The Folly of a Disarmed People Text: 1 Samuel 13:19-23
Introduction: The High Cost of Low-Cost Rebellion
We live in an age of pragmatism. The modern evangelical church, in large swaths, has become a master of the negotiated surrender. We have convinced ourselves that a little compromise here, a little accommodation there, is the path of wisdom. We want to be shrewd as serpents, but we have forgotten the part about being innocent as doves. We have become so shrewd that we have outsmarted ourselves, and in the process, we have handed our weapons over to the enemy. We think we are making savvy deals, when in reality we are simply paying the Philistines to sharpen the very tools they will use to oppress us.
The situation in our text is not some dusty, irrelevant artifact of ancient history. It is a stark and vivid picture of the state of the modern church. Israel is in the promised land, they have a king God has given them, and they are facing their sworn enemies. But they are, for all practical purposes, completely disarmed. They have outsourced their most critical infrastructure to the very people who seek their destruction. This did not happen overnight. This was the result of a thousand tiny compromises, a slow drip of covenantal unfaithfulness that left them dependent, weak, and foolish.
This is what sin does. It promises freedom and delivers bondage. It promises strength and delivers impotence. It promises wisdom and delivers utter folly. Saul has just committed a flagrant act of disobedience by offering a sacrifice he had no right to offer, a sin of presumption. And what we see in these verses is the fruit of that kind of rebellion. When a nation turns from God, it does not become strong and independent; it becomes weak and dependent on its enemies. When the church decides that the wisdom of the world is more practical than the commandments of God, it finds itself in the absurd position of paying its enemies for the privilege of being ruled by them.
This passage is a warning, written for our instruction. It shows us the end result of a pragmatic faith that has lost its nerve. It is a diagnosis of a spiritual condition that is rampant today. And it sets the stage for God to do what He loves to do, which is to win a great victory not with a mighty army, but with two swords and a handful of faith.
The Text
Now no blacksmith could be found in all the land of Israel, for the Philistines said, "Lest the Hebrews make swords or spears."
So all Israel went down to the Philistines, each to sharpen his plowshare, his mattock, his axe, and his goad.
And the charge was two-thirds of a shekel for the plowshares, the mattocks, the forks, and the axes, and to fix the goad.
So it happened on the day of battle that neither sword nor spear was found in the hands of any of the people who were with Saul and Jonathan, but they were found with Saul and his son Jonathan.
And the garrison of the Philistines went out to the pass of Michmash.
(1 Samuel 13:19-23 LSB)
Strategic Folly (v. 19)
We begin with the stark reality of Israel's situation.
"Now no blacksmith could be found in all the land of Israel, for the Philistines said, 'Lest the Hebrews make swords or spears.'" (1 Samuel 13:19)
This is a statement of total military and economic subjugation. The Philistines, who had a monopoly on iron technology, had implemented a deliberate policy of disarmament. This is what shrewd pagans do. They understand that to control a people, you must control their ability to defend themselves. You take away their weapons. This is not just about swords and spears; it is about controlling the means of production. A nation that cannot forge its own tools, whether for farming or for fighting, is a vassal state. It is a client of its enemies.
But we must ask, how did it come to this? This is the same Israel that conquered Canaan. This is the people of God. The blame lies squarely with Israel's covenant unfaithfulness. In the song of Deborah, we read a similar indictment: "When they chose new gods, then war was in the gates. Was shield or spear to be seen among forty thousand in Israel?" (Judges 5:8). Idolatry leads to disarmament. When you bow down to the gods of the surrounding nations, you will soon find yourself bowing down to the armies of the surrounding nations.
The Philistines were simply executing a worldly-wise strategy. The real scandal is that Israel allowed it. They had grown comfortable in their dependence. They had accepted the terms of their own subjugation. This is a picture of the church that has adopted the world's educational systems, the world's therapeutic models, the world's definitions of justice and compassion. We send our children to be discipled by the Philistines, we go to their institutions to sharpen our minds, and then we are shocked when we find we have no weapons to fight them. We have accepted a state of affairs where we cannot produce our own intellectual or cultural "swords and spears."
The Humiliation of Dependence (v. 20-21)
The practical outworking of this policy was a constant, grinding humiliation.
"So all Israel went down to the Philistines, each to sharpen his plowshare, his mattock, his axe, and his goad. And the charge was two-thirds of a shekel for the plowshares, the mattocks, the forks, and the axes, and to fix the goad." (1 Samuel 13:20-21)
Notice the absurdity. To do the most basic work of farming, to prepare the soil and tend the oxen, an Israelite had to make a journey into enemy territory. He had to stand in line and pay a fee to the very people who were oppressing him. He was funding his own occupation. Every time a plowshare got dull, it was another reminder of who was in charge.
This is the nature of sinful compromise. It seems practical at first. "It's just sharpening a plowshare. We need to get the crops in. Let's not make a fuss." But this pragmatism is a trap. It normalizes dependence. It makes you a customer of the one who holds you in contempt. Israel was paying for the maintenance of the very system that ensured they could never be free.
The modern church does this constantly. We want cultural influence, so we adopt the world's marketing techniques. We want intellectual respectability, so we trim our theology to fit the canons of secular academia. We want to be seen as compassionate, so we embrace the world's sentimental definitions of love and justice. In every instance, we are going down to the Philistines to get our tools sharpened. And they are happy to take our money. They will gladly sharpen our plows, so long as we never think of forging a sword. They will allow us to be a neutered, harmless service organization, but they will never allow us to be the church militant.
A Nation Disarmed (v. 22)
The result of this long-term policy becomes terrifyingly clear on the day of battle.
"So it happened on the day of battle that neither sword nor spear was found in the hands of any of the people who were with Saul and Jonathan, but they were found with Saul and his son Jonathan." (1 Samuel 13:22)
Out of an entire army, only two men are properly armed. The king and his son. Everyone else was presumably showing up to a sword fight with sharpened farm tools. This is a pathetic state of affairs. It is the logical conclusion of their covenantal apathy. A people who will not fight for their God will eventually find they cannot fight for themselves.
And yet, this is precisely where God loves to display His power. The world looks at this situation and sees a military impossibility. God looks at this situation and sees a perfect opportunity. He is about to demonstrate that the battle belongs to the Lord. He is going to strip away all of Israel's pride, all of their trust in kings and armies, so that when the victory comes, only He can get the glory. Paul tells us that God chooses the foolish things of the world to shame the wise, and the weak things of the world to shame the strong (1 Cor. 1:27). Israel has, through their sin, made themselves weak and foolish. And now God is going to use that very weakness as the backdrop for His strength.
This should be a profound encouragement to us. We often look at the state of the church, disarmed and compromised as it is, and we despair. But God is not wringing His hands. He does not need our impressive armories. He needs our faith. He is perfectly capable of winning the war with just two swords, or a handful of farmers, or a shepherd boy with a sling. The question is not how many weapons we have, but whether we are willing to trust the God who commands the armies of heaven.
The Enemy Advances (v. 23)
The scene closes with the enemy pressing their advantage.
"And the garrison of the Philistines went out to the pass of Michmash." (1 Samuel 13:23)
The Philistines are confident. They see a disarmed, fearful people led by a disobedient king. They see no reason not to advance. They are moving to control the strategic high ground, to tighten the noose. From a human perspective, their confidence is entirely justified. They hold all the cards.
This is the constant state of the world's opposition to the church. The world is always advancing, always pressing, always seeking to occupy the strategic passes. They do not rest. And when they see a church that has willingly disarmed itself, a church that is more concerned with being liked than being faithful, they become emboldened. They see an easy victory.
But they are making a fatal miscalculation. They are looking at the state of Israel's army, but they are not looking at the God of Israel. They are calculating based on swords and spears, not on the sovereign power of the Almighty. This garrison at Michmash is not just a military maneuver; it is a divine setup. God is luring them into the very place where He will bring about their downfall. He is setting the stage for the faith of Jonathan, which we will see in the next chapter, to shine all the more brightly against the darkness of Israel's fear and the Philistines' arrogance.
Conclusion: Fighting with God's Weapons
So what do we take from this? The lesson is not that we should neglect practical means of defense. Nehemiah had his men build the wall with a trowel in one hand and a sword in the other. But the primary lesson is about the nature of spiritual warfare and the folly of compromise.
First, we must see that compromise with the world is not a strategy; it is a slow-motion surrender. Every time we adopt the world's standards, its language, its priorities, we are handing over another blacksmith shop. We are becoming more dependent on the very system we are called to challenge. We must build our own institutions, our own schools, our own culture, on the foundation of God's Word. We must learn to forge our own swords.
Second, we must recognize that our true strength is not in our numbers or our resources, but in our faithfulness to God. God delights in using weakness. He scoffs at the world's armories. The history of the church is the history of God winning impossible victories with improbable people. When we feel weak, when we look at the overwhelming power of the secular Philistines around us, we are not to despair. We are to remember that God's strength is made perfect in our weakness. Two swords in the hands of faith are infinitely more powerful than ten thousand spears in the hands of pragmatists.
Finally, we must trust in God's sovereign providence. The situation looked bleak. Israel was disarmed, and the enemy was advancing. But God was weaving all of it, including Israel's sinful failures, into His perfect plan of redemption. He was setting the stage for a great victory that would point not to the strength of Saul, but to the power of God. Our God is a master strategist. He knows how to turn the enemy's confidence into a snare. He knows how to use a hopeless situation to display His glory. Our task is not to figure out all the angles. Our task is to trust and obey, to pick up the swords we have, and to stand still and see the salvation of the Lord.