just a few

I was reading in 1 Samuel this morning and I was inspired by something that I found in chapter 14. Before I get to that, let me give some brief history. Saul has been recently crowned king, and at this point in time is preparing to do battle with the Philistines. The problem is, there are a lot more Philistines than there are Israelites. The Israelites are panicked and hiding in the hills and otherwise being unfaithful chickens. I would guess that at this point Saul is pretty frustrated. So was his son, Jonathan. In fact, Jonathan was so disgusted that he grabbed his armor-bearer and decided to sneak away and take drastic measures.

1 Samuel 14: 6-7 - "Jonathan said to the young man who carried his armor, "Come, let us go over to the garrison of these uncircumcised. It may be that the Lord will work for us, for nothing can hinder the Lord from saving by many or by few." And his armor-bearer said to him, "Do all that is in your heart. Do as you wish. Behold, I am with you heart and soul.""

Jonathan went on to make a crazy kamikaze style charge at the Philistine garrison, and together he and his armor-bearer were successful in not only slaying a nice sized handful of Philistines, but also threw the whole army into confusion, which inspired the rest of the chicken Hebrews to quit cowering and come out and fight. They won the battle that day, all because of one man's faith in the Lord.

I like this passage. It inspires me. I love that the Bible is full of these "one man against an army" stories. Also, I tend to think that this passage is a bit prophetic. "Nothing can hinder the Lord from saving by many or by few," - in fact nothing did hinder the Lord from saving, and he used one man.