Faith Versus Courage: What Wins the Battles

Then Jonathan said to the young man who was carrying his armor, "Come and let us cross over to the garrison of these uncircumcised; perhaps the LORD will work for us, for the LORD is not restrained to save by many or by few." His armor bearer said to him, "Do all that is in your heart; turn yourself, and here I am with you according to your desire." (1 Samuel 14:6-7 NASB)

Then Saul said to Ahijah, "Bring the ark of God here." For the ark of God was at that time with the sons of Israel.  While Saul talked to the priest, the commotion in the camp of the Philistines continued and increased; so Saul said to the priest, "Withdraw your hand."  Then Saul and all the people who were with him rallied and came to the battle; and behold, every man's sword was against his fellow, and there was very great confusion. (1 Samuel 14:18-20 NASB)

As I read 1 Samuel 14, the whole of it turns on this concept of courage and faith.  In combat, courage is not a luxury, it's a necessity.  But courage is not as simple as just being able to charge the machine gun nest and be shot.  Courage means doing what you fear to do, not what your brain tells you is ridiculous to do.  Sometimes it's faith that inspires the ridiculous.

I pulled the two passages above because both introduce engaging the enemy, and both demonstrate courage (even the second one).  But one demonstrates faith where the other does not.  The success of the battle was determined by faith, not courage.

The setting is that 600 Israelites are in Geba and Gibeah, facing 30,000 Philistines; so the odds are lopsided in the extreme.  Raiding parties have gone out looking for the Israelites (like recon-by-fire) because they've hidden in crags, holes and so on.  The Philistines know the people are out there, just no idea where.  So, it's not really a stalemate, it's more like a lull before the Philistine "boot" crushes Israel.

So, in the midst of this "lull", Jonathan and his "armor bearer" decide to engage the Philistine garrison on their own.  The reason is Jonathan figures numbers aren't really a problem for God.  That's his reasoning, even though it's ridiculous, from a military standpoint, for two people to take on an entire garrison.  But his reasoning derives from his faith, so, from a military standpoint, two people walk with the army of the Maker of the heavens and the earth.  Now the odds are still lopsided, but the other way. 

That's faith: to see the "unseen" and be sure of it in the face of what is seen.  Again courage faces fear, real or imagined.  Faith discerns what is unseen and walks in confidence.  Sometimes faith looks like wisdom, sometimes it looks like extreme foolishness.  Sometimes it takes courage to move belief to faith (belief in action). 

Saul realizes the Philistines have been engaged, but not how.  He musters the troops (600-2) and discovers his son and his armor bearer are gone, so now he knows how.  Then he calls for the Ark to inquire of God (possibly he calls for the priest with the Ephod...long story).  But when the battle grows he decides he has enough to go on, and calls the 598 to follow him in joining the battle against the 30,000.

This still takes courage.  It's still extremely lopsided odds on the surface.  I'm pretty sure Saul wanted to know if he should engage the enemy.  But then he figured that the momentum of battle was already there, so he needed to act quick to keep it in his favor.  It makes sense from a military standpoint.  In fact it made sense to those who had run away, and those who had joined their enemies as well.  The people came from their hidy-holes, and even those in the Philistine camp rejoined Israel in the battle switching sides...again, as it were. 

Joining the battle as it had clearly turned against the Philistines at that point was a no-brainer.  Everyone got in on it, but they knew Jonathan had started it.  It was clear that the faith of one brought the victory, not the 600 in Gibeah, not the return of those in hiding, and not the return of the unfaithful among Philistines.  Courage was displayed on the part of many, but faith was displayed by one.  Courage didn't bring victory, it was faith.  Okay, it's possible to see it as courageous faith, but it is still faith in its essence, not courage.

So what do I learn?  I learn that reasoning, sound foundational principles of leadership, finance, and planning are not the keys to success.  They are important, and I don't discount them; I have skills in all of them.  But the key to success is reckless abandon to my Master in faith; belief in action.  So when I'm faced with extremely lopsided odds to accomplish the work of my Master, I don't need to "figure it out" using foundational principles.  I need to act on my belief that the Master of the universe leads me into the fray.