READING FOR MARCH 18, 2025: 1 SAMUEL 14, ROMANS 4, PSALM 21:1-7 1 SAMUEL 14 Jonathan was a person who truly believed in God’s power and faithfulness more than he was discouraged by apparently negative circumstances. Despite the huge numerical and technological advantage of the Philistines, he encouraged his amour bearer to accompany him to the Philistines encampment to see what the Lord could do on their behalf. He reasoned “the Lord is not restrained to save by many or by few” (vs. 6). That’s good reasoning and should be part of our eagerness to act in support of the Kingdom of God here in Yorktown. He constructed a test: if the Philistines invited them to come to them, then he would know God was going to deliver them to Israel. That’s what happened. Philistine men fell before Jonathan and his armor bearer. The initial killing of about 20 Philistines, along with a God-induced earthquake, snowballed to a general trembling in the entire camp. Take a Jonathan step of faith today.
As this victory unfolded in the sight of Saul’s watchmen, for some reason, Saul ordered that his troops be numbered—rather than join this obvious route of the enemy. All he learned from that exercise was that Jonathan and his armor bearer were not present. Again, instead of joining in this God-given route in process, he asked that the ark be brought to the field. Finally, the commotion of the Philistines grew so that Saul could not ignore it any longer. He and people eventually joined the battle, and the Lord delivered Israel that day.
Leaders have to make decisions, but Saul’s decisions here show no awareness of what God was doing and whom He was blessing. Don’t allow ignorance or jealousy to stymie our effectiveness for God. His next order was even worse. He told his obedient, exhausted, and victorious soldiers not to eat any food until evening. Sounds decisive, but it was foolish and uncaring. While they were chasing the Philistines, they entered a forest flowing with honey. Jonathan, who had not heard Saul’s command, ate some and felt better immediately. When informed of Saul’s command, he commented that this order limited Israel victory. When the famished people finally captured the Philistine’s food, they mindlessly ate meat containing blood in clear violation of God’s law. Saul rightly made sure the law was followed. Then he asked God if he should continue pursuing the Philistines but received no reply.
Saul launched an investigation into the people’s sin that day. He used a lottery system, which selected Jonathan as the person who first violated Saul’s order. Jonathan confessed and presented himself for death, which Saul agreed must occur. But the people rightly stood up for Jonathan’s actions as being used by God to achieve victory over the Philistines. Jonathan was saved, but many Philistines escaped to fight another day. In fact, Saul continued to have many enemies on all sides but also continued to inflict punishment on them. A mixed record.
READINGS FOR MARCH 18, CONTINUED: ROMANS 4, PSALM 21:1-7 ROMANS 4 A world-famous author, now deceased, posted this on Facebook: “I’m trying to be a Christian…which means that, I try to be as kind and fair and generous and respectful and courteous to every human being.” We should not make any judgement about her spiritual status. What we should do, though, is carefully read Romans 4 to be certain that our understanding of being a Christian is aligned with the Bible’s. Trying to be all the good things mentioned above does not make us a Christian. WE ARE SAVED BY FAITH! We must get this right because it is the essence of the Gospel. Read each word carefully: “For if Abraham was justified by works, he has something to boast about; but not before God. For what does the Scripture say? ‘Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness.’ Now to the one who works, the wages are not credited as a favor, but as what is due. But to the one who does not work, but believes in Him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is credited as righteousness” (Rom. 4:2-5).
We are not saved by going to church, or reading the Bible, or serving the poor, or being kind to others. All these are great, but if we really think these “works” will save us, then we have no idea about Christianity. As Paul says above, if this were how to become a Christian, we would have reason to boast. The writer to the Hebrews calls this attempt at earning favor with God “dead works” (Heb. 6:1). This was exactly the approach taken by the Pharisees. How did Jesus feel about it? “For I say to you that unless your righteousness far surpasses that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven” (Matt. 5:20).
Does this mean we need to find out all the good things the Pharisees did and make sure we far surpass them in doing good works? NO. Even if we could do that, we would fall far short of the righteousness acceptable by a Holy God. We need to trust in the work of Jesus. God then credits Jesus’s righteousness to our account. This is called IMPUTED RIGHTEOUSNESS:“Therefore, it was also credited to him (Abraham) as righteousness. Now not for his sake only was it written that it was credited to him, but for our sake also, to whom it will be credited, to us who believe in Him who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead, He (Jesus) who was delivered over because of our wrongdoings, and was raised because of our justification” (Rom. 4:22-25). This is misunderstood by so many today!
PSALM 21:1-7 This Psalm acts as the after part of a before-and-after picture partnering with Psalm 20, which serves as the before picture. Psalm 20 is in the first-person plural (we) directed to David about God’s power to act. Psalm 21 is in the first-person plural (we) thanking God on David’s behalf for answering the prayers they urged David to offer to God. A touch complicated. How interesting that this group was involved in a kind of prayer triangle with God and David. Could it be a model for our church? Our church has such a group called the prayer team. It prays each day of the month for different members of our church family. Often the group prays particularly about physical illnesses, but it could pray for the spiritual battles the church or individuals face. Taking a cue from this Psalm, one feature our team might consider adding is being more intentional about thanking God for the answers and victories He provides. Insert the name of our pastor in this prayer of thanksgiving from Psalm 21:1-2: “O Lord, in Your strength the Pastor will be glad, and in Your salvation how greatly the Pastor will rejoice! You have given the Pastor his heart’s desire.”
