信仰の手引き（英語・English）
Jonathan Who Thought of God in Difficult Times
投稿者
goodnews2
投稿日
2023-02-07 16:46
閲覧数
172
Jonathan Who Thought of God in Difficult Times
God appointed Saul as the first king of Israel. After Saul became king, he did not listen to God’s word and went his own way according to his thoughts. So, God made Saul go through a tough battle to humble his heart.
In the Bible in 1 Samuel 13:5, it says, “And the Philistines gathered themselves together to fight with Israel, thirty thousand chariots, and six thousand horsemen, and people as the sand which is on the sea shore in multitude.” When they saw this, most of the soldiers with King Saul fled, leaving only about 600 men. How can anyone fight the Phi- listines with that small of an army? It was clearly impossible.
Then Jonathan, the son of King Saul thought about God’s heart, he felt that God would help him. He believed that God would work for him. So, Jonathan said to the young man that bore his armor. “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 by few.”
Leading Israel to Victory
Jonathan and his armorbearer head- ed to the Philistine camp. They had to climb up a large rocky cliff using their hands and feet. If they had stumbled, they could have fallen, or if the Philistines shot arrows or kicked them from above, they could fall and die. Jonathan said to his armorbearer.
“If the Philistines say thus 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.”
Then Jonathan and the armor- bearer began to climb the cliff. The Philistines saw it and cried out.
“Behold! The Hebrews come forth where they had hid themselves.”
Then they said to Jonathan and the armorbearer.
“Come up to us. We will show you a thing.”
When he heard that, Jonathan be- lieved that God would help him and climbed up the cliff with his hands and feet.
After Jonathan climbed the cliff, he fought the Philistines. Twenty men were slaughtered immediately by Jonathan and his armorbearer and the Philistines who saw it quickly ran away. In the end, Jonathan defeated the Philistines and won greatly.
A World Where the Word of God Works
In Genesis chapter 1 in the Bible, it is written that in the beginning, this world was without form, and void, and darkness was upon the face of the deep. This means that the world was very chaotic, disordered, empty, and dark. We don’t know how much time had passed, but one day God said, “Let there be light!” And there was light, causing darkness to disappear and creating order. One word of God defeated formlessness, the void, and darkness.
Before I received salvation, my heart was as dark and hopeless as the world was in the beginning. Then one day, the word of God entered my heart. It was the word that Jesus has forgiven our sins forever. I came to believe that my sins were forgiven. The word of God chased away the despair in my heart, chased away sorrow, and drove out all the hearts that belonged to darkness.
After that, though there were many difficult moments while doing the work of the gospel, each time, the word of God solved all the problems. When I did not have the Word of God in my heart or when I knew the Word but did not believe it, I was full of worries, fear, and sorrow. But when I believed and accepted the Word, all my worries, fears, and sorrows disappeared.
When There Is Only God
From a human point of view, Israel could not win the battle against the Philistines. But Jonathan believed in God. ‘If God works for us, it does not matter whether there are many or few people. Even if it is just the two of us, we can win this battle.’ Therefore, even in the unfavorable situation of the two of them climbing up the cliff, they were able to achieve a great victory.
Sometimes great and difficult problems like the Philistines come to us in life. When we see a big problem, we worry and feel afraid, so we want to run away because it does not seem like we can solve it. However, we don’t need to be smart when we are going through hard times. We don’t have to be good at something, either. Because when there is only God, He can defeat smart and great things.
Are you still disappointed in yourself in front of difficult situations and problems? There is no need to be. What matters the most is whether God is with us. All of us who have been forgiven of our sins are people of God. God protects us. It may seem impossible to you, and you will face hardships, but there is no one who can stop God who is with us. I hope you will move forward without being afraid.
