5/24/2010 9:02:48 AM
SPIRITUAL
DIARY
My Worship Time Focus: Jonathan
initiates the attack
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: 1 Sam.
14:1-15
Message
of the verses: “1 ¶ Now the day came that Jonathan, the son of
Saul, said to the young man who was carrying his armor, "Come and let us
cross over to the Philistines’ garrison that is on the other side." But he
did not tell his father. 2 Saul was
staying in the outskirts of Gibeah under the pomegranate tree which is in
Migron. And the people who were with him were about six hundred men, 3 and Ahijah, the son of Ahitub, Ichabod’s
brother, the son of Phinehas, the son of Eli, the priest of the LORD at Shiloh,
was wearing an ephod. And the people did not know that Jonathan had gone.
4 Between the passes by which Jonathan
sought to cross over to the Philistines’ garrison, there was a sharp crag on
the one side and a sharp crag on the other side, and the name of the one was
Bozez, and the name of the other Seneh. 5
The one crag rose on the north opposite Michmash, and the other on the
south opposite Geba. 6 Then Jonathan
said to the young man who was carrying his armor, "Come and let us cross
over to the garrison of these uncircumcised; perhaps the LORD will work for us,
for the LORD is not restrained to save by many or by few." 7 His armor bearer said to him, "Do all
that is in your heart; turn yourself, and here I am with you according to your
desire." 8 Then Jonathan said,
"Behold, we will cross over to the men and reveal ourselves to them.
9 "If they say to us, ’Wait until
we come to you’; then we will stand in our place and not go up to them. 10 "But if they say, ’Come up to us,’ then
we will go up, for the LORD has given them into our hands; and this shall be
the sign to us." 11 When both of
them revealed themselves to the garrison of the Philistines, the Philistines
said, "Behold, Hebrews are coming out of the holes where they have hidden
themselves." 12 So the men of the
garrison hailed Jonathan and his armor bearer and said, "Come up to us and
we will tell you something." And Jonathan said to his armor bearer,
"Come up after me, for the LORD has given them into the hands of
Israel." 13 Then Jonathan climbed
up on his hands and feet, with his armor bearer behind him; and they fell
before Jonathan, and his armor bearer put some to death after him. 14 That first slaughter which Jonathan and his
armor bearer made was about twenty men within about half a furrow in an acre of
land. 15 And there was a trembling in
the camp, in the field, and among all the people. Even the garrison and the
raiders trembled, and the earth quaked so that it became a great trembling.”
Today’s SD begins chapter five in
Warren Wiersbe’s commentary on 1Samuel, and chapter fourteen in 1Samuel. Wiersbe entitles this fifth chapter “A
FOOLISH VOW AND A LAME EXCUSE,” and the first of the three powerful lessons
that we must heed and obey if we want the blessing of God on our lives and
service is entitled “Faith in God brings victory. Today’s SD goes over the first sub-point in
the first main point.
It is sad to see the downfall of
Saul’s life, a life that certainly lacks faith in the Lord, and a life that is
full of himself. It seems that one of
the brightest things that came from Saul’s life was his son Jonathan for his
son was nothing like Saul, in that Jonathan had a great deal of faith, and he
must have learned from the Scriptures in order to have the kind of faith that
he demonstrated in his life.
Jonathan comes up with a plan to
attack the Philistine army with only he and his armor bearer, and to the
fleshly mind that may sound foolish, but to a man of faith it was believing in
a promise, perhaps the promise of Lev. 26:7-8, “7 ’But you will chase your enemies and they
will fall before you by the sword; 8
five of you will chase a hundred, and a hundred of you will chase ten
thousand, and your enemies will fall before you by the sword.” Dr. Wiersbe writes the following concerning
faith, “Action without promises is presumption, not faith, but when you have
God’s promises, you can go forward with confidence.” Faith has to have an object, and the object
of a believer’s faith certainly should be the Lord Jesus Christ, and His
Word.
Jonathan could have told his father
about his plan, but his father would have stopped it in his tracks, so he did
not tell Saul about his plan. His plan
was that after climbing the cliff with his armor bearer he would begin to fight
if the Philistines began to talk to them.
There were many men from Saul’s army who had deserted him and so the
guards just thought that these were two more of the deserters, but they died
believing that for as they began to talk to Jonathan and his armor bearer
Jonathan killed twenty of them and then the Lord caused an earth quake to
happen, but that is where I have to leave this exciting, faith filled story.
Spiritual
meaning for my life today: I have a
book that I bought when I first became a believer in Jesus Christ and it is
entitled, “All the Promises of God,” and I just ran across it after thinking
that it was missing for a long time.
This book tells all of the promises that the Lord has in His Word, and
it is these promises that help increase my faith. Jonathan believed the Word of God and God
honored both Jonathan and His Word. I
like the quote from Dr. Wiersbe’s book concerning presumption and faith and so
I must remember that in order to live a faith filled life.
My Steps of Faith for Today:
1.
Trust the Lord and
His Word in order to have a faith filled life that will be pleasing to the
Lord.
5/24/2010 9:55:44 AM
No comments:
Post a Comment