Sons of Encouragement

by Francine Rivers

  Samuel shook his head. “God holds the future in His hands.”

  “May I ask you something?” Jonathan hoped Samuel would agree, for one thing had continued to plague him. He couldn’t sleep for worrying about it.

  Samuel inclined his head.

  “You told us at Mizpah that we sinned by asking for a king. Has God forgiven us, Abba? or will His wrath be poured out upon my father? Saul did not ask to be king.”

  Samuel’s gaze softened. “God calls whom He calls, Jonathan. The people have what they want: a king who stands tall among men. The Lord is compassionate upon His people. When we confessed before Him, He forgave us. God knows the hearts of men, my prince. He gave us commandments to follow so that we will not fall into sin. He knew Israel would one day ask for a king, and He told Moses what that king must be: a brother, a man who writes the Law in his own hand, studies it, is able to teach it, and abides by it all the days of his life.”

  When Jonathan returned home, he would tell his father everything Samuel said.

  “You have great confidence in your father, don’t you?”

  “Yes!” Jonathan nodded. He was proud of his father. “I think I have more confidence in my father than he has in himself.”

  “He will learn what it means to be a king.”

  Who else could Jonathan trust but the prophet of God? “Now that he is king, he has enemies on every side. Some of the other tribes cried out against him when God made him king.”

  “There will always be men who stand against the one God calls to serve Him.” Samuel turned and placed his right hand upon Jonathan’s shoulder. “Honor your father, my son, but let your confidence be in the Lord our God. I know you love Saul, as well you should. But do not allow your love to blind you. Do not keep silent if you see your father, the king, sin. Learn the Law and counsel the king wisely. You are his eldest son, first show of his strength, and heir to his throne. Much will be expected of you. Seek wisdom from the Lord. Study the Law, and encourage your father to do the same. But do not ever think you can do the work for him. The king must know the Lord our God and the power of His strength.”

  Jonathan nodded again, accepting every word Samuel said as though it came from God Himself.

  “I have watched you work, my son. You wash your hands before you enter the chamber and tremble when you open the scroll.”

  “To hold the Law is a wondrous thing, Abba, but to copy it is a terrifying task.”

  Samuel’s eyes grew moist. He put his hands on his knees and pushed himself up. “I will look over your work.”

  “Thank you, Abba.”

  Samuel patted Jonathan’s shoulder. “I wish all men revered the Law as you do.”

  Jonathan bowed his head, embarrassed. “I must confess I would rather be a student of the Law than a prince.”

  Samuel put his hand on Jonathan’s head. “You can be both.”

  Jonathan returned home with the copy of the Law carefully packed for travel. A small portion of it was tucked into a leather cylinder hidden beneath his tunic. He would keep it near his heart at all times.

  How he looked forward to sitting with his father and discussing the Law, plumbing its meanings, relishing the richness of it. Each day that he had worked on making the copy, he had thought how wonderful it was going to be to share it with the king.

  He found his father still in the fields, and warriors still encamped around Gibeah, waiting for the king to give them orders. Kish looked haggard. Jonathan overheard his low, heated words to Abner. “I dare say nothing to Saul that can be overheard or these men who wait upon him will think him more of a coward! What is my son waiting for?”

  Jonathan was troubled by the talk. God had chosen his father as king. No one could doubt that! God would tell Saul when to act and what to do.

  To pass the time, warriors sparred with one another. They trained for war daily while waiting for a command. Saul’s habits did not change. He arose with the sun, yoked his oxen, and went out to work. When he returned, he ate with his family and guests.

  Jonathan offered numerous times to read the Law to his father, but Saul always said, “Later. I’m tired.”

  Reaching for more bread, Kish spoke to his son in a quiet, hard whisper. “You must do something or these men will desert you! They will not wait forever for you to take the reins of kingship.”

  Tense lines appeared around Saul’s eyes. “And everything you planned and sacrificed for will be lost. Isn’t that right, Father?”

  “I didn’t do it for me.” Kish spoke between his teeth. “I did it for you, for our family, for our people! Do you wait because you’re angry with me?”

  “No.”

  “Then what holds you back?”

  “I will wait until I have some sign of what I am to do.”

  “Some sign?” Kish flung the bread down. Realizing others watched, he bared his teeth in a smile and leaned forward for some dates. When the others began to talk again, Kish glanced at Jonathan and then back to Saul. “A sign from whom? What sort of sign do you need other than the crown upon your head and these men who wait to obey your least command?”

  Burned by his grandfather’s sarcasm, Jonathan leaned over so that he could see past his father. “God will tell the king what to do and when to do it.”

  “A child’s faith.”

  Heat surged into Jonathan’s face.

  Saul clenched his hand. “My son speaks more wisdom than anyone at this table!”

  The room was silent.

  Florid, Kish held his tongue. When Saul rose, Kish followed. Jonathan followed both men. “You have barely three thousand men,” Kish stormed when they were out of hearing. “The rest refuse to follow a king who hides among the baggage!”

  Saul turned, his face as red as his father’s. “I felt unworthy to be king of Israel, but you got what you wanted, Father, didn’t you?” He waved his hands in the air. “You and all my other ambitious relatives who thirst for Philistine blood!”

  “God chose you.”

  “Convenient of you to remember that.”

  Jonathan stood, staring at them. It was not the first time he had seen them argue this way.

  Kish lowered his voice. “Yes. We wanted one of our own to be king. Judah ruled for a time, but now it is time for the tribe of Benjamin to lead the nation to glory.”

  Benjamin, the youngest of Jacob’s twelve sons. Benjamin, son of the beautiful Rachel, Jacob’s favorite wife. Benjamin, Joseph’s beloved baby brother. Though smallest among the twelve tribes, they were not least in arrogance!

  “You must prove yourself worthy of respect, my son. You must punish those who refused to bring you gifts due a king. You must—”

  “Must?” Saul glared, the cords in his neck standing out. “I wear the crown. Not you. God told Samuel to place it upon my head. Not yours. You have no right to command me to do anything anymore. Offer me advice when I ask for it, Father. If I ever ask. And never forget Jonathan is my heir.”

  Kish glanced back. Jonathan wondered if his grandfather realized he had been there the entire time. Muttering under his breath, Kish left them. Saul let out his breath and shook his head. “I need to be alone.”

  When his father left him, Jonathan found a quiet place and a lamp. He took his scroll from its casing and read. Someone cleared his throat softly. He turned.

  A servant appeared from the shadows. “Your mother requests the pleasure of your company, my prince.”

  Rolling the scroll, he tucked it back into its case. His mother. She always knew every word that was spoken in the household.

  When he entered his mother’s quarters, she was working at her loom. Without looking up, she said, “Your father and grandfather had words.” She turned to face him. “When the time comes, you will stand at your father’s right hand and help him command his army.”

  Distracted, Jonathan watched his sisters.

  His mother called to them. Merab came quickly, but Michal ignored them both.

  “Get your sister o
ut of the wool. It’s yet to be carded. She already reeks.” She glanced at him, frustrated. “I have so much to say to you.”

  Jonathan’s brothers Malkishua and Abinadab clattered sticks as they sparred like the warriors outside the walls. Jonathan grinned. “Gibeah is alive with men eager to follow the king.”

  A servant brought his youngest brother, Ishbosheth, to his mother. The infant cried and sucked on his fist. “Saul is first among our people, Jonathan.” His mother took the baby. “And you are second. You must be as wise as a serpent. Kish will come to you now with his advice. Listen to him and hold on to what will best serve your father, for that will serve you best as well.” Ishbosheth screamed for what he wanted. “And may God grant us peace.”

  Jonathan left, relieved that whatever else his mother had to say would have to wait until later.

  “Someone is coming!” the watchman called out. Jonathan ran to the gate of the city, where his grandfather and uncles had been holding court. Strangers appeared, stumbling with exhaustion, dust covered, faces streaming sweat. Jonathan pressed through the crowd to hear.

  “We come from Jabesh-gilead . . .” The city, belonging to the tribe of Manasseh, lay east of the Jordan River, south of the Sea of Galilee in Manasseh’s territory. “. . . to ask the king what we must do.”

  “Give our brothers water.” Kish waved his hand. “Quickly, so they can tell us what’s happened!”

  Warriors gathered as the panting messengers grasped wooden cups and gulped water. “Nahash,” one managed before draining another cup. People whispered among themselves: “The snake!” Everyone had heard of the Ammonite king and feared invasion. Refreshed, the messenger addressed Kish and the other city leaders. “Nahash has besieged us. The elders pleaded for a treaty with him, and promised to be his servants, but he said he will only agree if he gouges out the right eye of every man in the city as a disgrace to all Israel!”

  If Nahash got his way, Jabesh-gilead would be defenseless for years to come, and an open doorway to the territory of the other tribes of Israel.

  Men wailed and tore their clothing. “God has forsaken us!”

  Women screamed and wept.

  Jonathan saw his father returning with the oxen and ran out to meet him. Saul looked past him at the wailing mob. “What’s the matter? Why is everyone crying?”

  So they told him about the message from Jabesh. “The snake has laid siege to Jabesh-gilead.” One of the messengers had told Saul everything by the time Abner and Kish came toward them.

  Saul spread his arms wide and made a sound unlike anything Jonathan had ever heard from any man before. Terrified, he drew back from his father. The people stared and fell silent. Saul’s roar made the hair on Jonathan’s neck stand on end.

  Face fiery red, eyes blazing, Saul threw the yoke off his oxen. He strode to a man who had been chopping wood and took his ax, then cried out as he raised it and brought it down on the lead ox. The animal dropped and jerked with death throes while Saul moved to the second and killed it as well. No one moved; no one uttered a sound as the king of Israel kept swinging that ax until he had dismembered his oxen.

  Tunic soaked in blood, ax still in hand, Saul faced the people. Children ducked behind their mothers. Men drew back, even Kish, who stared, white-faced.

  “Send out messengers!” King Saul buried his ax in the severed head of the lead ox. He pointed to the carcasses. “This is what will happen to the oxen of anyone who refuses to follow Saul and Samuel into battle! We muster at Bezek!”

  Grinning, Abner turned and shouted eleven names, ordering them to spread the word. “And tell them a king rules in Israel!”

  Jonathan still stared at his father, convinced he had heard the voice of God come out of him. “King Saul!” he shouted, raising his fists in the air. “King Saul!”

  Every warrior raised his hands and shouted with him.

  Three hundred thousand Hebrews came to Bezek, thirty thousand more from the tribe of Judah. Even those who had turned their backs on Saul and mocked him now waited eagerly for his command! The prophet Samuel stood at Saul’s right hand, Jonathan to his left.

  Saul spoke to his officers. “Where are the messengers from Jabesh-gilead?”

  The question was shouted. Men pressed forward, separating themselves from the throng of warriors. “Here, my lord!”

  “Return to your city and say, ‘We will rescue you by noontime tomorrow!’ Tell the elders to say to the Ammonites that the city will surrender and Nahash can do whatever seems best.” He laughed coldly. The Ammonites did not know the king of Israel had mustered an army. “They will return to their camp and celebrate. It will be the last time, for at the last night watch, we attack!”

  Men raised their spears and clubs and cheered. Jonathan grinned in pride. No one doubted his father was king now! Let the enemies of Israel see God’s chosen in battle!

  “Abner!” Saul beckoned.

  “Yes, my lord!”

  “Separate the men into three divisions. If one division is destroyed, there will be two others to continue fighting. If two fall, one will be left.” Each commander knew the route he was to take.

  Where did his father come by such knowledge and confidence? It could only come from the Lord God!

  Samuel stretched out his arms before the fighting men. “May the God of our fathers go out before you!”

  Jonathan stayed at his father’s side as they marched by night the seventeen miles down the mountains and across the Jordan River. Fear tightened his belly, but he let no one know. When the army came near the Ammonite camp, all was quiet, the guards asleep at their posts.

  “Now!” Saul commanded. Jonathan and several others raised the rams’ horns and blew. Israel’s war cry rose to the heavens.

  Saul held his sword high. There were only two in all Israel. Jonathan drew the other and raised it. Shouting, the thousands ran full out toward the Ammonite camp where confusion reigned.

  When three Ammonites rose up to attack his father, rage fired Jonathan’s blood. He cut down one and sliced through another. His father killed the third. Excitement flooded Jonathan’s blood.

  Jonathan’s strength held all morning as he protected his father. Any man who dared try to reach the king of Israel died. By the time the sun was overhead, Nahash and his army lay slaughtered upon the field. Screams from the dying were silenced. The few who survived had scattered before the scourging fire of the Lord.

  Thrusting his bloody sword into the air, Jonathan shouted in victory. “For the Lord and Saul!”

  Others joined in his ecstatic praise.

  But the bloodlust of killing Ammonites darkened and turned on those who had mocked Saul the day Samuel declared him king. The Benjaminites shouted, “Now where are those men who said, ‘Why should Saul rule over us?’ Bring them here, and we will kill them!”

  Men who had fought side by side against the Ammonites now turned on one another, voices raised.

  Jonathan remembered the Law he had written. “Father!” He had to shout to be heard. “We are brothers, sons of Jacob!”

  Saul pulled him back from the fray and cried out, “No one will be executed today!” The throng quieted. Saul looked at Kish and the others and raised his voice for all to hear. “For today the Lord has rescued Israel!”

  Samuel raised his staff. “Come, let us all go to Gilgal to renew the kingdom.”

  “To Gilgal!” men shouted. “To Gilgal!”

  Jonathan’s heart beat with a fear deeper than what he had felt in battle against the Ammonites. These men who turned so swiftly against one another might just as quickly turn against his father. He stayed close to Saul.

  The throng of fighting men moved like a giant flock across the hillsides. For years, they had bunched together in small pockets of discontent, bleating in fear and uncertainty, ignoring the voice of the Shepherd, and looking about for one of their own to lead the way. Now, they followed Saul.

  Saul had proven himself today, but Jonathan knew his father would have to c
ontinue to prove himself over and over again or these men would scatter once more.

  God’s people were like sheep, but today Jonathan had seen how quickly they could turn into wolves.

  Gilgal! Jonathan drank in the sight, remembering the history he had written and now wore around his neck. The children of Israel had crossed the Jordan River and entered the Promised Land here. It was on this plain they had first camped and then renewed their covenant with God. It was here the Angel of the Lord had appeared to Joshua and given him the battle plan to take Jericho, the gateway to Canaan.

  What better place for his father to be reaffirmed king of Israel! After years of every man living in fear and doing what was right in his own eyes, God had given them a king to unite them!

  May You instruct Saul and bless all Israel, O Lord!

  Samuel stood at the monument of twelve stones the tribes had brought from the River Jordan to commemorate their crossing over. A sea of warriors stood silent as the old prophet—bent in frame, but still quick in mind and the Spirit of the Lord—spoke.

  “I have done as you asked and given you a king. Your king is now your leader. I stand here before you—an old, gray-haired man—and my sons serve you.”

  Despised by all.

  “Here I stand!” Samuel held his arms outstretched. “I have served as your leader from the time I was a boy to this very day. Now testify against me in the presence of the Lord and before His anointed one. Whose ox or donkey have I stolen? Have I ever cheated any of you? Have I ever oppressed you? Have I ever taken a bribe and perverted justice? Tell me and I will make right whatever I have done wrong.”

  Jonathan felt tears well at the pain in Samuel’s voice. All because his sons had brought shame upon his house. Lord, let me never bring shame upon my father! Let my actions be honorable.