Thoughts on 1 Samuel 14
…..“Let’s go across to the outpost of those pagans,” Jonathan said to his armor bearer. “Perhaps the Lord will help us, for nothing can hinder the Lord. He can win a battle whether he has many warriors or only a few!”….
1 Samuel 14:6 NLT
In this chapter, the importance of spiritual character in effective leadership came to fore. Saul as a leader appeared to have missed the mark with some of his actions.
For example;
– he had no communication with Jonathan, his son(14:1,17) so was unaware of his son’s plan.
– he made a foolish curse (14:24)
– he ignored the well-being of his own soldiers (14:31)
– the battle against the Philistines reached a deadlock and Saul was indecisive on providing direction for his men
From the earlier chapters, we can deduce that Saul’s poor leadership may not have been due to personality traits, but his decaying spiritual character.
We saw on the other hand, that though Jonathan did not have the authority to lead all the troops into battle against the Philistine army, together with his armour-bearer, they acted bravely and in faith. They trusted God, knowing that the size of the enemy army would not restrict God’s ability to help them and God honoured their faith and bravery with a tremendous victory.
The action of these men is therefore an inspiration to us to completely trust God, knowing that even when we are surrounded by the enemy or faced with overwhelming odds, God is never intimidated by the size of the enemy or the complexity of a problem. With Him, there will always be enough resources to win our battles.
In facing a difficult situation that is beyond one’s control, the question to ask oneself is, “what steps can I take now to work towards a solution?” A few small steps may just be what is needed to begin the chain of events leading to eventual victory. Jonathan and his armour-bearer weren’t much of a force to attack the huge Philistine army, but they could start a skirmish in one corner of the enemy camp. When they did, panic broke out among the Philistines, the Hebrews who had been drafted into the Philistine army revolted, and the men who were hiding in the hills regained their courage and returned to fight. Jonathan’s small step ended the deadlock and won Israel the battle.
