The First Presbyterian Church of Hemet

Freedom From Failure

Dr. Larry Thorson
July 4, 2010

I Samuel 14:1-6; 15

1. Summarize the biblical text:

While the Philistines were bearing down for a slaughter of Israel and King Saul was retreating into a state of denial, his son Jonathon put his faith on the line and confronted the enemy head on. Just then God caused a spirit of confusion to fall upon the Philistine army and Israel's troops regain their courage and defeat them.

2. What is the main point of this sermon?

Never underestimate or give up on God's possibility to bring you through a crisis. It's never over until God has spoken.

3. What action could readers take as a result of this sermon?

Imagine your worst case crisis and then list the possible ways God may use to pull you through it. Then acknowledge that you have probably not yet listed the way God will do it. That's how many possibilities are outside of our limited life experiences box.

The Signing of the Declaration of Independence

        We all know that the 4th of July is a special day in our country but not just for the signing of the Declaration of Independence. Did you know that three American presidents died on the Fourth of July, John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, and James Monroe? But President Calvin Coolidge was born on that day in 1872. West Point opened on that day in 1802. The song "America" was sung for the first time on July 4th, 1832 in Boston. Alaska and Hawaii both became states on the fourth of July.
        The Declaration of Independence was originally delivered on July 4th, 1776. It has only 1321 words, takes just eight minutes to read, and God is mentioned four times, twice at the beginning and twice at the end. It was a radical document that states a belief that all people have rights given to them by the Creator. It was written and signed to separate us officially from the authority of England. And the very act of signing the declaration said to the world, in essence, that you were a traitor to your native country of England.
        And though few of them benefited from their bravery, and a number of them lost everything they owned, not one signer recanted his original declaration of independence. America continues today to be the longest on-going Constitutional Republic in the history of the world partially because of the tenacity of people like the signers of the constitution or the troops who never gave up fighting for it, or you the law abiding, tax paying citizens who fund our military.

But a Fourth of July American history lesson would be remiss if it didn't also declare that what freedom this country has enjoyed is also the result of the Almighty God who has sustained us and given us so many victories. And with those blessings comes responsibility to be a blessing to others in this world. The danger is that whenever we stop acknowledging God's influence in our freedom, or our responsibility to be a blessing we run the risk of losing it all. Freedom is what Israel gradually lost.

Introduction

This summer we're doing a leadership study in our Sunday morning messages by looking at the lives of Israel's first two kings, King Saul and King David. Last week we read in I Samuel 13 how Saul's son, the young, trigger happy Jonathan awakened the sleeping giant of a military enemy, the Philistines, when he ambushed one of their outposts. As a result, thousands of Philistines, or as the Bible says, “as numerous as the sand on the seashore”, were mobilized to attack Israel. It was at that scary, tenuous point, with his own troops abandoning him right and left and death seemingly imminent, Saul failed to wait for the Lord as he was told to do. We left it at that with Israel's survival hanging in the breeze.

An Army With Few Men and Even Less Weapons

If you read to the end of I Samuel 13 you'll come to v.22 “So on the day of the battle not a soldier with Saul and Jonathan had a sword or spear in his hand; only Saul and his son Jonathan had them.” The reason for that as you can read in v.19 was because Israel didn't have even one blacksmith who could make swords or spears for them. They couldn't even sharpen their own farm equipment but had to rely on the enemy Philistines for that.

So here's the situation: Israel's army is badly outnumbered by the enemy, and what numbers they did have were badly under equipped. Now what do you do when the odds are that badly stacked against you? Run! Let's read from I Samuel 14:1 and see what really happened: One day Jonathan son of Saul said to his young armor-bearer, "Come, let's go over to the Philistine outpost on the other side." But he did not tell his father.

So where was his father the king? Let's read verses 2-3: Saul was staying on the outskirts of Gibeah under a pomegranate tree in Migron. With him were about six hundred men, 3 among whom was Ahijah, who was wearing an ephod. He was a son of Ichabod's brother Ahitub son of Phinehas, the son of Eli, the LORD's priest in Shiloh. No one was aware that Jonathan had left.

The outskirts of Gibeah where Saul retreated was farther south from where the enemy was amassing. Along with Saul were the last 600 men in Israel's army who hadn't defected against maybe 20,000 Philistine soldiers. What was Saul doing in the midst of this massive crisis? He was sitting under a pomegranate tree waiting while the enemy closed in on him. I find it interesting that the Bible doesn't say he was sitting there praying to God for mercy because that's about all he had left in the world. Instead it says he just sat there under the pomegranate tree.

Jonathan's Crazy Plan

Meanwhile, Jonathan his son, the one who got them into this mess in the first place, with his trigger happy attack on a Philistine outpost decides to put his life on the line and do something. 4 On each side of the pass that Jonathan intended to cross to reach the Philistine outpost was a cliff; one was called Bozez and the other Seneh. 5 One cliff stood to the north toward Mikmash, the other to the south toward Geba.

6 Jonathan said to his young armor-bearer, "Come, let's go over to the outpost of those uncircumcised fellows. Perhaps the LORD will act in our behalf. Nothing can hinder the LORD from saving, whether by many or by few."

“...perhaps the Lord will act in our behalf.” The other side of that is perhaps the Lord won't act in our behalf. That's pretty much the choice we all have in life. The signers of the Declaration of Independence could have sat under a pomegranate tree or whatever tree and said woe is me but instead they took the risk and signed the Declaration of Independence. Aren't you glad they chose the latter?

What God Does With Hopeless Situations

Think about as desperate a situation as you can possibly think of. Perhaps it's a hopeless situation that looks like you are doomed to failure. You can see absolutely no way out of your problem. Have you ever been there? Former President Woodrow Wilson once said “I would rather fail in a cause that will ultimately succeed than to succeed in a cause that will ultimately fail.[1] Saul and Jonathan had the same two choices. Dad chose to do nothing but sit which sometimes is the right thing to do but he didn't even pray about his situation. Saul's choice reminds me of how C.S. Lewis in The Screwtape Letters describes Satan's strategy to destroy us: he gets us to become preoccupied with our failures; from then on, the battle is won. The son, on the other hand, chose to put his faith on the line. But his odds at success were pretty low. An assistant of Thomas Edison once tried to console the inventor over the failure to achieve in a series of experiments he was doing. “It's too bad,” he said, “to do all that work without results.” “Oh,” said Mr. Edison, “we have lots of results. We know seven hundred things that won't work.”[2]

Jonathan could have sulked. “It's all my fault that we're in this mess in the first place.” “I didn't listen to God and I didn't listen to my father.” “I'm a failure at everything I try.” That was definitely a choice he could have made.

Think again about that desperate situation you might have. Sometimes it's the right thing to sit under a tree and wait but you had best be praying and not sulking. Sometimes it's right to step out in faith and take action. Pamela Reeve says “faith is resting in the fact that God has an objective in leaving me on the scene when I feel useless to him and a burden to others.”[3] If you believe that your life is in God's hands, what's the worst thing that could happen to you?

Ben Patterson has a wonderful little poem in his book Waiting:

“What you gonna do when the river overflows? Faith answers, I'm gonna sit on the porch and watch her go. What you gonna do when the hogs all drown? I'm gonna wish I lived on higher ground. What you gonna do when the cow floats away? I'm gonna throw in after her a bale of hay. What you gonna do with the water in the room? I'm gonna sweep her out with a sedge-straw broom. What you gonna do when the cabin leaves? I'm gonna climb on the roof and straddle the eaves. What you gonna do when your hold gives way? I'm gonna say, “Howdy, Lord! It's judgment day.”

The Rescue

Ask yourself: “what's the worst thing that could happen to me?” In the most desperate of situations for Israel's undermanned and under equipped army against the massive Philistine army let's read what happened in I Samuel 14:15 Then panic struck the whole army—those in the camp and field, and those in the outposts and raiding parties—and the ground shook. It was a panic sent by God. The story goes on how the Philistine army fell into this whole spirit of panic brought on by God and were defeated.

Who would have ever thought? I never saw a rescue coming like that. But no one saw a rescue like God becoming a man and dying on the cross for our sins either. But it happened.

Application:

In the most desperate of situations that you find yourself in, never, ever underestimate God's ability to pull it out in even the last minute. Imagine your worst case crisis and then list the possible ways God may use to pull you through it. Then acknowledge that you have probably not yet listed the way God will do it. That's how many possibilities are outside of our limited life experiences box.

“Perhaps the Lord will act on our behalf...” Jonathan said. But if the Lord doesn't act on your behalf, say “howdy Lord, it's judgment day” and if you have Jesus in your heart you will definitely pass judgment. So either way, freedom is yours. May you enjoy your civic and spiritual freedom from failure today because God made both possible through the cross of Jesus Christ.

[1] Woodrow Wilson, quoted in Lloyd Cory, Quote Unquote