah, "Bring hither the ark of God," as if, like Hophni and Phinehas, he could dispose of it as he pleased. Boldness to take and use the most sacred things, not as truly caring for them, but to cover ambition with the semblance of devotion, is as marked a characteristic of the flesh as its unwillingness to be subject to the word. But mark his inconsistency. When the ark was brought to him, he turned as quickly from it as from Samuel. Hearing the noise in the host of the Philistines increase, he said to the priest, "Withdraw thine hand." The service was a short one; his impatience made it so. If the rout of the Philistines were complete before he arrived on the scene, he would have no opportunity to signalise himself. It is painful to make these discoveries in another; but they help us to form a truer judgment of ourselves. We greatly need to see self stripped of every disguise, but as it really is, and to get distinctly God's judgment of it, which has never changed. We may be sure that the lowest estimate of oneself fitly accompanies the highest enjoyment of Christ; so that repentance toward God and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ go and grow together.
Saul and his followers came to the battle (xiv. 20), and we can now learn what help the flesh brings to those who are engaged in conflict with the enemies of God and His people. His first act was to put a curse on any man of Israel who should eat any food until the evening: a more effectual way of weakening them he could not devise. Jonathan discerned at once, on hearing of it, that his father was not acting in concert with the mind of God, that he was troubling and not helping them. Whence came this decree? From the written word of God defining the duties of a king in Israel (Deut. 17)? It was opposed to the spirit of it. From Samuel? He never consulted him. From the priest before the ark? He would not wait there for an answer. Confessedly it was to serve his own ends — "That I may be avenged on mine enemies." Self was the glass through which, unhappily, he saw everything; and instead of his enemies receiving hurt, they profited by this anathema to make good their retreat; and the whole weight of it fell on Jonathan, "who heard not when the charge was given, and who put forth the end of the rod that was in his hand, and dipped it in a honeycomb, and put his hand to his mouth." When has an anathema of the flesh not fallen on the spiritual? and when has there been a greater display of religiousness than when enforcing it? Saul made a great show of zeal for God in passing the death sentence on his son; but the people intervened and rescued him. They said to Saul, "Shall Jonathan die who hath wrought this great salvation in Israel? God forbid: as the Lord liveth there shall not one hair of his head fall to the ground; for he hath wrought with God this day." Saul was saved from a great sin, but at the expense of his authority.
Humbled for the moment by his subjects and a check put upon his will, his day of probation is prolonged, and gleams of sunshine pierce through the gathering clouds. The people share in the blessing; for the Lord is very pitiful and of tender mercy. Their brave stand also for the servant of God is not forgotten. Saul is strengthened to deliver Israel out of the hands of them that spoiled them. "He fought against them on every side … and whithersoever he turned himself, he vexed them." We have here a lesson that the natural mind fails to understand. "My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways My ways, saith the Lord." Whenever manifest blessing attends a work, the natural conclusion is that the doer of it is approved of the Lord. Facts ought to make us slow in coining to a judgment. The Lord delivered Israel twice out of the hands of the Syrians by Ahab after he had driven out Elijah at the instigation of his wife Jezebel; and Saul here gained victories over his enemies after his evil course with Samuel and Jonathan. While thankful for blessing, the lord in these cases takes us behind the scenes, to teach us that we must fail if we judge after the sight of our eyes or the hearing of our ears. Nothing relieves us from judging everything by the word of God and the Spirit.
The last words of the chapter disclose the real state of Saul's heart at this very time; "When Saul saw any strong man, or any valiant man, he took him unto him." He hoped in this way to establish himself in the kingdom which he had forfeited by his sin, and to aggrandise himself and his house in the view of the people, In the case of David, those who came to him were drawn by love. Not so with Saul, "he, took them unto him." He made great preparations for future service; but the final proof made by the Lord of the quality of his work disclosed its utter worthlessness. All was for self-exaltation, or fleshly importance, obtained by fleshly means, and imposing only on those who were of fleshly mind. To the remnant, whom the Lord was preparing to welcome the king after His own heart, all Saul's glory was nothing, and all his rewards were nothing (xxii. 7). They turned their back on everything to share exile and privation with the son of Jesse. To be with him outweighed for them all the glitter of Saul's court and surroundings. This was the work of God, and so David owned it (1 Chron. 29:11–13). It brought around him, as another has said, "an army of heroes." As a type of Christ and of those who "go forth to Him without the camp, bearing His reproach," what lessons are these!
The next chapter is a most serious one as to Saul, while Samuel's inspired utterance as to obedience, strikingly put into rhythmical form, makes it of imperishable value to us; but we must reserve our notice of it, if the Lord will, for another paper.