Unsung Heroes—jonathan’s Armor Bearer

Unsung heroes—Jonathan’s armor bearer

Introduction: some of the unsung heroes of the Bible never had their names revealed. The people they served with knew, and clearly their parents knew, but in His Wisdom, our Lord has chosen for these people to remain secret. Their deeds were well known, even if they were not! There is a lesson for us, namely, that even if these heroes were never named, that didn’t stop them from finishing the job they were asked to do. May we, like they, seek the approval of God, and not only or not just the approval of any person on this earth.

Text, 1 Samuel 14:6-7, KJV: 6 And Jonathan said to the young man that bare his armour, 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. 7 And his armourbearer said unto him, Do all that is in thine heart: turn thee; behold, I am with thee according to thy heart.

Thoughts: Saul had been crowned king over Israel, but the Philistines remained a problem. These invaders had built or established garrisons, similar to military outposts, in Israel’s territory. For example, the garrison at Geba (1 Sam. 13:3) might be called “Camp Geba” or “Fort Geba” due to the military presence there.

There were other Philistine garrisons or outposts besides Geba, though. In David’s reign, there was a garrison in Bethlehem, his home town (2 Sam. 23:14), and maybe other communities. The exact location of the garrison in this story is not certain, but it may have been close to Michmash and Gibeah. Certainly it would have been difficult to get there, as the writer mentioned in verse 4 about the sharp rocks (interpretation uncertain) between the passages. Wherever it was, the garrison must have been in a “sweet spot” for the Philistines.

But Jonathan, son of Saul, had other ideas. He had a rather bold plan to attack the garrison that seemed to be close by and took his armor bearer along. But Jonathan knew better than to go without the Lord’s help, and he proposed one simple test. That test was to hear the response from the Philistines: one reply meant they would stay in place; the other meant attack!

And here is where the dedication of this unknown armor bearer stands out. He said to Jonathan, “Do all that’s in your heart; I’m with you (paraphrased)!” The two men attacked, and the results were in Jonathan’s favor. He and the armor bearer slew 20 Philistines “within as it were a half acre of ground” or about 2400 square yards.

The next few verses are somewhat unclear as translated in the KJV. We can be sure of one thing, though, and that is God provided a victory for Israel when it seemed they needed one. All this came about because one man and a dedicated follower stood up and did the right thing.

The armor bearer, as mentioned, never had his name revealed and, thus, we know nothing about him except for his dedication to Jonathan and his faith in God. May there be many more like him whose goal is to do the best thing—even if they’re never recognized for it down here.

Scripture quotations taken from the King James Version of the Bible (KJV).