1 Samuel 14:1 (NIV84) One day Jonathan son of Saul said to the young man bearing his armor, “Come, let’s go over to the Philistine outpost on the other side.”

Jonathan was probably like any other son in most ways. He knew how to honor his dad; we can assume this since he had risen to a high place of leadership. In fact other than his father, the king, Jonathan was the only one actually possessing weapons.

But under the new king, Israel was going in a bad direction. Saul had disobeyed, and had already been told his reign would not endure. You can see the impact this awful news had on the nation of Israel as you read the rest of the story. Saul, who had started with two thousand warriors, now has only six hundred, and these are “quaking with fear,” hiding in caves and thickets. (You and I would too, if we’d been sent to fight without so much as a slingshot.)

But God still had great plans for his people, the Israelites, and shows us that in the response of Saul’s son Jonathan.

Jonathan, accompanied by only a young armor-bearer, sneaks out. Not to safety, not to a hiding place, but instead into the very mouth of danger. He charts a course between two canyon walls, Bozez and Seneh. The canyon walls were so intimidating they had names. On the left was Bozez, which means “gleaming.” On the right was Seneh, which means “thorny.” Today, we’d say Jonathan was “between a rock and a hard place.” Strangely, he put himself there. At the other end of the canyon was a Philistine outpost. Certain death, to a reasonable man.

Only his trust in Almighty God allowed him to do this. As he said to his armor-bearer, “perhaps the Lord will act in our behalf. Nothing can hinder the Lord from saving, whether by many or by few.” (1 Sam 14:6). Jonathan knew that if God wanted to save the Israelites, he would do so as a response to faith. He also knew that God could do such a thing, that God was capable, which meant that He could use any means at all, regardless of how many men or other resources were available.

What an encouragement that is to us. God can do whatever needs to be done! Whatever the need, God can meet it, whether it be financial, health, or salvation, it doesn’t matter. God can do it!

The armor-bearer must have known this too, because his answer to Jonathan is full of faith: “Do all that you have in mind,” his armor-bearer said. “Go ahead; I am with you heart and soul.” (v. 7)

What happened next was incredible, and probably shocked the Israelites, including king Saul, more than it did the Philistines. God sent a panic on the members of that Philistine outpost. Jonathan and his armor-bearer killed the men they found at the top of that canyon path, as God caused an earthquake to accompany their arrival.

Note to us all: If we trust God, against all human odds, He will save us, using whatever means He chooses. All tools, including more than a few not available to us under normal circumstances, are at His disposal.

We’ll find that a response of faith in God still works today, regardless of whatever we are facing in our daily life. The bigger the challenge, the better. The scarier our enemy, the more opportunity for God to show Himself strong on our behalf, as we trust Him. Isn’t that what Hanani, the seer, said to king Asa? “For the eyes of the Lord range throughout the earth to strengthen those whose hearts are fully committed to him.” (2 Chron. 16:9)

For some, the greatest need is to believe God, as Jonathan did, in the face of a bad family situation. Perhaps history hasn’t put you in a place where faith is natural. Maybe disobedience and neglect have left many around you “quaking,” hiding in “caves and thickets,” certain things won’t work out. For you, the simple act of declaring God’s sufficiency is going against the grain in the most basic way: you weren’t brought up to do that.

One of the hardest things to do is to change the direction of a body in motion. Newton’s laws of motion have been with us for over three hundred years. His first law of motion states: “The velocity of a body remains constant unless the body is acted upon by an external force.” In other words, a body in motion tends to stay in motion. As we all know, this holds pretty much true whether we’re talking about a bowling ball that’s headed for the gutter, or a life going down the pipes. Once it’s headed that way, it’s really, really hard to get a change of course.

That’s why saying “yes” to Jesus is, in a sense, being like Jonathan. Putting our faith in God, we are saying we want to change the direction of our lives. We are ready to go against the mainstream, encouraged by what God might do in us. We’ll walk through the narrowest of tight spots, a gleaming wall so bright we can’t look at it on the left, a wall full of thorns on the right. An enemy waiting for us up ahead, one that will certainly defeat us if our faith has been misplaced.

But it hasn’t. After all, He alone can save us, and He can do it any way He wants to.