A Breakout of Bright

To Dare & Delight

Part Ten: Bright Eyed

Last time out we looked at the beginning and the end of the fourteenth chapter of 1 Samuel. We considered the difference between sharpness and shining. As we focus now on the middle of the story, it’s this part in particular, that has become incredibly important to me. It became really meaningful to me because I found myself very much in the thorny place.

In so many ways, I ended up here because of what I was listening to. The words we hear very much shape the environment we find ourselves in. Jonathan is able to choose how he responds because he’s not influenced by his father’s words like the other troops.

But Jonathan had not heard that his father had bound the people with the oath, so he reached out the end of the staff that was in his hand and dipped it into the honeycomb. He raised his hand to his mouth, and his eyes brightened.

1 Samuel 14:27 NIV

Jonathan wasn’t bound by these words because he hadn’t heard them. The voices we listen to profoundly shape how we feel. And how we act.

So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.

Romans 10:17 NKJV

Here then, we see that hearing leads to both reaching and raising. Those who haven’t heard that there are any limitations tend to see impossible things happen. When you aren’t bound by fear you are free to find joy and delight. You find a way.

With this mindset we get to,

Taste and see that the Lord is good; blessed is the one who takes refuge in him.

Psalms 34:8 NIV

We can clearly see that each part of us is connected to and affected by all the others. Hearing affects how we act, how we act affects what we taste and what we taste affects how we see.

We’ll come back here to this in just a moment. But we have to look right back for a minute. To notice what was going on under that pomegranate tree that we saw Saul sitting under last time.

Saul was staying on the outskirts of Gibeah under a pomegranate tree in Migron. With him were about six hundred men, among whom was Ahijah, who was wearing an ephod. He was a son of Ichabod’s brother Ahitub son of Phinehas, the son of Eli, the Lord’s priest in Shiloh. No one was aware that Jonathan had left.

1 Samuel 14:2‭-‬3 NIV

I think the author wants us to notice some important details and recall an important event that happened earlier on in the book of 1 Samuel. The name ‘Migron’ here can mean ‘fear’ and reemphasizes that Saul was sitting in fear while Jonathan was in a different place.

This place of fear seems to be connected with symbols of the priesthood. Pomegranates are found on the priestly garments in Exodus (Ex. 28:31-34). And ‘Ahijah’ is now wearing that very same garment, the ‘ephod’. Ichabod, Phinehas and Eli all point back to a dark day. A day when there was a changing of the guard if you like.

Eli heard the outcry and asked, “What is the meaning of this uproar?” The man hurried over to Eli, who was ninety-eight years old and whose eyes had failed so that he could not see. He told Eli, “I have just come from the battle line; I fled from it this very day.” Eli asked, “What happened, my son?” The man who brought the news replied, “Israel fled before the Philistines, and the army has suffered heavy losses. Also your two sons, Hophni and Phinehas, are dead, and the ark of God has been captured.” When he mentioned the ark of God, Eli fell backward off his chair by the side of the gate. His neck was broken and he died, for he was an old man, and he was heavy. He had led Israel forty years. His daughter-in-law, the wife of Phinehas, was pregnant and near the time of delivery. When she heard the news that the ark of God had been captured and that her father-in-law and her husband were dead, she went into labor and gave birth, but was overcome by her labor pains. As she was dying, the women attending her said, “Don’t despair; you have given birth to a son.” But she did not respond or pay any attention. She named the boy Ichabod, saying, “The Glory has departed from Israel”—because of the capture of the ark of God and the deaths of her father-in-law and her husband.

1 Samuel 4:14‭-‬21 NIV

Eli’s weakening and fading eyes are a feature throughout his story. As God removed Hophni and Phinehas, Eli’s corrupt sons, he would ultimately remove Saul from his position as king. And for the daughter-in-law it was like the glory had departed.

But the glory wasn’t departing it was simply being transferred. It seemed like a dark day but the lamp of God hadn’t been completely snuffed out. It was still burning a little. And as we’ll see that’s all that God needs. He was moving.

And when God moves.

We must too.

And, although they didn’t notice, Jonathan had moved.

I suppose it’s a bit like a star footballer being transferred to a new club. God wasn’t leaving the game for good. He was just changing strip.

God was doing a new thing.

And Saul’s afraid because he’s trying to hold on to power and control. He’s sat with six hundred men. He’s surrounded himself with an army of people. He’s holding on to a fading system. He’s trying to do things his way. He’s trying to prove himself.

You see both Jonathan and Saul were fighting the Philistines. Both were working toward the same purpose. But Jonathan did so from a place of freedom and Saul from this place of fear.

So in contrast to the hundreds sat with Saul we find Jonathan with his armor-bearer. And sometimes all we need is someone who is with us heart and soul and we can find victory.

“Do all that you have in mind,” his armor-bearer said. “Go ahead; I am with you heart and soul.”

1 Samuel 14:7 NIV

Without God we can do nothing.

But with God we can do anything.

Interestingly, the place the Israelites were defeated by the Philistines and where the ark of God was taken, the place it felt like the glory had departed—that place was called Ebenezer (1 Sam. 4:1). That was the place they camped in. Slightly later, after the ark of the covenant had been returned and God had brought a great victory to the Israelites, Samuel takes a stone and names it Ebenezer.

Then Samuel took a stone and set it up between Mizpah and Shen. He named it Ebenezer, saying, “Thus far the Lord has helped us.”

1 Samuel 7:12 NIV

When we try to fight alone and in our own strength, we fail. But when we remember that God is our help and strength we can only win.

Back now then to the brightening of Jonathan’s eyes. I hope you’ve started to see the contrast between this pivotal moment here and the failing and weakening eyes we’ve seen throughout 1 Samuel. Go back and read the whole book up to this moment if you like. Read it as a whole story. Notice the connection. God was with Jonathan.

Then one of the soldiers told him, “Your father bound the army under a strict oath, saying, ‘Cursed be anyone who eats food today!’ That is why the men are faint.” Jonathan said, “My father has made trouble for the country. See how my eyes brightened when I tasted a little of this honey.”

1 Samuel 14:28‭-‬29 NIV

It only takes a little honey on your lips to bring brightness back to your eyes.

One of the symptoms of Covid-19 is a loss of taste. I wonder if you’ve lost the taste of God’s goodness?

God’s words are described as being like honey on our lips. When all you’ve heard is the bitterness of strict rules and sharp words a little sweetness will flood your world with brightness.

The Bible tells us,

“Your eye is the lamp of your body. When your eyes are healthy (the Greek for healthy here implies generous), your whole body also is full of light. But when they are unhealthy (the Greek for unhealthy here implies stingy), your body also is full of darkness. See to it, then, that the light within you is not darkness. Therefore, if your whole body is full of light, and no part of it dark, it will be just as full of light as when a lamp shines its light on you.”

Luke 11:34‭-‬36 NIV

So here we discover the real problem. The sharp, prickly acacia tree from last time, is a picture of a stingy heart. It’s ultra protective and desperately trying to hold onto what it has. In contrast, the chalky rock is generous in that it reflects the light back and shares it with the world. The thorny tree takes and the chalky rock gives generously. And that’s brightness.

When we think that God is slow in coming forward, as you remember Saul did. When we think God is stingy or slow, we become fearful and our attitude and actions reflect that. We become like a cactus in the desert. Sharply holding onto the water we’ve stored up.

Jonathan knew God to be his Ebenezer. Like the chalky rock he reflected back the brightness of God’s glory. God was generously providing for him and just a little honey was everything to him. It was all he needed. And he knew how important it could have been to the rest of the troops. The honey was oozing on that day but the troops were bound by fear. Jonathan didn’t need a forest full, a little dip was all he needed.

How are you tasting and seeing?

Have you lost your hope, wonder, delight? Are you fighting from a place of fear? Are your thorns out? Are your words sharp? Have you adopted a defensive position in your Christianity? Are you sat in an old system, whilst God is armor-bearing somewhere else?

Are you in camp fear or camp Ebenezer?

Do your eyes need brightening?

Go on, reach out. Just a little taste of goodness. Remember that sweetness once again. It’ll come flooding back.

Don’t despair, God’s still there.

Taste a little honey.