Gibeah

Transcript

This transcript was generated automatically from the audio and may contain small errors.

It's good to be here, South Burleson Baptist. Hi, my name is Jared Cauzy. I attend along with my wife and daughter Ellie. They're here. They're in the back there. Ellie is 17 months old. And my wife and I, Amy, we celebrate our six-year anniversary, marriage anniversary, yesterday. So had a nice dinner. Thank you. I'm sure many of you who have been married for 20 years are like, that's nothing. So I'm very blessed to have such a wife and a daughter. So it is good to be here this morning. We go to Gracie Baptist Church. I'm a member there, and we just serve faithfully at that church. We've been going there since 2019, February of 2019. And so it is just such a joy to be at a sister church on the Lord's day. Because even though we go to different churches, we serve the same Savior. We are united in Christ together. That bonds us together, no matter what church we are members at.

And so it's such a pleasure to be here. I want to thank Pastor Drew for inviting me to be here this morning. It's just such a joy to be with you. I do go to Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary. I got to mention that, of course. And I do work there now. This is my first week of being in the registrar's office. So if you're interested in going to Southwestern and registering for classes, just let me know. I'm your guy now for that. And so I study church history and historical theology in the Ph.D. program. That means I read a lot of Old Dead Guys and Ladies. Actually, my dissertation will be... I will write on a lady named Phoebe Palmer, who is... If you're interested in about her, or if you know who that is, I'll be glad to share more about that later. But most of you do not care about that. And that's perfectly okay. Only I do. So that's why I'm there.

So if you would, turn in your Bibles to 1 Samuel chapter 14 verses 1 through 23. 1 Samuel chapter 14 verses 1 through 23. And so as I said, I study church history and historical theology. And I have the pleasure of reading many men and women in church history that have written and said and done great, great things for the cause of Christ. Just a few examples of this. A man named Irenaeus, if you don't know who that is, definitely recommend some of his writings. He was a fantastic preacher and herald of the gospel. Augustine is another one. He... many of you might have read his Confessions. It's such a fantastic book. Thomas Aquinas, who is also another figure in church history that I've found to be quite edifying. Martin Luther, John Calvin, Jonathan Edwards. These are all other figures in church history that I've read personally. I've gleaned much from. But one thing I have noticed as I have gone further in my study

is that these were... even they were fantastic in many ways. They had incredible flaws. They had incredible flaws. They had some weird theology. Irenaeus had said some things. I'm like, dude, how did you come up with that? Augustine believed in some things that as Baptists, we would kind of get a little uncomfortable with. Aquinas, same thing. Luther said some pretty crazy things against the Jews. And so it's John Calvin. He supported the execution of heretics. That's another story. Jonathan Edwards owned slaves. I mean, these are flawed men despite their... some of their good theology, some of their good spirituality that we can glean from. The point is that while these men are admirable, they also sinned against a holy God. That's why church history, I think, is so fascinating because I can glean a lot from it. But it's also humbling because it kind of shows me that despite

all the good I might think I believe in, theologically, I still have faults. I still, in more serious matter, I sin against a holy God on a daily basis. And it's truly humbling to look at these men and say, 100 years from now, 200 years from now, people will study this time in church history and look at some of us and some of our church leaders and say, man, you missed it there. And so it's just humbling. But the point of that is to point us to the story that we're about to read because there's a man in this story. This man, his name is King Saul. Maybe you've heard of him. He's the king over Israel, and even though he is the king over God's people, he messed up a lot. He sinned against a holy God. A man that should herald the truth, should stand for justice, should lead God's people into worshiping God, into obeying the law of God. He ultimately messed up. He sinned against a holy God.

And so the person that we expect in King Saul to do what is right in any given situation, in this particular story, he fails to do this. And instead, maybe an unlikely figure by the name of Jonathan that if you're just looking at this story in a vacuum, you read it, you're thinking the king should be the one making the right decisions. This man, Jonathan, does not, does make the right decision in spite of his father. And so as we read this, we're going to see that the story, in essence, it's not really meant to elevate Jonathan. It's not meant to just disparage the man King Saul. Instead, it's to point us to a greater king, King Jesus. And so if you would read along with me in chapter 14 of verse Samuel, verse 1, it says, One day Jonathan, the son of Saul, said to the young man who carried his armor, Come, let us go over to the Philistine garrison on the other side.

But he did not tell his father. Saul was staying in the outskirts of Gibeah in the Pomegranate cave at Migran. The people who were with him were about 600 men, including Hijjah, the son of Hijataba, Ichabod's brother, son of Phineas, son of Eli, the priest of the Lord in Shiloh, wearing an ephod. And the people did not know that Jonathan had gone. Within the passes by which Jonathan sought to go over to the Philistine garrison, there was a rocky crag on the one side and a rocky crag on the other side. The name of the one was Bozaz and the name of the other was Sini. The one crag rose on the north in front of McMash and the other on the south in front of Geba. Jonathan said to the young man who carried 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 can hinder the Lord from saving by many or by few.

And his armor bearer said to him, Do all that is in your heart, do as you wish. Behold, I am with you heart and soul. Then Jonathan said, Behold, we will cross over to the men and we will show ourselves to them. If they say to us, Wait until we come to you, then we will stand still in our place and we will not go up to them. But if they say, Come to us, come up to us, then we will go up, for the Lord has given them into our hand. And this shall be the sign to us. So both of them showed themselves to the garrison of the Philistines. And the Philistine said, Look, Hebrews are coming out of the holes where they have hidden themselves and the men of the garrison held Jonathan and his armor bearer and said, Come up to us and we will show you a thing. And Jonathan said to his armor bearer, Come up after me, for the Lord has given them into the hand of Israel. Then Jonathan climbed up on his hands and feet

and his armor bearer after him, and they fell before Jonathan and his armor bearer killed them after him. And that first strike, which Jonathan and his armor bearer made, killed about 20 men within, as it were, half a furrow's length in an acre of land. And there was a panic in the camp, in the field, and among all the people, the garrison, and even the raiders trembled, the earthquake, and it became a very great panic. And the watchmen of Saul and Gibeah, Benjamin, looked, and behold, the multitude was dispersing here and there. Then Saul said to the people who were with him, Count, and see who has gone from us. And when they had counted, behold, Jonathan and his armor bearer were not there. So Saul said to Hijah, Bring the ark of God here, for the ark of God went at that time with the people of Israel. Now while Saul was talking to the priest, the tumult in the camp of the Philistines

increased more and more. So Saul said to the priest, Withdraw your hand. Then Saul and all the people who were with him rallied and went into the battle, and behold, every Philistine's sword was against his fellow, and there was very great confusion. Now the Hebrews who had been with the Philistines before that time and who had gone up with them into the camp, even they also turned to be with the Israelites who were with Saul and Jonathan. Likewise, when all the men of Israel who had hidden themselves in the hill country of Iphraim heard that the Philistines were fleeing, they too followed hard after them in the battle. So the Lord saved Israel that day. And the battle passed beyond Beth-Avon. This is the reading of God's perfect and holy word. Let's pray together. God, you are so gracious to us. As we are reading and gleaning from your word, God, may your spirit move in this place.

May you impart unto us your truth. God, may we honor you today. Thank you for this wonderful church. I ask that you bless them, bless their pastor. God, allow this church to shine your light into this dark world. In Jesus' name we pray, amen. And so in this text, even though Saul was the king and father of Jonathan, so he's supposed to be the superior one here obviously, this story outlines for us that it was through Jonathan's obedience that God would deliver his people from death. That's the whole point of this story. I want to make that clear. This is not just about Jonathan and his obedience, even though that's a part of the narrative. No, this is about God, about God saving his people, about God's faithfulness. And that's what we should all glean from this morning. So just a bit of context. As we have stated, Saul is king over Israel. He is quite unfaithful.

At this point in time, God has already kind of put him aside. Even though Saul is still technically king, God is beginning to deal with him and condemn him in a mighty way. And we see this in large part in this story as a result of Saul's disobedience. We see God kind of humiliate him by using his son. By using his son who, again, Saul would be the wise one, the strong one to lead Israel. Instead, God turns to Saul's son and uses him instead. And so as you read in this story, you can tell that Israel's facing a treacherous foe, the Philistines. So this is near Gibeah, and they're there, and they're gathered there. They're ready to attack Israel, the people of God there, led by Saul. But we see in verses one through five, we see Jonathan leaves in secret. He knows the Philistines are out there, and he leaves in secret. He doesn't tell anyone, and he takes his armor bearer.

He takes this servant with him, and this armor bearer is faithful. He is faithful to Jonathan, but ultimately to God himself. So Jonathan and this armor bearer show themselves to be more faithful than the king. It's quite astounding if you think about it. And so we see it says, it may be that the Lord will work for us, for nothing can hinder the Lord from saving by many or by few. This is Jonathan saying this, and he basically announces his intention here. He declares that God would save Israel, that God would save by many people or few. It depends on, Jonathan says, it's all up to God. God can do whatever he pleases, whatever the Lord's will is. Jonathan says, I'm his servant, and I'm going to do as he pleases. And so Jonathan trusts in the Lord. Before acting, Jonathan tells the armor bearer not to attack the Philistines unless God gives a particular side.

So they begin going to the Philistines, and basically Jonathan gives him clear instruction that we're going to, basically we're going to call out to these Philistines, and unless they tell us to come up, we're not going to attack. So Jonathan trusts in the Lord. Now, in verses 8 through 10 we see this play out, but think about this. Now, I'm not a military strategist, so I'm kind of speaking kind of as someone who doesn't know anything really about this topic, but this does not seem like a smart military strategy here. Jonathan and the armor bearer are walking up. They do not have the high ground. That's the Star Wars reference if you didn't catch that. They do not have the high ground. They're going up to this mountaintop here, and they do not have the advantage from a military standpoint. They would have to, basically Jonathan is saying, unless they recognize us and call us up, we're not going to attack.

So he's basically saying, we're not going to do a surprise attack. They're forfeiting any sense of a surprise attack here, and so basically this is a terrible strategy from a military standpoint. Again, this doesn't make any sense, but Jonathan declares that it's all, if we win, if we survive, if we kill the Philistines here, it's because God delivered us and the Israelites from the enemy. And so Jonathan and the armor bearer ensure that it wasn't going to be because of their skill. It wasn't going to be because of their strategy. It wasn't going to be because of their cleverness. It's going to be because of the power of God to save his people. That's what it's all about here. So verses 11 through 15, we see that Jonathan's trust in God leads him into action, him and the armor bearer. If you go back to verse 11, so both of them, so both of them showed themselves to the garrison of the Philistines,

and the Philistines said, look, Hebrews are coming out of the halls where they have hidden themselves, and the men of the garrison held Jonathan and his armor bearer, and said, come up to us and we will show you a thing. Basically, the Philistines are saying, come up here. We're going to show you who's boss. We're going to kill you. And so Jonathan hears this and says, come up after me, for the Lord has given them into the hand of Israel. The Lord has given them into the hand of Israel. Not Jonathan. He didn't say, oh, I'm giving them into the hand of Israel. He's not saying that. Jonathan is giving up any sense of victory here on his own. It's God who is achieving the victory on behalf of Israel. Verse 13, then Jonathan climbed up on his hands and feet and his armor bearer after him, and they fell before Jonathan. The Philistines fell before Jonathan, and his armor bearer killed them after him.

And so chaos ensues. The Philistines begin to run around. They are in trouble. And so God uses Jonathan's obedience to save the people of God. But again, this is a gracious act of salvation here. This is not because Jonathan is so great and mighty and worthy. It's because God has said it would be so. God said, I will save my people. Then verses 16 through 22, we see that Saul sees this happening. He responds to the destruction of the Philistines, verses 18 through 20. So Saul said to Hijah, Hijah is the high priest on behalf of Israel. And so before every battle, there would be a sort of religious practice, a religious act that would take place to commence an attack. And so at first Saul is obedient in this, following the law of God and saying, OK, let's Hijah bring the Ark of God here. And it says, for the Ark of God, when at that time were the people of Israel?

And so at first this is like, oh, great, Saul is actually doing something right here. He's doing what the law of God says. He's asking the high priest to come out with the Ark of God, and they're going to commence this battle. But that's not what ends up happening, unfortunately. It says, now while Saul was talking to the priests, the tumult in the camp on the Philistines increased more and more. So Saul said to the priests, withdraw your hand. Then Saul and all the people who were with him rallied and went into the battle. Saul was disobedient here once again. Now if you read in prior chapters, you see the disobedience of Saul occurring. Pretty much every story that we see in the most recent text. But Saul was supposed to initiate this religious observation to commence this battle. At first he begins to follow through with this, but then he says to the high priest,

no, never mind, the chaos is going. It's time to go into battle. Saul is disobedient here. He is a disobedient king. He's a disobedient leader. So the priestly activities cease, and they begin to attack the Philistines along with Jonathan and the Armor Bear. So in chapter 13, earlier I mentioned earlier passages, in chapter 13 we see Saul is filled with fear and determined to disobey God. This is chapter 13, but in this chapter we see how unfaithful and disqualified Saul is to lead the people of God. He's not patient. He's not relying on the commands of God to obey faithfully the commands of God. He shows himself to be disobedient. Verse 23 though gives us hope that despite the sin of Saul, despite his lack of obedience here, there is great hope. Verse 23 is probably my favorite part of the text. After all is said and done, after the Israelites begin to fight and kill the Philistines,

it says, so the Lord saved Israel that day. So the Lord saved Israel that day. Not Jonathan. Does it say, so Jonathan saved Israel that day? Does it say the Armor Bear? And it certainly doesn't say Saul. It says the Lord, God. He saves Israel that day. And so once again, we turn to the main component of this text, and that is this, that this story is about not about Saul's disobedience or even Jonathan's obedience. It is about God's salvation from beginning to end. You know, throughout the Bible we see, and throughout history as well, we see that even the best of men will fell us, will fell us. If you look at church history, you read about all these fantastic preachers, theologians, missionaries, et cetera, and you realize, yes, they've done wonderful things, but they will still fell us, or have felled God and his people to a certain degree, of course. But even today, we see in the news, we see men that claim to love God,

claim to herald the gospel, but they have felled mightily. Lay people, church leaders, it doesn't matter. Everyone involved in the bringing of the gospel message to the nations at some point fell those who were around them. I fell, I fell my family at times. And the point of recognizing this is not to say, oh, poor pitiful us, it is to say that we, because of our failures, we must cling ever more to the true King, King Jesus. We must cling to him and him alone. We can't put our trust ultimately in others, in other men, in other women. We must put our trust in Jesus ultimately. And so Christ is the one that we are to look to, that, yes, King Saul, he was a king for a time, but his kingship only points us, encourages us to look to the ultimate King, King Jesus, and what he did. And notice this, King Jesus, when he demonstrated his power here on earth, he didn't do it with a sword, he didn't do it with leading a military legion.

No, he did it by laying his life down for his sheep. That is a servant King, King Jesus. Now, one day he will return, and he will not return in the same way that when he was here on this earth, he will return as, with vengeance upon his enemies. The Bible is clear about that in Revelation. So Christ will one day return as this warrior king, setting up judgment, but until that moment, until that time, Christ invites sinners to come to him, to come to his throne, to come to the cross to lay down their pride and to look to him, who is the author of salvation. Hebrews 12, verses 1 through 2 says, Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him, endured the cross,

despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God. For all of us here today, no matter what you've done in the past, no matter what you're doing in this current season of life, no matter if you're stuck in sin at this moment, no matter if you're going through a time of depression and tribulation, no matter who you are, what you're going through, no matter if you are actually on the mountaintop and you're doing well, the Lord is blessing you, things are going well. All of us here, no matter what, we are to look to Jesus because why? He is the founder and perfecter of our faith. He is the one that gives us faith and he perfects that faith within us. And because of that, we must look to him every single day as the king. He demonstrated this, but because he says, who for the joy that was set before him, he endured the cross, despising the shame and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.

Christ demonstrated his kingship by laying his life down, by being raised from the death, thus defeating death and sin. But also because he is now ruling and reigning today. So church, it is, we are to look to him for everything, for every problem that we have, every sin that we are committing and whatever we are struggling with, we must turn to him, because he is the king over the universe. He has the power to allow us and to draw us to him, to defeat sin in our own lives. There's a wonderful quote, I believe it's by John Owen, who says, kill sin or sin will be killing you. So we must be actively killing our sin, but the only way for us to kill our sin is by trusting in Christ every single day. I believe firmly that there is a point in time where God saves us individually. We are converted. We believe in the gospel for the very first time, but I don't believe salvation ends right there.

Every single day of our life, God is continuing to save us, to mold us into his likeness, to sanctify us. We must trust in him every day as the true king, because just as God saved Jonathan and the Israelites and even saw, despite his disobedience, he saves his people today. And so we must trust in him. He delivers his people from sin. He delivers his people from hopelessness. There are many people in our world that are, and this might be you, but that are going through times that are unimaginable. You maybe have lost a loved one. You might have received news from the doctor about a particular illness. Might have experienced some type of hardship related to your job. No matter what it is, Christ is there to not necessarily take the pain away, but to be with us in the midst of the pain, to give us peace and joy that we can never experience in any other way.

So may we trust in Christ today. Christ also delivers us from eternal death, that once we pass from this life, there's two locations we can appear in after death, and that is either in heaven or hell, one of the two. There's no third option there. And those that are in Christ are delivered from eternal punishment, eternal death. He is our hope. We must trust in him today. And if we do that, then in a way we're going to be like Jonathan and the armor bearer in a sense, and we're giving all glory to God for saving us, for bringing us out of despair and destruction and death and into life. He offers life to us. And if you are here today, you've never placed your faith in Jesus. There's an invitation waiting for you right now. Christ is extending his hand. All you have to do is to lay down your pride, admit that you have sinned against a holy God, believe in your heart that Christ is Lord and Savior.

He was raised from the dead, and you must confess that. And yes, I just introduced the ABCs of becoming a Christian. I think it's a very underrated way of expounding on the gospel there. So may we turn to Christ today, who is the true king for us to look to, that he surpasses all of our expectations, and that in comparison to him, all of our heroes of the faith are nothing compared to King Jesus. So that's why we should trust in him today. So that is my encouragement to you. That's what I'll leave you with. Trust in King Jesus today for your salvation, for rescue from hopelessness, and from the future eternal death it would be rescued from. Let's pray. Dear God, we are so grateful for you today. Lord, we cannot begin to express and expound on what it means to experience your love and mercy on a daily basis. God, may we turn to you today. May we trust in you.

May we understand that in stories like this, that ultimately the hero is not the individuals that appear in the story like Jonathan or Saul or the Armor Bear. Ultimately, God, you are the hero of the entire Bible from beginning to end. And God, we are grateful that we can look to this and see that God, it doesn't ride on us. This salvation isn't based on us and our capabilities. God, it's based on you. So God, may your spirits dwell within us today. May you move in us today. May you lead South Burleson in every decision they make to gather corporately and individually as church members. May you draw us to yourself, to your throne, this morning.