According To Our Heart
The grace of God and the unmerited favor of God become manifest when we believe in Him. His grace does not come to us because of some triumph of ours or because of some struggle we have achieved. God works when we work by faith. When we, as believers, believe and obey by faith; God honors our trust in him. Below is a lesson that shows a man’s simple faith honored by God. Although the interpretation is straightforward, there is one aspect of faith I want to emphasize because I believe special attention is warranted. I hope this interpretation helps you understand how God desires to work in the midst of our faith.
At this time in history, the
1 Samuel 14:1-15
Now it came to pass upon a day, that Jonathan the son of
Saul said unto the young man that bare his armour, Come, and let us go over to the
Philistines’ garrison, this is on the other side, But he told not his
father. And Saul tarried in the
uttermost part of Gibeah under a pomegranate tree which is in Migron: and the
people that were with him were about six hundred men; And Ahiah, the son of
Ahitub, Ichabod’s brother, the son of Phinehas, the son of Eli, the Lord’s
priest in Shiloh, wearing an ephod. And
the people knew not that Jonathan was gone.
And between the passages, by which Jonathan sought to go over unto the
Philistines’ garrison, there was a sharp rock on the one side, and a sharp rock
on the other side: and the name of the one was Bozez, and the name of the other
Seneh. The forfront of the one was
situate northward over against Michmash, and the other southward over against Gibeah. And Jonathan said to the young man that bare
his armour, Come, and let us go over unto the garrison of these uncircumcised: it
may be that the Lord will work for us: for there is no restraint to the
Lord to save by many or few. And
his armour-barer said unto him, Do all that is in thine heart: turn thee;
behold, I am with thee according to thy heart. Then said Jonathan, Behold, we will pass over
unto these man, and we will discover ourselves unto them. If they say unto us, Tarry until we come to you;
then we will stand still in our place, and will not go up unto them. But if they say thus, Come up unto us; then
we will go up: for the Lord hath delivered them into our hand: and this shall
be a sign unto us. And both of them
discovered themselves unto the garrison of the Philistines: and the Philistines
said, Behold, the Hebrews come forth out of the holes where they had hid
themselves. And the men of the garrison
answered Jonathan and his armour-bearer, and said, Come up to us, and we will
show you a thing. And Jonathan said unto
his armour-bearer, Come up after me: for the Lord hath delivered them into the
hand of
This initial slaughter eventually led to the slaughter of
the entire Philistine army. The
Philistine army was given to confusion (1 Samuel 14: 16,20) and they ended up
turning their swords against each other.
There are a few things I would like to specify about this victory. It is obvious that God honored Jonathan’s faith. Jonathan did ask for a sign (1 Samuel 14:10) but God worked within Jonathan’s request. Notice what is said here:
…And his armour-barer said unto him, Do all that is in
thine heart: turn thee; behold, I am with thee according to thy heart…
This is pretty impressive. It took incredible boldness and faith to believe that God would deliver 20 Philistines into Jonathan’s hand, but the armour-bearer stuck by Jonathan’s side. Jonathan’s armour-bearer symbolizes the Holy Spirit. Notice what happens when Jonathan obeys according to his faith:
…And Jonathan climbed up upon his hands and upon his
feet, and his armour-bearer after him: and they fell before Jonathan; and his
armour-bearer slew after him.
As soon as Jonathan proceeded by faith, then the armour-bearer proceeded to back him. He not only backed Jonathan, but the armour-bearer is the one who actually killed everyone. Jonathan did not even lift a finger. As soon as Jonathan obeyed by faith the Philistines miraculously fell down in front of him. This allowed the armour-bearer following Jonathan to do all the work. This is the way God wants to work in our lives. God says to us:
…Do all that is in thine heart: turn thee; behold, I
am with thee according to thy heart.
God takes a look at our faith and as soon as we have made a plan, as long as it is in the will of God (Romans 8:27), God backs us, and when He does, we do not even have to lift a finger.
I truly believe that in this example, Jonathan’s armour-bearer directly symbolizes the Holy Spirit living inside of all believers. We can easily look at the example from the text and say, well, Jonathan had faith and God backed him. This is true. But what is truly important is to know and understand just how close and personal the Holy Spirit is to us. In this example the armour-bearer (Holy Spirit) was the man who carried Jonathan’s armour (Ephesians 6:10-18). He is basically his right hand man. This is as personal as you can get on the battlefield. God is saying to us, hey, I will back you, I will be there for you and I will deliver you. And not only that, but I am so close to you that even if I were to show you, you still would not believe me or even understand. God is reaching out to us and as soon as He does, He is closer than we think. This understanding is not complex. It is quite simple to see. Sometimes it is impossible to believe that God could be so close, or so personal, but He is. We need to remember this example and trust God to be this close to us in our daily lives. He is with us “according to our heart”, and He wants to back us and fight our battles for us. All He asks of us is faith, and not even that really, He only asks that we believe that He could be that close. Once we believe and act, then God will “be with us according to our heart.”