Good morning. It is a wonderful Sabbath here at Sacramento central Seventh-day Adventist Church here in Sacramento, California. We're so glad that you're tuning in, whether this is your first time, or you're a regular online or television, radio, however you're joining us. If you're a regular here at central church, then you know what to expect. But if this is your first time, we give you a special welcome.
And we're going to sing some favorite songs that have come in over the internet this morning. And the first one is 303, "beneath the cross of Jesus." Pull out your hymnals, those of you at home. Those of you here, you know what to do. We're going to sing. And we're going to sing all three stanzas this morning, 303, "beneath the cross of Jesus.
"I like the words to that, when it says we lose nothing--I'm paraphrasing--we lose nothing when we have Jesus. And you think, "oh, if I become a Christian, I have to give up this, this and this." But it's not true, because we're only giving up things that will hurt us. And when we love Jesus, there's nothing that is too great. We're not giving up anything, 'cause we're receiving eternal life, receiving--Jesus is our best friend in eternity and heaven. I forgot to tell you who requested that song, and they're going to be very disappointed.
Kenyon and felicia and gavin in australia, maureen and natasha in bahamas, rollie in California, cindy in Connecticut, hannah in France, joyann and Benjamin in New York, Sarah and thomas in nigeria, John in Oklahoma, chris, cheche and kimberly in Philippines, hermaneve in saudi arabia, nattanya in tanzania, keffie in Texas and John in the united kingdom. So thank you so much for that request. And our next one is 163, "at the cross." Those of you who haven't sent in song requests, it's very simple. You go to our website at saccentral.org, click on the "contact us" link. And you can send in any hymn request, and we'll do our best to sing that for you sooner than later, 163.
And this is from jizelle and makiela in antigua and barbuda, barbara, Joshua and rollie in California, verner in denmark, mary in england, jim, dianne, jamie and buffy in florida, jared in Idaho, josfin in ireland, Danielle in jamaica, jennifer in malaysia, tina in Montana, amanda and joyanne in New York, jenny in North Carolina, anna maria in norway, monice in Oklahoma, johanna, ralph and victor in Philippines, abel in puerto rico, chelsea in saint vincent and the grenadines, stefan in sweden, gary in tennessee, sherill in thailand and marva in trinidad and tobago, 163, all 3 stanzas, "at the cross." [Music] Father in Heaven, we are truly happy all the day when we come to the foot of the cross and we give you our burdens. And today is no different than any other day. We come before you this morning, father, and we ask you to come and live in our hearts, to fill us with your spirit, and to open up our minds as we study together and as we prepare for that wonderful day that we know is coming very soon when we will finally see you face to face. Father, we ask for a revival in this church. We ask revival in our own lives.
And let it begin with us. And father, we just pray that we'll be ready. There are so many things that distract us in this world, and we know that the devil has something for everyone to get us hung up on. But I pray that our eyes will look beyond the distractions, that we will do everything that we can to work with you so that we will all be saved and ready for when you come. Be with us as we open up Your Word and we study with Pastor Doug this morning.
And we thank you so much for his ministry here at central church. In Jesus' Name, amen. At this time our lesson study is going to be brought to us by our senior pastor here at Sacramento central Seventh-day Adventist Church, Pastor Doug Batchelor. Morning. Thank you, jenny and debbie and our musicians.
We sure appreciate that. And those of you who are watching and calling in The Song requests. We really do appreciate that. And I want to welcome our friends who are watching from all over the place, in different parts of the world. It's always very interesting to me to hear where The Song requests are coming from.
And I want to welcome our visitors here today. I want to welcome those who are some of the online members of Sacramento central church. We are based here in the capital of California, but we're really just a country church in disguise. And some of you that don't have a church that you can attend locally, we have a way where you can be members of central church if you meet the criteria. If you'd like to know more about that, you can go to the website.
There's a lot of other good links and things and study material at the website. And it's called saccentral.org. Matter of fact, we have a couple of pastors here, pastor harold white and Luke fessenden that do counseling and answer Bible questions online. And we'll try to provide as much of a church experience as we can. As I said, you can download almost everything but a hug and a potluck.
And so--and that's coming, we're working on it. It's just very big files. And so you'll find out more about that there. We are going through our study now dealing with background characters in the old testament. And if you don't have one of these, you can probably just go knock on the door of your neighborhood Seventh-day Adventist Church, if you have one.
If you are one of these remote viewers who are watching by satellite out in the boonies somewhere, but you do have a satellite or internet, you can also get the lesson online. Matter of fact, I do most of my studying online and then I just bring my hard copy here. If the truth be known, I just leave this here. And I study online at home, and I print out my notes and bring them with me. And so you can even study the lesson with the quarterly that you find online.
I think the address, if you just type in "Sabbath school," there's two or three websites that actually carry the lesson on line. Hi! How is everyone today? Welcome to our visitors. I see some new people. I'm excited about the lesson today because it's one of my heroes in the Bible. We're dealing with background characters in the old testament.
Today's lesson is dealing with the subject of "jonathan, born for greatness." And it's lesson number 4. We have a free offer that goes along with our study today. You get this just by making a phone call. And it's even a toll-free call. The offer is called, "failure is not an option," "failure is not an option.
" It's offer number 182. And we'll send it to you. Just call the number on your screen, for those who are listening on radio. That's 866-study-more. And that translates into 866-788-3966.
We'll send you the book, "failure is not an option." One more time that's--ask for offer number 182. We do this every week and sometimes people call a week later and the operator is saying, "what's the number?" Because they say, "well, I don't remember." And so jot that down. Our study on "jonathan" is based on a number of verses, principally from 1 Samuel is where you find most of the information on jonathan. And we have a memory verse. And it's 1 Samuel 14:6, 1 Samuel 14:6, if you have your Bibles.
I'll be reading it from the new king James version. And you may want to follow along. Are you ready? 1 Samuel 14:6, I like to hear your voices swell with mine if you could help me. "Then jonathan said to the young man who bore his armor, 'come, let us go over to the garrison of these uncircumcised; it may be that the Lord will work for us. For nothing restrains the Lord from saving by many or by few.
'" Why did the Lord come down so hard on king David when he numbered Israel? You remember that? A plague. It's listed as one of the big sins of David. Bathsheba and numbering Israel. Is there something biblically wrong with counting your kids when you leave walmart to make sure you still all have 'em? Is there something wrong with counting your church members? Does a good shepherd count his sheep? Was David a shepherd? Why was that such a terrible sin? Ah, God not only looks at what you do; he looks at why you do it. David wasn't just counting the nation to see how all the sheep were doing; he was counting principally--he sent the army officer, joab, to count to see how big his army was, because he was now being tempted to trust in his army which was so out of character for everything else God had done in the Bible in showing that he could save by few.
Instead of trusting in sword and spear and shield, they were to go into battle trusting in the Lord. And how many times had David gone into battle when they were outnumbered and God had given them the victory? And now he's counting how big his army is, trusting in his army. He had lost his trust in God. Jonathan, who appears on the scene as a hero of Israel before, just before, David fights Goliath, probably was a role model for David. You look at the timeline, you'll see that.
David read about the exploits of jonathan, and his great trust for God, and saying, "God can deliver by few, as well as by many." And he was inspired by that. And we'll find out more that they became good friends. Now as we get into the study of jonathan, and a man born for greatness. He is one of the great background characters. And he really did chose to live in the shadow of the wings of others, but he was really the strength in many ways where his father, Saul, and the strength for even David.
He was an inspiration, a great man. He was one of the great unsung heroes in the Bible. And, note this, he's a type of Christ. First of all, who knows what the name, jonathan, means? It's not, "God is gracious." "Gift from God," or "God's gift." Now when you get to the new testament, and you find someone named, "nathaniel," that is another way of saying the same name. Whenever you see, "yah" in the old testament-- you know what "yah" means? It's where you get jehovah.
It means--wherever you see, "yah." It's Elijah or yah natan. "Yah" means "jehovah." It's the name of God. It's a shortened version of that. Wherever you see "el," it means "God." It's elohim. It's another name for God.
Nathaniel, means "gift of elohim." Yah natan means "gift of God," or "God gave." There's another way of saying it. I was looking for that, "God gave." You look at the--it doesn't talk so much about what jonathan looked like, but chances are if the apple didn't fall too far from the tree, let's read what it says about his father. "And he had a choice and handsome son whose name was Saul." Saul is The Father of jonathan. "There was not a more handsome person than he among the children of Israel." So if jonathan got any of that, he's probably good looking. "From his shoulder's upward he was taller than any of the people.
" And so he was tall, dark and handsome and strong. And it goes on to say he was also brave and skilled as a warrior. And I'll get to that in just a little bit. Now when we first consider this, the first verse, it's talking about the high office of friendship. We're going to talk a little bit about being friends.
And that's very relevant for us because God not only says he's our Savior; he's our sacrifice. He's our father. What's another term that he uses to address him? He's our friend. Doesn't Jesus say that? Matter of fact, I didn't give this verse out, so I'm looking for a volunteer. John 15:13-15.
Andrew's got his hand up there. I'm giving you several verses there, John 15, read verse 13-15. And while we're getting set up for that, how do you have friends? I'm going to read Proverbs 18:24. If you want to have friends-- anyone want to have friends? Anyone want to have enemies? Well, a few are good actually. It keeps you humble.
Proverbs 18:24, "a man who has friends must himself be friendly." You need to initiate friendliness. Have you ever known people to come to church, and they kind of got their arms tucked into their sides. And they come into church, they sit off in the back corner and then they slink out the back. And then they go and tell everybody, "nobody said anything to me." And they came in like they're in the witness protection program and they spirit out the same way. And then they complain to all their friends, "they're not very friendly there.
" And you know, some people kind of have an aura of "don't bother me." And so we try to respect that when we see that. But you also need to initiate. If you want to be a friend, be friendly, right? You find churches are a whole lot friendlier when you're friendly. And so it's kind of a two-way relationship. So "he who would have friends must himself be friendly.
" Now does Jesus initiate his friendship to us? Alright, now I'm ready andrew. Why don't you read John 15:13-15? "Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends. Ye are my friends, if ye do whatsoever I command you. Henceforth I call you not servants; for the servant knoweth not what his Lord doeth: but I have called you friends; for all things--" and my Bible is closing-- "for all things that I have heard of my father I have made known unto thee." You notice there's a couple of criteria in this friendship. It's something of a two-way relationship.
And it says, for one thing, he says, "you are my friends if you do what I commanded you." And so those who are willing to obey the commands of God, if we say, "Lord, Lord, you're my friend," and we're deliberately disobeying God and violating his will, but we say, "well he's my friend. He'll understand." Is that really what friendship is all about? No, friendship is you try to please and accommodate each other as much as you can. You don't deliberately try to annoy somebody and break trust with somebody who is a friend. Now, let's go to the verse that I want us to look at. 1 Samuel 18:1.
This is talking about jonathan now. 1 Samuel 18:1, "now when he had finished speaking to Saul, the soul of jonathan was knit to the soul of David--" this is after David kills Goliath, and jonathan is probably standing right there and he's hearing all of that. And it says, "the soul of David was knit to the--" I'm sorry, "the soul of jonathan was knit to the soul of David. And jonathan loved him as his own soul. And Saul took him that day, and would not let him go to his Father's house anymore.
Then jonathan and David made a covenant, because he loved him as his own soul. And jonathan took off the robe that was on him and gave it to David, with his armor, even his sword and his bow and his belt." You know why this is such a beautiful thing? In no other place does jonathan better represent Jesus than here. Does Jesus make a covenant with us? Look at what he does. Does Jesus love us? Does Jesus give us his robe? Does Jesus give us his bow? Now bow represents strength in the Bible, 'cause it took strength to pull back a bow. It's a symbol of that.
His sword, does he give us his sword? What's a sword? "Man doesn't live by bread alone--" oh that's the wrong verse, sorry. "The Word of God is quick and powerful and sharper than any two-edged sword." And then if you read in Ephesians 6, it says, "and the Word of God which is--" "and the sword of the Spirit which is the Word of God." Matter of fact, three places in the Bible, it tells us that the sword is a type of word. Jesus appears coming, I think it's Revelations 19, "with a sword coming out of his mouth," meaning the Word of God. And so it's consistently a symbol for the word that divides us from sin. And so he gives him sword and his belt.
That's the belt of truth. Is Jesus the truth? And his armor. It says, "put on the whole armor of God." Now in order for jonathan to give all that to David, what's happening to jonathan? Is he taking off his robe? If I give you my coat, I gotta take it off. Right? Did Jesus take off his robe for us at the cross? He's taking off these things. He's giving them.
He's sacrificing. And what does the name, jonathan, mean? Gift of God. Isn't Jesus-- "God so loved the world, he gave his son." His very name means, "yah natan," the gift of God. We named our youngest son, nathan. That's just a shortened version of the gift in Hebrew.
Can you imagine? When you learn about jonathan and his courage and his character, and he sees David. I think jonathan wanted to go fight Goliath, and Saul wouldn't let him, because he was the crowned prince. And he thought, "what's going to happen if we lose our crowned prince. If we send out some other common soldier, but if we send out the crowned prince, they'll basically take the Kingdom for the next generation. And so I don't think-- I think jonathan was willing to fight Goliath.
I don't think Saul would let him go. And when they saw, when jonathan saw, that brave shepherd March out there, and the words that he spoke that said, "you come against me with a sword and a spear and a shield, but I'm coming against you in the name of the Lord," which are the same kind of words that jonathan spoke against the philistines, I think he said, "boy, there's a man after my own heart. I could love a guy like that, that has that kind of courage, and that kind of integrity, and that kind of valor." And I think that they just were a lot alike. And that they just, they meshed. And they had that kind of friendship where they had kindred spirits.
Have you ever--you know what I'm talking about? Certain people of kindred spirits. Now you find some other great friendships in the Bible. I think you see that between Elijah and Elisha. He didn't want to be out of his sight. He was happy to serve him, wanted to be with him.
Seems like there's that kind of friendship--Peter the apostle seems to be closer with John than he was with andrew, his own brother. Whenever they went out preaching, it was Peter and John, went to the beautiful gate, Peter and John, Peter and John. How come it wasn't Peter and andrew? Well, sometimes brothers fight. But they just, you know, they were friends. And so you've got some examples of these friendships in the Bible.
Someone read for me Ecclesiastes 4:10. I think we gave this out on one of our postage stamps. Who has that? You have that right here? Hold your hand up. And we ought to wait and get you a microphone. Okay, and we're going to read Ecclesiastes 4:10, and we're talking here about how important it is to have friends.
Go ahead and read that for us. "For if they fall, one will lift up his companion. But woe to him who is alone when he falls, for he has no one to help him up." And of course the previous verse is--why don't you read the verse, take your mic back, read the verse just before that, in verse 9. "Two are better than one, because they have a good reward for their labor." Alright, so he's talking about when you've got friends, you've got some strength in that. Isn't it easier to stand on two legs than one leg? You can push a person over on one leg.
And then he goes on to say, "and a three-fold cord is hard to be broken." That's why you had Peter, James and John, when Jesus had that kind of a trinity of leadership among the apostles. And so it's so important to have friends. You know they say that when someone comes to visit a church, and maybe they accept the truth, and they come in, they're baptized, they've discovered that, you know, there's attrition often. A couple years later you'll sometimes find those people aren't there. And they've done a number of studies to find out who is that manages to survive when they join a church the longest? You know what the statistics tell us? You need to develop, I think it's you need to have seven friends and five or maybe five relationships or meaningful relationships or seven friends.
I forget exactly how it's worded. But basically it's saying you have to have friends. You need to develop relationships. You need to have a support group. And so I always worry when we have someone new that comes into the church family if they're not becoming integrated somehow and developing relationships.
That's why we have a potluck virtually every, not even virtually, we have a potluck every Sabbath, don't we? A fellowship dinner. It's a great place for people to come and develop those relationships that they'll take then beyond the week, exchange phone Numbers, that pray together, meet in the other contexts besides just in the church. Had a picnic a couple weeks ago. The reason we do that is we need to have relationships so we gain that strength, 'cause you're gonna get discouraged. You're gonna get tempted.
Why did Jesus send the disciples out preaching two by two? 'Cause if one got shot off his horse, the other one could keep going? Not exactly, no. It was so that one would-- sometimes people have their ups and downs. And if one was going through the valley, the other one could pray him out of it. If sometimes one was being tempted, the other one could say, "come on now." You know, they could encourage one another and be a support. And so it's important to have friends that you can be honest with, that you can be accountable to.
And you know, the Bible talks about a real friend does not spread stories. They'll be confident. You can--nothing hurts more than when you open up your heart to a friend and you're honest with them, and you make yourself vulnerable. And you tell them about some challenges that you might have. And then they go blab it.
And you feel betrayed. You need to have friends that you can be open and honest with, that you know that they're going to keep your trust. And after they talk to you, and you talk to them, it's not discussed again until you're back together again, except maybe with the Lord. You know what I'm saying? Everybody needs to have friends like that. Now is Jesus that kind of friend? Can we be open with him? Anything you want to hide from Jesus? Look at how Jesus even protected the bad behavior of Judas.
And what did Jesus say to Judas when Judas came to kiss him that final time? "Friend?" He's saying, "I've treated you like a friend. I did not expose you. Friend, are you betraying me with a kiss?" So that's a lesson on how we need to be trustworthy with our friends, right? Now if your friend comes to you and says, "by the way, I'm a serial killer at night, I'm going out." Well, you probably need to tell on him. I mean, you know, you have to have a good sense about that. But you need to be able to have people you can have confidence with.
What am I leaving out here? Don't be a friend with the world. James 4:4--oh wait, before I read that, I got one more verse. Proverbs 17:17, Proverbs 17:17, who's got that? Microphone over here, and we got to roll the camera back. While we're setting up for that, let me read for you James 4:4. "Adulterers and adulteresses! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Whoever therefore wants to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.
" You know, if you're going to be a real Christian, you're not going to fit in very well with the world. If the world hated Jesus, it's going to hate us. We need to just accept that. And sometimes you'll tell people that you're a Christian, and they'll recoil. You've probably seen it before in our society.
Or if you talk about wanting to live a biblical lifestyle, the world is gonna, you're just not going to fit in. And you need to get used to that. If you try to get too comfortable and friendly with the world, you're probably not friends with God. And so don't be discouraged if you say, "you know, I'm so tired of feeling like an odd ball here in this world when I tell them what I do and what I believe and how I live." And well, you're not an oddball in heavens eyes. You can't be fitting in in both kingdoms.
And so we want to be friends with Christ and his kingdom and do what he commands. Alright, read for us Proverbs 17:17. We ready? "A friend loveth at all times, and a brother is born for adversity." So is a person your friend if they say something that disappoints you, or they do something that disappoints you, and they say, "I was your friend until you did that?" Or what is the test of friendship? Isn't it when it says at all times even after they do something to annoy you, you can still be their friend? Even though you have an argument because you disagree over something, can you still be friends? I mean that's to me, in some respects, my best friends are the ones that are honest with me, and they'll kind of get in my face so to speak and they'll say, "doug, you know, what's wrong with you?" And they'll hold me accountable. But you know what? They'll be there. If I need something, they'll be there.
And that's how you know a real friend is there at all times, "and they're born for adversity." When you got a problem, when there's some challenge, they'll drop what they're doing, and they'll be there. Alright, we're going to go on. Oh by the way, Exodus 33:11, I just wanted to include this verse. It says, "so the Lord spoke to Moses face to face, as a man speaks to his friend." Now the Lord is our friend, he said so. Will we someday speak to him face to face? Talking about that in our sermon later today.
Next section discusses a great victory. Now I just want to set the stage for this. This is an interesting story. This is where one of jonathan's shining moments. It says in 1 Samuel 13:19, "now there was no blacksmith to be found in all the land of Israel, for the philistines had said, 'lest the Hebrews make swords or spears.
'" You know, by the way, in the middle eastern archaeology, they have proven that the philistines were masters at the use of iron. And they--they had all the forges and they had some of the skills for forging iron swords and chariots and tools. And back then there was an arms race. Some of the nations only had wood clubs, farm implements, pitchforks, and some of them maybe had bronze swords. But if you had iron, iron was state of the art technology back then.
Going into battle, I read about when the Greeks that used bronzed weapons and swords fought against the Romans who used iron. And if you had a good, sharp, high-tempered iron sword, you could actually cut a bronze sword, not just cut the person, you cut the sword. And so the philistines had a real fighting edge, you might say, in that they had these iron implements. And whenever the Israelites came down, they said, "we'd like to buy some iron, the philistines said, 'not on your life. We're not letting you have this nuclear material.
'" You know, it's just like we're so concerned about iran now getting this nuclear material, 'cause of the arms race, we thought, "boy, if they get that, then what's going to happen?" Isn't that kind of same principle, right? But the philistines had iron. The only iron that the Israelites had some iron farm tools. And it goes on to say--and they had to come to the philistines to sharpen their iron farm tools, the scythes and the plows and things. How humiliating. "But all the Israelites would go down to the philistines to sharpen each man his plowshare, his mattocks and his ax and his sickle.
" By the way, you remember that verse where Isaiah said that they were to hammer their plowshares into swords and spears. Talking about turning their farm implements into swords, 'cause that's the only iron they had. But you can read also 1 Samuel 17:45, "David said to the philistine, 'you come to me with a sword, and a spear, and a javelin.'" They were iron. "But I come to you in the name of the Lord of hosts, the God of the army of Israel, whom you have defied." David, he didn't even have a sword or a spear. He went with a rock.
I mean can you see how badly outnumbered the Israelites were to the philistines? They were basically coming with wooden clubs and rocks, and bows and arrows. They did have that. Now while we're using this. We're just wanting to set the stage. You men are going to like this stuff.
Someone read for me 1 Chronicles 12:2. 1 Chronicles 12:2, "armed with bows, using both the right hand and the left hand hurling stones and shooting arrows with the bow. They were of Benjamin, Saul's brethren." Alright, who is jonathan The Son of? Saul. His family, the people of kish, the benjamites, what was their skill and what did they have for weapons? Shooting the bow, slinging stones. Now I want to read the next verse here.
Judges 20:16, again talking about the benjamites in particular. "Among all this people were seven hundred select men who were left-handed." You notice we read in the previous verse, they could shoot--they were ambidextrous. They could sling stones, shoot arrows right or left handed. It says they could hurl stones left-handed, "at a hair's breadth and not miss." Now I don't know if that was an exaggeration, but David was pretty good, and he wasn't even a benjamite. So even though they didn't have all of the weapons that the philistines had, they got pretty good with their arrows and with their slings.
They could sling stones at a hair's breadth. Any of you seen some of these skirmishes they still have today between the palestinians and the Israelite soldiers? And you'll see them throwing stones, and sometimes you'll see them still slinging stones because they can sling a stone a whole lot farther than you can throw with your arm. And I've got friends that are not bad at it, and they've made slings. And you can sling a stone and put it through a half-inch piece of plywood. I mean they're not quite as powerful as a bullet, but they're a lot more powerful than what you're going to get with your arm.
And you could sling them like three times as far as you could throw one with your arm. And so it was pretty powerful artillery. And it was almost like having a gun if you were good. But in close combat, you can't be slinging a stone. You can't be firing an arrow.
They had nothing for close combat. You needed a sword. Now, having said all that--by the way, jonathan, you remember there was a story where he goes out with a boy, and he practices archery. They practiced these things. The boy thought he was just going out to practice, keeping his archery skills up.
He was actually sending messages to David. Some of you remember reading this story. So it was common for them to not only practice this. That's how they were good at it. Alright, now with that as a backdrop--you know what? I got to go to-- go to 1 Samuel 13.
I just want to read something here before we get to chapter 14. 1 Samuel 13, verse--I'm going to read verse 1, "Saul reigned one year; and when he had reigned two years over Israel," early in his reign, "Saul chose for himself three thousand men of Israel--" of the three thousand, "two thousand were with Saul in michmash in the mountains of bethel, and a thousand were with jonathan in gibeah of Benjamin." Now gibeah of Benjamin comes out another time. Just one more, one more word, just to give you the history of this, about the skill of the benjamite soldiers. Do you realize one time there was a war between the benjamites, some-- one little town in Benjamin really misbehaved. You read in the book of Judges, they terribly mistreated a woman, killed her, raped her.
And the other 11 tribes went against Benjamin. They said, "either turn over these men who've done this, or the whole nation is coming against you." Eleven tribes against one tribe. You all remember this story? Are you aware that the first two battles that all of Israel fought with Benjamin, they lost? They were some pretty tough soldiers, those benjamites. Then finally they just about decimated Benjamin in the last battle or two. There's only like 300 of them left.
And so it just about wiped out the tribe. But they were some pretty fierce soldiers. Anyway, and by the way, that happened in gibeah. So that was the headquarters of the tribe of Benjamin. Jonathan's got 1,000 soldiers.
Saul is kind of waiting around, not sure what he's going to do. Jonathan was such a man of action. He said, "look, I've got 1,000 soldiers. You got soldiers. Soldiers are for fighting.
There's an enemy. Let's go fight." That was his attitude. And so he starts taking action. And it says, "jonathan," he said, "dad gave me soldiers. What am I supposed to do?" It's like I heard one time about some parents that gave their 8 year old a hand ax for his birthday.
And then they told him, "don't chop anything." Well, what do you want him to do? And if you give a 20-year-old 1,000 soldiers, and there's an enemy, what do you think he's going to do? I mean what do you expect george Washington to do. Father gives him an ax, and he goes out and he chops down a tree. Well, you gotta try it on something. Back to our story. And so he gives him 1,000 soldiers, and what does he do? He "attacks the garrison of the philistines that was in gibeah," notice this, "and the philistines heard about it," eventually.
"And Saul blew the trumpet throughout all the land, saying, 'let the Hebrews hear!' Now all Israel heard that Saul had attacked the garrison." Was it Saul or was it jonathan? That's what you call the media spin. Saul didn't use his 2,000 solders, jonathan did use his 1,000 soldiers. Okay, so all these armies muster. And you know what? As you read it, you're going to find out that oh, let me see here. "The philistines gathered together thirty thousand chariots, six thousand horseman and people as the sand that is on the seashore in multitude.
" And they've all got iron weapons. And they're now coming out against the Israelites who are fewer in number with farm implements and some bows and arrows and slings. So it doesn't look good from a general's point of view. Now go to chapter 14:1. Now here we're talking about the great victory.
"Now it happened one day," in the midst of these armies mustering, and jonathan's already attacked the garrison, "that jonathan The Son of Saul says to the young man who bore his armor, 'come, let us go over to the philistines.'" By the way, "come, let us go." Those are very important words, those little words. Do you know salvation is summed up in those words, "come let us go?" Great invitation: "come unto me." And Jesus says, "go ye therefore." We come to Christ; we go for Christ. So he says to his armorbearer--" by the way, we are to follow Christ as the armorbearer followed jonathan. "Come, let us go over to the philistine garrison that is on the other side." "But he did not tell his father." Why didn't--now we're going to talk a little later, if we get to it, about The Father-son relationship. Why didn't he tell his father? Evidently Saul was sometimes indecisive.
And then he makes--then he would make this impulsive, irrational decisions. One day Saul said, "yeah, David is my friend." The next day he tries to kill him. Then he says, "no, he's my friend. I don't know what came over me." Then he tries to kill him again. And so Saul, I think, really had a lot of indecisiveness he struggled with.
Jonathan knew that. And so while his father's figuring out what to do--Abraham lincoln's biggest frustration at the beginning of the civil war is the north outnumbered the south two to one. They had a lot more weapons. Lincoln could not get his generals to attack. And he became so exasperated, he kept changing generals.
And they kept training and mustering their forces. And he said, "attack!" And he couldn't get them to attack. And so jonathan said, "let's go over to the philistines." Father didn't know. "Saul was sitting on the outskirts of gibeah under a tree," about 600 men. And all the men of Israel got scared and their hiding in the caves because they're so afraid of the mustering philistine army.
And verse 6, I'm in 1 Samuel 14:6, "and jonathan said to the young man who bore his armor, 'come, let us go over to the garrison of these uncircumcised--" now why did they call the philistines that? 'Cause on the other three sides of Israel, they had neighbors, the idomites, the moabites and the ammonites were all distant relatives of Israel, and they were circumcised. The philistines were especially obnoxious to the jews, because they were not only worshipping according to truth, they were also pagans. And so they referred to them as the uncircumcised. And it said, "let us go over to these uncircumcised, that it may be that the Lord will work for us. For nothing restrains the Lord from saving by few or many.
" Didn't Moses promise that two of you will chase a thousand? Or did he say one of you will chase a thousand? I think it's one. And ten of you will put-- or maybe he said ten of you will chase a hundred, ten of you will put a thousand to flight. I forget, anyway. But he talks about how the minority can chase the majority if they've got God with them. What did Samson do.
By the way, who lived first: jonathan, Samson, David? Samson. Do you think maybe jonathan is being inspired by the example of Samson? And same thing with David later. There's no restraint with the Lord, from saving by many or few. Can one person with faith preach and live in such a way there's a great revival for many, like Peter at pentecost? Let's bring out the Spiritual lessons in these things. "So his armorbearer said, 'do all that is in your heart.
'" In other words, "I trust you." And that's how we need to be with Christ. "Go then; here I am with you, according to your heart." And he said, "verily we'll go over and reveal ourselves to the philistines. If they say, 'wait until we come to you,' we'll stand still in our place." They were going up a very steep place, and they'd have an opportunity to escape then. "But if they say to us, 'come up to us,' then we'll go up. For the Lord has delivered them into our hand.
And this will be a sign to us." "So both of them showed themselves to the garrison of the philistines. And the philistines said, 'look, these Hebrews are coming out of the holes where they have hidden.'" Remember they were all hiding in the caves and the rocks, the pits. "And the men of the garrison called to jonathan and his armorbearer, 'come up to us, and we will show you something.'" "Come here, we want to show you something. "And jonathan said to his armorbearer, 'come up after me, the Lord has delivered them into the hand of Israel.'" You notice he doesn't say, "my hand." He's thinking about the nation. "And jonathan climbed up on his hands and knees with his armorbearer after them.
" And as they got to where the philistines were up at the top of this rugged bluff, jonathan one by one starts swinging his sword and he wounds them. And the armorbearer comes behind him and finishes them off. It says, "and they fell before jonathan." And there was a trembling among them. And it says he killed, "20 men in about an acre of land." So in this battle, jonathan and his armorbearer take on 20 philistine soldiers and they defeat them. That's pretty good.
I mean you, you know, you hear these stories about one guy took on three thugs. That's pretty impressive when someone tells a story like that. And some of those stories aren't all true, but one guy taking on 20? That's pretty impressive. Samson took on even more than that. And God--and it created a panic that went through the troop.
And it ended up that was the--basically that was the ripple in the water. That little skirmish with jonathan and his armorbearer--by the way, when we go into battle with Jesus, who goes before us? And we're to simply follow him. He's the one who knocked them down, the armorbearer finished them off. And that's what we're supposed to do. But there's a fight involved for us as well.
So he was a man of action, and he got a victory. 2 Kings 6:16, talking about few and many again. You remember when Elisha opened the eyes of his servant when they were surrounded by the assyrian army? And Elisha said to him, "do not fear, for those who are with us are more than those who are with them. And Elisha prayed, and said, 'Lord, I pray, open his eyes that he may see.' Then the Lord opened the eyes of the young man, and he saw. And behold, the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha.
" That's become a famous term, probably in part because of that movie about eric liddell called, "chariots of fire," that the angel of the Lord encamps around about those that fear him and delivers them. And so when you go into battle, it might look like there's few on earth, you and God are always a majority, aren't you? And he sends his angels to help us. So he was a man of faith. Alright, well I need to keep moving along here. Talk about the parent-child relationship quickly.
Jonathan also interceded for David. Does Jesus intercede for us? Jonathan interceded with his father for David. Does Jesus intercede with his father for us? Now, and this is 1 Samuel 19. I'll start with verse 1, "now Saul spoke to jonathan his son and to all his servants, that they should kill David; but jonathan, Saul's son, delighted greatly in David." And I'm jumping down to the end to verse 7. And he said, "as the Lord lives," finally after the intercession of jonathan, he says, "as the Lord lives, he shall not be killed.
" "Then jonathan called David, and jonathan told him all these things. And jonathan brought David to Saul," his father, "and he was in his presence at past times." Have we been separated from The Father? Who was it in this story that intercedes to restore David to The Father? It was jonathan, the gift of God. Who is it that intercedes because we are separated from The Father? Now I realize that the reason for the separation is different here. In this case, Saul was brooding and having problems. But still the story.
You see the allegory here? That jonathan intercedes and he reconciled his friend, David, with his father. Christ is our friend. He intercedes and restores us to The Father. Aren't you glad for that? That's wonderful. That gives us great hope.
I'm looking here and I'm running out of time. Sometimes jonathan kept his father accountable. Now someone look up for me Ephesians 6:1-3. Who did we give that to? Got that right here. Let's get a microphone.
You're all armed and ready to go, as they say, "locked and loaded." But alright, before you read that emily, I want to read something else. 1 Kings 15:13, "also he," king asa, "removed maachah his grandmother from being queen, because she had made an obscene image to asherah." Is there a time when children must even hold their parent's accountable? It should be done respectfully. But here you had a king. His mother had turned to idolatry. He said, "mom--" or actually, some call--the King James calls it his mother, it's probably really his grandmother.
That word was sometimes used interchangeably. And she was the granddaughter of absalom. And she had got turned to idolatry, said, "you can't be queen. You're going to corrupt the whole kingdom by that." But we are to--you read your verse now, emily. "Children, obey your parents in the Lord for this is right.
Honor your father and mother, which is the first commandment with promise, that it may be well with you and you may live long on the earth." So you see jonathan doing this in his intercession with his father, his father was really doing the wrong thing with David. Jonathan needed to respectfully--he honored his father, but he challenged him. And he reasoned with him, and Saul actually listened. Alright, I'm going to have to just go down here and sum things up for you real quick. Finally the wonderful thing about jonathan was he knew that Samuel had anointed David to be king in his place.
How would you act if this young whippersnapper shepherd, your father's just become the first king of Israel, you're in line to be the first crowned prince, but God has chosen someone else in your place, would you maybe feel a little threatened by that person? I think most of us in our carnal nature would think, "what right does he have to think that he's going to be king?" But jonathan loved the Lord so much, he said, "if that's God's choice, that's what I want. I want what God wants. Even if it means that I lose my throne, I love David so much, I want him to be enthroned." Did Jesus lay aside his throne and come to earth so we could reign with him? Think about what an incredible character and hero jonathan is that he might lay that aside. Someone read for me John 3:29. Who has that? Right here, gene, John 3:29-30.
And this attitude that John the baptist had about Jesus is the same attitude that jonathan had about David. "He who has the bride is the bridegroom; but the friend of the bridegroom, who stands and hears him, rejoices greatly because of the bridegroom's voice. Therefore this joy of mine is fulfilled. He must increase, but I must decrease." From the time that jonathan and David became friends, jonathan resigned himself. He said, "I know that you're going to be king.
You must increase; I must decrease. I'll serve you anyway. If God has chosen you, I'm happy with that. That's the right attitude to have. I mean when adonijah found out that David had chose his younger brother, Solomon, instead of him, as soon as David got week, he tried to take the throne by force.
He didn't want God's choice. And that's how many in the world would act, but that wasn't the attitude of jonathan. It was noble. Well finally they never really did get to spend time together. It was sad.
And there was a terrible battle because of Saul's irresponsibility and his unfaithfulness, the philistines came out against him. Saul had grieved away the Holy Spirit. He went to a witch. And they ultimately engaged the philistine army the next day. And there was a great battle.
1 Samuel 31:2, "then the philistines followed hard after Saul and his sons. And the philistines killed jonathan, abinadab, and malchishua, The Sons of Saul." And you go to verse 12--now after they were killed, it says the philistines then searching through the bodies the next day, they found Saul and his three sons. And they took them to beth shan, which was the crossroads in the land of Israel that the philistines occupied. And on the walls on the outside of the city of beth shan, they suspended between heaven and earth the bodies of Saul, Saul's head was cut off, and jonathan--we don't know whether or not jonathan was decapitated, it does not say--and his other two brothers. And then there's a beautiful story.
It says in verse 12, "all the valiant men," of jabesh gilead, they "traveled all night, and they took the bodies of Saul and the bodies of his son from the wall of beth shan; and they came to jabesh and mourned." Do you know why jabesh did that? Who knows? When Saul first became king, there was a wicked king of ammon. And he told the people of jabesh, he says, "you surrender to me and I'm going to pluck out the right eye of everybody. And when Saul heard that that was his terms of peace, otherwise he was going to annihilate them, he came and he rescued the city of jabesh. And he saved them. And so the men of jabesh, whatever was left after that battle, they put their lives on the line, they went and rescued the bodies of Saul.
And so there's a little story there. Now isn't it interesting that The Son of the King died, that David might reign, suspended between heaven and earth. Isn't that what jonathan did? Isn't that what Jesus did? Jonathan is so much like Christ. Here he gives his armor to David. He gives his robe.
He gives his bow. He gives his sword. He gives his throne. And then he dies suspended between heaven and earth, like Christ. And the same way that someone came to retrieve the body of Jesus, and even the friends of John the baptist came to retrieve his beheaded body, the friend of the bridegroom.
There's so many parallels in this story between David and jonathan and Jesus, the friend--and John the baptist, the friend of Jesus, that it's just phenomenal that he's obviously a type of Christ. Jonathan, I'm looking forward to meeting him. Aren't you? And he's--you know, life isn't always fair. Anyway, it's a wonderful story about a great background character, and I hope I was able to do it justice. A lot of things I was able-- I had to leave out.
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