We see here a contrast in faith and spirituality between Jonathan and his father Saul. Saul was sitting around with the remnants of the army, too afraid and depressed to do anything. Jonathan took the battle to the Philistines with only his armor bearer to help him. Despite the odds, he had that confident faith that the Lord would use him to accomplish a great victory. After all, the Lord was fighting the battle with Him and he could not lose.
Saul displayed remarkable spiritual insensitivity. Although he commanded the high priest to consult the Lord, he stopped the sacrifice and acted on his own. This was not his place even though the offering was being done by Ichabod’s son and the Spirit of the Lord was not there. Instead he seized the opportunity to avenge himself on the Philistines while they were in disarray. Then in his lust for victory he made a rash vow that taxed the vitality of his warriors and threatened his own son’s life. He did do the right thing by stopping the warriors from eating blood and then by sparing his son’s life, which he did only on the insistence of cooler heads. He would have achieved the victory anyway without all these moral failures for Lord was with him.
Both these examples inspire us to have great faith when fighting the Lord’s battles. We must not look at the size of the foe in light of our own human strength. When doing the Lord’s work we can achieve great things for Him not only in prayer, but also in works of service.
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