Attacking the Philistines - 1st Samuel 14:1-24

The Philistines are creeping into Hebrew territory and Saul only has a contingent of 600 soldiers left. Apparently, the Israelites were on. One side of a valley and the Philistines were on the other side of the valley separated by about a mile. We met Jonathan last chapter when he killed the Philistine governor in the area in order to start a war between the two peoples. To me that seemed wreckless, starting wars, but both TB and the IM say that Jonathan was a man of firm faith in God and obedient in righteousness and who am I to argue with that? Since Jonathan killed the governor, the Philistines have been getting ready to make their move and Saul was waiting for Samuel, gathering his troops but Saul has just been kind of sitting there waiting, TB suggests that this is because Saul wasn’t really interested in a war that wouldn’t serve his purposes which was to unite all of Israel behind him and since all the other soldiers had left leaving only 600 men remaining, he knew that the people didn’t support him. But again, the irony being that Saul’s victory wasn’t based on how many soldiers that he had, but instead on God’s mercy.

Jonathan knew that his father wasn’t going to do anything, so he took his armor bearer and they went across the mile wide valley divide and confronted the Philistines themselves. Jonathan’s exact words were what I just said, “it may be that the Lord will work for us: for there is no restraint to the Lord to save by man or by few.” Basically, it doesn’t matter how many soldiers there are, God can win this victory with many soldiers or with just a few. So they make a plan to go to the Philistine camp, shout to them to make themselves known, then if the Philistines say that they will come out to meet them in the valley, they will stay there, but if the Philistines say “come up unto us; then we will go up: for the Lord hath delivered them into our hands: and this shall be a sign unto us.” Their sign that the Philistines will be delivered into their hands will be if they invite the two lone Hebrews into their camp.

The geography of the place where this little meeting took place is that there was a very narrow draw in between two steep spurs of rock, leaving only a small amount of room for someone to walk into the camp. They got their answer, the Philistines will be delivered into their hands and climbing up on hands and knees. TB describes the incident as, “So convinced was (Jonathan) that the Lord was now firmly on his side and the unction he felt to undertake this excursion as of divine origin, he and his armor bearer crawled stealthily up the north face of the ravine in a very steep part where those Philistine soldiers would not have expected them to show up. When they got to the top it turned out to be an extremely narrow area… probably only 1 Philistine soldier at a time could fight against Jonathan. So Jonathan would disable a soldier, and move on to the next while his armor bearer would finish them off in turn.” It’s interesting how when Jonathan made this plan, he didn’t know the terrain of the area at all, of all the places that he could have staged his attack, he just so happened to pick the most beneficial spot. What an interesting coincidence.

Jonathan and the armor bearer killed about 20 men before the rest of the camp was awakened. The Philistine camp included not only the Philistine soldiers but also their Hebrew allies who they had made alliances, peace treaties, and trade agreements, so it was a diverse camp. Not only did the commotion wake up the Philistines, who presumed they were under attack by a large force, but it also woke up Saul and the Hebrew soldiers. Saul called for a head count and found that Jonathan and his armor bearer weren’t there so he tells the priest to bring the ark of the covenant to him, presumably to ask God what he should do. But it’s taking too long, so he tells the priest, “withdraw thine hand,” which wouldn’t make much sense to us but what TB says this means is that the priest would have been using the Urim and Thummim to seek God’s advice, but it was taking too long so Saul told him to withdraw his hand from the pouch containing the stones, basically saying that he’s leaving, so don’t bother asking God. Just like when he made the sacrifice himself instead of waiting for Samuel, TB says, “as usual, Saul liked the idea of seeking the Lord on matters but as often as not had as much or more confidence in his own decisions so he simply prematurely stopped the process of the High Priest consulting the Lord.”

Saul gathers his troops and races over to the Philistine camp to take advantage of whatever situation Jonathan had created, and my guess is that it wasn’t to rescue Jonathan, but he must have known that Jonathan was winning, and Saul wanted to capitalize on that. When the get to the Philistine camp, they find the Philistines fighting each other! Verse 20 says that “there was a very great discomfiture,” meaning there was a panic and confusion, which is one of God’s favorite ways to win battles. One aspect of this might have been because there were several Hebrews within the Philistine camp because of their alliances, so the Philistines might not have known who the real enemy was but I can’t imagine that there were that many Hebrews that supernatural panic wasn’t the main cause. Saul shows up with his army and starts fighting too, the Hebrews that were previously allied with the Philistines change their allegiance, and the Hebrews that were hiding from the Philistines in the previous chapters come out to join the fight too.

God delivers victory to Israel that day, and the Philistines flee from before them. Let’s remember that, even today, combat is a highly physical activity and it’s very important to keep the troops fed, especially if they are going to be pursuing the enemy. But Saul, just like a general officer who is so far removed from combat that he has no idea what’s really going on, makes all the soldiers take an oath to not eat that day until “I may be avenged of mine enemies.” Saul wasn’t the one fighting, I guarantee that, and he wasn’t the one who instigated the fight, Jonathan was, and he wasn’t the one who won the fight, God was. This is another example of people making oaths on their own to try to force God to do something for them, and it backfiring, like always. God has His own covenants and commandments that he wants us to keep, we don’t need to come up with our own terms and conditions, he wants us to keep the covenants that we make to him through gospel ordinances, and to be obedient to the commandments that he has given us. He doesn’t want what we come up with on our own. The soldiers were so hungry after fighting all day, how were they expected to keep up their strength to pursue the Philistines and win against them in battle? I mean, yes, God could win the battle regardless of how fatigued the soldiers were, and that’s essentially what Saul was expecting God to do. I didn’t feed my soldiers, but still give us a miraculous victory, to me, that’s tempting God, dictating the terms. If God had come to Samuel and told him that the soldiers should fast while fighting, then that’s acceptable, but Saul doing it, is trying to guarantee an outcome that wasn’t his to make