Faith, Entropy, And You

2 And Saul tarried in the uttermost part of Gibeah under a pomegranate tree which is in Migron: and the people that were with him were about six hundred men;

KJV

Word reaches Jonathan about his father and Israel’s predicament. There are only two swords in the whole of Israel all but 600 men have fled for their lives Saul has acted in haste causing him to eventually lose his throne and the Philistines have grown so large that they seem unbeatable. If a system is left to itself disorder and deterioration occur. So what does Jonathan do? What is Jonathan’s plan for breaking the equation? He goes and gets his armour bearer and says…“Let’s cross over the enemy line and visit the Philistine outpost.”

1 Sam 14:4-7

4 Between the passes, by which Jonathan sought to go over to the Philistines' garrison, there was a sharp rock on one side and a sharp rock on the other side. And the name of one was Bozez, and the name of the other Seneh.

5 The front of one faced northward opposite Michmash, and the other southward opposite Gibeah.

6 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."

7 So his armorbearer said to him, "Do all that is in your heart. Go then; here I am with you, according to your heart."

NKJV

Jonathan calls his armour bearer and says…“Here’s the plan. Everybody else in Israel is hiding under a rock or in a cave.Dad is an hour’s walk away. You and me are going to get up and walk over to the Philistines outpost. It MAY BE that God will intercede on our behalf.” Does this sound like a plan to you? “It MAY BE?” Jonathan knows that something needs to be done. Dad’s plan failed. And yet the Philistines are the enemy. Rather than sitting back and waiting for the hand to appear out of thin air and write on the wall, Jonathan decides that some action is better than inaction. How many times have we as Christians been guilty of sitting back waiting on a sign from God? Meanwhile the enemy is out gaining more and more of our territory! Instead of trying to solve the world’s problems in our own strength perhaps what we need to do is GET UP and place our faith in God! Jonathan’s armour bearer says…“Man that sounds good to me. What are we waiting on?” Then Jonathan reveals the rest of the plan.

1 Sam 14:8-10

8 Then Jonathan said, "Very well, let us cross over to these men, and we will show ourselves to them.

9 If they say thus to us, 'Wait until we come to you,' then we will stand still in our place and not go up to them.

10 But if they say thus, 'Come up to us,' then we will go up. For the Lord has delivered them into our hand, and this will be a sign to us."

NKJV

“Ok. So the plan is we’re going to cross over into enemy territory and stand there and see how they respond to us.” Right about here is where you start to think