Many of us have witnessed a miracle either in our own lives or in the life of another. It can be anything: a life-altering event that couldn’t have happened in the natural, or a coincidence that you were certain was not, or even the miracle of perfection in the tiny flower we call the Virginia spring beauty. First, let’s define what a miracle is:
The most common definition: “An event that is not explicable by natural or scientific laws, and is therefore considered the work of a divine agency”
A second, watered-down definition: “A highly improbable event, which brings pleasant consequences”
The final, least thrilling definition: “An amazing achievement”
Look at the progression of these three definitions. What do you see? I see a methodical retreat from anything related to God until He is removed from the picture, a retreat that ends with a glorification of SELF. Do you see it?
The miracles we experience, when we tell them to a skeptical and an unbelieving culture, are unmercifully stolen from us. Chance meetings with people who are on our hearts are passed off as coincidence. Unexplained healings become mistakes made at the hospital. A time-saving parking space is random luck. The perfection seen in creation is called “evolution.”
Let me tell you the story that put this writing on my heart. My son suffered a head injury in 2021. A cat-scan revealed a skull fracture and blood on his brain. As time passed, he stopped talking; he stared blankly at the ceiling, and his hands stopped moving. The doctor said there was fluid on his brain and his brain was swelling. His condition was deteriorating, and he needed to get to surgery immediately.
As I drove alone to St. Louis, the report from the hospital after the helicopter landed was that our son was in surgery, and the first step was to see if there was any swelling or fluid on the brain. If so, they would have to stabilize him and wait for the swelling to go down. This could take days. If the conditions were favorable, then they would perform the surgery immediately.
I prayed and worshiped God as I drove on that dark, two-lane highway. My wife did the same in the helicopter. In the natural, the surgery would be postponed until the fluids were drained away and the swelling went down, but we don’t live by the natural. We live by the Spirit.
The next phone call revealed that my wife was giving her consent for immediate surgery. There was no swelling and no blood on his brain! Amen!
We knew right then that our son would be brought through this by the mighty and loving hand of God.
I needed to claim it and hold onto it
I needed to declare it with total faith
I needed to decide whether I was going to believe it or not
Then I started telling this story to friends and family, I didn’t receive the soul-saving response I naively expected. Instead, I heard things like, “You can’t really see what’s going on just from a cat-scan.” And, “That’s why you always get a second opinion.” Or, “The first doctor wasn’t a neuro-specialist, so he wouldn’t know.” I heard this so much, and I’m ashamed to say, I started to believe it. Sure, the people from our church claimed it was a miracle, but I wondered if they were repeating the same words they always use in these situations. I wondered if the majority was right.
I struggled with this for weeks until our son received a letter in the mail from a woman from our church. At the end of the letter she wrote with boldness, surety, faith and simplicity, “This was a miracle!” That is when the revelation came, when God spoke. I realized the world had succeeded in softening my faith; diluting it. In that moment, I realized that if I was going to have this miracle…
I needed to claim it and hold onto it
I needed to declare it with total faith
I needed to decide whether I was going to believe it or not
From that day on, I haven’t doubted the miracle that took place on the cold February night. The one where God Almighty laid His hands on my boy and personally prepared him for surgery. I repented and asked God to forgive my unbelief as shame filled my heart.
But remember this: every time you come through a trial of faith, you come out a stronger Christian than when you went in. You come out with more heavenly knowledge, a greater realization of your need for grace, and a closer bond with your heavenly Father.
Remember the synagogue leader whose daughter Jesus raised from the dead in Mark 5? How about the woman who He healed from a twelve-year illness when she touched Jesus’ cloak during that same interaction?
I suspect people made similar comments to them. “Someone made a mistake; the girl was not dead after all. You should have asked a professional to look at her.” Or “What a coincidence, your twelve-year illness has vanished. Maybe when you were pushed down in that large crowd it fixed something inside you!” These are miracles performed by Jesus Christ, in real time, and I would have to assume that there were people who made these statements.
Hold on to your miracles. The world will deny them, just like it denies Jesus Christ, just like it denies God Almighty.
Mark 10:27 27 Jesus looked at them and said, “With man this is impossible, but not with God; all things are possible with God.” Jeremiah 32:27 27 “I am the Lord, the God of all mankind. Is anything too hard for me?
How imperfect are we? Most of us can easily see that we are not perfect when perfection is the absence of sin. We are sinners, and we know that. But the presence of sin in our fallen nature is part of our nature, therefore, it tends not to convict us of our imperfection. We already know it, and we already know that Jesus has taken care of this sin problem for us. We can now stand before our holy God, cleansed by the blood of His Son.
Then let’s look at it from a different viewpoint, from the angle of LOVE.
Matthew 22:34-40, NKJV
34 When the Pharisees heard that He had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered together. 35 Then one of them, a lawyer, asked Him a question, testing Him, and saying, 36 “Teacher, which is the great commandment in the law?”
37 Jesus said to him, “‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.’38 This is the first and great commandment.39 And the second is like it:‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’40 On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets.”
God, our creator, the God we worship, is perfect love. He tells us that love, loving Him and loving each other, is our calling in life. In other words, love is very important. Let’s go into the Bible and find out what God tells us love is and see how we measure up to it.
What is love?
Leviticus 19:1-2, 15-18, NKJV
1 The Lord spoke to Moses, saying, 2 “Speak to all the congregation of the children of Israel, and say to them: ‘You shall be holy, for I the Lord your God am holy.
15 ‘You shall do no injustice in judgment. You shall not be partial to the poor, nor honor the person of the mighty. In righteousness you shall judge your neighbor. 16 You shall not go about as a talebearer among your people; nor shall you take a stand against the life of your neighbor: I am the Lord. 17 ‘You shall not hate your brother in your heart. You shall surely rebuke your neighbor, and not bear sin because of him. 18 You shall not take vengeance, nor bear any grudge against the children of your people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself: I am the Lord.
From Leviticus 19:1-2, 15-18, Love is…
It is fair
It is humble
It acts, even when it is difficult
It forgives
1 Thessalonians 2:1-8, NKJV
1 For you yourselves know, brethren, that our coming to you was not in vain. 2 But even after we had suffered before and were spitefully treated at Philippi, as you know, we were bold in our God to speak to you the gospel of God in much conflict. 3 For our exhortation did not come from error or uncleanness, nor was it in deceit.
4 But as we have been approved by God to be entrusted with the gospel, even so we speak, not as pleasing men, but God who tests our hearts. 5 For neither at any time did we use flattering words, as you know, nor a cloak for covetousness—God is witness. 6 Nor did we seek glory from men, either from you or from others, when we might have made demands as apostles of Christ. 7 But we were gentle among you, just as a nursing mother cherishes her own children. 8 So, affectionately longing for you, we were well pleased to impart to you not only the gospel of God, but also our own lives, because you had become dear to us.
From 1 Thessalonians 2:1-8, Love is…
It speaks the truth, even when it is difficult
It does not seek glory from men
It is honest and from the heart
It is sacrificial
Romans 12:9-10
9 Let love be without hypocrisy. Abhor what is evil. Cling to what is good. 10 Be kindly affectionate to one another with brotherly love, in honor giving preference to one another;
From Romans 12:9-10, Love is…
Is not hypocritical
Hates evil, is sensitive to it
Platonically affectionate
Selfless
When we look at these bullet points beneath the verses from Leviticus, 1 Thessalonians, and Romans, how many of them do we perform perfectly? Are we always fair, perfectly humble, quick to forgive, or selfless in our actions? Are we able to act or speak truth and light into difficult situations, calling evil what it is, even if it means others will take offense or result in our own isolation and rejection? Do we look upon our brothers and sisters of the opposite sex in a purely platonic manner? Are we hypocritical, expecting others to do what we won’t? Do we desire the praise of people, and can we be honest about how far we fall short of the biblical standard of love?
I know I can’t check one of these twelve bullet points off as something I am perfect at. Falling short of being perfect love is easy to see, but falling short of every aspect and miniscule detail of that love is revelation.
Check out Chris’s book, Guided by Wisdom, to learn how you can use the Bible to make relevant decisions and for guidance in today’s modern world. And watch for Part 2 of the series, Discovering All that God Has for You.
Check out Chris’s book, Guided by Wisdom, to learn how you can use the Bible to make relevant decisions and for guidance in today’s modern world. And watch for Part 2 of the series, Discovering All that God Has for You.
The news of the pending vote for the Born-Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act last week didn’t immediately earn my interest. I assumed, like many who are tired of the bi-partisan standoff in our government, federal and state, that the politicians loaded the bill with additional demands hidden beneath the distraction of the larger issue. When the bill failed to pass because not a single Democratic Senator voted for it, with only 1 voting for it in the House, I went to the liberal media to find out why. I wanted to know what else was in the bill that could account for this, besides group-think mentality and hardened hearts.
Bewilderment and curiosity overcame me when I couldn’t find a single mention about this issue on NPR or CNN. Something is not right if this victory for the flagship social cause of the left remained absent from their newsreels. So I dug into it. I read the bill (the link to it is below, if you’d like to read it), and I spent the last five days meditating on it. The bill is what it says it is. There are no other partisan issues attached to it. It says that a baby born alive must receive treatment and be rushed to the hospital, otherwise, a crime is committed and the guilty party could face up to 5 years in prison—and it adds that the mother could sue the abortion doctor, which, in our sue-crazed society, surprised me it even needed to be mentioned.
If a baby survives an abortion, and the life of the baby is now protected by legal rights, then how can they say the baby’s life was meaningless five minutes ago, when location was the only difference?
I’ve come to the conclusion that the defense given by Chuck Shumer, the Democratic Senate minority leader, is the only logical explanation.
94% of abortions are performed in the first trimester, with less than 1% performed in the third trimester. It is the third trimester babies this bill considers (although some doctors would consider the last 2 weeks of the second trimester as potentially viable). But why would someone wait until the third trimester to make this decision? A danger to the life of the mother will be the first reason you receive whenever you ask. I am not a medical professional, but I can’t come up with a scenario where a full grown baby in the womb needs to be killed before coming out of the mother in order to save the mother’s life. With our medical knowledge and skills, C-sections and labor inducing drugs, it seems logical to me that an operation could save both lives, without having to sacrifice one. If you know what medical emergency requires the baby to be removed dead instead of alive to save the mother’s life, please tell me.
The other reasons for a third trimester abortion are:
New information about the baby’s health became available
Similar to the first point, results of false-negative findings during second trimester screenings
Funds to have the abortion earlier were not available
Travel to another state made the access to an earlier abortion difficult
The pregnancy was not detected until the third trimester (it can happen)
The reason for most abortions, including third trimester abortions, is unwanted pregnancy. According to the Pew Research and the Guttmacher Institute, 85% to 87% of women who have abortions are unmarried. This is where I can chase the rabbit trail and talk about how we raise our children to embrace our sexualized and self-seeking culture instead of raising them in the word of God and teaching them love and self-sacrifice through His absolute and righteous truth, but the point of this blog post is to shed light on the accuracy of Chuck Shumer’s response to why the Democrats banned together, making it appear that not 1 Democrat believes a crying baby should be cared for, which we know is not true—it’s a banning together of the brotherhood, taking the individual out of our elected leaders.
Abortion, at its core, is tragic. It should be an unnecessary conversation, because if we cared more about truth, righteousness, mercy, love and other people, more than we cared about ourselves, the issue of abortion would be left to the decisions of doctors in emergency rooms. Each incident would be mourned for the tragedy it was, and we’d lift up our grief to God and put the care of that lost child into His hands.
This is what Chuck Shumer said when every Democrat in Congress, save 1, rejected this bill (not a direct quote): This bill opens the door for the Republicans to attack the abortion industry on every level.
Even though he intended to give us the typical smokescreen on the issue, Chuck couldn’t have spoken a more truthful statement. Here’s why:
If a baby survives an abortion, and the life of the baby is now protected by legal rights, then how can they say the baby’s life was meaningless five minutes ago, when location was the only difference? It is the basis for the abortion argument—that it isn’t really a baby yet. It makes it an impossible case, other than saying what it is—nobody wants to deal with this baby. The reasons of diagnosed imperfections, or unacceptable financial strain, or the loss of a personal existence, all now take a backseat to life.
The reason Democrats linked arms and united to reject this bill, is because if we can make this argument at eight months into the pregnancy, then we can easily pass it down to six months, then to three months, and yes, on down to conception.
Brothers and sisters in Christ, I need to remind you that Jesus was born in an unplanned pregnancy, one that offered, at a minimum, exile to Mary (remember, Joseph planned to put her away quietly), because the more realistic scenario for Mary was being stoned to death. As Christians, our stance on abortion can be only one-sided, that it is wrong regardless of the scenario it is packaged in, and God has given us His example in the birth of His Son.
I say this because I used to support the argument of a woman’s right to choose. It is only natural, to not want what you did not plan, to remove obstacles to the future you envisioned for yourself, to avoid gossip and speculation about yourself, etc. But it is natural to do a lot of things the Bible tells us are wrong. We aren’t to use drugs and alcohol to cope with life. We aren’t to be sexually wanton and are to save ourselves for marriage—very unnatural. We are to consider others, even to our own death, over ourselves.
As believers and, more importantly, followers of Jesus Christ, we are called to the unnatural. We are called to live in the Spirit. This means, as much as we’d like to, that we cannot pick and chose which biblical truths we are willing to follow because they are easier or more convenient.
What changed my mind about the abortion issue? It wasn’t because I read the Bible and found some verses that spoke against it. It wasn’t because someone presented a better argument for pro-life. The reason is that the Holy Spirit changed my heart and sensitized me to it. The Holy Spirit fills your heart will love and compassion and changes you from the inside out. Amen.
An excerpt from Chris’ book, Guided by Wisdom – Finding Wisdom for Life in God’s Word
Proverbs 8:35–36
35 For whoever finds me finds life, And obtains favor from the Lord; 36 But he who sins against me wrongs his own soul; All those who hate me love death.
Romans 6:23
Proverbs 8 in the New King James Version is titled the “Excellence of Wisdom.” When we talk about wisdom in this context, we are not talking about reading books, getting smart, and earning good grades in school. Wisdom in this context means respect for God. Hating wisdom is saying we aren’t buying in to respecting God, our Creator. This is how we commit wrong against our own souls and are destined for death, because separating ourselves from God is the definition of sin, and sin leads to death.
23 For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus, our Lord.
We find life through God and His Word, by believing in His Son, Jesus, and by accepting His free gifts of unconditional love, salvation, and eternal life with Him.
Denying God is saying we do not want or need the salvation Jesus provided for us through His death and resurrection, which means we turn down His offer to be saved from our sins and to have eternal life.
Proverbs 28:5
5 Evil men do not understand justice, But those who seek the Lord understand all.
Guided by Wisdom
When we seek wisdom through our understanding of God and the study of His Word, we are given the keys, or the potential, to understanding all things. When we seek God, receive the Holy Spirit, and submit to His guidance, understanding can come through revelation. There will be times when we just know something is good, or when something is not right.
Proverbs 28 tells us an evil man can’t even understand justice. This man doesn’t know what it is to be fair or why it is reasonable to be punished for wrongdoing. What he does understand is how to come out on top and not lose, no matter the cost or sacrifice required of other people. If evil men can’t understand justice, then they cannot understand truth. Being void of truth and justice is not a foundation we want to build our success on. In the context of wisdom, success looks a lot different from the usual descriptions the world gives us.
Proverbs 24:3–4
3 Through wisdom a house is built, And by understanding it is established; 4 By knowledge the rooms are filled With all precious and pleasant riches.
It is by wisdom, the fear of God, that our house will be built and filled with riches. And what kind of riches are they? They are found in the heart, and they are precious and pleasant. The riches of an evil man come with strife, distrust, and threats attached to them. It is God who fills our hearts with what’s important; the fruits of the Spirit, which are love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control (see Galatians 5:22–23).
You can buy copies of Guided by Wisdom on Amazon or find links at my website:
I’ve avoided writing about gay rights since I started my Christian blog. As I have spent time preparing my heart to write about the 2024 Olympic opening ceremony, I’ve realized I still will not be writing about gay rights.
Why?
Because what took place at the Olympics had absolutely nothing to do with gay rights.
We need to stop pretending that unrestrained public sexual displays, like the Olympics’ opening ceremony, many gay rights parades, and public drag shows, are anything but what they are; events organized by an out-of-control sub-culture of the gay community to influence society by displaying what they worship – unrestrained and perverse sexual exploration.
I say this is a sub-culture within the gay community, not that I am an expert in this area. I have not read or researched gay influencers, commentators, or writers, conservative or liberal. I’m just not naïve enough to believe that all gay people condone this shameful public behavior. I refuse to believe that the entire gay community feels no pangs in their conscience when they know these activities are reaching the eyes of children and are potentially influencing their futures in a negative way. I can’t believe that the majority doesn’t realize that children should not be exposed to sex at all.
The opening ceremony at the Olympics was nothing but a gross display of unbridled lust and perversion. Men dressed in women’s clothing posing in sexually submissive and dominating positions, for families to see across the world. A mix of men and women dressed in sexually suggestive costumes, some exposing their genitals, while a couple of kids hang out amongst them. Openly and arrogantly giving the finger to God. A disgusting naked blue man, served up on a platter, ready for his sexual experiments and conquests. If anything highlighted the message the organizers, participants, and supporters of this display hoped to communicate, it was this man on the platter. It said sex, sexual lust, and unrestrained sexual activity are what we are about, and we are going to shove it down your throats.
This is actually liberating for many of us who have had no idea how to combat this social intrusion into our culture and our families. If gay rights are no longer the issue, and has become about idol worship and the false god of sex and pleasure, a false god that is attacking the world, then we have a specific darkness, a clear spiritual attack that we need to defend ourselves against.
It wasn’t free
There is no love in a false god, or the worship of that god. There is no love when an outsider attacks our families with evil and destruction. Now we can act with a clear conscience because we have something tangible to point to, which is:
The worship and obsession with sex in this gay sub-culture.
There is also another reason we should be compelled, even forced, to take action. That is anger.
Righteous anger.
These people blasphemed my God, whom I love with all my heart, whom I serve with everything I have, and whom I will spend eternity with because His Son made it possible. I am angry that they treated Jesus with any disrespect at all, but they spat in His face. How dare they do that to my King, my Savior, and my God!?!
What do we do? Here are some ideas. Some may apply to you, some may not. Regardless, if you are disgusted by what the Olympic committee, the organizers of this event, the government of France, allowed to pollute your living room, then you need to do something.
Say Something
Silence, as we learned from Dietrich Bonhoeffer, is the same as participation. At a minimum, you need to let those in your circle of influence know that you do not agree with the promotion of sexual perversion. If you are a believer in Jesus Christ, you need to let the world know you walk with Jesus and you are not ashamed of it.
Christians, we need to be brave and bold in our faith. There are too many of us who move in and out of our circles every day, where our faith is not defining who we are. Jesus Christ died for you, so you could stand before God. God is perfect holiness, perfect love, perfect mercy, and the perfect judge. He is to be loved and feared by you, in equal measure. A truth this powerful, a God this awesome, deserves to be the defining influence in our lives. Cowardice in the face of influence birthed in the world is shameful to us and our faith.
Get Rid of Your Rainbow Flag
The rainbow flag of the gay community is a false idol that represents a false god. Every Christian church that hangs one of these flags on their buildings is worshiping a false god. Yes, they are actively participating in idol worship.
Church leaders, if you have one of these flags on your building, you will answer to God for this blaspheme. The people who fly this flag spit in the face of God at the Olympic ceremony. That breaks my heart. Are you still going to fly their flag? How could you do it in the first place and how dare you do it now?
Boycott
When you see the rainbow flag proudly displayed in a shop window, as you see all over the town I live in, chose not to shop there. They are promoting this type of sexual disregard and are encouraging this sub-culture to continue their attack on values and truth.
National chains, like MODS Pizza, jump on this bandwagon every June, offering rainbow desserts, flying flags, and posting pictures. We need to let these businesses know that supporting these perverse displays in the public eye is not what we want to see, as they do not align with our values.
Pray
Is it not clear that this gay movement of normalizing perversion is directed at blaspheming God? If the Olympics has taught us anything, it is that this group is against Christianity, the one true God, the only path to salvation. Which makes sense. Why attack other religions when they are not the truth? You don’t. You attack the one that is legitimate.
Jesus, I love You
Jesus Christ died for the homosexual. He is the only Man who lived that loves them completely, yet He is the one who is taking their blows, their curses, and their attacks. They can’t see that they are attacking God, their Creator, who sits on His throne in perfect beauty and love, in the presence of rainbows. This is the God whom they should be seeking for answers, for direction, and for truth. But they are blinded by their own sin. So blinded by it they believe everybody in the world needs to be influenced by it and participate in it.
Stand on Truth
Read your Bible and recognize it for what it is, the voice of God, His words to you, to teach and guide you. If you’ve been tainted by Bible conspiracies, then rely on your faith in Him. How little is your faith? Ask yourself.
Homosexuality is a sin. It always has been, and it always will be. Monogamous or not, it is a sin because it is falls outside the lines of God’s creation, His perfection, and His truth. It is a sin the same way fornication is a sin; that is, sex before marriage. The same way adultery is a sin, either physical or visual.
Let’s face it, sex is difficult for a lot of us. It takes obedience to be faithful to another, obedience and planning not to fall into temptation, and a desire to honor God with our bodies.
Can a homosexual be saved?
I think so, but only if they can sit in a church and listen to a message on the sin of homosexuality and agree with it, repent for their struggle, and invite God into the struggle. I don’t believe their freedom from homosexuality is the key to salvation, otherwise our salvation is based on works, but the key is where their heart is with God. Not to excuse sin, but also not to disregard that we all have sin in our hearts. We are rescued from it by the work of Jesus, not by our personal victories over it.
Forgiveness
God is merciful. Jesus understands who we are and what our struggles are. He loves you. Yes, I’m talking to you. He loves you right now, regardless of what you did even 30 seconds ago. He wants to have a relationship with you right now, just the way you are. You don’t have to change anything to be accepted by Him. All you have to do is accept Him and invite Him to come sit with you. Jesus is still perfect love. Don’t let anyone convince you otherwise.
John 5:41-44
41 “I do not receive honor from men. 42 But I know you, that you do not have the love of God in you. 43 I have come in My Father’s name, and you do not receive Me; if another comes in his own name, him you will receive. 44 How can you believe, who receive honor from one another, and do not seek the honor that comes from the only God?
In our human experience we need to do things right-in the correct order, using the correct preparations, always having the best plan-to get the results we desire. But in our relationship with God, according to 1 Samuel 13 and 14, that is not always the case.
If it doesn’t come down to us and doing the everything correctly, then what does it come down to?
The Backstory
In 1 Samuel, chapter 13, we see the newly anointed king of Israel, Saul, preparing for battle against the Philistines. He waits seven days for the prophet, Samuel, to show up, so he can find out if God wants him to go down to battle or not. We see this a lot in the Old Testament. King David often checked with God before going into battle. Saul was given the same instructions by Samuel two years earlier when he was anointed king in 1 Samuel 10:8.
But when Saul’s army started to desert, and Samuel was running a little late, he took matters into his own hands. Instead of waiting for the prophet like he was commanded to, or asking the Levite who was with him at the time, Ahijah, a direct descendant of Eli, to do it for him, Saul sacrificed the burnt offering and the peace offering himself. Samuel shows up while the fire is still hot, and the meat is still cooking.
Samuel tells Saul he has disobeyed the Lord, and his kingship is stripped from him as a result. Ouch! Why the harsh treatment for being proactive? This is what we want to find out. To do that we need to study the Bible, and we can come to some conclusions by reading the next chapter.
In Chapter 14 we see Jonathan, Saul’s son, taking matters into his own hands. Without asking permission from Saul, nor asking God, he sneaks away with his armor bearer and attacks the Philistine garrison. Jonathan sneaking away without notice is meaningful, because God tell us in verse 3, almost as an afterthought, that Ahijah, the priest, was there, and he was wearing the ephod. The standard procedure would have been to consult with Ahijah.
Jonathan simply said to his armor bearer, “Come, let us go…it may be that the Lord will work for us.” (1 Samuel 14:6, NKJV) And the Lord did. He delivered the Philistines in the garrison to Jonathan and his armor bearer, let loose an earthquake, and then created mass confusion in the Philistine camp as they fought each other. In the meantime, Israel united and they attacked the Philistine’s as well.
During the pursuit of the Philistine’s, Saul errs again. He says no one is allowed to eat until the enemy is finished off. This puts a heavy burden on Saul’s soldiers, who finished the battle nearly fainting, causing them to break the law of God by eating their meat so hastily that they ate it with the blood. This is an Old Testament Levitical law, and Saul caused this sin. Meanwhile, Jonathan ate some honey in the forest, not knowing the vow his father had taken. Jonathan was strengthened by the food he ate, while the rest of the army was famished and suffering.
Saul and Jonathan seem to be committing similar acts in these two chapters, while at the same time they appear to be at odds with each other. They do the same things but get different results, and they are seen in constant conflict. Why?
The answers are in the word of God and in the heart.
The Reasons
Saul forgot about Gideon’s 300, in Judges 7 and 8, who accomplished a similar feat as Jonathan in this story. A small group of men had faith in God and went to battle. The result was confusion in the Midianite camp, and Israel coming together to finish off the enemy.
Saul forgot about Jephthah’s vow in Judges 11, when he made a rash oath to God, promising to kill anyone who ate food that day. When Jonathan, his son and the hero of the story was discovered to have broken the vow he knew nothing about, Saul was more than willing to kill him, unlike Jephthah who was in utter torment over his rash oath.
This reveals Saul’s arrogance and selfishness, his utterly rotten heart. His son would receive the glory for this victory, but Saul wanted the glory for himself. He would have killed his own son that day if the people had not intervened for Jonathan. Saul wanted to put the spotlight back on himself and to shame his son by announcing he had broken the oath of the king.
We also receive clues into Saul’s heart by what the way the people around him answer his commands, as opposed to the way Jonathan’s commands are answered. When Jonathan tells his armor bearer they will go and attack the Philistine garrison by themselves, his armor bearer replies, “Do all that is in your heart. Go then; here I am with you, according to your heart.” (1 Samuel 14:7, NKJV) But later in the chapter, when Saul says they will go down and slaughter the Philistines in the night, finishing them off, the people answer, “Do whatever seems good to you.” They say it again when he decides to cast lots to find out who had eaten that day, the reason Saul grabs hold of when he is unable to hear from the Lord. (1 Samuel 14:36,40, NKJV)
Finally, we see a repetition of these events when David enters the scene. Once Saul sees David as a rival for the praise of the people, he exhausts large amounts of resources and tirelessly tries to hunt him down to kill him.
The Conclusion
It is a matter of the heart.
It’s that simple, Saul acted from a selfish and prideful heart, Jonathan, nor David, did not. He acted from a heart that desired to serve God and serve the people of Israel, not himself.
God wants people to act, and to courageously use what He has given them
Saul was scared. He was unsure of himself and his leadership abilities. He knew he needed God to do the work for him, because he was incapable of believing that he was an able-bodied man chosen by God to lead His people. Again, Jonathan did not suffer from self-doubt. Jonathan acted with what God had given him and he acted in faith. Saul tried to use God as a means to his own end, evident in God’s abandonment of him.
We must read the Bible!
Is Saul had focused on the word of God, the success of Gideon and the folly of Jephthah would have been guiding lights for him. They would have shown him what to do, how to have faith, and how to behave in battle.
Are you thinking I’m being a little extreme here? Check this out. Look at what Joab, the commander of Israel’s army, says in 2 Samuel 11:21, when he sends a messenger to give bad news to King David; 21” Who struck Abimelech the son of Jerubbesheth? Was it not a woman who cast a piece of a millstone on him from the wall, so that he died in Thebez? Why did you go near the wall?’” He knows it is standard behavior to know the Scriptures and to apply them to life.
Romans 15:4 tells us 4 “For whatever things were written before were written for our learning, that we through the patience and comfort of the Scriptures might have hope.” The Scriptures are written for our learning and guidance.
For us, when we read beyond 1 Samuel, chapter 13, we learn what is in Saul’s heart. We learn a great deal about the destiny of a prideful heart, the downfall of one who acts outside of faith, and the consequences of desiring the glory of men rather than the love of God. When we read on and learn of David’s plight with his father-in-law, our conclusions are reinforced when we relate them back to this interaction with Saul and his son, Jonathan.
Want to read more of Chris’ insights on the Bible? Check out this post from February, 2022, on the Book of Esther.
