Here’s another part of the story about Prince Jonathon and his little sortie against the hillside Philistine party. In fact, it’s probably a bit of an overlooked, but really important segment of the account.
Once the prince and his side-kick armor bearer finished off the enemy soldiers on the hill, (which was 2 against 20, BTW), God then sends an earthquake, which had to be pretty scary to everyone, including our two heroes who had just put themselves in great peril for their nation and, more importantly, their God.
Seems like a pretty unconventional way of saying “well done”.
[I find it mildly amusing, or sad, probably both, when we call a natural disaster an “act of God”. Primarily because so many people in our society no longer even believe in God, (although one hears His name thrown around repeatedly in various ways), but also as if He is to blame for acts of His creation, (any more than a parent can be blamed for their adult children’s decisions, as much as we like to do that these days.) But I digress…]
The result of this act of God was that a large portion of the Philistine army was eradicated by this “natural disaster”, providing additional overwhelming victory for the Israelite army. So, as scary as surfing on what was originally terra firma was for our two, their persistence and faithfulness (gotta love that old-fashioned word!) paid off big. The earthquake needed to be properly interpreted as God’s intervention rather than an unfortunate interruption in Jon’s plan
The point: what seems like a setback, a disappointment, or even a disaster may just be God’s rearrangement of our otherwise comfortable terra firma for a greater “victory”.
Check it out for yourself at:
1 Samuel 14
Romans 8:28
Ephesians 3:20-21
INSPIRATION with an ATTITUDE 