I Samuel 14 The Greatest Bible Story You Never Heard About

Every kid in Sunday School learns very early the story about David and Goliath, where one man faced a giant that nobody in his nation’s army was willing to face.

Yet a few chapters earlier in that same book of the Bible, one man dared to face an entire army.

The enemy was the same as that David faced, the Philistines, Israel’s neighbor to the west.  Like the Gaza strip today.  That’s where they lived.

The Israelite army was discouraged.  Heck, most of them were in hiding.

One man, Jonathan, the son of the king, tells his armor bearer, Let’s go engage the Philistines in battle.  “The Lord is not restrained to save by many or by few.” (I Samuel 14:6)

He knew that very rarely does God ever work on behalf of His people without His people doing something.  It could be anything.  What they do might not have an effect on the outcome at all. 

David faced one man, albeit a giant.  Jonathan faced a whole army.  The Philistines were up over the ridge, and he had no idea what he would find up there.  But he went.

He knew if God was going to help them, it didn’t really matter if he had ten men or ten thousand.  Or one man.  One person and God could do anything. 

Our problem is that we’re not sure God wants to do the thing we have in mind. 

Jonathan did put out a fleece, as we call it.  He said that they would show themselves to the Philistines.  If they said, come on up, that would be a sign that God was in it.  They did, and Jonathan went up, not knowing what he would face, but believing that God would give them the victory.

You have to ask if there was anything in the history of Israel that would suggest to Jonathan that God would do such a thing.

And there was.  Twice in their history God spoke to them about one person chasing a thousand (Deuteronomy 32:30, Joshua 23:10). 

Oh, and yes, God did give them the victory.  God caused the Philistine army to basically lose heart.  In addition to sending a small earthquake.  And then the news of all this reached the Israelite army in hiding, and they came out and joined the battle.

Who would have thought?  One person believed God for a miracle and acted on it.