All through the lives of Saul, David and Solomon, we see Israel faced with a familiar and stubborn enemy; the Philistines. During the time of King Saul and his son, Jonathan, Scripture mentions in 1 Samuel 13:2 that Israel only had 3000 fighting men at the time. The men were divided as follows: 2000 men stationed with Saul at Michmash and the hill country of Bethel, while the remaining 1000 were with Jonathan at Gibeah.

The story continues with Jonathan taking the initiative by attacking and defeating a Philistine garrison at Geba. The Philistines quickly retaliate by gathering 30 000 chariots, 6000 horsemen and troops in multitude to fight against Saul. Verse 5 states that the Philistine troops were ‘like sand on the seashore’. Heavily outnumbered, the men of Israel hid in caves, thickets, cellars and in dry cisterns. Others fled across the Jordan river. The people who were following Saul to Gilgal trembled in fear and anticipation (verse 7).

I believe the theme of the story is revealed in verses eight through ten which mentions that Samuel, the priest, was not with Saul and did not arrived as Saul expected. Saul, acts in fear by attempting to force God’s hand by bringing a burnt offering himself. This was prohibited by God’s Law. When Samuel confronts Saul regarding his foolish action

Firstly, he acted on his own will without consulting with the Lord first.

Secondly, the priest was absent and that speaks to the absence of God’s presence or we can say, blessing on our decision.

Thirdly, Saul wanted to bring the burnt offering before the Lord, to obtain His favour.

Having been selected and appointed by God Himself to be the king of His people, why didn’t he already know that he was favoured by the Lord? The answer is quite obvious, I don’t think he had the conviction in heart to allow himself to be God’s anointed. His poor self-image already disqualified him to be used by God. He was already selected and anointed by God, but his own character shortcomings prohibited him from learning God’s ways.

Note that at the time of Saul’s decision to go ahead with the offering, the Philistines weren’t attacking yet, they were only assembling (Verse 11). Also note that as soon as he made his decision, then Samuel arrived.

After informing Saul that God had sought another man (David) to take his place, Samuel leaves to join Jonathan at Gibeah. We can only speculate, but perhaps God wanted Saul to unite his forces with those of Jonathan to bring about a mighty victory where the odds were heavily against His people, 30000 Philistines to Israel’s combined 3000 or a ratio of 10: 1.

The results of following your own will away from God’s purpose can be summed up as,

• After Saul’s men fled and hid, he only had six hundred men available (verse 15) to fight. He encountered loss even before the actual battle.
• Saul’s men were attacked from three fronts simultaneously.

The most shocking part I left to last as described in 1 Samuel 13:19-22:

¹⁹ Now no ^[g]blacksmith (metal-worker) could be found in all the land of Israel, for the Philistines said, “Otherwise the Hebrews will make swords or spears.” ²⁰ So all [the men of] Israel went down to the Philistines, each to get his plowshare, pick, axe, or sickle sharpened. 

²¹ The fee [for sharpening] was a pim (two-thirds of a shekel) for the plowshares, the picks, the pitchforks, and the axes, and to straighten the goads (cattle prods). 

²² So it came about on the day of battle that ^[h]neither sword nor spear was found in the hands of any of the people who were with Saul and Jonathan;

Not only did the Philistines cunningly arrange that weapons could not be manufactured, but Israel also had to ask their enemy to make tools for them and they had to pay for it! Can you imagine the quality of those weapons? The Philistines were wholly in control and Israel, under Saul, was incurring loss after loss.

But verse 22 goes further to explain where the purpose and favour of God was focused, it mentions only two people who had weapons:

‘but Saul and Jonathan his son had them’.

Of those two men, the only fighter able to wield the weapon in God’s name was Jonathan who is, in my view, a type or a shadow of somebody who waits on the Lord for help and understands that he is always favoured as God’s anointed. Within God’s will, any confrontation will be overcome with God’s help if the individual acts in faith, no matter how outnumbered or irrational the situation may seem.

Praise God for having our backs!

God bless you.