If ever there was encouragement that sons w ith ignoble fathers can still be noble men, this is it.
“Saul,” dispirited and disinherited from his kingship, “was sitting in the outskirts of Gibeah under a pomegranate tree” (1 Sam 14:2). How eloquent! Symbolic pomegranates were placed around the hem of the high priest’s garment, interspersed with gold bells. Like the life of every believer, we are to be marked by fruitfulness and testimony. The pomegranate is packed with seeds, in number between 200 and 1,400! But it’s hard-shelled and must be broken to reach its potential. How like Saul—and perhaps you and me—as the Lord works to bring us to the point of yielding to Him. By contrast, the Lord immediately gives an example of the opposite principle at work. “It happened one day that Jonathan the son of Saul said to the young man who bore his armor, ‘Come, let us go over to the Philistines’ garrison that is on the other side.’ But he did not tell his father” (v 1). How tragic when the ones who should be our spiritual leaders are obstacles to victory! Saul imagined that, with only 600 men, he mustn’t try to rout these Philistines from their fortress. But Jonathan, accompanied only by his armorbearer, has a different calculus. “It may be that the Lord will work for us. For nothing restrains the Lord from saving by many or by few” (v 6). Here was their simple plan: “we will show ourselves to them” (v 8). If the Philistines say, “We’re coming down,” we’ll stay put and fight them here. If they say, “Come on up,” we’ll climb up and fight them there. The two options—fight or…fight! The foe replied, “Come up to us, and we will show you something” (v 12). But the “something” shown that day was the death of “about twenty men within about half an acre” (v 14), and the truth that “If God is for us, who can be against us?” (Rom 8:31).