David Bahn – Reflections

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These devotions are part of the Follow the Word Bible reading program at St. John Lutheran Church in Cypress, Texas. This year we are reading through the Scriptures together, listening for how God speaks through his Word day by day. I hope you will join me on this journey.

Today’s readings are 1 Samuel 14-16, Psalm 110.

1 Samuel 14:6-15

Jonathan said to the young man who carried his armor, “Come, let us go over to the garrison of these uncircumcised. It may be that the Lord will work for us, for nothing can hinder the Lord from saving by many or by few.” ⁷ And his armor-bearer said to him, “Do all that is in your heart. Do as you wish. Behold, I am with you heart and soul.” ⁸ Then Jonathan said, “Behold, we will cross over to the men, and we will show ourselves to them. ⁹ If they say to us, ‘Wait until we come to you,’ then we will stand still in our place, and we will not go up to them. ¹⁰ But if they say, ‘Come up to us,’ then we will go up, for the Lord has given them into our hand. And this shall be the sign to us.” ¹¹ So both of them showed themselves to the garrison of the Philistines. And the Philistines said, “Look, Hebrews are coming out of the holes where they have hidden themselves.” ¹² And the men of the garrison hailed Jonathan and his armor-bearer and said, “Come up to us, and we will show you a thing.” And Jonathan said to his armor-bearer, “Come up after me, for the Lord has given them into the hand of Israel.” ¹³ Then Jonathan climbed up on his hands and feet, and his armor-bearer after him. And they fell before Jonathan, and his armor-bearer killed them after him. ¹⁴ And that first strike, which Jonathan and his armor-bearer made, killed about twenty men within as it were half a furrow’s length in an acre of land. ¹⁵ And there was a panic in the camp, in the field, and among all the people. The garrison and even the raiders trembled, the earth quaked, and it became a very great panic.

This is one of my favorite – if obscure – Old Testament stories. It’s a favorite because of three words, “it may be,” (or “perhaps” as in another translation) and the implications of that frame of mind.

I’m not a fan of Possibility Thinking, per se. That’s the idea that if we think positively enough, or believe strongly enough, we can create a better outcome. It tends to place the weight on us – our outlook, our effort, our determination.

But Jonathan’s words point us in a different direction. He is not confident in the outcome. He is confident in the Lord. That is very different from both a scarcity mindset that assumes nothing can be done and a kind of optimism that assumes everything will work out. Jonathan lives in the tension between those two – seeing things as they are, and yet leaving room for what God may do.

Another way of thinking about this is the Stockdale Paradox. Admiral Stockdale, a POW in the Vietnam War, determined to face the brutal facts while holding on to hope. In other words, he acknowledged the challenges before him while not losing sight of what might yet be. That is something like Jonathan’s “it may be.” For those three words are followed by some very important ones: “It may be that the LORD will work for us, for nothing can hinder the LORD from saving by many or by few.”

Jonathan could say, “it may be,” because he did not know what the Lord would choose to do in that moment. But he knew that the LORD would be the decisive factor in the outcome. He acted in faith, leaving the result in God’s hands.

But we are given something even more certain.

In Jesus Christ, God has already acted. There is no “may be” about his mercy, his forgiveness, or his saving work. The cross and the empty tomb are not possibilities; they are promises fulfilled.

So we live much as Jonathan did – not paralyzed by fear, not presuming upon God, but stepping forward in faith. And we do so with confidence, not in ourselves, but in the God who has already shown himself faithful.

Rather than embracing impossibility thinking or naïve possibility thinking, those who trust in the Lord are called to a faithful “it may be” way of living – seeing things as they are, and yet moving forward in the confidence of what God has already done for us in Jesus.

Click on the graphic below to watch the Bible Project video summary of the book of 1 Samuel.