To The Death - 1st Samuel 14:25-52

Saul has forced his battle weary troops to make an oath of fasting for the entire day, “that I may be avenged on mine enemies” and it really sucked for them but they were obedient and didn’t eat at all. While the regular troops were forced into that vow, Jonathan was not there, however, and didn’t know of nor make that vow. When the troops pursued the Philistines into a grove of trees full of beehives and honey, the troops didn’t eat anything, but Jonathan did. After Jonathan had eaten some of the honey, another soldier told him about the vow his father had made about not eating and Jonathan replied that his father was wrong to do that and that felt so much better and had more energy after having eaten the honey. In fact, maybe they could have had even more success against the Philistines if the troops hadn’t been forced to fast. The fast was in force until the evening, and the Israelites pursued the Philistines all day “and the people were faint.”

Finally, night fall came and the soldiers were so hungry that they took the spoils from the Philistines that they had conquered, the sheep, oxen, and calves, “and slew them on the ground: and the people did eat them with the blood.” TB says that we shouldn’t take this to mean that they ate uncooked animal flesh or that they drank the animals blood. They almost certainly would have cooked the meat prior to eating it, but there was a set procedure for how to butcher an animal and drain the blood out of it before cooking it, but the soldiers didn’t do the whole procedure because they were so hungry. Saul was furious and told the people that they sinned against the Lord, which I think is rich coming from him. Saul designates a big rock as a place where the people could come and butcher their animals properly to be in line with the Torah.

Probably recalling the success that previous Israelite leaders had had with night missions, Saul makes a plan to attack the Philistines at night, but the priest stepped up and suggested that the ask God His opinion. Saul agrees and asks God two questions: 1. Should I go attack the Philistines tonight? 2. If I do, will Israel be victorious? But no answer came. This is an interesting concept because to us today, especially in the LDS community, when we hear that God did not answer his prayer, we’ve all experienced that. We ask a question, wait for the answer and no answer seems to come, this is familiar to all of us. However, that’s now how ancient Israel received answers to prayers, especially ones coming from the priest. TB notes, “We are again witnessing the use of the Urim and Thummim sacred stones by the High Priest. It is thought that the stones can essentially provide no more than a yes/no answer. Thus when the Priest put his hand into the special pocket sewn into his ephod where the stones resided, pulling out one stone meant ‘yes’ and the other ‘no.’ So questions had to be phrased in a yes/no, true/false, either/or fashion. So exactly what the indication was that God provided NO answer to the questions involves speculation.”

This is a good point, if you reach into a pocket and pull out a stone, and which stone you pull out is the answer to your question, how is it possible that God provided NO answer? How is it possible that NO stone gave an answer? TB answers that by citing tradition, meaning, what’s been passed down throughout history explaining this phenomenon, saying, “Tradition says that one stone or the other would literally glow or shine, thus indicating God’s decision. Certainly it must be in this case before us that either the High Priest was somehow supernaturally aware that the Lord was withholding His oracle or that indeed the stones themselves changed in some visible and obvious way when an answer was forthcoming and this time their state remained unchanged.” I thought that that was a very interesting piece of information that explained the process in a way that I wouldn’t have imagined.

God withholding His answer must have been due to some sin that someone committed some sin and Saul was determined to find out who it was and punish them. The sin specifically in this instance was who broke the fast that Saul commanded the soldiers to take, that was the sin that was determined to have been committed. Saul demands whoever did it to step forward, and no one does, so they turn to lots to determine who is at fault. Saul separated himself and Jonathan from the rest of the Israelite troops and cast lots to see if the other troops or Saul and/or Jonathan are at fault. Probably much to Saul’s dismay, the lots cast that the rest of Israel is innocent and the fault rests between Saul and Jonathan. So they cast lots between Saul and Jonathan and Jonathan comes up as being the guilty party. Saul asked Jonathan what he did and Jonathan admitted that he had eaten some honey, and says, “and, lo, I must die.” This seems very mature and calm from Jonathan, but TB says that in actuality the way it should read is more sarcastic, like “I ate some honey, so I have to die for that?!” which I thought was interesting. TB notes that the acceptance of “I must die” is “implying that he admits he was wrong and understands he must accept his fate (for indeed he has done nothing wrong before the Lord, for he took no vow to abstain from food).”

Saul doubles down, and says “God do so and more also: for thou shalt surely die, Jonathan.” Wild work, Saul is nuts. But the people, all the other soldiers revolt against Saul saying that Jonathan was the one who delivered the victory and that God worked with him and not Saul to accomplish this, So the people rescued Jonathan, that he died not.” Saul went home licking his wounds, and the Philistines went back to where they were from and everything just went back to normal. IT’s so interesting to me to consider that if Saul hadn’t been so caught up in his own ego and side plots, that he could have pursued the Philistines, beaten them, driven them out of Israel’s lands for good and taken all their spoils. But because his ego was so consuming, he basically won a superficial victory and that was it. And just how did Jonathan feel when his dad doubled down on wanting to kill him even though he hadn’t done anything wrong, especially after working so hard to deliver him victory. Saul is quickly becoming a despot, and it’s an instructive commentary on leadership, especially military leadership. The rest of the chapter is just a preview to what’s coming and Saul’s linage as far as children and wife goes but we’ll cover that in great detail here shortly.