The Battle

 DEVOTION

1^ST SAMUEL

THE BATTLE

1 Samuel 13:15-23

15 Then Samuel left Gilgal and went up to Gibeah in Benjamin, and Saul counted the men who were with him. They numbered about six hundred. 16 Saul and his son Jonathan and the men with them were staying in Gibeah in Benjamin, while the Philistines camped at Micmash. 17 Raiding parties went out from the Philistine camp in three detachments. One turned toward Ophrah in the vicinity of Shual, 18 another toward Beth Horon, and the third toward the borderland overlooking the Valley of Zeboim facing the desert. 19 Not a blacksmith could be found in the whole land of Israel, because the Philistines had said, "Otherwise the Hebrews will make swords or spears!" 20 So all Israel went down to the Philistines to have their plowshares, mattocks, axes and sickles sharpened. 21 The price was two thirds of a shekel for sharpening plowshares and mattocks, and a third of a shekel for sharpening forks and axes and for repointing goads. 22 So on the day of the battle not a soldier with Saul and Jonathan had a sword or spear in his hand; only Saul and his son Jonathan had them. 23 Now a detachment of Philistines had gone out to the pass at Micmash.

NIV

Did the Philistines kill or capture all the blacksmiths in all of Israel? It seems odd that there would not be one blacksmith in all of Israel. But if the Philistines did eliminate all the blacksmiths, why did they sharpen the plowshares, forks, and axes for the men of Israel? It is a strange situation, and we wonder why it is important that we are told that only Saul and Jonathan had swords. How was Israel to defend itself against an army which all the men with swords with sharpened farm tools? We know what will happen in the next chapters, but what we gain from this for now is that it does not matter how few weapons Israel had because they were God’s people, and if they bow to him, he will win the battle for them. Maybe that would be the lesson that we need to consider. Because we are the people of God due to accepting Jesus as our Lord and Savior we should know the Lord will fight our battles for us. It is not that we must face an advancing army invading our country, but we do have an enemy of our souls. He is always on the attack, attempting to defeat us and destroy our faith. When we consider that frontal attack on Job he never gave up his faith in God. However, it was God who allowed Satan to attack just to prove the faith of Job would not waver. When we face various attacks we cannot waver in our faith. It might be possible some of the schemes of the devil are not frontal attacks on our physical person, but he could cause just the opposite by giving us good things making us think we have everything we could ever want and thus not look to the provisions of the Lord. It is possible that if we become confident in our skills, talents, educational level, and subsequent ability to generate wealth, we may lose sight of needing or looking to God for all we are and all we need. Israel had nothing to be confident in as they had an army without swords to defend themselves, but they had the LORD, and he was enough. No scheme can overpower us, for we are dressed in the armor of God, and we have a sword. We can take our stand because we have the Lord who fights for us. We will see one man, Jonathon with one sword do damage to the Philistines because the LORD was with him. Let us never lose sight of our need of the Lord in our lives, so we are always prepared for the battle.