A Tale of Contrasts

1 Samuel 14

            Today’s reading begins with a sharp contrast between Saul and Jonathan, his eldest son. Yesterday, Saul proved himself faithless, but today Jonathan takes on an entire garrison because he believes the Lord can deliver them. And the Lord does just that.

            Again today we see Saul’s foolishness, again from the human level: he forbids his men from ceasing the pursuit to eat. Common sense would say that a well-fed, well-hydrated soldier will fight better, but Saul forbids all food. We can understand that Saul didn’t want the whole army from stopping for a two-hour meal break, but to forbid food altogether just weakened his men. When finally they stopped for the night, the men were so famished they didn’t even wait for the animals to be slaughtered in accordance with the Lord’s command against eating blood.

            Finally, the Israelites lose the chance to really hurt the Philistines. Saul looks to the Lord for permission to continue the pursuit and plunder the Philistines, but the Lord is silent. There is the matter of Saul’s foolish oath, reminiscent of Jephthah’s similar oath. Again it looks like a child will pay the price of a father’s foolishness. But this time the army itself intervenes, recognizing Jonathan as the true hero of the day. (We’ll find out in a few chapters that Saul really hates sharing the glory.) No wonder Jesus tells us not to take oaths, but to let our Yes be Yes and our No be No (Matthew 5:33-37)!