Jonathan quietly said to the young man who bore his armor, “Come, let us go over to the garrison of these uncircumcised. Perhaps the LORD will act for us. For nothing restrains the LORD from saving, whether by many or by few.”
He left the six-hundred-armed men and his father under the pomegranate tree. His leaving is unknown and unnoticed. The crossing to the enemy was already the decision. The words he spoke on the way did not claim the outcome of this climb. They named only the character of the LORD and left the acting with Him.
The armor-bearer confidently answered, “Do all that is in your heart. Go ahead; I am with you heart and soul.”
Jonathan then set the sign. They would show themselves. If the men of the garrison said, “Wait until we come to you,” they would stand still and not go up. If the men said, “Come up to us,” they would go up, for that would be the sign that the LORD had delivered them into their hands.
They showed themselves. The enemy mocked and said, “Look, the Hebrews are coming out of the holes where they have hidden.” Then the garrison called, “Come up to us, and we will show you something.”
Jonathan encouraged his armor bearer, “Come up after me, for the LORD has delivered them into the hand of Israel.”
They ascended. Jonathan climbed on his hands and feet, the armor-bearer behind him. The battle commenced. The Philistines fell before Jonathan, and the armor-bearer finished them as they lay defeated. In that first assault they struck down about twenty men in about half an acre of ground. Their resolve remained as they advanced.
Then panic struck the camp, the field, and all the people. The garrison and the raiding parties trembled. The earth quaked, and the panic was from God.
Twenty soldiers lay behind them. The fear that spread was not theirs to produce. The LORD had acted. Israel was saved that day, though the battle was just beginning.
The LORD who is not restrained by many or by few still acts when we cross over the ground in the belief He may act for us.
