“So the LORD delivered Israel that day, and the battle spread beyond Beth-aven” (1 Sam 14:23).
Israel was up against overwhelming odds. Their enemies were more numerous than the “sand on the seashore” (1 Sam 13:5; see Josh 11:4; Judg 7:12), and were well-equipped with horses and chariots (1 Sam 13:5; see Exod 14:9, 17-18, 23, 26, 28). With the exception of King Saul and his son Jonathan, Israel’s armies had no weapons to fight on the day of battle (1 Sam 13:22). These impossible odds provided the perfect conditions for proving to Israel that one leader with a sword is more than enough force to defeat the greatest superpower on the planet as long as this leader puts his trust in the LORD: “Then Jonathan said to the young man who was carrying his armor, ‘Come and let us cross over to the garrison of these uncircumcised; perhaps the LORD will work for us, for the LORD is not restrained to save by many or by few'” (1 Sam 14:6; see Josh 10:11; Judg 7:2).
Although Jonathan may not have had his own personal copy of stories about Moses’ “battle” against the Egyptians at the Reed Sea (Exodus 14), Joshua’s battle against the Canaanite kings (Joshua 10-12), and Gideon’s battle against Midian (Judg 7-8), he clearly proved himself to be a remarkable student of God’s word, because he obviously applied their “military tactics” to his own battle.
It is small wonder, therefore, that the author borrows words from the Exodus Story to describe the LORD’s victory through Jonathan over the Philistines. For this exact phrase, “the LORD delivered Israel that day” (1 Sam 14:23), is only elsewhere in the story of the Exodus (Exod 14:30). By citing this verse, morevoer, the author casts Jonathan’s victory in a Messianic light, since the author likens Jonathan (not Saul) to a new Moses who leads God’s people to victory (see Exod 14:30-31).
And if Moses defeated the armies of Egypt with a staff (Exod 14:16), Joshua defeated the armies of Canaan with a javelin (Josh 8:18), Gideon defeated the myriads of Midianites with three hundred men (Judg 7:8), and Jonathan toppled a garrison of Philistines with a sword (1 Sam 13:22), then our Messiah was more than well-equipped to completely humiliate all the armies of hell and cancel our debt of sin with a wooden execution stake, a few nails, and a crown of thorns.
“When you were dead in your transgressions and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He made you alive together with Him, having forgiven us all our transgressions, having canceled out the certificate of debt consisting of decrees against us, which was hostile to us; and He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross. When He had disarmed the rulers and authorities, He made a public display of them, having triumphed over them through Him” (Col 2:13-15).
