There is no restraint to the Lord, to save by many or by few.
Jonathan’s faith
1. This faith of Jonathan was reasonable. Some think faith mere assumption, or the result of ignorance. It is not so. Faith rests on reason. We know we can do nothing of ourselves in an emergency like that which had overtaken the children of Israel. We know God has infinite power, and He has said that He will help those who trust Him. He has the power and He is willing, then is it not in reason to trust Him?
2. Jonathan believed that it was the height of wisdom to give God the opportunity to reveal His mighty arm. God needs our faith. God is necessary to us, and we, in a sense, are necessary to God. We need God that we may have ground for our faith, and He needs our faith to call out His help. We trust too much in ourselves. Said one to me, “the churches are growing so weak.” I would to God that they were weak enough to lean on God. I do not doubt that there are church members who can get up at five o’clock, swing in and out with the multitude at Moody and Sankey’s meetings, but how few are willing to go up alone against the Philistines. There is an inspiration in a multitude, but it is not always the inspiration that comes through faith in God. The Philistines commenced slaying each other. So it often is when God comes down to help the Church, sinners assist the work in their confusion. Then the Israelites who had hid in caves, when they saw that the army of the Philistines had met disaster, helped on the victory. When God manifests His power, backsliders return. Every man can do something in the Church’s work.
3. Remember, lastly, that if such faith and such labour glorified God, then they can do it again. Is the Church in straitened circumstances? Are the enemies clamorous? There is need of the faith of Jonathan and of his armour bearer. Give God an opportunity, by trusting in Him, to reveal His strength. Defeat comes through a lack of faith. Let no one’s heart be faint. (Metropolitan Pulpit.)
God and we
Richter says that we should all “make as much of ourselves as can be made out of the stuff.” The stuff we are made of may be particularly poor, for we know that we have been able to make little or nothing out of it. Suppose we take it to its Maker and ask Him to do something with it? On the keystone of a bridge over a stream in a beautiful Scotch parish are the words, “God and We,” teaching all who read them that nothing can be built without the help of the great Architect. It is so with the edification or building up of ourselves. It is not “God alone,” which would mean human idleness; or “We” alone, which would mean human presumption; or “We and God,” which would be almost blasphemy; but “God and We.”
Divine and human cooperation
We may often be cheered by this recollection of a beautiful reciprocity in things human and Divine. If God promises His unfailing help to us. He has also conditioned much of the success of His cause on our help rendered to it. Sun, moon, and stars are mutual helpers in sustaining the equilibrium of Nature’s forces. When the earth, sun, and moon join their attractions in a right line the tides rise to the full; but when these worlds exert their forces at right angles then the tides sink to their lowest. So when we place ourselves in the right attitude of harmony with the Divine powers, then we exert the most beneficent influence. The Divine Spirit is the great and all-sufficient source of help for human souls. Science gives us a beautiful illustration. A strong man cannot very long hold up a heavy weight. His arm grows weary and he feels weak. But if a current from a magnetic battery or an electric machine be applied to the tired arm the muscles instantly regain strength, and the weight is held up with ease. So it is with the invisible current of the Divine power of the Spirit applied to our weary souls. (Christian Commonwealth.)
Strength in quiet assurance
Pelopidas, when informed that the number of the enemy was double that of his own army, replied: “So much the better. We shall conquer so many the more.” His intelligent self-possession was more than a thousand spears. The battle of Gilboa was lost before Saul began it. “In quietness and confidence shall be your strength.” (E. P. Thwing.)
