1 Samuel 14:8 Commentary and Bible Study

They deliberately show themselves to the Philistines garrison. Why did they do that? Because they reason that the Philistines would look over the edge of their rocky stronghold, and they would see these two men and say, ‘They are obviously not an army. Two people; what can they do? They are obviously not on the offensive.’ If they had seen a hundred people, they would have been worried, but two people! ‘They are surely deserters. There is no attack going on here.’ Jonathan and his armour bearer surmised that they could show themselves, and they might even get invited up. It was a very rocky climb. As Lange suggests, possibly the Philistines looked down and they thought, they will never get up here. ‘Come on up.’ Perhaps what they intended to do was, just as they got to a difficult bit, to lob something down, and make a bit of sport of them. So they went up, and they actually got up, and when they got into the first area they gave those Philistines something of a shock, and took that whole area. It proved not too difficult to do probably. It was a kind of natural fortress, where you could take on one group at a time, and then you could move on to the next. This army was conveniently arranged in small manageable cells of defenders. Eventually you could gain quite a bit of ground, and by that time cause such a commotion that it seemed as though a massive incursion had got in, and the shouts would be echoed and re-echoed, and panic would begin to grow. Such a sign was evidently available to Jonathan; in faith he called upon the Lord, and this was somehow communicated to him. An alternative explanation is that the least likely response would be that the Philistine sentries on the ridge would say, Come up to us; that they would send a small party down to challenge and to inspect Jonathan and his armour bearer. This explanation says, If the unlikely thing happens, then that will be a sign to us. Another explanation says, If we are called to come up to them, it is a trap, and it is an act of aggression, and we must respond to that, by the instruction of the word of God. So whatever the explanation, they are going to wait on the Philistines, to see what will be their response.‘And both of them discovered themselves unto the garrison of the Philistines: and the Philistines said,’ – and this is an interesting insight – ‘Behold, the Hebrews come forth out of the holes where they had hid themselves.’ This most likely indicates that they thought that these were cowards, deserters; that in this rocky hillside with all its caves and its masses of cover, there were deserters, hiding and lingering, not warriors about to attack. Of course there were in fact only two: Jonathan and his armour bearer.‘The men of the garrison’ – the sentries up on the ridge – ‘answered Jonathan and his armour bearer and said, Come up to us and we will show you a thing’, or ‘we will show you something’, we might say today. Some of the modern translations think that they said, ‘Come up to us and we will teach you a lesson’, as though they spoke threateningly or aggressively. But the Hebrew doesn't indicate that. It says exactly what our translation has: ‘Come to us and will show you something.’ In other words, they assume these people were cowards – Jonathan and his armour bearer – and they were enticing them, not threatening them. So the sentries on the top of the ridge: how many Hebrews did they think there were? Possibly hundreds, possibly they thought were lots of them there. That seems to be why they trembled so much when things suddenly went wrong. There are only two in fact you couldn't see into all the crevices and the cracks, and the caves. They could only see Jonathan and his armour bearer.‘And Jonathan said unto his armourbearer, Come up after me: for the LORD hath delivered them into the hand of Israel.’ Jonathan has the right spirit. He does not see this as a personal victory. He is fighting for Israel, and the God of Israel. He believes that what God is enabling the two of them to do will somehow overcome this enormous force, and bring an impossible victory to Israel, and so it was. His faith was rewarded.