1 Samuel 14:36-46

Seeking counsel of God and keeping one's word.

The facts are—

1 . Saul, following his own impulse, desires to pursue the Philistines during the night, but is restrained by the priest advising to seek counsel of God.

2 . No answer coming from God, Saul concludes that sin has been committed, and resolves that the sinner when discovered shall die.

3 . A lot being taken, it falls on Jonathan, who admits having tasted honey, and submits to the sentence.

4 . Saul, again solemnly consigning his son to death, is confronted by the people, who claim and rescue Jonathan's life on the ground that he was doing God's work that day. Rash impulse was the besetting sin of Saul. Being by Divine arrangement more than a military leader, it was his duty to seek guidance from God in times of uncertainty. Men of cooler judgment doubted whether it was wise to urge on all through the night men who had been worn down by fasting all day, and were scarcely free from their evening meal. The priest evidently saw that Saul's haste and the unexpressed hesitation of the people could be best dealt with by consulting the Urim. The Divine silence at once indicated that something was wrong, and according to precedent it was necessary to ascertain where it lay. The ceremonial wrong was Jonathan's, the moral Saul's. The moral degeneracy of Saul was not only seen in his impulsive neglect of God's counsel, but also in the self-complacent zeal with which he sought out the breach of his own rash command, and in the unnatural harshness of his sentence. People are sometimes better than their rulers, and hence the popular sense of justice demanded that in this instance royal authority and national custom should give way before the manifest will of God. Jonathan must not die, even though a king's word be broken. The three prominent matters of the narrative are seeking counsel, keeping one's word, and safety in God.

I. SEEKING COUNSEL . It is the part of wisdom in life's affairs to seek counsel of God; and although sometimes no counsel is given, its absence is very instructive, and the causes of it are ascertainable. In the case of Saul both duty and privilege demanded a frequent appeal to God. On the occasion before us the need was real, the method was at hand, and response was possible, and a lack of response was itself of value. Our common human relation to God is not unlike that of Israel's king.

1 . There is forevery one frequent need of Divine counsel. Life, even under the direction of the clearest reason and purest natural impulses, is not safe; for sin has disturbed the nature of the best of men. It is not always that that which at first seems good and safe turns out in the end to be so. What to do in private, domestic, and public affairs, and what proportion of time and strength to give to various claims, are questions pressing on every conscientious mind. In matters pertaining to religious belief, culture, and enterprise, we each, if life be not stagnant, require more than earthly wisdom. The heart of man is sensible that it is not in him infallibly and safely to "direct his steps," and hence in all lands it instinctively though often in ignorance, cries out for the living God ( Proverbs 16:9 ; Jeremiah 10:23 ).

2 . There is a method at hand. The Urim was not far from Saul. By a study of God's will as seen in his word, his providence, the yearnings of a sanctified heart, and the voice of his peoples we may gain guidance in addition to that private illumination which unquestionably comes in answer to true prayer. No rule can be laid down for individuals. Each day's circumstances must suggest the means we use to ascertain the will of God.

3 . There is reason for looking for a response to our seeking. It was a tacit understanding with Saul on the settlement of the kingdom ( 1 Samuel 9:25-27 ; 1 Samuel 10:24 , 1 Samuel 10:25 ) that he might count on the guidance of God. Samuel's exhortations and instructions all through proceeded on this assumption. Nor was God's silence on the present occasion contrary to this; for it was of itself a significant indication of the mind of God. Saul knew its meaning. The exhortations to us to "seek the Lord," the distinct promises that he will "hear," the many instances on record in which men sought and followed the Lord, raise an assurance that the seed of Jacob shall not seek his face in vain ( Isaiah 19:1 ). The answer may come in unlooked for forms,—in the clearing of our moral perceptions, the secret bent given to the purified heart, the opening up of courses of action, or a concurrence of events and influences,—but come it will some time if we are sincere and earnest.

4 . The absence of response is often accountable. We know why Saul's seeking for counsel was in vain. There are frequent instances in which the silence of God is conspicuous. He was silent when the Psalmist cried unto him to awake ( Psalms 35:22-24 ); when defiled men cried unto him ( Isaiah 1:12-15 ); when amidst the storm men were in fear ( Matthew 8:24-26 ); when in presence of a wounded heart be would not heed captious men ( John 8:6 , John 8:7 ); and when questioned by one who had no right to assume a tone of authority ( John 19:9 ). Even though our holiness of life, or at least consistency, be real, and our supposed need be urgent, it is possible that the discipline of faith and patience is the reason for no response.

II. KEEPING ONE 'S WORD . Saul felt bound in honour to keep his word, even at the cost of his son's life. He found himself in an awkward position, for it would reveal an irresolution unfavourable to authority if he should overlook his son's deed under a plea of ignorance which any one might make; and, on the other hand, as the people did believe Jonathan's plea, and held him to be the real victor of the day, it would expose Saul's folly and injustice if he should take away so valuable a life. Such was Saul's sense of the importance of keeping his word, that all must be sacrificed to it.

1 . There is a fictitious truthfulness. The bare doing as he had said, and merely because he had said it, was Saul's ideal of truthfulness. Here, then, was a vague apprehension of a grand virtue, and a crude presentation of moral obliquity as being identical with it. Truth is a virtue entering into the depths of life; and had Saul been really a man of truth, he would have considered Jonathan's case on its own merits, have honestly admitted the folly and sin of his own rash declaration, and have sacrificed his own repute to the general interests of righteousness. There is much fictitious truthfulness in the world. Some men, by sheer obstinacy of disposition, will do as they say simply because they said it, heedless of the injury it may do. To keep to what one has acknowledged to be binding is supposed to be truthfulness in act, and yet many will be rigorous in the observance of some moral obligations and careless of others. To avoid theft and murder is coincident with deeds of lying and selfishness. A similar fictitious truthfulness is seen in the careful outward observance of days without cherishing the spirit in accordance with them, and in the performance of acts of worship as a substitute for the homage of the soul.

2 . Real truthfulness is a quality of extreme importance. Saul confessed this in his zeal for the fictitious; as do all men in their devices to secure an appearance of it, and their instinctive homage to the reality when presented in word or deed. Real truthfulness does not apply merely to correspondence of statement with occurrence. It is another name for reality in thought, feeling, life ; and it applies to our relation both to man and God. The conformity of our nature with what is befitting a creature of the Holy One is the real truthfulness. Hence, nothing enters the New Jerusalem that "maketh a lie." Hence, regeneration is a renewal "in the image of him" who created us. Hence, also, in so far as we are like unto him who is "the Truths" all our relations to men are pure, lovely, honest—the natural outcome of "truth in the inward parts." This quality is essential to the most perfect social confidence; for it renders fraud, deceit, selfishness, dissimulation, distrust impossible, and the reverse virtues real, whenever it is dominant in human nature. Attention to this in education is supremely important.

III. SAFETY IN GOD . Jonathan's life was safe in God's care in spite of zeal for a fictitious regard for truth on the part of his father. The voice of the people demanding his release was the voice of God, and the honour put on Jonathan during the previous day was evidence to all but the obstinate king of a favour much to be desired. He who had gone forth in the service of the Lord with true, honest heart, and had been shielded in the dangerous enterprise, was not forsaken by his God when now the rashness of man encompassed his life with peril. Thus, the custom of Eastern rulers keeping their word when once uttered ( 11:30-39 ; Matthew 14:9 ), personal consistency, and royal authority must give place where God makes manifest his approval. Does not the position of Jonathan lead our thoughts on to our own in a greater day of trial? We are not to be tried by the variable impulse of man or established custom, hut by impartial justice. What God declares shall be done when our day's battle is over will be done in truth. If he acquits us then, who is he that condemneth? His favour will save from a worse calamity than any that threatened Jonathan; and the practical question is how to come into such relation to God that the universal demand of justice shall be for our not perishing. The answer is—"There is no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus" ( Romans 8:1 ); "Who shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect? It is God that justifieth" ( Romans 8:33 ).

General lessons :—

1 . We are consistent with our privileges when not only our calamities and great affairs, but our ordinary actions, are made subject to Divine guidance ( Philippians 4:6 ).

2 . It is especially desirable to seek counsel of God when we are conscious of restlessness and ill-regulated impulse.

3 . Faithfulness requires that, a promise or engagement being made, we keep our word even at much personal cost; but when such loss would occur, generosity requires of the gainer that it be not wholly insisted on ( Psalms 15:4 ; Lu Luke 6:31 ; Ephesians 4:32 ).

4 . Truthfulness in character is the opposite of sinfulness, for sin is a practical lie ( Genesis 3:1-5 ; 1 John 2:4 ).

5 . Our final safety rests not on the past untarnished purity of life ( Romans 3:10 ; 1 John 1:8 ), but on our being identified with Messiah's life and purpose ( John 14:19 ; Romans 8:35-39 ).