Jonathan, A Type of Dissatisfied Remnant
Now there was no
blacksmith to be found throughout all the land of Israel,
for the Philistines said, “Lest the Hebrews make swords or spears.” But all the
Israelites would go down to the Philistines to sharpen each man's plowshare,
his mattock, his ax, and his sickle; and the charge for a sharpening was a pim
for the plowshares, the mattocks, the forks, and the axes, and to set the
points of the goads. So it came about, on the day of battle, that there was
neither sword nor spear found in the hand of any of the people who were with
Saul and Jonathan. But they were found with Saul and Jonathan his son. And the
garrison of the Philistines went out to the pass of Michmash. Now it happened
one day that Jonathan the son of Saul said to the young man who bore his armor,
“Come, let us go over to the Philistines' garrison that is on the other side.”
But he did not tell his father. And Saul was sitting in the outskirts of Gibeah
under a pomegranate tree which is in Migron. The people who were with him were
about six hundred men. Ahijah the son of Ahitub, Ichabod's brother, the son of
Phinehas, the son of Eli, the LORD'S priest in Shiloh, was wearing an ephod.
But the people did not know that Jonathan had gone (1 Sam. 13:19-14:3).
In the very land of their
inheritance, the nation of Israel sat in bondage, due to the poor leadership of
the self-centered, fleshly King Saul.
