Now there was no smith found throughout the land of Israel; for the Philistines said, Lest the Hebrews make them swords or spears.
One trade note sums up Israel under Philistine rule: no blacksmith anywhere in the land. How did God's people sink this low? And what can faith do when the weapons are gone?
The Philistines had a settled method for keeping a beaten people beaten. It reached down to everyday tools.
The Philistines had a way of disarming their conquered foes and cutting off all their supplies of weapons. It was unusual and effective. In Saul's time, once they got the upper hand, they did not allow the Israelites to have a blacksmith in all their country. They did this in case the Israelites got the means of making swords. The conquered had to go to the conqueror's forges if they wanted an axe or a plough blade sharpened.
Writers trace the collapse back to Israel's own drift from God.
The Philistines had disarmed the people everywhere. Only the king and his son were allowed to keep their swords. The Philistines even ordered the blacksmiths' shops closed, in case they should forge weapons... We only see how awful this is when we remember that Israel was God's chosen people for the blessing and guidance of all the nations on earth. They had become utterly degraded and powerless through unfaithfulness to God.
One commentator notes the speed of the fall.
Notice here the frightening speed of it. The enemy gains the upper hand at once when we are not walking in the ways of God.
Commentators read the Philistines as a picture, not just a nation. They lived in the land God had given Israel, but had never come in by God's road.
They came from Egypt (Genesis 10:13-14). They had left Egypt behind and got into the land which God had promised to His people. But they had not taken His way into it. Their way had been an easy short cut, and by it they escaped the Red Sea and the River Jordan... They are a picture of secularised Christianity, religion made acceptable to unconverted people... They have the form of godliness, but deny the power.
The missing smith means more than lost metalwork.
These smiths might well answer to something we see later in Israel's history: the schools of the prophets. In those places the Holy Spirit directs the fire and the hammer of God's word and truth. They would correspond to every proper and scriptural means of developing activity among God's saints... We can see, then, what it is for all this to be in the hands of the Philistines.
Israel had to go to the enemy to sharpen their own tools. One writer sees the same pattern where Christians have no first-hand grip on Scripture.
There is of course a serious spiritual lesson in this. Merely formal religion will always deprive us of any true spiritual defence. Forms take the place of the pure truth of God, "the sword of the Spirit". In this case the people of God are left powerless... Only clergymen are expected to have any knowledge of the Word of God. Ordinary believers depend on the clergy to interpret the Bible for them, so that they can only follow blindly and helplessly.
Jonathan went forward in exactly this situation. His confidence rested on God's tie to His people, not on their equipment.
The condition of that people is sad. The Philistines are in power among them, plundering a defenceless land. No means of resistance is left to them. Except with Saul and with Jonathan, not a sword or a spear is found in Israel... But this does not touch His faithfulness... In isolating itself with God, faith identifies itself with His people. It loses sight of self, passes over their ruined state, and recognises all that is theirs in God... Though Israel cannot even sharpen a mattock, in the name of the God of hosts, the God of Israel, he goes straight on his way.
- Disarmed — the Philistines banned blacksmiths, so Israel could make no swords or spears. Even farm tools went to the enemy's forges.
- Cause — the weakness came from within. A people meant to bless the nations lost their power through unfaithfulness, and the enemy took over fast.
- Captor — the Philistines picture religion that took a short cut into the land, avoiding the Red Sea and Jordan: form without power.
- Cost — where forms replace the truth, ordinary people lose the sword of the Spirit. They depend on others to read the Bible for them.
- Courage — Jonathan showed that a nation unable to sharpen a mattock still has God. Faith goes forward in His name.
And all Israel went down to the Philistines, every man to get his ploughshare, and his hoe, and his axe, and his sickle sharpened,
Under Saul, Israel's collapse shows up in a farm tool. Every man had to walk down into enemy land to get an edge back on his plow, axe or sickle, because even peaceful work now needed the enemy's permission.
This trip was not trade. It was policy. The Philistines held every forge, so Israel could never arm itself.
The Philistines had an unusual and effective way of disarming the people they conquered and cutting off all their supplies of weapons. In Saul's time, once they got the upper hand, they did not allow the Israelites to have a blacksmith anywhere in the country, in case the people got the means of making swords. If the conquered wanted an axe or a plow blade sharpened, they had to go to the conqueror's forges.
The tools named here are not weapons. They are the plain instruments of planting and harvest. A people with a land of their own could not work its soil without their masters' help.
They have sunk into something worse than slavery. They depend on their masters even for the means of working the soil. Sadder still is the spiritual state of the people of God when they are in the same position... Our inheritance is a spiritual one... but the soil, fruitful as it was and drinking in the rain from heaven, still had to be worked if it was to yield a crop. So too in spiritual things. There is no lack in what is ours in Christ... but if the soil is not cultivated, of what use is it?
Even the sharpening they could do at home was poor:
All they had left was a file for the mattocks and plows. It could put only a poor, short-lived edge on their tools.
This was the country some way into Saul's reign. The end of the chapter shows what his rule produced.
Then the end of the chapter shows the inner condition of the people. It was wretched now, after the king had been reigning for some time — long enough for faith to have proved its effectiveness. We are told they did not have so much as a weapon for self-defence. If they wanted to sharpen a mattock, they had to go down to the Philistines for the purpose. Saul had brought them no deliverance.
The speed of the fall is part of the warning:
Notice how frighteningly fast — at once, in fact — the enemy gains the upper hand when we are not walking in the ways of God.
Commentators see a picture in that trip to the enemy's forge. It shows what happens when we let the world control our access to Scripture.
If we depend on the world to supply our weapons, we will find ourselves with no resources for fighting it. Our weapon is the Word. How can we use it against the world, if we agree to give the world the right to teach the Word to us and to hand out the Word to us? In this way the world holds the means to bring us into bondage. It will leave us no part of this Word except the part that poses no threat to itself.
The same picture fits a religion that leaves the Bible in the hands of a professional class:
Mere formalistic religion will always deprive us of any true spiritual defense... Only clergymen are expected to have any knowledge of the Word of God. The ordinary members depend on the clergy to interpret the Bible for them. So they can only follow, blind and helpless, with no clear grasp of the Word of God for themselves.
The story does not end there. A tool a file could still sharpen was enough in the hands of faith.
In God's mercy, faith can still win even here. It was with an ox goad — a weapon that a file could sharpen to a point — that Shamgar brought deliverance from these very Philistines... a simple word of encouragement or warning that speaks to the conscience, and true faith will always use it. Even Philistines cannot take that away from God's people. And faith can turn an ordinary tool, needed in times of peace, against the enemy with terrible effect.
One account of Shamgar puts numbers to it:
In his day there was not so much as a single spear or shield among forty thousand Israelites. Shamgar had only an ox goad himself. With it he rose up, killed six hundred Philistine warriors, and set the people of God free.
- Policy: The enemy's first move was not battle. Remove every blacksmith, and a nation can never arm itself.
- Poverty: The loss reached past war into daily life. A people with a rich inheritance could not even sharpen a plow to work it.
- Cause: Saul had reigned for some time and brought no deliverance. The fall comes fast once God's people stop walking in His ways.
- Parallel: Whoever controls your access to the Word controls you. Let the world hand out Scripture, and it will hand back only the parts that cost it nothing.
- Hope: God has used an ox goad before. A plain word to the conscience is a tool no enemy can confiscate, and faith turns it into a weapon.
when the edges of the sickles, and the hoes, and the forks, and the axes were blunted; and to set the goads.
An Israelite farmer could not sharpen his own tools. He had to pay his Philistine rulers to do it, and this verse sets out the charge. What happens to God's people when the enemy controls the means of keeping an edge?
The list of plowshares, mattocks, axes and goads measures how far a free nation had sunk.
How were the people to meet this devastating horde? You can see how pitiful their condition was: there was no smith in all the land. The Philistines had taken them away to stop them from making weapons of war for the Israelites. Even for the peaceful work of farming they depended on their masters. They had to go down to them to have their plowshares sharpened, or the axe, or even the mattock. They were left with only a file for the mattocks and plows. It could put just a poor, short-lived edge on their tools.
Older translations read the verse as leaving Israel only a file. The ESV reads it as a price list. Either way, Israel could no longer keep its own edge.
The Philistines controlled more than metal. They controlled the supply.
If we depend on the world to supply our weapons, we will find ourselves without resources for fighting it. Our weapon is the Word. How can we use it against the world if we agree to give the world the right to teach the Word to us and to hand it out to us? In this way the world holds the means to bring us into bondage. It will leave us no part of this Word except the part that poses no threat to itself.
The verse lists farm tools, not swords. Israel had lost the power to work its own land.
They had sunk lower than slavery. They depended on their masters even for the means of tilling the soil. But more pitiable is the spiritual condition of God's people in similar circumstances. Wherever formalism prevails, it takes all spiritual weapons out of the hands of God's people. It even removes the tools we need to cultivate the peaceful means of satisfying our soul's hunger... There is no lack in what is ours in Christ... but if the soil is not cultivated, of what use is it? We might say that our inheritance is contained in the precious word of God. Our cultivation of it — digging beneath the surface for its treasures, turning it over with the plow of conscience, applying it to ourselves — answers to the farm work listed here.
after_note: none
The same shortage shows up in religion made of forms.
Mere formalistic religion will always deprive us of any true spiritual defence. Forms take the place of the pure truth of God, "the sword of the Spirit," and in this case the people of God have no power left. In the day of battle, only the two leaders, Saul and Jonathan, had weapons. How similar to formalistic religion! People expect only clergymen to know the Word of God. The rest depend on the clergy to interpret the Bible for them. So they can only follow blindly and helplessly, with no clear grasp of the Word of God for themselves.
The policy had a cold logic.
The enemy knows too well that it will never do to leave spear and sword in the hands of those who might be stirred up to use them... Unbelief presses in one direction, worldliness in another, Philistine formalism in another. What power do we have to meet them with those weapons of warfare which the apostle says are "not of the flesh but have divine power"? We can never expect Philistia to supply weapons against itself.
The last item on the list is the goad, a stick for driving oxen.
By God's mercy, faith can triumph even here. Remember that Shamgar won deliverance from these very Philistines with an ox goad — a weapon that could be sharpened with a file. The goad seems to match those words of the wise which are like goads: a simple word of encouragement or warning that reaches the conscience. True faith will always use it. Even Philistines cannot take that from God's people. In the hands of faith, an ordinary tool needed in peacetime can be turned against the enemy with terrible effect.
Jonathan showed what that faith looks like.
Though Israel could not sharpen a mattock, in the name of the God of hosts, Jehovah, God of Israel, he goes straight on his way.
- Disarmed. No smith in the land meant no sword — and a file that gave only a poor, temporary edge.
- Dependent. Israel went down to its oppressors even to farm. Let the world hand you the Word, and it will hand you only the part that costs it nothing.
- Starved. The first loss was not weapons but tools — our inheritance in the Word, left uncultivated.
- Silenced. When only the leaders carry a sword, the rest follow blindly. The enemy will never supply weapons against itself.
- Undefeated. The goad remained — a plain word that reaches the conscience. Shamgar broke these same Philistines with it, and Jonathan walked out to meet them with no mattock sharpened at all.
And it came to pass in the day of battle, that there was neither sword nor spear found in the hand of any of the people that were with Saul and Jonathan; but with Saul and with Jonathan his son there was found.
Israel lines up for battle against the Philistines, and almost no one in the army has a weapon. How did God's people end up with a king to lead them and nothing to fight with?
This was not an accident. It was a policy, and it reached past the battlefield into every field and farm.
How are the people to meet this devastating horde? Their pitiable condition shows in this: there was no smith found in all the land. The Philistines had taken them away to prevent them from making weapons of war for the Israelites. Even for the peaceful work of farming they depended on their masters. They had to go down to them to have a plowshare sharpened, or an axe, or even a mattock. All they had left was a file for the mattocks and plows. It could put only a poor, short-lived edge on their tools.
A reign can be measured by what it leaves in ordinary people's hands.
Then the end of the chapter shows the inner condition of the people. Their state was wretched now. The king had reigned long enough for faith to have proved its worth. They had not even a tool for self-defence. If they wanted to sharpen a mattock, they had to go down to the Philistines for it. Saul had worked no deliverance.
The picture has a direct application. If the only sharpening shop in the country belongs to your enemy, your enemy decides what edge you carry.
If we depend on the world to supply our weapons, we will find ourselves without resources for fighting it. Our weapon is the Word. How can we use it against the world, if we agree to give the world the right to teach the Word to us and hand it out to us? In this way the world holds the means to bring us into bondage. It will not leave us any part of this Word except what poses no threat to itself. And just so, children of God are all too often found unarmed in the face of enemies who attack their faith.
One writer sees the same arrangement in religion today.
Mere formalistic religion will always rob us of any real spiritual defence. Forms replace the pure truth of God, "the sword of the Spirit," and in this case the people of God are left powerless. So in the day of battle, only the two leaders, Saul and Jonathan, had weapons. How like formalistic religion! Only clergymen are expected to have any knowledge of the Word of God. The people depend on the clergy to interpret the Bible for them. So they can only follow blindly and helplessly, with no clear grasp of the Word of God for themselves.
The enemy read Saul's weakness clearly and left two swords in Israel. It cost them.
Saul would not humble himself at this reproof, and he would not measure the lonely helplessness his disobedience had brought on him. The Philistines did. They disarmed the few who were left, and let only the king and his son keep their weapons. Was this contempt? It may have been; but the overruling hand of the Lord brought blessing out of it for His afflicted people. Their enemies could safely trust a sword to a man after the flesh. It was another thing to leave one in the hand of a man after the Spirit. Such a man has simple faith, and he does not look at the strength of the enemy but up to God. Such was Jonathan, the reserve of grace for the hour of need. A sword in the hand of such a man (like the word of God in the hands of those who know it and use it as the sword of the Spirit) was mighty through God to overthrow these powerful enemies.
Israel's ruin does not touch God's faithfulness — and Jonathan acted on that.
The condition of that people is sad. The Philistines are in power among them, plundering a defenceless land. No means of resistance is left to them: not a sword or a spear is found in Israel, except with Saul and with Jonathan. Even the king they have among them is one they sinned in setting up. Yet none of this touches God's faithfulness... Though Israel cannot sharpen a mattock, Jonathan goes straight on his way in the name of the God of hosts, the LORD, God of Israel.
- Cause. Saul's disobedience left him helpless. After a reign of some length he had worked no deliverance, and the empty hands prove it.
- Method. The enemy removed the smiths, not the soldiers. Cut off the means of making weapons, and the disarming takes care of itself.
- Application. Our weapon is the Word; let the world sharpen it for us, and it will hand back only the edge that is harmless to itself.
- Consequence. When only the leaders carry swords, the rest follow blindly. They have no grasp of the Word of God for themselves.
- Exception. Two swords remained. In the hand of the flesh, one achieved nothing. In the hand of faith, the other was mighty through God.