Now, before we get into chapter 14, I have to just briefly mention some things from chapter
13 from last week, because chapter 13 kind of left us on a cliffhanger and it didn't
really tell us how the battle was going to turn out.
In chapter 14, we pick up right where that story left off.
Now, if you remember in chapter 13, after Saul had reigned two years over Israel, he
had his group of soldiers with him, and it was just a small group of soldiers, and then
Jonathan had a group of soldiers with him.
And if you remember, Jonathan just decided that he's just going to attack the enemy.
So Jonathan just took it upon himself to just attack a garrison of the Philistines.
Well when he did that, that angered the Philistines, so they sent just a massive army to fight
against Israel.
An army of men that they described as, you know, the number of the sand, which is by
the seashore in multitude, chariots, horses, all kinds of warriors.
And when they came to fight against the children of Israel, Saul blew the trumpet and basically
called out the whole nation to come and defend against the Philistines.
So people from all over the nation of Israel had gathered with Saul, and if you remember,
Saul had waited seven days for Samuel to come and offer the sacrifice and bless their endeavors,
and he didn't show up on time.
So Saul saw that the people were starting to scatter from him, because they were afraid
of a much larger and more well-equipped enemy.
So they all started to scatter from him, so then he didn't know what to do, so he just
decided he's going to offer the sacrifice himself.
Well that wasn't his job to do that, the high priest was supposed to do that.
And so Samuel's very angry and he rebukes him and he tells him that God's going to take
the kingdom away from him, and that he's going to seek out a man after his own heart.
Of course that's going to be David that's eventually going to replace Saul.
And if you remember at the end of chapter 13, Saul was only left with 600 troops.
All the people had scattered from him that had originally banded behind him, and he's
only got 600 troops with him.
And not only that, but the Philistines, because they were ruling over the land and had garrisons,
they had taken away all of the smiths of the land that made weapons.
So no one in his army, his 600 guys that are following him, even has a sword, except
Jonathan has a sword and Saul.
Everybody else has all kinds of tools and basically machetes and axes and mattocks,
just whatever they could use for a weapon, but not a bona fide sword in their hand.
And so that was where we left things at the end of chapter 13.
Now in chapter 14 verse 1 it says, Now it came to pass upon a day that Jonathan the
son of Saul said unto the young man that bare his armor, Come and let us go over to
the Philistine's garrison that is on the other side.
But he told not his father.
And Saul tarried in the uttermost part of Gibeah under a pomegranate tree, which is
a migrant, and the people that were with them were about 600 men.
Same number from the end of chapter 13.
And Ahia the son of Ahitub, Ichabod's brother, the son of Phinehas, the son of Eli, the Lord's
priest in Shiloh, wearing an ephod.
And the people knew not that Jonathan was gone.
Jump down if you would to verse 6.
And Jonathan said to the young man that bare his armor, Come and let us go over under the
garrison of these uncircumcised.
It may be that the Lord will work for us, for there is no restraint to the Lord to save
by many or by few.
So this is the same guy who started this whole war basically because he just decided to just
attack the Philistines.
Well now he's doing something even crazier because it's just him and his armor bare.
He leaves the other 558 or 600 guys behind and he's just going to go attack a group of
the Philistines just by himself, just him and his armor bare.
And you got to hand it to him.
He's very bold, very courageous.
He knows that he's fighting for a righteous cause and so he's tired of sitting around.
They're waiting and waiting.
And you notice the first words of the chapter came to pass upon a day.
So time is going by and nothing's happening and he's just spoiling for a fight.
He just wants to get out there and fight.
And the great thing is that in verse 6 it says that he's trusting in the Lord here.
He says it may be that the Lord will work for us, for there is no restraint to the Lord
to save by many or by few.
So he's got all of his faith in God.
And his armor bare said unto him, do all that is in thine heart, turn thee, behold I am
with thee according to thy heart.
So he's got his armor bare and he brings his armor bare and he goes to the garrison of
the Philistines where some of the Philistines are stationed and he says to the armor bare,
here's what we're going to do.
And of course they have the high ground which is a major advantage.
Jonathan and his armor bare are below them.
They said let's discover ourselves under the Philistines.
Let's show them that we're here and if they come down to us to fight us, we're going to
run away.
That means that God's not with us.
This is going to be a sign.
We're going to pray that God leads here.
And if they say to us, come up to us, then we'll know that God has delivered them into
our hands.
Now, if you think about it, it'd probably be better if they come to you, you know, because
at least then you're in a more of a defensive position than to run uphill to attack the
enemy.
But he says, no, let's just make it harder.
You know, if God's really going to bless us here, he can do it with us going uphill.
And so the armor bare says, okay, whatever.
I mean, he's very, he's a very good follower, very compliant armor bare.
So he's just going to go along with it.
I mean, I don't know what he's thinking, but he said, okay, sure.
And so it says in verse number 11, both of them discovered themselves under the garrison
of the Philistines.
And the Philistines said, behold, the Hebrews come forth out of the holes where they've
hid them, where they had hid themselves.
Now why did they say that?
Well, if you remember in the last chapter, everybody has scattered.
This isn't referring to the 600 that are staying with Saul.
This is all the other guys that have scattered and they're hiding in the caves and then the
dens and so forth.
And so the heat, they're basically mocking them.
The Hebrews came forth out of the holes where they had hid themselves.
And the men of the garrison answered Jonathan and his armor bare and said, come up to us
and we will show you a thing.
And Jonathan said unto his armor bare, come up after me for the Lord had delivered them
into the hand of Israel.
And look how amazing this is.
Verse 13, and Jonathan climbed up upon his hands and upon his feet and his armor bare
after him.
Now this is a steep hill and when you're down on your hands and your feet, he's literally
running up the hill like an animal on his hands and feet up against a huge group of
soldiers saying, God's going to deliver them into our hand.
The armor bare is right after him.
And it says in verse 13 there, his armor bare after him and they fell before Jonathan and
his armor bare slew after him.
So Jonathan just jumps in there and he's just basically just swinging the sword, just knocking
them down, just slashing them up.
And then basically the armor bare just comes in and just finishes them off behind him.
He's just there just to finish the job and that's what it means when it says he slew
after him.
Those are the ones that Jonathan had wounded.
Verse 14, and that first slaughter which Jonathan and his armor bare made was about 20 men within
as it were a half acre of land which a yoke of oxen might plow.
So it's just a small group of soldiers relatively speaking, but he killed 20 men.
One guy with his armor bare defeats 20 guys in that space that's listed there about a
half an acre of land which a yoke of oxen might plow.
Now look at verse 15, and there was trembling in the host in the field and among all the
people.
The garrison and the spoilers, they also trembled and the earth quaked.
So it was a very great trembling.
And so what happened is when this one guy with his armor bare defeats 20 guys, kills
20 guys and sends the rest fleeing away, that sends fear and panic throughout the host of
the Philistines.
They don't know what's happening.
They don't realize it's just one guy.
They just know that they're being defeated over here and what happens is panic ensues.
The Bible says there's a great discomfiture or just confusion and the Bible says that
they started to just slay each other, they're trampling on each other.
Basically all the Philistine soldiers are all just panicking and running in different
directions.
They're accidentally fighting against each other.
There's total confusion and they're so scared, they're trembling and the Bible says that
it even caused the earth to quake, that they trembled so much.
And it says in verse 16, and the watchman of Saul and Gibeah of Benjamin looked and
behold the multitude melted away.
Referring to the multitude of the Philistines, the army that's encamped against them, melted
away and they went on beating down one another.
So they're knocking each other over.
There's this total confusion and it says in verse 17, then sent Saul to the people that
were with them, number now and see who has gone from us.
And when they had numbered, behold Jonathan and his armor bearer were not there.
And Saul said unto Ahiah, bring hither the ark of God and they brought the ark of God
and they prayed and so forth.
And basically when they see that there's this confusion and discomfiture in the host of
the Philistines, they decide to take advantage of it and go on the attack.
So Saul and his 600 troops attack the host in its confused condition and when they do
that, they begin to win the battle and then all the other Hebrews who had been hiding,
all the other people who had been scattered from them, they all join in and start coming
and rallying behind Saul.
So now he has a lot more than 600 troops.
Then not only that, the Bible says that there were a lot of the children of Israel who were
actually with the Philistines, look at verse 21, moreover the Hebrews that were with the
Philistines before that time, which went up with them into the camp from the country round
about.
Even they also turned to be with the Israelites that were with Saul and Jonathan.
So there were a lot of the Israelites who were actually, their loyalty was in the wrong
place.
They were fighting on the side of the Philistines.
They had just realized, hey these people are more powerful than us, they're stronger than
us, we just need to be their slaves, we just need to shut up and do what we're told.
And so they had just defected to the enemy.
Well now once they see that their countrymen are winning and that the Israelites are winning,
they're like, oh I changed my mind.
And they switch over to the winning side.
That's how a lot of people are.
They want to be on the winning side, they don't want to be with the loser.
I remember when I was a child, my mom told me that, we were talking about the election,
it was like a presidential election, and we were watching it on TV and it was kind of
the results were coming in.
This state has gone to so and so, and this state has gone to so and so, this one went
Republican, this one went Democrat, and we're sitting there watching the results, and my
mom was saying to me, a lot of people say that when you're on the West Coast, it's like
your vote doesn't really count as much because of the time zones, because they're voting
first and the results are already kind of coming in, and then it kind of affects how
people vote when they start hearing the results.
I said to my mom, I said, why would that affect how you vote?
Don't you kind of already have a decision in your mind of what you believe in, what
you stand for, who you're voting for, or what you're doing?
And she said, well, a lot of people, they just want to vote for the winner, they don't
want to vote for a loser.
And I looked at that and said, that's ridiculous, you know, you think you just, you pick the
guy that you want to pick, and it wouldn't really matter what other people are doing,
I mean, you're voting for who you want to vote for.
But no, she said, no, they don't want to vote for the loser.
So if somebody's losing, they're going to be less likely to go out and vote for that
guy, because they want to be on the winning team, you know, they want to be on the winning
side.
And that's ridiculous.
I mean, we, you know, we ought to, we ought to want to just do what's right.
It doesn't matter whether it's the popular thing, or it's the cool thing, or whether
it's the winning team or not.
Now thank God, as believers, we are on the winning side, you know, we know that we're
more than conquerors for him to love us.
We know that, you know, thanks be unto God, which always caused us to triumph in Christ.
We know we're on the winning side, but you know, in this world, we're not always going
to be on the winning side.
You know, when it comes to this world, we're not going to be popular.
We're not necessarily going to be successful.
We're not going to be the coolest people and the ones who are the winners.
We'll be looked at by the world, in many cases, as losers.
Now we know that we are more than conquerors, but the reason that God has to keep reminding
us of that through the Bible is that it's the wicked that prosper in the world.
And that it's often those who do right who finish last in the eyes of man.
And so there are a lot of people who go through life just only wanting to be associated with
the winner.
You know, and let me illustrate to you this way, when Jesus Christ was popular, he had
a lot of followers, right?
But then as soon as some of the things he said were offending people, and a lot of people
started to not follow him, and then pretty soon he's arrested, then you see everybody
scatter from him.
Then you see him not being popular.
And then you see some of the same people who had said, you know, Lord, I'll follow thee
whithersoever thou goest.
Oh, you don't know where you're going to stay tonight?
Oh, never mind.
Forget it.
You know, they wanted to follow him when he was popular.
When John the Baptist was popular, they were there following him.
But when they got into any kind of trouble or when they started to lose in the eyes of
man, then all of a sudden, you know, see ya, and it's the same thing here.
When Saul is in trouble, when Saul needs their help the most, they all forsake him.
You know, and he was God's anointed leader here.
And if you think about it, Saul did a bad thing.
There's no excuse for what Saul did when he offered the sacrifice.
There's no excuse there.
But he probably wouldn't have done it if the people hadn't have scattered from him.
Think about that.
I mean, if the people would have stayed faithful to him, if the people were rallied with him,
the only reason that he did it is because he saw that the people scattered from him.
Yes, he did wrong.
Not making excuses for him.
But I'm saying that, you know, when you don't stand with what's right, you know, you can
cause other people to fall too.
You know, I've noticed that people follow the crowd.
And it's wrong and nobody should follow the crowd, but that's just what people do.
You know, and there are a lot of people, it's interesting, you know, starting a church,
and I started this church five and a half years, or over five and a half years ago now.
You know, when you first start the church, it's small.
There's nothing that's going to impress anybody about it.
I mean, it's just a small church.
You know, we're meeting in the house as a few people are coming.
And you know, how many people laughed at and mocked and despised me as I was starting a
church.
You know, just trying to do something for God, starting a church and winning souls
and knocking doors.
But it's, oh yeah, you're still meeting in the house, you know, how many people you got
coming now, you know, blah, blah, blah.
You know, trying to mock and downplay.
And there's a lot of people who won't come to a church like that because they want to
see first how it's going to turn out.
We want to make sure that, you know, everything is going to go well and that this is going
to be a church that I'm going to want to go to because it's succeeding.
But instead of that, they ought to look at, well, what does God want me to do?
Is this Bible preaching?
Is this the right soul winning?
Is this the right preaching?
Is this someone who's serving God and so forth?
And just get behind him, you know, and just, and just stay faithful to it.
Not because of him, but because of the Bible that he's preaching and because it's the right
doctrine and because it's the right thing to do.
But people would rather wait until the church is thriving and then, oh yeah, they'll jump
on that winning team.
But you know, we need people that are faithful to what's right when it's not winning.
You know, faithful to what's right, instant, in season and out of season.
When they love you and when they hate your guts, you know, you're just there and you're
just staying with the Bible and you're staying with soul winning.
Not because it's the, and you know, every once in a while it might become the popular
thing for a little while.
But then you know what, when it's not popular, are you going to stay with it?
Or when trials and tribulations and persecutions come by and by, you're going to fall away.
You know, and that's the type of people that, that, that are the most prevalent.
I mean you have 600 guys that were in it and they were not going anywhere and when
things looked bad, they were still there.
The multitude of thousands and thousands and thousands of people were the ones who go hide
and then as soon as they're winning, then all of a sudden, oh yeah, we want to jump
on board and be there for the win.
And so don't be a fair weather friend and don't be a fair weather church member and
don't be a fair weather servant of God.
Be there instant, in season and out of season.
So they all come and jump on the winning side in verse number 21 there.
And in verse 22, all the scaredy cats that were hiding, they come out of the, the holes
and you know, they jump right in and the Philistines fled.
Even they also followed hard after them in the battle.
Verse 23, so the Lord saved Israel that day and the battle passed over unto Beth Avon.
And the men of Israel, verse 24, were distressed that day.
For Saul had adjured the people saying, cursed be the man that eateth any food until evening,
that I may be avenged of mine enemies.
So none of the people tasted any food.
And all day of the land came to a wood and there was honey upon the ground.
And when the people were coming to the wood, behold, the honey dropped.
But no man put his hand to his mouth for the people feared the oath.
But Jonathan heard not when his father charged the people with the oath.
Therefore he 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 and his eyes were enlightened.
Now what does it mean his eyes were enlightened?
Well, you know, what I think that means is that I've noticed that when I don't eat right
or if I don't drink enough water, I've noticed that you'll start to see blurry and, you know,
being dehydrated or being malnourished, you'll begin to get blurred vision because you're,
you're, you're faint.
And especially these guys are doing a lot of physical activity.
I mean, they're marching and they're chasing after an enemy.
They're fighting.
And so they're using a lot of energy and they're not eating anything.
They're getting faint.
And that's why the Bible says that the men of Israel were distressed that day.
I mean, they're miserable.
They're fighting hard.
They're pursuing the enemy and they're not eating anything.
And so they're, they're worn out.
Jonathan ate a little bit of honey and his eyes were enlightened because honey is very
good for you.
And so that gave them some nutrition and helped them out.
Now here's the thing.
When you're reading the Bible, and it's really important when you're reading this chapter
or when you're reading any chapter of the Bible, an important principle of studying
the Bible is to know that not everything that people in the Bible did is always right.
And when you read stories in the Bible, you're going to read about people doing good things
and you're going to read about people doing bad things.
Now, God doesn't always spell out to us, hey, this is the one who's doing right here.
This is the one who's doing wrong.
He doesn't always give a commentary.
A lot of times it's good in the New Testament, he'll tell, he'll go back and talk about stories
in the Old Testament and kind of tell you who was right and who was wrong.
Now sometimes it's obvious.
But the key is that when you're reading Bible stories in the Old Testament, you have to
use the clear statements of the Bible, you have to use the clear statements of the New
Testament, the clear statements of the Old Testament in order to interpret the story.
You might read about somebody doing something and a lot of people will just take that as,
see, that's the right thing to do.
So and so did it.
Well, just because so and so did it doesn't make it right.
People in the Bible have multiple wives.
That doesn't make it right because you take a clear statement in the Bible where Jesus
talked about marriage and said that a man cleaves unto his wife and they too shall be
one flesh, what therefore God has joined together and another man put asunder.
You use that clear statement to interpret the Old Testament story and you can say, well,
this guy was sinning by marrying a second wife because it says in Deuteronomy not to
multiply wives and so forth.
And so we look at the statements in the Bible and we always use the statement to interpret
the story.
And where a lot of false doctrine comes from is where people just take a story and they
base their doctrine on that story even though it contradicts a statement somewhere else.
You know, you got statements about marriage but then the, well, see, this guy did this
so therefore, like here's another perfect example.
They'll take that story in Genesis chapter six about the sons of God and the daughters
of men.
You know, and it's basically it's a story that people will make up a whole nother story
about it and say that the sons of God are angels.
Now, we have a clear statement in Hebrews chapter one saying that the sons of God are
not angels and that no angel has ever at any time been called God's son.
Okay, so real clear that the angels are not the sons of God and we also have lots of clear
statements saying that those who believe in Jesus Christ are the sons of God but as many
as received him to them gave he power to become the sons of God even to them that believe
on his name.
Yet people will take a story in Genesis six and just interpret it how they want to interpret
it and say, well, I think this is talking about the angels and then they come up with
this warped doctrine and I've preached on another sermon, I'm not going to go into it
now for the sake of time, disproving the bizarre doctrines of Mormonism and occultism and paganism
that are taught in Baptist churches out of Genesis chapter six about angels fornicating
with humans.
This bizarre science fiction stuff that is not biblical, it's all based on a story because
if you ask the proponents of this doctrine, show me a clear statement in the Bible that
says that the angels are the sons of God.
Show me a clear statement where any demon is called the son of God.
Hey, the devil is not the son of God.
What kind of a doctrine do you believe in where you're going to say that Satan is a
son of God?
No, Jesus Christ is the son of God.
Not Satan, not a devil.
And the Mormons believe that Jesus and Satan are brothers, but a lot of Baptists believe
the same thing where they say, well, the sons of God is referring to fallen angels or demons
in Genesis six.
How can you say that the sons of God is referring to demons?
Behold what manner of love the father has bestowed upon us that we'd be called the same
thing as a demon?
The sons of God?
It's nonsense.
We are God's children.
And the reason that we're the sons of God is because we're in Christ.
It's because we've been born again by the blood of Jesus Christ.
He's the only begotten son of God.
We are basically also brought in as the sons of God through Christ.
That's how we become the sons of God.
Behold what manner of love the father had bestowed upon us that we should be called
the sons of God.
Beloved, now are we the sons of God, the Bible says.
But that's not an angel.
Angels are not joint heirs with Jesus Christ.
We are.
And so you get false doctrine from a story, not from a statement.
Nobody ever has a clear statement.
Or they'll take a parable, you know, and take that parable and get all their doctrine
from a parable.
Well see, in this parable, they were called to the wedding at this time.
And you know, if you think about it, when the Jews have weddings, it's a seven day wedding
feast.
And so that proves when the rapture is going to happen.
No.
Go by clear statements in the Bible.
Don't take a story and use a story to contradict a statement, okay?
And so we'll see people do things.
And here's a perfect example, and I'll get back to the story in just a second.
Go to Luke chapter 2.
Keep your finger here in 1 Samuel 14.
I'm going to give you a perfect example of going with the statement versus the story,
okay?
Because when the Bible makes a statement, we know it's true.
We know it's right.
We know God can't lie.
We know that everything God says is right.
But when we see a story in the Bible about what man did, we have to ask ourselves, was
man doing right here?
And everything that people in the Bible said wasn't always right, okay?
For example, Mary.
In Luke chapter 2, Mary said something that's false, okay?
Now, the Bible doesn't make mistakes.
God doesn't make mistakes.
Mary, she can make a mistake.
King Saul, he made a lot of mistakes.
King David made a lot of mistakes.
So you've got to be able to separate the story from the statement.
Look at Luke chapter 2.
I'll show you what I mean.
Luke chapter 2.33, the Bible reads, and this is talking about Jesus, and Joseph and his
mother marveled at those things which were spoken of him.
Now this is God speaking.
This is the narrator of the book of Luke, the Holy Ghost, saying that Joseph and his
mother marveled at those things which were spoken of him.
So notice, it's not saying that Joseph is Jesus' father.
It's saying Joseph and his mother.
Now if you have a false Bible in your lap, it'll say his father and mother.
It'll call Joseph Jesus' father.
Well guess what?
He's not Jesus' father.
Jesus is the son of God, not the son of Joseph.
Joseph was just a man.
But look a little bit further in the passage, and you'll see Mary speaking, because I've
shown this to a lot of people who have a false Bible, like an NIV or something, and I'll
show them that and say, look, the NIV is calling Joseph Jesus' father.
And I've had some of them retort, and they came back and said, well, you know, you're
wrong because if you go down just a few verses, the Bible calls Joseph Jesus' father.
Well, but here's the thing.
The Bible does not call Joseph Jesus' father.
Let me find my place here.
It's verse number, you got it in verse 48?
Yeah, verse 48.
This isn't the Bible.
Keep in mind here.
This isn't the Bible calling Joseph Jesus' father.
It says in verse 48, and when they saw him, they were amazed, and his mother said unto
him, so this is Mary talking, not God talking, Mary talking, son, why hast thou thus dealt
with us?
Behold, thy father and I have sought thee sorrowing.
Who's she talking about when she says thy father?
She's talking about Joseph.
That is not right.
Jesus corrects her in the next verse.
Look at the next verse.
And he said unto them, how is it that you saw me?
He's saying, you know, that's a rebuke.
How is it that you saw me?
Wish thee not, which means don't you know that I must be about my father's business.
So is he acknowledging Joseph as his father?
No.
Because she said, well, your father and I have been looking for you.
He said, what?
My father and I have been looking for me?
I'm about my father's business right now.
Don't you know that?
And so he did not acknowledge that Joseph as his father.
So you know, you can't take something that Mary said and say, well, this is just infallible.
No because human beings speak in the Bible and what they say is not always infallible.
Whenever the narrator is speaking, it's infallible.
It's God's word.
When you're reading the book of Psalms, it's all 100% every word God's word.
When you're reading the book of Colossians, Ephesians, it's all God's word.
When you're reading books that have stories in them like Matthew, Mark, Luke, it's all
correct because the Bible is telling the truth that that's what Mary said, but what Mary
said wasn't correct and that's why Jesus rebuked her in the next verse.
For example, when you're reading the book of Job, go back to 1 Samuel 14, but when you're
reading the book of Job, there are whole chapters where Job's friends are speaking and at the
end of the book, God says that everything that Job's friends said was wrong.
Well, I've heard people get up and preach and quote Job's friends.
See, the Bible says, but wait a minute, the Bible didn't say that.
The Bible is just telling you that that's what they said and then God and Job correct
them and straighten them out on it.
I mean the Bible quotes Satan and the Bible says there's no truth in him.
He's a liar and the father of it and so the Bible quotes Satan.
So when you're reading the Bible, just because someone said something or someone did something,
that doesn't make right.
You go by what God says and the statements of the Bible.
Now in 1 Samuel 14, we have a really interesting story here that's a little bit tough to interpret.
It's a little tough to see what's going on here and let me just break it down to you
and then I'll show you the interpretation thereof.
See, Saul makes this curse, okay, and he curses the people that would eat on that day.
So you have to ask yourself, should he have done that?
Should he have not done that?
Was what he did a sin?
Was it not a sin?
You see what I mean about interpreting the story?
You got to use other statements in the Bible to help you interpret this.
Saul basically said, cursed be the man that eateth any food until evening that I may be
avenged of mine enemies so none of the people tasted any food.
So he placed this curse on anyone who would eat food.
Now the people, they fear the oath.
They did the right thing by obeying King Saul.
I mean if King Saul is the leader and he's the boss and he's ordained by God and he says,
hey, we're going to fast today.
We're going to go one day here where we're not going to eat any food and in fact anybody
who does eat is going to be cursed.
Well they respected that and they did the right thing, right?
Jonathan wasn't even there to hear the oath.
So he has no idea what's going on.
So when everybody else is passing up all the honey, he says, man, what are you guys doing?
He grabs a stick, shoves it into the honey, starts eating the honey and then somebody
pipes up in verse 28.
Look at verse 28.
Then answered one of the people and said, thy father straightly charged the people with
an oath saying, cursed be the man that eateth any food this day and the people were faint.
It's like now you tell me, where were you about five minutes ago?
Oh, whoops, by the way, you're not supposed to be eating that.
So you have to ask yourself, was Jonathan committing sin here?
Was he doing wrong when he didn't even know the oath?
He had no clue.
I mean, why wouldn't he reach down and eat honey if he's hungry and he's in battle and
stuff?
He had no clue.
But now he's in this position where now he's basically broken the commandment of his father
without knowing about it.
Now he's under this curse supposedly.
So here you can sympathize with Jonathan and you're looking at it like, well, why did Saul
do that?
And wait a minute, has Jonathan really done anything wrong here he didn't even know?
But now look at the next verse though.
It says in the next verse, then said Jonathan, my father had troubled the land.
So Jonathan's basically just mad.
So he just starts just blowing off his mouth now.
My father had troubled the land.
See I pray you how mine eyes have been enlightened because I tasted a little of this honey.
How much more if happily the people had eaten freely today of the spoil of their enemies
which they had found.
For had there not been now a much greater slaughter among the Philistines?
So he begins to just rip on his father.
And that was the wrong thing to do.
You know, at first, okay, Jonathan made an honest mistake.
But then when he finds out that he's done something wrong, he just gets angry and just
starts yelling about, well, my dad is just, you know, that was stupid.
And with things would have gone so much better if people would have been allowed to eat now.
With things have gone better.
They were winning.
They totally defeated the enemy.
How could it have been any better?
It was a complete victory.
It was a complete win.
Okay.
Maybe God was blessing the fact that they were fasting.
I mean, the Bible does talk about prayer and fasting.
Okay.
So you see what I mean about there's a lot of different things at work in the story.
Then you notice that he says, yeah, the people should have just eaten freely of the spoil.
Well, here's what happens next.
It says in verse 31, and they smote the Philistines that day from Micmash to Eijalon and the people
were very faint.
Look what happens in verse 32.
And this has to be a result of what Jonathan was saying in verse 30.
So Jonathan started blowing off his mouth and ripping on King Saul.
Now look what happens in verse 32.
And the people flew upon the spoil and took sheep and oxen and calves and slew them on
the ground and look what they did.
And the people that eat them with the blood.
Now we know that that is a sin.
That is wrong.
The Bible very clearly commanded in the Old and New Testament not to eat blood, never
to eat blood.
So these people have taken what Jonathan said to the next level.
Yeah, let's just eat freely of the spoil.
And they start just eating the meat with the blood.
Just flying upon the spoil and now they're definitely committing sin against God.
So Jonathan by blowing off his mouth has caused the whole nation to begin to sin or at least
a large group of people.
Verse 33, then they told Saul saying, behold, the people sin against the Lord and that they
eat with the blood.
And he said, ye have transgressed, roll a great stone unto me this day.
And Saul said, disperse yourselves among the people and say unto them, bring me hither
every man his ox and every man his sheep and slay them here.
And sin not against the Lord and eating with the blood.
And all the people brought every man his ox with him that night and slew them there.
And Saul built an altar unto the Lord.
The same was the first altar that he built unto the Lord.
And Saul said, let us go down after the Philistines by night and spoil them until the morning
light and let us not leave a man of them.
And they said, do whatsoever seemeth good unto thee.
Then said the priest, let us draw near hither unto God.
So finally Saul, he hears about how they're eating with the blood and he preaches to them
how they're doing wrong, they're sinning against God.
They need to sacrifice these animals and kill them properly and get rid of the blood and
then they can eat.
And so he builds this altar and he does it the right way.
Now that night, Saul's idea is, hey, let's go down and do a night attack on the Philistines
and let's just, let's just destroy them.
Let's not even leave a man of them.
All the people are for this idea, but they say, first, Saul said, first, let's ask counsel
of God.
First, let's pray and speak with God and go to the priest and see whether this is a good
idea.
And it says in verse 37, and Saul asked counsel of God, shall I go down after the Philistines?
Wilt thou deliver them into the hand of Israel?
But he answered him not that day.
So Saul wants to go defeat the enemy, the final crowning blow, and he's not getting
any answer from God.
He knows something's wrong.
It says in verse 38, and Saul said, draw ye near hither all the chief of the people and
know and see where in this sin hath been this day.
For as the Lord liveth, which saveth Israel, though it be in Jonathan my son, he shall
surely die.
But there was not a man among all the people that answered him.
Now the people know what Jonathan did, but they don't tell Saul.
Saul says, even if it's Jonathan, my son, whoever is causing this is going to be put
to death.
Now you say, what's God's opinion of all this?
Well, we're going to see a little bit of God's opinion in a moment here, because remember,
they want to draw near and see where in this sin hath been this day.
Verse 40, then said he unto all Israel, be ye on one side, and I and Jonathan my son
will be on the other side.
And the people said unto Saul, do what seemeth good unto thee.
Therefore Saul said unto the Lord God of Israel, give a perfect lot.
And Saul and Jonathan were taken, but the people escaped.
Basically this is like a drawing of straws, casting lots, just a random thing, but because
they're praying and asking God to direct the whole thing, the Bible says that the lot falleth
into the lap, but the whole disposing thereof is of the Lord.
Therefore Saul said unto the Lord God of Israel, give a perfect lot, and Saul and Jonathan
were taken, but the people escaped.
Then Saul said, cast lots between me and Jonathan my son, and Jonathan was taken.
Then Saul said to Jonathan, tell me what thou hast done.
And Jonathan told him and said, I did but taste a little honey with the end of the rod
that was in mine hand, and lo I must die.
And Saul answered, God do so and more also, for thou shalt surely die, Jonathan.
So now we see a little bit of God's opinion here, do we not?
Because God basically is not blessing King Saul, and not answering King Saul, and not
going to bless the army of Israel on that day, and who is the sin with?
Jonathan, according to God, who was controlling the outcome of the lots that were being cast.
So therefore Jonathan was in sin, according to God.
So we have to ask ourselves here, you know, was Saul right?
Was he just squeaky clean and all this, and everything he did was right?
Now go to Ecclesiastes chapter 5 if you would, keep your finger in 1 Samuel 14, because you
see there are some things that are sins, and then there are some things that are not necessarily
a sin, but that doesn't mean that they're a smart thing to do.
For example, Paul said all things are lawful unto me, but all things are not expedient.
He's saying just because I'm allowed to do something, doesn't mean that it's helping
me achieve my goal, or helping me grow as a Christian.
He said all things are lawful for me, but I will not be brought under the power of any.
Now in this chapter, based on what we read everywhere else in the Bible, did Saul commit
sin by commanding the people to fast and cursing anyone who would eat on that day?
Is that a sin?
Was he violating God's law by doing that?
No.
Saul had not sinned.
Okay.
Was Jonathan sinning when he ate the honey and he didn't even know about the oath?
He hadn't even heard of it.
No.
But was Jonathan sinning when he starts blowing off his mouth, rebuking his own dad, rebuking
the king, and criticizing the king unto the people, and criticizing his own dad unto the
people, just because he was guilty of something that he didn't mean to do, it was an accident,
but he blew off his mouth.
And then he caused the people to eat meat with blood, which is definitely a sin.
And so God looked down and saw a sin with Jonathan, not with Saul.
But does that mean that it was smart, necessarily, for Saul to curse the people, and especially
the second thing that he said?
Because he had said, you know, curses be he that eateth any food today.
That's one thing.
But then he takes it a step further and says, well, whoever has sinned here is going to
be put to death, and he made an oath and said that, you know, the Lord do so and more
also, you know, if he lives, who has done this?
So now he's making an oath swearing to kill the perpetrator.
So basically this is going to involve killing his own son.
Now was it a sin?
No.
But it was a very stupid thing to do, to just say, well, whoever it is, even if it's my
son Jonathan, because he didn't think it was his son Jonathan, so he just said, well, he
said, even if it's my son Jonathan, he's going to be put to death.
And well, guess what?
It is your son Jonathan.
Now look at Ecclesiastes chapter five, verse four.
When thou vowest to vow unto God, defer not to pay it, for he hath no pleasure in fools.
Pay that which thou has vowed.
Better is it that thou shouldest not vow than that thou shouldest vow and not pay.
So the Bible's telling us here that if we make a vow to God, we have to keep that vow.
And God calls you a fool if you don't keep the vow that you've made.
And he says it's better to just not even make a vow.
Nobody's forcing you to make all these vows.
And so you're smarter to not make a vow if you're not sure you're going to be able to
keep that vow, because it's better to just not make a vow than to make a vow and to not
keep it.
And so basically, King Saul has made this foolish vow.
Now it reminds me of what Jephthah did in Judges chapter 11.
Jephthah made a vow that he's going to kill the first thing that comes out of his yard
because he had all these animals and flocks and he'd kill it and offer it as a burnt sacrifice.
His daughter comes out.
That was a stupid vow to make.
And now he's put himself in a really bad position.
Now a lot of people have asked, what was the right thing for Jephthah to do?
Does he keep his vow and kill his daughter?
Or does he break his vow and not kill his daughter?
But see, when you do stupid things, sometimes you can put yourself in a position where no
matter what you do, you're sinning.
Because if you commit murder, if you kill an innocent person, you're sinning.
And if you break your vow, you're sinning.
And they're both really bad sins.
And so if you do foolish things, you can put yourself in a position where no matter what
you do, you're doing wrong.
But you're the one who put yourself in that position.
Okay.
Now God's very serious about keeping vows here.
Saul has made a vow that he's going to execute the one who has caused God to be displeased
with them.
And God has said that it's Jonathan that he's displeased with.
God was displeased with Jonathan in this story.
Probably because of all the stuff he said that was wrong.
And so Saul has to keep that vow now.
He's got to put him to death for breaking the commandment, for eating a little bit of
honey on the end of his stick because he made that foolish oath.
And so you ought to be very careful before you just make promises and make vows and make
oaths.
And a lot of people today are very flippant about making promises and making oaths and
making vows.
Boy, you better keep a vow if you make a vow.
And you know, what's probably the most common vow that people make today?
What do you think of when you think of vows?
Marriage.
Right.
That's a vow.
That's an oath.
And that's an oath that God expects us to keep.
Now a lot of people will think that it's okay and they'll teach that it's okay to break
that vow.
And the world will definitely tell you that it's okay to break that vow.
Now does God ever say that it's okay anywhere in the whole Bible that it's okay to break
a vow that you've made?
No.
He says, if you made a vow, you better pay that vow.
And he said, it's just better to just not even make a vow unless you're going to keep
that vow.
And he says, when you've made a vow, you better pay it.
Go to Psalm 15.
I'm almost done tonight but I'm just, I hope I'm not going too deep here into this story
but I'm trying to really just, you know, thresh out this story because it's just, it's kind
of a complicated story going on here.
Because there's a couple people doing some stupid things and just causing a lot of confusion.
So we have to use the rest of the Bible to figure this out.
Look at Psalm 15.
Lord, who shall abide in thy tabernacle?
Who shall dwell in thy holy hill?
And these are listing things that we should be doing.
These are good things where God's going to bless us and we'll abide in his tabernacle
and we'll dwell in his holy hill.
Verse 2, he that walketh uprightly and worketh righteousness and speaketh the truth in his
heart.
He that backbiteth not with his tongue, nor doeth evil to his neighbor, nor taketh up
or approach against his neighbor, and whose eyes a vile person is contempt or hated.
Contempt?
You know the word contempt?
Like contempt means hatred or disgust.
And so the Bible says in whose eyes a vile person is contempt.
You know, you don't delight in vile people, you actually have contempt for them.
You know, disgusting people.
And it's talking about these, you know, these bunch of weirdos, you know, these bunch of
sodomites and perverts or whatever.
You know, vile affections of vile people, we should condemn them and not delight in
them.
It says, but he honoureth them that fear the Lord.
He that sweareth, this is the part I had you turn here for, he that sweareth to his own
hurt and changeth not.
Did you get that?
And it says, he that putteth not out his money to usury, nor taketh reward against the innocent.
He that doeth these things shall never be moved.
So if you want to be a person that's steadfast and unmovable and always abounding in the
work of the Lord, you're the type of person who swears to his own hurt and changes not.
Now this happens in business all the time.
People will sign a contract, they're going to do something, they're going to build something,
and they give a price.
And then it turns out the job is harder than they thought.
And then they end up losing money on the job because it actually costs them more to do
the job.
And they end up losing money, not making a profit.
That happens all the time in business.
I've lost money on jobs.
You know, other times you make money, you know, it balances out.
But you see, when you make that contract in business, let's say I say, hey, I'm going
to put in this fire alarm system for $20,000 and it costs me $21,000 to put it in, so I
did all that work so I could lose $1,000.
But you know what?
I'm held to that contract.
And I can't go to the judge or go to the customer or go to anybody and say, but you don't understand,
you know?
It cost me more than I thought.
They're going to say, sorry, you signed on that dotted line, you made a contract.
Let's say you bought a house for so much and then the housing market crashes and then it's
like, oh, it changed my mind, you know?
It's kind of like, you know, but is that going to get you?
And I know that there are ways to get out of it and everything and sometimes there are
ways where they ripped you off and whatever.
I'm not trying to delve too deeply into that tonight.
But what I'm saying is a lot of times you sign on the dotted line and it ends up hurting
you.
Right?
Or let's say you make a vow to get married, you know, and you swear an oath that says,
you know, I take thee so and so to be my wedded wife to have and to hold from this day forward
for better for worse, for richer for poorer, and sick to send in health and poverty isn't
wealth and forsaking all of us, keep me only unto her so long as we both shall live.
And you promise that, you know, that might hurt later.
You know what I mean?
Depending on who you married.
Now look, God doesn't tell you who to marry, he just tells you to marry a believer and
so forth.
But, you know, some people marry an unbeliever or some people marry a believer but they marry,
you know, somebody who's not wanting to live for God or whatever and, you know, people
change and so forth.
The bottom line is when you make that vow, you got to pay that vow, whether it hurts
or not, for better or for worse.
And when you make that vow, that's why that's in the vow, by the way, for better or for
worse because sometimes it can be worse.
Sometimes it's poorer, sometimes it's sickness, sometimes it's worse.
God expects you to keep that vow.
Now this is what the disciples said when Jesus told them because they asked him, you know,
the Pharisees asked him, can a man put away his wife for every cause?
You know, hey, can we just get a divorce for whatever reason?
He explained to them, no, you can't get a divorce.
And the Bible says in Malachi that God hates putting away.
He hates divorce and that if you put away your wife and marry another, you're committing
adultery and whosoever marrieth her that is put away, committed adultery.
So when he said that, this is what his disciples said, well, if the case of the man be so with
his wife, then it's not good to marry.
They said, well, if I'm going to be stuck with her for the rest of my life, you know,
maybe I just won't even get married.
And Jesus said, all men cannot receive this saying, save those to whom it is given.
He said, you look, hey, that's why some people can't handle this kind of preaching.
That's what Jesus said.
Not everybody can handle what I just said to you and people, you know, I've seen people
quit the church because they can't handle what he just said.
And that exact preaching has caused people not to handle this church.
But the bottom line is that you can't justify breaking a vow.
When you read about Jephthah, when you read about all these other people who made vows
to God and they kept their vow, you can't sit there and say, well, I know I swore to
be with this person until death, but I didn't know that they were going to be a drunk.
I didn't know that they were going to commit adultery.
I didn't know that they were going to slap me in the face or throw a raw hot dog at me.
You know, I didn't know, you know, which, which, yeah, you know, that's abuse, right?
I guess I shouldn't say things like that without explaining them.
The reason I say that is because about a month ago I was preaching about this woman
who literally, her husband called the cops on her because she threw a raw hot dog at
him and he called the police and said that she had assaulted him and she had to spend
the night in jail and she didn't even hit him with the raw hot dog.
And I said that if I'm going to throw a raw hot dog at my wife, I'm going to cook it first,
you know?
But anyway, the bottom line is that, you know, people make excuses whether it be, you know,
he brushed up against me wrong and that's abuse and he hit me with a pillow and that
was abusive and he, he, he, he yelled at me, saw I was verbally abused or he got drunk,
you know?
Okay, so what?
And what part of that, okay, and by the way, maybe we just need to have new wedding vows
then that say, you know, I take thee to be my wedding wife unless you get drunk, unless
you commit adultery, unless you throw a raw hot dog at me, unless you push and shove me,
unless you slap me in the face, you know, unless you spend too much time with your friends,
you know, unless you look at pornography, unless you, you know, take up smoking, you
know, unless you do this, I mean, what is, what is marriage even going to mean anymore?
Because if I want to find something wrong with my wife, you know, I'm going to find
something wrong with me and then I'm going to say, well, you know, this is grounds for
divorce and you know, if my wife wants to find something wrong with me, she's going
to have a hard time, no, she'll find it, she'll find it and people who want to get a divorce,
I've seen it my whole life, these churches that act like it's okay to get a divorce and
they don't have respect for vows, I've seen it over and over again where they'll say this,
well, he is, you know, they'll take a birth, they'll twist a birth from verse Corinthians
seven and say, well, you know, he, he has already departed from you emotionally, which
I don't believe that that's, I don't believe there's any grounds for divorce except death,
you know, and that's not divorce, that's death, death is when my marriage will end, either
my death or her death, one of us is going to die, then it's over, okay, but anyway,
they'll take this, they'll take this stuff and they'll say, this is, and let me give
you the biggest nonsense of all, they'll say, well, you know, the Bible says you can get
a divorce for adultery, which the Bible never says, by the way, which it never says anywhere,
but they'll, they'll, they believe that, so they'll say that, you know, if you're reading
a false Bible version, it might say that like the NIV or something, but in the King James
version, it doesn't say that anywhere, and so they'll say, well, in fact, it does say
that in the NIV now that I think about it, but that's another sermon, they'll say, well,
you know, adultery is grounds for divorce and the Bible says that if you look on a woman
to lust after her, that you've committed adultery in your heart, so over the last 30 years of
marriage, has your husband ever lusted after another woman in his heart ever at all, has
he ever looked at another woman, ah, that's grounds for divorce. Well, if that were the
case, then virtually every, you know, every wife could divorce her husband at any time,
pretty much, because, and I'm not condoning of sin, but let's face it, no man is perfect
and I guarantee you that the vast majority of men have thought a bad thought in the decades
that they've been married. Does that mean that it's, does that mean we should stone
them to death and that, you know, it's grounds for, it's nonsense, my friend. Yes, it's a
sin to lust. Yes, it's a wicked sin. Yes, it's committing adultery in your heart, but
it's not the same as committing real adultery, not that that's even grounds for divorce,
but what I'm trying to prove to you is that if you start making exceptions to the vow
and saying, well, these are the reasons why you're allowed to get a divorce, let me tell
you something, you can put the shoe on anybody you want because any woman can just say, well,
my husband looked at something that was, that was indecent, you know, he looked at
a man and look, I'm not condoning of sin and look, not every husband is a good godly Christian
husband. Are you listening to me? I'm not just preaching to the most righteous people
in the world right now. I'm preaching to everybody and you know, a godly righteous man, he doesn't
even watch TV because TV is filled with indecent images of scantily clad women and I don't
own a TV and I don't want to own a TV and I don't ever watch TV because of all the wicked
images on there, okay? Hey, I don't have a bunch of swimsuit magazines. I don't have
a bunch of dirty posters on the wall. I don't have a bunch of DVDs and filth, but let me
tell you something, that doesn't mean that if you're married to a backslidden guy, maybe
you're married to a backslidden saved person or maybe you're married to an unsaved person
and that unsaved guy's got beer in the fridge and he's got a dirty magazine in the garage
and he's got pot in the glove box, you know what? You vow to be married to him and you
be faithful to him until death. That's what I'm saying tonight and don't sit there and
say, well, oh, but he's, he's breaking the law. Oh man, how many times have I seen this
in churches? Because churches that condone divorce, man, it's like a divorce fest. I
mean, I went to an independent fundamental Baptist church, seemed like somebody was getting
divorced there every six months. I mean, it's like a divorce fest. Oh, he's smoking pot.
It's against the law. Oh, you need to leave your husband right now. You need to go get
your own apartment right now. It's garbage. And you're like, you say, oh man, you know,
you're crazy. No, I'm biblical. The Bible says not to break a vow. The Bible says marriage
is until death. The Bible says that with your husband is dead, then you're loose from the
law of your husband. Read Romans chapter seven and it says if your husband's still alive
and you're married to another man, that's adultery. Now you say, well pastor Harrison,
I've already made that mistake in the past. Hey, I'm not beating up on you if you made
that mistake in the past. The Bible says forbid forgetting those things which are behind and
reaching forth under those things which are before. Don't beat yourself up about the past.
You know, if you're on your fifth husband tonight as the woman at the well had been
married five times, you know, if you're on your, if you're on your fifth husband tonight
or if you're on your fourth wife tonight, let me tell you something. You know, you can't
change the past. Just confess it as a sin to God and hopefully you probably already
have and move on. Live your life and whoever you're married to this time, Elizabeth Taylor,
you know, if you're on your seventh or eighth or ninth, hey, keep that vow and just because
you broke the other five vowels, you can still keep this vow. Stay true to the current vow.
And I've heard other people preach false doctrine, divorce your wife and go back to old. That's
a lie out of hell. The Bible says that's an abomination. Once you've divorced someone
and married someone else to go back to the original spouse, the Bible calls that an abomination.
So if you've been divorced and you're remarried now, and by the way, you know, my parents
are divorced and remarried, so I'm not just, it's not that I'm just ripping on or hateful
toward people. I love my parents. I don't approve of what they've done, but my parents
are divorced and they're both remarried. I'm not going to stand up here and condone it
because it's my parents, but I'm just saying that to prove I love my parents. So I'm not
angry or hateful toward those who've committed this sin. I'm preaching this more to the young
people who haven't made this mistake because they need to hear this kind of preaching so
that when they get married, they'll think about it before they just jump into something
that they're not ready for the long haul. You know, just jump into a decision, make
a vow and they're not in it for life. And when I married my wife, I told my wife, I
said, look, this is for life. You know, it doesn't matter what happens. There is no way
out. You know, there is no escape. You are trapped. You will die or I will die. That's
the only way this is going to end. Isn't that romantic? I said that all on one knee with
the ring in my hand. No, but I did. I made that really clear. And you know what? Don't
marry somebody who doesn't feel that way. Are you listening? If you, whether you're
a man or a woman, you better marry somebody that feels the same way. And I did some serious
soul searching before I got married. And I'm, I'm standing here. I'm telling you the truth.
I was a young man when I got married. I was only 19 and when I was 19 years old, I got
along with God and I had thought this through. I had studied my Bible. I had read my Bible
and I told God, I said, God, I said, if for whatever reason my wife ever leaves me, I
will remain unmarried until death of either her or me. I will not get a divorce and I
will not get remarried and I will just live with the consequences of my actions. And I
told that to God and I made that decision. Now, yeah, it's easy to say hard to live,
but yet it's what God commands. It's what God expects. The Bible says, let not the wife
depart from her husband, but, and if she depart, it says, let her remain unmarried or let her
be reconciled to her husband. But if your spouse divorces you and then marry someone
else, well guess what? You're done. You know, and that's why you ought to take these decisions
really seriously. And, and, and this is a message not, and whenever I'm preaching on
sin, I'm never ripping on those who've done it. I'm trying to warn those who haven't made
the mistake yet. You know, because the reason that most pastors won't preach this message
is because basically they'll say, well, you know, I don't want to hurt people's feelings.
Well, any, any sin I preach on somebody's guilty of it. And if I, if I'm going to let
that stop me, then I'm never going to preach on anything. And so I've got to preach on
it anyway. And I'm off on a rabbit trail. I don't want to spend my whole night on that,
but take marriage seriously. Young people, our society doesn't, our world does it. God
does take it seriously. So better to not make a vow. Saul, Saul made a big mistake by making
this vow. Now what happened? Let's hurry up and finish. I'm a little over time. Saul basically
says in verse 44 that, you know, he makes another vow. Basically he makes another oath
that, you know, he's going to be surely put to death. And the people, now the people step
in, thank God. Because let me ask you this, according to the rest of the Bible, does Jonathan
deserve to die for the sin that he's committed? No, I don't believe so. Now Jonathan, had
Jonathan sinned? Yeah. God said that Jonathan sinned. I don't believe that that sin was
eating the honey. I believe that that sin was the stuff that he went on to say and his
rebellion after that. Okay. But was Jonathan worthy of death for what he had done? I don't
believe he was worthy of death. And so thankfully the people step in. Saul has made a vow to
put him to death, but the people haven't made that vow. So the people step in and basically
put themselves between Saul and Jonathan and stop him from putting his son to death. And
the people said unto Saul, shall Jonathan die? Who has 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 has wrought with God this day. So the people rescued Jonathan that
he died not. Then Saul went up from following the Philistines and the Philistines went to
their own place. Verse 46 tells us that this whole debacle, it ruined the plan of defeating
the Philistines because remember Saul was going to go by night and totally defeat him?
Now they can't do it because Saul knew that God wasn't blessing him. Saul knew that God
wasn't going to bless. And so basically they have to quit the whole mission. They don't
end up defeating the Philistines and they have to go home and it kind of the whole thing
just kind of ends in a draw in a way. A little bit less of a victory. Now this is a great
example of the people rescuing Jonathan out of the hands of Saul. We could apply this
to Saul is basically an abusive government here who wants to put somebody to death who
doesn't deserve to be put to death. Somebody who is innocent. The people stepped in and
protected him and rallied around him. And you know I would hope that when we see people
that are wrongfully imprisoned or wrongfully put to death we should rally around those
people and try to protect them like the people did here. That's a good example right there.
And not just see ya. And you know throughout history you say abusive government what are
you talking about? What's that? Well you know read about the Soviet Union. You know where
people are just disappearing every day and they are being put to death and they are being
tortured in camps and you know Nazi Germany. People are disappearing and they are being
put on train cars and everything like that because everybody just let it happen. You
know when people should have done like these people did and basically protected those people
and when the government came for them they should have just formed a wall around them
and said no you are not going to take them. You are not going to get them. And our government
is going the way of the Soviet Union my friend. And if you can't see that then open your eyes.
But it says in verse 47 so Saul took the kingdom over Israel and fought against all his enemies
on every side against Moab and against the children of Ammon and against Edom and against
the kings of Soba and against the Philistines and whithersoever he turned himself he vexed
them. So Saul is still being blessed by God. He is still winning battles. It was just that
day because of the curse and because of the oath God was not pleased. But he still goes
on and he is still having success in verse 47. And it says he gathered and hosts verse
48 and smote the Amalekites and delivered Israel out of the hand of them that spoiled
them. And then it just gives us a run down of Saul's sons, his wife, his captain of his
host and then it says in verse 52 there was sore war against the Philistines all the days
of Saul. And when Saul saw any strong man or any valiant man he took him unto him. And
you can take more time with this chapter on your own and really delve into it and study
it but let me just summarize it this way. Saul didn't really commit any sins in the
chapter that we can really point to where we can say hey you violated God's law. Because
let's face it a sin according to the Bible what's the definition of sin? Sin is the transgression
of the law. So unless God's law says do this or don't do that you can't call something
a sin. But is everything that's not a sin a good idea? No. So Saul didn't sin but he
was doing a lot of dumb things by making all these stupid vows one after the other and
causing God to be displeased. God wouldn't have been displeased if he hadn't made the
vow in the first place. He made too many vows. Jonathan did sin by mouthing off even if you
know what and children you know your dad might make a mistake it doesn't give you the right
to just mouth off and bad mouth them and tell everybody it's okay to disobey dad because
he's stupid and that's what he was basically doing. God wasn't pleased. There are a lot
of things that are not sins. For example is there a verse in the Bible that says thou
shalt not play video games? Is there a verse like that in the Bible? No. But what if you
knew somebody and that's just what they do. They just get off work and they just play
video games and they play video games for hours and then they go to bed and then they
go to work and then they come home and play video games till late at night every night
and they think video games are really cool. Okay look that's not a sin per se to play
a video game but when it begins to take you away from a lot of other things and come on
you're not a child become an adult okay and there are other things in life that you could
be doing with your life you could be reading your Bible you could be spending time with
your family you could be going soul winning you could be working you could be talking
to human beings instead of just chatting with your friend in Korea who you're playing video
games with you know on a headset you know you could actually interact with humans you
could actually talk to living flesh and blood people instead of just living on a computer
you know so what I'm saying is even though it's not a sin is it expedient is it good
for you I mean look can I really say hey it's a sin for you to go eat at McDonald's
after the service but it's not expedient for you you know it's bad for you so what I'm
saying is don't always live your life just well is it a sin okay great if it's not a
sin let's just do it every day not stop you know there's some things that are just dumb
things to do even if they're not a sin and then the last thing I want you to take from
the chapter is just say be careful about making vows don't make promises that you can't keep
not just marriage there are a lot of other promises that people make if you make a promise
be sure that you can keep that promise and don't break a vow and if you're married you
know even if it's your second spouse or your third spouse or fourth you know you need to
keep the vow to the one you're married to this time okay don't make that mistake again
and if you're not married realize that when you choose your spouse you're picking somebody
that you're gonna spend the rest of your life with and make that commitment let's bow our
heads and have a word of prayer father we thank you so much for your word dear God and some
chapters are a little bit tough to understand and I would definitely I would definitely put
this chapter into that category as being a difficult to understand chapter but thank you
for all the other scriptures in the Bible that could help us shed some light on it and and help
us to break it down and figure out