"1 Samuel 14"

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We're reading from 1 samuel chapter 14 verse, the whole chapter. And so it's on page 283. Now detachment of the Philistines had gone out to the pass at Mick Mickmash. 1 day, Jonathan's son of Saul said to his young armor bearer. Come.

Let's go over to the Philistine outpost on the other side. But he did not tell his father. Saul was staying on the outskirts of Gibia under a pomegranate tree in Micron, and with him are about 600 men. Meng whom was a hyge, who was wearing an efod. He was the son of Iqabod's brother, Ahitub's son of Finias, the son of Eli, the lord's priest in Shiloh.

No 1 was aware that Jonathan had left. Now on each side of the pass that Jonathan intended to cross to reach the Philistine outpost was a cliff. 1 was called Bozez and the other Senae. 1 cliff stood to the north towards Mickmash, the other to the south towards Gebba. Jonathan said to his young armor bearer.

Come. Let's go over to the outpost of the those uncircumcised men. Perhaps the lord will act on our behalf. Nothing can hinder the lord from saving, whether by many, or by few. Do all that you have in mind, his armor bearer said, go ahead.

I'm with you heart and soul. Jonathan said, come on then. We will cross over towards them and let them see us If they say to us wait there until we come to you, we'll stay where we are and not go up to them. But if they say come up to us, we will climb up because that will be our sign that the lord has given them into our hands. So both of them so both of them showed themselves to the Philistine outpost.

Look said the Philistines, the Hebrews are crawling out of the holes they were hiding in. The men of the outpost shouted to Jonathan and is armor bearer. Come up to us, and we'll teach you a lesson. So Jonathan said, is armor bearer climb up after me. The lord has given them into the hand of Israel.

Jonathan climbed up using his hands and feet and his armor bearer right behind him. The Philistines fell before Jonathan and his armor bearer followed and killed behind him. In that first attack, Jonathan and his armor bearer killed some 20 men in an area of about half an acre. Then panic struck the whole army. Those in the camp and field and those in the outposts and raiding parties and the ground shook.

It was a panic sent by God. Saul's lookouts at Gibia in Benjamin, saw the army melting away in all directions. Then Saul said to the men who were with him, muster the forces and see who has left us. When they did, it was Jonathan and his armor bearer, who were not there. Saul said to a high jabbering the ark of god, at that time, it was with the Israelites.

While Saul was talking to the priest the tumult in the Philistine camp increased more and more. So Saul said to the priest, withdraw your hand. Then saw an all his men assembled and went to the battle. They found the Philistines in total confusion striking each other with their swords. Those Hebrews Hello who had previously been with the Philistines and had gone up with them to their camp went over to the Israelites who were with saul and Jonathan.

When all the Israelites who had hidden in the hill country of Ephraim heard that the Philist signs were on the run, they joined the battle in hot pursuit. So on that day, the Lord saved Israel and the battle moved on beyond Beth Haven. Now, these lights were in distress that day because Saul had bound the people under oath saying cursed be anyone who eats food before evening comes before I've avenged myself on my enemies. So none of the troops tasted food. The entire army entered the woods, and there was honey on the ground.

And when they went into the woods, they saw the honey oozing out. Yet no 1 put his hand to his mouth because they feared the oath. But Jonathan had not heard that his father had bound the people with the oath, so he reached out the end of the staff that was in his hand and dipped it into the honeycomb. He raised his hand to his mouth and his eyes brightened. And 1 of the soldiers told him, your father bound the army under a strict oath saying, cursed be anyone who eats food today.

That is why the men are faint. Jonathan said my father has made trouble for the country. See how my eyes brighten when I tasted a little of this honey, how much better it would have been if the men had eaten today, some of the plunder they took from their enemies. Would not the slaughter of the Philistines have been even greater. That day after the israelites had struck down the Philistines from Mick Mashita, a jilon, they were exhausted.

They pounced on the plunder and taking sheep, cattle, and calves, they butchered them on the ground and ate them together with the blood. And someone said to saul, look, the men are sinning against the lord by eating meat that has blood in it. You have broken faith, he said. Roll a large stone over here at once. Then he said, go out among the men and tell them, each of you bring me your cattle and sheep and slaughter them here and eat them.

Do not sin against the lord by eating meat with blood still in it. So everyone brought his ox that night and slaughtered it there. Then saw built an altar to the lord. It was the first time he had done this. So all said, let's go down and pursue the Philistines by night and plunder them till dawn.

Let's not leave 1 of them alive. Do whatever seems best to you, they replied. But the priest said, let's inquire of God here. So saul ask god, shall I go down and pursue the Philistines? Will you give them into Israel's hand?

But God didn't answer him that day. Saul, therefore, said, come here, all you who are leaders of the army, and let us find out what sin has been committed today. Surely as the lord who rescues Israel lives, even if the guilt lies with my son Jonathan, he must die, but not 1 of them said a word. Saul then said to all the Israelites, You stand over there. I and Jonathan, my son will stand over here.

Do what seems best to you. They replied. Then saw prayed to the lord, the God of Israel. Why have you not answered your servant today? If the fault is in me or my son, Jonathan respond with uhim, but if the men of Israel are at fault respond with them.

Jonathan and so were taken by lot, and the men were cleared. Saul said cast the lock between me and Jonathan, my son, and Jonathan was taken. Then, Saul said to Jonathan, tell me what you have done. So Jonathan told him, I tasted a little honey with the end of my staff, and now I must die, Saul said, may God deal with me be it ever so severely if you do not die Jonathan. But the men said to Saul, should Jonathan die he who has brought about this great deliverance in Israel never?

Surely as the lord lives, not a hair of his head shall fall to the ground, for he did this today with god's help. So the men rescued Jonathan and he was not put to death. Then saul stopped pursuing the Philistines and they withdrew to their own land After Saul had assumed rule over Israel, he fought against their enemies on every side, Moab, the ammonites, Eden, the kings of Zobah, and the Philistines. Where every turn, he inflicted punishment on them, He fought valiantly and defeated the Amalekites, delivering Israel from the hands of those who had plundered them. Seoul sons were Jonathan, Ishvie, and Malky Shiro.

The name of his elder daughter was Mirab and that of his younger was Michelle. His wife's name was Abihon, noam, daughter of Amihaz. The name of the commander of Sol's army was Abna, son of Nuh, and Neur was Saul's uncle. Saul's father, Kish, and Abner's father, Neur, were sons of Abiol. All the days of Seoul, there was bitter war with the Palestine.

Whenever Saul saw a mighty or brave man, he took him into his service. Great. Well done, David. And well done, everyone. If you followed that and you read it all the way through and you were still with it all the way through, you did brilliantly.

I think, with such a big passage, we need to pray again. We need the lord's help, Ben prayed for us, but let's pray again. Heavenly father, we, we need your help now, father this chapter in your word. We know that you are teaching us you're correcting us, you're training us as we read these words, but lord, we need your help to understand it and to know how to apply it to our hearts. So please use this.

We pray for your glory. And our good amen. Well, keep the passage open in front of you. You might wanna start at the beginning. So page 2 8 3, and we're gonna refer to the passage.

But to introduce this, I want to suggest that there is a common view out there that Christianity, is restrictive and oppressive. I wonder if you can think in, media, maybe, films, TV programs, how Christians are often portrayed how Christianity is often presented. And I think very often it is of Christians as being repressed, as being restricted, and there's this sort of burning tension underneath that at some point is gonna explode. I I did a search on the internet for TV programs where that that's the case. Maybe you can think of other ones, that it present that it presented, Broadchurch, If you've watched that, there's a vicar there who sort of has this bubbling underneath.

Dairy girls, they suggest. Maybe call the midwife. If you've watched that, I don't know. I've not watched that 1. But maybe you've watched other ones.

Now, I think generally this is the case, isn't it? Christian is presented as being, well, restrictive, oppressive. It's that kind of thing. On the other hand, the the way of life that is presented as being 1 of freedom is 1 where you live out whatever you want to be, whatever you want to do, pursue your goals, pursue your dreams, and that is the way to freedom. It is to live out What Walt Walt Walt Disney said.

So if you go on to the third slide there, Ken, if you would, Walt Disney said all our dreams can come true if we have the courage to pursue them. That's a suggestion, isn't it? Live your dreams, pursue them, and that is the way to freedom, that is the way to happiness. Christianity, it seems would be the way to being unhappy. And to being restricted.

And yet, what I want you to see in 1 Samuel 14, what I think we see is the exact opposite. Now we're not gonna cover every single detail of chapter 14, but I want you to see the broad overview, which is that you've got this battle against the Philistines, and there are 2 main characters. You've got Jonathan, who is focused on at the beginning, the first half of the chapter really is Jonathan. And then you've got his son his father, Saul, who is king over Israel, and he is focused on for the second half of the chapter. And in these 2 people, you have 2 opposites.

We are to compare them, I think, in the chapter. And what we see in the first half that focuses on Jonathan is I think we see the freedom of faith. The freedom of faith. That's what struck me as I was reading it, as I was studying it. Jonathan seems to present to us.

It is the freedom of faith. We'll see him in the first half. And then it's almost like we have a rerun of the battle, and we focus on Saul and we see and saw the oppressiveness of sin. So that's where we're heading. That's for the sort of overview that we've got.

Jonathan, the freedom of faith saw the oppressiveness of sin. So let's focus on the first half of the chapter and our first point, the free faith's freedom. Let's have that point up on the screen. There we are, Jonathan, and so next slide, the freedom of faith. Now the context of the chapter, if you remember from the previous chapter, chapter 13, we ended that chapter with the Israelites looking like they're in a bad way.

The Israelites don't have much of an army. They only had 600 at that point. And yet the Philistines have a massive army. The Philistines have come into the land of Israel, have it encamped there. They've got a massive army.

As many soldiers of the rail sand on the seashore, it's that kind of vast army. That you've got there, and yet the Israelite army seems pathetically small. And chapter 14 begins. We then just focus in on Jonathan and his armor bearer, just the 2 of them. And they decide, Jonathan decides right at the start, let's go and attack the Billstein outpost.

And saul, the king, his father, who we'll come back to, is just sat under a pomegranate tree somewhere. And that's what he's doing. He's just sitting there while his son attacks a Philistine outpost. Jonathan decides to head there, but we find out in the reading. Like I say, I won't go through every detail of it, but we find out that his root is a difficult 1.

It you're you're right at the start, we heard, David read for us that there are these 2 rocky cracks that are named first for Bozes and Seneh, which don't mean much to you, but they literally, well, literally mean something like 1 of them means slippery, and the other 1 means thorny. In other words, this is not a great route to go across. It's not a good good route. And yet, Jonathan decides we're gonna go over. He and his armor bearer.

We're gonna go and approach this Philistine outpost. Now, for each Jonathan Ansel, we're gonna have 1 verse that we're particularly gonna focus in on because I thought that would help us make it a bit more digestible this chapter. And the verse for Jonathan is verse 6. So would you have a look at that verse 6? Jonathan said to his young armor bearer, come, let's go over to the outpost of these uncircumcised men.

Perhaps the lord will act on our behalf. Nothing can hinder the lord from saving. Whether by many or by few, that's the verse to focus in on. Let's go over. He says.

Let's go over. And the first thing I want you just to see is the audaciousness of this of the audacity on it, the the big plan that he got, the redic it almost does look ridiculous what he's planning on doing. He and his armor barons just like, let let's go over. And just to summarize what happens next, he he he decides that the The best plan is that he and his armor bearer are gonna go to this Philistine outpost across this rocky slippery, you know, whatever thorny bit, and go and show themselves to the outpost. So there is no element of surprise in this at all.

They're just gonna show themselves. And if the Philistine outposts say you stay there, then that's what they'll do. But if you they say come on up, then that's what they'll do. They'll go up. And he says, because that will be our sign that the lord has given them to us.

And so they show themselves to the outpost. And the people in the outpost say, come on up. They say, well, this is it. We're gonna win. We've got this outpost sorted.

And so they scramble up. It says on their hands and knees, climbing up slippery, maybe, or thorny. I don't know which 1 it was, but they're climbing up. On their hands and knees, which must mean they they haven't got hands ready, available to take a sword out. They've just gotta scramble up.

So with no element of surprise, scrum scrambling up, they go up and they take the outpost. What a ridiculous plan? We might almost say what a foolish plan. And yet, in the context of the chapters, in chapter 13, it's Saul who's been described as foolish, for doing something that you and I might think was quite sensible. Because at that point, with his army deserting him, he decides to disobey the lord and make sacrifices to the lord that he shouldn't have done.

And we look at that and think, well, that looks like that may have been quite sensible, but the lord says that's foolish. But Jonathan doing this, this isn't foolish. Why isn't this foolish? Because he knows the lord verse 6 again. He says, come, let's go up to the outpost of those uncircumcised men.

In other words, those who are part of Israel, not part of god's people, not within the covenant. Perhaps the lord will act on our behalf. Nothing can hinder the lord from saving, whether by many or by few. He says, I know the lord. I know what the lord can do, and the lord doesn't need a vast army.

He doesn't need many people to take an outpost. He doesn't need many people to defeat the enemy. In fact, if we if you were with us back in the autumn term, we saw that, at 1 point, the arc of God was captured by the Philistines, and they took it and they took it around the Philistine territory. And wherever the arc went, people were dying. In other words, the lord didn't need a single israelite to defeat the Philistines.

He could do it all on his own. And Jonathan is saying the lord doesn't need a vast army. He doesn't need many. He doesn't even need few, but he could use either to save god's people. He knows the lord.

He trusts the lord, and that's what sparks him to say, let's go over. Let's go over. But notice also that the word perhaps in there, which I really love. I think it's wonderful to have it there. He says verse 6 again.

Come. Let's go over to the outpost of those uncircumcised men. Perhaps the lord will act on our behalf. Now here's real faith. Real faith is not arrogant.

It does not dictate to the lord to say, this is what you will do. And he doesn't make out to his armor bearer like he knows more than he does. He doesn't say, Oh, yeah. We're we'll definitely get it at this point. No.

He says, perhaps. Let's go over. We know what the lord is like. Maybe he'll use us. But the implication is, maybe he won't.

At this stage, it is a perhaps, and that is real faith. He's basically saying to his armor bearer, let's go over. On the basis of god's power and character, maybe he'll act for us. But we won't know unless we go. So let's go do it.

Do you see there's a beautiful freedom here? I think it's wonderful to see. A freedom that allows Jonathan to dream dreams as it were, go into action and say, let's give it a go. See what the lord would do. Freedom of faith, a simplicity, and let's go over.

And yet God did far more than Jonathan had hoped. Jonathan and his armor bear ago, they killed 20 people. And then verse 15, did you notice? Just cast your eyes down to verse 15. Over the page.

Then panic struck the whole army, those in the camp and field, and those in the out person raiding parties, and the ground shook, and it was a panic sent by God. Do you love that? So he had just attacked this 1 outpost and then the lord just goes, right. Well, the whole lot, the whole army are gonna be thrown into chaos. And when Saul eventually joins the battle and arrives, what does he find?

And so which are ridiculous seen, isn't it? Of the Philistines attacking 1 another with their swords? And it says the ground shook, and it was a panic sent by the lord. The lord did far more than he imagined. And so it says verse 23.

So on that day, the lord saved Israel. The freedom of faith to try things to say, let's go over. Perhaps the lord will, and then then you love it when you meet Christians who are like that, who have that attitude of, let's go over. Perhaps. Please go over.

There are plenty of people here are a bit like that, and I love it that you do this. Then maybe at work or with your neighbors, you're gonna go let's go over. Let's go over to talk to them. Let's go over to look for opportunities to show them love and concern and see if there'll be an opportunity to share Jesus, to talk about Jesus with them. Let's see.

Let's go over. Perhaps. Perhaps the lord will use I I was reading this last week of another guy who sounds like he was a bit like this as well. I mean, I'm sure there are many people who you could read of and think of who would be like this. A guy called Sydney Flack.

You'd probably not heard of him before, but he was born in 18 87, so quite a while ago. He was a builder's laborer, lived in a village in Essex. He couldn't read or write, He became a Christian and therefore was determined to learn to read so that he could read his bible. And so he did, and he learned to read re read his bible. And then he decided that he wanted to tell others about Jesus.

So He became you became a, I think you say Cole Porter. Am that right? That sound right? I don't know. You don't know.

I don't know. Okay. We'll say it's that. And what they did was they would go around the place selling Christian books And so he would took his bike and he would cycle around to villages and towns in Essex, and take his books and go and sell them. And his biography says, that since the streets were generally empty, he persisted with a danger habit, which he had throughout his life, of cycling down the middle of the road.

But you can imagine this guy just going around, why would he do that? Why would he go from village to village with his bicycle, with his books on the pro to go and sell books to people that telling him about Jesus. It just looks a bit prophetic, maybe a bit ridiculous, a bit foolish, but I think maybe you had this kind of attitude that kind of let's go over. Perhaps. Perhaps the lord we use.

And we need this attitude and keep having this attitude. It's what we're doing here in planting Hope Church here, isn't it? Is to say, let's do this. Perhaps the lord will use us. We don't know.

We don't know how we will, how we might, but we trust that he he knows what he's doing. Can't guarantee things, can we? Who say let's go over? Let's go to the sun race. Let's go to the signal park tower.

Let's go to our neighbors. Let's go to our friend. Let's do this as a church. Let's be like this. Let's try I love the fact that Anya and the and the team started up hope talks.

And it's gotta be with an attitude of, let's see. Let's go over perhaps. Perhaps the lord will use it. Let's keep being like that. Now just as a a a little tangent, a little word to parents, to parents, in in this chapter, Jonathan Wendon did this.

But interesting at the beginning, it says his dad didn't know about it. And I take it. He he didn't tell his dad because past history would say his dad is not gonna have liked it, and his dad wouldn't have gone with it. This is a little bit of a tangent, but I do just wanna say, parents, why don't we be praying for our children that they would outdo us in faith? That they would be these kind of people like Jonathan.

They wouldn't have to hide it, but that they would they would be people who would go out, we're gonna do this. Let's try this. And when they do, when they're braver than us, not really braver. When they know the lord better than us, and trust him and say, let's go. Let's try this.

That we wouldn't be in their way. Wouldn't stop them. And it may be that their plans are mad. And there may be moments where you've gotta say, have you thought this through? That may not be a bad thing to do, but overall, Let's be people who are gonna say we're behind you.

Go for it. Trust the lord. Go over. See what the lord will do. Well, now we turn to saul.

We've seen the the freedom of faith in Jonathan, and now we're gonna see the opposite in saul. And the verse that you would focus on for saul, I think, is verse 24. We have a kind of replay of the battle. It says what happened earlier in the day, and we focus in on the soul. Obviously, he got up from sitting under his tree.

But, earlier in the day, we see verse 24. Now the Israelites were in distress that day because Saul had bound the people under an oath saying cursed be anyone who eats food before evening comes before I have avenged myself on my enemies. So none of the troops tasted food. So we go back earlier in the day. We refocus on sort.

And here's the contrast with Jonathan. How does the verse begin? Did you notice how it began verse 24? Now the Israelites were in distress that day because Saul. Not because of the Philistine.

They're not in distress because of the Philistine at this point. They're in distress because saul because of their king. And what's Saul focused on? He's focused on himself, isn't he? He says cursed be anyone who eats food before evening comes before I have avenged myself on my enemies.

Saul is all about his own goals, his own vengeance on his enemies. He is not contrast to Jonathan. He is not focused on the lord. But on himself. And therefore, he binds his army.

He binds his people, it says, with this oath. He says, cursed is anyone who eats food before I'm avenged on my enemies. He binds them with it, which forces them into the battle because they can't eat until they've won. And so he forces them into it, and things just get worse and worse. Because of this oath well, I'm not gonna get, like I said, I'm not gonna go into all the details of what happens, but here's the overview of what happens in the rest of the chapter.

Skim through it with me. Jonathan, didn't know about the oath. And eat some of the honey in the forest. Seems like a weird forest and this sort of almost fairy ground kind of forest where you've got honey just dripping off trees. But, no 1 else is touching it apart from Jonathan who who dips it.

I don't know why Why is the it answered me this afternoon. Why is there so much focus on his staff? I don't know why. He seems to come up several times, but he dips his staff in it and then eats from that. I don't know why, but it just seems to be mentioned several times.

That that's what he does, where he eats, but no 1 else does, and they say to him, why not because of this oath? And that becomes significant later. And then we find verse 32 that at the end of the battle, because of this oath, The army pounces on the plunder, pounces on the food, grabs it, kills the animals, and just start eating them with the blood still in the animals. Now that is against god's law. And Saul is told that that's what they're doing.

And so he seems to be panicking saying, guys, you're you're sinning against the lord. And so he gets them to set up an altar so that the animals can be sacrificed. The blood drained out so that they can eat them the food in a proper way. There's no recognition by Saul that actually was his fault. It was his leadership that has led them into this position where they start sinning.

But that's where the oath seems to take them. This king who is so self, so focused, he's got determined for his goals, leads them in, binds them, gets them in a position where they start sinning, and he has to try and deal with that. But it gets even worse. Saul then decide, right, let's go and attack the Philister. Let's chase them.

Let's pursue them. And someone said, wouldn't it be a good idea to ask God about this? And they go, oh, right. Yeah. We'll do that then.

But the lord doesn't answer. And so wants to know why not? Why isn't the lord answering their prayers? Why isn't he responding, answering the question? And so he sets up this system.

We've seen it before elsewhere in other who, when Saul was chosen as well as King, that they set up this sort of way of doing things, using a thing called the Uraman Thummim, which we don't really know a lot about, other than that it was part of the priestly garments that they could use this thing as a way of of finding out god's will. And so they use this to say, well, look, Joel says, is it is it the army is it the rest of the people, or is it him and Jonathan that are at fault and finds out it's him and Jonathan? And then he says, well, which 1 is it? Me or Jonathan, and he finds out it's Jonathan. And at that point, he says, well, what did you do?

And Jonathan says, I ate some of the honey, and you you can see verse 44. I love the way David read this. Sorry, verse 43. He said I tasted a little honey with the end of my staff, and now I must die. He said, is there sarcasm here?

It seems to be, doesn't it? I ate a little honey, and that's it. I've gotta die now, have I? And Saul says, may God deal with me be it ever so severely if you do not die Jonathan? Now 1 of the time I was reading through this, I thought, actually, this is quite funny what happens here, although it's very it's kind of tragic as well.

But that that Saul seems to say, may God deal with me being ever so severely if I don't, if you don't die in other words, it's me or you. And the army says, verse 45, should Jonathan die who has brought about this great deliverance in Israel? In other words, So I saw this said, well, it's you or me, Jonathan, and the army says, well, it's not gonna be Jonathan, but nothing happens to saw there. But do you see the mad I mean, do do you see how bad things got there? So because of his self centered desire of pursuing the his vengeance binds the army, they end up sinning, and then he gets to the point where he's saying, I'm gonna have to kill my son.

Things have got very bad there, haven't they? His desperation to achieve his own goals, his own purposes. And this sums up for us. Where living for our own goals and our dreams and our desires can lead us. We're presented with the idea around about that freedom comes from pursuing your own dreams, your own goals.

But the reality is for my dreams to be fulfilled often requires others to fall into line with them. Others get bound up in it. Others have to do what I want. And it often results in suffering. Actually, as we look at the world, see the global stage at the moment, isn't this what we see?

It's so dangerous when people say, I'm gonna pursue my goals my priorities and everyone else are better fall into line. The result is suffering and pain. And we see that on a global scale. I wonder if you've seen it in your family and your, or with people around you. Where when people do the Walt Disney thing of pursuing their dreams, what we don't hear so much is the pain and the hurt that often comes with it.

Who suffers when we pursue our dreams? Just take a step back, look at where our culture is. In pursuit of my dreams, often families and marriages are wrecked for the sake of career. Marriages broken up for the sake of my happiness, my fulfillment, and where even we as a culture will sacrifice children through abortion for the sake of sexual fulfillment and freedom. Now I'm not saying there isn't forgiveness available for those things, there is wonderfully there is.

But we need to see the lie that there is out there. The lie which says pursue your goals, pursue your dreams, and that is where freedom lies. But to follow the lord, that is restricted. Here's the contrast. Jonathan, the freedom of faith, let's go over, saul, the oppression of sin, cursed be anyone who.

Now how do we get that freedom? How do we have that Jonathan like freedom? The answer is to do with kingship. Now this is gonna be much briefer. You'll be pleased to know.

We're still gonna have communion together after this. So this bit will be briefer. But the answer is to do with kingship. How we go from 1 to the other? How we have this freedom?

Saul, you see, was king, but he'd been told by God in chapter 13 that the kingdom was gonna be taken from him. And yet he is so desperate to maintain the kingship to hold on to it, to have his vengeance, And therefore, when it came to this battle with the Philistines, what rests on it for King Saul or what hangs on it? And the answer is everything. He has to win. He is so desperate to win.

He will bind others He will lead them in ways which are bad. He is so determined everything hangs on it. But what about Jonathan? Sorry. And with Saul, aren't we often like that?

Where we pursue things, If we are saying we are king of our lives and I wanna pursue my life, my goal, my ways, then we will bind others, and we will cause all kinds of problems. What about for Jonathan? What rested on this victory? For him personally, not very much. He said, maybe, perhaps.

Let's go do this. Let's see what happens. Why is it not such a big deal for him? It's not such a big deal for him. Well, Dale Ralph Davis points out that Jonathan in this chapter, did you notice Jonathan in this chapter is portrayed as someone who looks like he would be the ideal king.

He would be a great king where Saul is hopeless. He would be brilliant. He trusts the lord. He goes out. He does brave things trusting in the lord's purposes in the lord's goals and the lord's providence.

And we look at him and we think surely you would be a great king. If it comes to self fulfillment, you should be king Jonathan. And shouldn't he be disappointed that he will never be king? And we know he will never be king. And yet there is none of that in Jonathan.

As you read about him, as you we go on to read about him more, He doesn't have any of that. There is nowhere where you see him saying, I wanna be king. I really wanna be king. I wanna get why not? Dale Ralph Davis says this.

That Jonathan seems to know that the kingdom was not souls. It was not Jonathan's. It was the lord's. And so he says, for Jonathan then, the kingdom was not his to sees not his to rule, but his to serve. Jonathan's king was the lord, and therefore his goal and his desire were to serve the lord, pursue the lord's goals, pursue the lord's desires.

You get this freedom of faith by not being king, but by letting the lord be king. By letting Jesus be your king. Look to Jesus, the lord. And very importantly know what kind of king Jesus is. He is not like king saul.

He does not bind us, make us suffer to achieve his selfish goals, quite the opposite he was bound He was killed to save us and set us free. That is the kind of king he is. And he calls us to put him as our king. And when we do, that is how we find freedom. Jesus says, come to me.

He says, there is a yoke, there is a burden when you do so, but it is light, and it is easy. Put him as king. Serve him, and that is where freedom is. And that means you can go for that job. You can go for that, that new school, that university.

You can go out on mission, and your identity is not wrapped up in those things. But rather you go saying I will serve my king, and if he chooses to send me somewhere, I will go. And if he doesn't, I won't. We need to see the common view is completely wrong. Don't fall for the lie.

Pursuit of your goals, your dreams, and your desires does not bring freedom, but bondage. But submitting to Jesus's kingship sounds like bondage, but there is a glorious freedom. Let me leave some prayer. Emily father, we praise you for the freedom that there is in putting Jesus as our king. Father, please help us to see the lie of the culture around us.

That says that Christianity is restrictive, and that freedom is found in shaking off the shackles and pursuing our own goals and our desires, father help us to see the lie. And to submit to Jesus, our wonderful king. Our man.