Ten Minute Bible Talks Devotional Bible Study - How to Have Faith Like Jonathan | Historical Books | 1 Samuel 14:1-23

Episode Date: April 21, 2025

Who are you serving? What voice do you listen to? What do you need to trust God with? In today's episode, Keith shares how 1 Samuel 14:1-23 encourages us to serve the Lord alone. If you're listening on Spotify, comment below one takeaway from today's episode! Read the Bible with us in 2025! This year, we’re exploring the Historical Books—Joshua, Judges, 1 & 2 Samuel, and 1 & 2 Kings. Download your reading plan now. Your support makes TMBT possible. Ten Minute Bible Talks is a crowd-funded project. Join the TMBTeam to reach more people with the Bible. Give now. Like this content? Make sure to leave us a rating and share it so that others can find it, too. Use #asktmbt to connect with us, ask questions, and suggest topics. We'd love to hear from you! To learn more, visit our website and follow us on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter @TenMinuteBibleTalks. Don't forget to subscribe to the TMBT Newsletter here. Passages: 1 Samuel 14:1-23

Welcome to 10-minute Bible Talks, where we connect the Bible to your life. In the time it takes to get to work. I'm Keith Simon. Bob Dylan is back in the news and back in the cultural conversation due to a movie called A Complete Unknown, in which Timothy Shalamee plays a young Dylan. Some of you are aware that Bob Dylan went through a conversion experience in the 1970s, where he reportedly became a Christian. It's hard to know exactly what happened, partly because it's hard to know about anyone,

else's faith, but also because Dylan has always been an intensely private person. One of the songs that Dylan wrote and performed during this era of his life was the song called Gotta Serve Somebody. That song won a Grammy for Best Male Vocal Performance in 1980. The song was about how everybody is going to serve somebody, and so the challenge was to think through who you'd rather serve, yourself, some other person, or Jesus. It's really true, isn't it, that we're all going to serve someone or something? We see this truth, that you're going to serve somebody, play out in the story of King Saul in 1 Samuel 14.

Now, I love stories in the Old Testament because we see truth lived out in real person's lives. For example, it's one thing to say, trust God with your life, and it's another to read a story that shows what trusting God looks like. Well, today we see that Dylan song come to life. Everyone is going to serve someone. Because 1 Samuel is a narrative, because it's a story, we have to keep reminding ourselves where we are in the story. Otherwise, it's easy to get lost and miss the point. So remember that in the book of judges, Israel had rejected God's kingship.

They had served as their own authority. Why? Well, because according to Bob Dylan, everyone is going to serve somebody, and so they begin to serve themselves. Israel faced consequences for not serving God. The key verse in the book of judges is the one that says that everyone did what was right in their own eyes. And so the book of judges records some of the darkest moral times in Israel's history. Now, Israel could have repented of trying to be their own authority. They could have submitted to God's authority, but they didn't.

Instead, they asked for a king so that they could be like the other nations. God gave them what they asked for, and Saul was named the first king of Israel. But Saul repeated the same problem that plagued Israel in the book of judges. Instead of ruling under God's authority, he made himself the authority. Because remember, everyone is going to serve someone. You got to serve somebody. Because he served himself and acted as his own authority, Saul eventually loses the kingdom and gives way to King David.

But we're not quite at that part of the story yet. David doesn't show up until chapter 16, and we're still in the middle of Saul's collapse, recorded in chapter 14. The chapter starts with Saul's son Jonathan heading out to fight the Philistines, which were Israel's primary enemy. But then the author tells us something that seems insignificant, but turns out to be very important. Let me read verses 2 and 3. Now, don't get lost in all the names.

I'll explain their significance when I'm finished reading. Here's 1 Samuel 14, verse 2. Saul was staying on the outskirts of Gibia under a pomegranate tree in Migran. With him were about 600 men, among whom was Ahijah, who was wearing an Ephod. He was a son of Iqabad's brother, son of Phineas, the son of Eli, the Lord's priest in Shiloh. No one was aware that Jonathan had left. Now, in these verses, we learned that the priest that is with Saul's people is a guy named Ahjah, who was in the priestly line of Eli.

If you've been listening to the previous episodes of TMBT on 1st Samuel, that name might sound familiar. Ely was the wicked priest who God had put to death. Really, he put Eli and his two sons to death because of their wickedness. So catch this. Saul is no longer listening to God's prophet Samuel, but instead he's listening to the descendant of the wicked priest. Why? Well, because you're going to serve somebody. Saul keeps rejecting God's authority and turning to other sources of authority. I think you could say that Saul wants a religious authority to tell him, what he wants to hear. I think this story echoes the story of Adam and Eve in the garden. Remember, there are three voices in the garden, and they belong to Adam, Eve, and God. God's voice is very important because it interprets Adam and Eve's world for them.

Without God's voice, they wouldn't know what is good or bad, right or wrong. But then a new voice, a fourth voice enters the garden, and that's the voice of the serpent. The serpent undermines God's goodness by asking, Did God really say? And then the serpent contradicts God's command by saying, if you eat the fruit, you surely won't die. The question is, whose voice will Adam and Eve listen to? Will they listen to God's voice or the serpent?

Well, Saul is faced with the same choice as Adam and Eve. Will he listen to God's voice in the prophet Samuel, or will he listen to the serpent's voice in the line of the wicked priests? See, you and I are in the same position as Adam, Eve. and Saul? Whose voice will we listen to? Will we listen to the voice of God? Or have we replaced God's voice with another voice? Who are we going to serve? Ourselves or somebody else? Well, the chapter then returns to Jonathan, who, remember, he had headed out to scout out the Philistines' military positions. It says in verse 7, Jonathan said to his young armor bearer, come, let's go over to the outpost of those

uncircumcised men. That's the Philistines. Jonathan goes, on to say, perhaps the Lord will act in our behalf. Nothing can hinder the Lord from saving, whether by many or by few. There's so much to love about Jonathan's attitude. At first, he takes the initiative, right? Saul is standing under a pomegranate tree, reluctant to trust God, so he's hanging back. But Jonathan presses the fight. He's willing to step out in faith. Is there anything you need to take the initiative and trust God with, any area of your life you need to step out in faith in? Maybe it's initiating a conversation to resolve a conflict you're in. Maybe it's initiating signing up to serve in your church or to join a small group or to start a Bible study at your workplace

or at your school. See, Jonathan doesn't sit back and wait. He takes the initiative. The second thing I love about Jonathan's attitude is that he believes God can save by many or by few. See, our battles belong to God and he's not limited by numbers. He's not limited by odds. He's not limited by us. There are so many stories in the Bible that warn us to not trust in our might or our strength or our wisdom, but instead to trust in God who gives victory. Are there any challenges in your life right now or you just need to say, look, this belongs to God and he can work it out in ways that I can't even imagine. But Jonathan never presumes that just because God can give him victory, that he will. That's why he says to his armor bearer, perhaps the Lord will act in our behalf. Perhaps God will heal me or perhaps

he won't. Perhaps God will give me a better job. Perhaps God will break an addiction. But God doesn't always do what I want him to do, which shouldn't surprise me since he's God and I'm not. He's all wise and I'm often foolish. He's all knowing and I'm often ignorant. So let's go back and read about Jonathan in his armor bear. It says, Jonathan said to his young armor bear, come on, let's go to the outpost of those uncircumcised men. Perhaps the Lord will act in our behalf. Nothing can hinder the Lord from saving, whether by many or by few. Do all that you have in mind, his armor bearer said. Go ahead. I am with you, heart and soul. Wow, we need friends like this armor bearer. Right? Like he wasn't going to make Jonathan go into battle alone. We need friends who will go into battle with us, who will pray for us. We need friends

who will be honest with us and call us out when we are ahead in the wrong direction. We need friends who will encourage us when we're discouraged. Friends who will take us to a counseling appointment when we're too scared to go on our own. Friends who are with you like this armor bear said, he was with Jonathan, heart and soul. Now we all want friends like that, but in order to have friends like that. I think we need to be friends like that, right? We need to play that role in other people's life. We need to care for them and love them, even when it means that we have to make sacrifices. It's hard to develop those kind of deep friendships. It takes time. They don't happen quickly. It takes commitment. It takes sacrifice. I'm talking about the kind of commitment that says no to

moving because you know that in order to develop good friendships, you have to stay in the same place for a long time. I'm talking about the kind of commitment that means you're willing to schedule time with your friends because you know that if you don't plan ahead and spend time with them, then you can't develop the kind of friendships that you want. I mean the kind of commitment that means sharing things with friends, being vulnerable with them, going deeper in conversations. Those kind of friendships don't just happen, and yet they're incredibly important. You want to have friends like Jonathan's armor bearer, friends who are with you, heart and soul. Let's ask God to make us into that kind of friend and to give us that kind of friend. Amen.