Saul and Jonathan were a study in contrasts, weren’t they? Although they were father and son, they couldn’t have been more different. Saul believed that leaders have to inspire fear in their followers. Before his first battle, he killed and butchered his own team of oxen, sending different bloody parts of the animals to all the tribes of Israel, threatening that the same thing would happen to the livestock of anyone who didn’t come out to fight on his behalf (I Samuel 11:7). And he pulled the same sort of stunt during the Israelites’ pursuit of the Philistines, forbidding anyone to eat anything until the battle was completely over (I Samuel 14:24).

But in order to get his armorbearer to accompany him into battle, all Jonathan had to say was, “Come, let us cross over” to fight the Philistines. And why was his quiet confidence a greater motivator than all of Saul’s threats? Because Jonathan was sure that the Lord was able to give even just the two of them a great victory (I Samuel 14:6): after all, the Lord had routed a huge Philistine army with nothing more than loud thunder not too many years before (I Samuel 7:10).

And so, instead of uttering threats and curses, and instead of taking matters into his own hands as his father had done (I Samuel 13:9), Jonathan made every effort to determine what God wanted him to do. That’s why he set up a verbal test: if the Philistines said they would come out to fight them, Jonathan would not seek combat, but if the Philistines urged them to come and fight, Jonathan and his armorbearer would comply. For they would take their enemies’ taunts as a sign that the Lord would give them victory.

And God did just that, allowing these two Israelite soldiers to overcome a 10-to-1 numerical disadvantage (I Samuel 14:14). And the Lord is still just as able to give the victory to those who will trust in Him and seek to do His will, no matter the greatly the odds might be stacked against us.

So, the only question is, will we trust the Lord? Or, like Saul, will we continue to try to handle our problems in our own way?

I Samuel 14:4-14 (NASB)

4 And between the passes by which Jonathan sought to cross over to the Philistines’ garrison, there was a sharp crag on the one side, and a sharp crag on the other side, and the name of the one was Bozez, and the name of the other Seneh.
5 The one crag rose on the north opposite Michmash, and the other on the south opposite Geba.
6 Then Jonathan said to the young man who was carrying his armor, “Come and let us cross over to the garrison of these uncircumcised; perhaps the LORD will work for us, for the LORD is not restrained to save by many or by few.”
7 And his armor bearer said to him, “Do all that is in your heart; turn yourself, and here I am with you according to your desire.”
8 Then Jonathan said, “Behold, we will cross over to the men and reveal ourselves to them.
9 “If they say to us, ‘Wait until we come to you’; then we will stand in our place and not go up to them.
10 “But if they say, ‘Come up to us,’ then we will go up, for the LORD has given them into our hands; and this shall be the sign to us.”
11 And when both of them revealed themselves to the garrison of the Philistines, the Philistines said, “Behold, Hebrews are coming out of the holes where they have hidden themselves.”
12 So the men of the garrison hailed Jonathan and his armor bearer and said, “Come up to us and we will tell you something.” And Jonathan said to his armor bearer, “Come up after me, for the LORD has given them into the hands of Israel.”
13 Then Jonathan climbed up on his hands and feet, with his armor bearer behind him; and they fell before Jonathan, and his armor bearer put some to death after him.
14 And that first slaughter which Jonathan and his armor bearer made was about twenty men within about half a furrow in an acre of land.