Faith

I was reading 1 Samuel last night…still on the Old Testament…it’s really fascinating. 

If you haven’t read, recently or otherwise, 1 Samuel 14, have  a look.  The Israelites are basically surrounded by Philistines and grossly outnumbered.  The army is freaking out and running away, but Jonathan (King Saul’s son) decides to have a go.  So he leaves camp with his armour bearer and says ‘let’s go show ourselves to that group of Philistines and if they ask us to come up to them then we know the Lord has handed them over to us’ (I’m paraphrasing). 

So that is what happens and Jonathan and his armour bearer climb up to the group of Philistines and kill them all (about 20).  Following that, the Philistines get scared and start killing each other and in the end the Israelites win the battle.

What I found so incredible about this passage is that first of all, Jonathan stepped out in faith into a situation where any normal person would expect to be…well…killed.  He had confidence that God would hand that group over to him and so he climbed up and took them out – 2 men against 20.  A big step of faith, that, when looking at the ridiculously large number of the Philistine army, doesn’t really even make a mark…20 men killed among ‘soldiers as numerous as the sand on the seashore’ and Saul with about 600 men.  If I were Jonathan I don’t know that I would have bothered…such a huge risk for so little result?  It created barely a dent in the Philistine army…and yet, because of Jonathans faith, God gave the whole army into the hands of the Israelites.

I’ll let you make your own comparison in your own life.  All I will say is that when Jonathan stepped out on a limb for God…even though his initial impact was small, the world was changed.