a. Thirty thousand chariots and six thousand horsemen, and people as the sand which is on the seashore in multitude: The Philistines, angered by the Israelites, gathered a huge army to crush Israel.
i. Thirty thousand chariots is a massive number, and some doubt the accuracy of this number. “This number seems incredible to infidels; to whom it may be sufficient to reply, that it is far more rational to acknowledge a mistake in him that copied out the sacred text in such numeral or historical passages, wherein the doctrine of faith and good life in not directly concerned, than upon such a pretense to question the truth and divinity of the Holy Scriptures, which are so fully attested, and evidently demonstrated. And the mistake is not great in the Hebrew, schalosh for shelishim; and so indeed those two ancient translators, the Syriac and Arabic, translate it, and are supposed to have read in their Hebrew copies, three thousand.” (Poole)
b. When the men of Israel saw that they were in danger: Jonathan was bold enough to launch the initial attack against the Philistines, but the men of Israel were not bold enough to now stand strong against their enemy. In great fear (the people were distressed) they hid anywhere they could (in caves, in thickets, in rocks, in holes, and in pits) or they fled across the Jordan River (to the land of Gad and Gilead). This was a low point for Israel.
i. Probably many of them thought, “What we really need is a king. A king would solve our problems.” Now they have a king and the problems are still there. We often think things will “fix” problems when they won’t at all. “And hereby God intended to teach them the vanity of all carnal confidence in men; and that they did not one jot less need the help and favour of God now than they did before, when they had no king.” (Poole)
c. As for Saul, he was still in Gilgal: Saul’s position as king was confirmed at Gilgal (1 Samuel 11:15). He was still there many months later (1 Samuel 13:1). It may be that Saul wanted to keep re-living the glorious day when Samuel recognized and confirmed him as king before the entire nation. Now that he was king, the men of Israel expected greater things from him.
d. The people followed him trembling: They still honored Saul as king, but they were really frightened. It must be better to have trembling followers than no followers at all, but how much better if Israel would have really trusted the LORD here. (Guzik)
Trust in the Lord
We are no different than the Israelites in these verses! When we become distressed, what do we do? We run and hide instead of putting our trust in the Lord!
Let us not forget!
”Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil; For You are with me; Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me.“
Psalms 23:4 NKJV
”I will say of the Lord, “He is my refuge and my fortress; My God, in Him I will trust.”“ Psalms 91:2 NKJV
Is He your refuge and your fortress?
Blessings
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