1 Samuel 14:4

There was a sharp rock on the one side, and a sharp rock on the other side.

Rocks on both sides

The cruel army of the Philistines must be taken and scattered. There is just one man, accompanied by his bodyguard, to do that thing Jonathan is the hero of the scene. These two men, Jonathan and his bodyguard, drive back and drive down the Philistines over the rocks, and open a campaign which demolishes the enemies of Israel. I suppose that the overhanging and overshadowing rocks on either side did not baulk or dishearten Jonathan or his bodyguard, but only roused and filled them with enthusiasm as they went up. “There was a sharp rock on the one side, and a sharp rock on the other side.” You have been, or are now, some of you, in this crisis of the text. If a man meets one trouble, he can go through with it. He gathers all his energies, concentrates them upon one point, and in the strength of God, or by his own natural determination, goes through it,. But the man who has trouble to the right of him, and trouble to the left of him is to be pitied. Did either trouble come alone, he might endure it but two troubles, two disasters, two overshadowing misfortunes, are Bozez and Seneh. God pity him! “There is a sharp rock on the one side, and a sharp rock on the ether side”

I. In this crisis of the text is that man whose fortune and health fail at the same time. Nine tenths of all our merchants capsize is business before they come to forty-five years of age. There is some collision in commercial circles, and they stop payment. When the calamity does come, if; is awful. The man goes home in despair, and he tells his family: “We’ll have to go to the poor house.” He takes a dolorous view of everything. It seems as if he never could rise. But a little time passes, and he says: “Why, I am not so badly off after all; I have my family left.” Before the Lord turned Adam out of Paradise he gave him Eve, so that when he lost Paradise he could stand it. Well, this man of whom I am speaking looks around, and he finds his family is left, and he rallies, and the light comes to his eyes, and the smile to his face, and the courage to his heart. In two years he is quite over it. He makes his financial calamity the first chapter in a new era of prosperity. He met that one trouble--conquered it. He sat down for a little while under the grim shadow of the rock Bozez; yet he soon rose, and began, like Jonathan, to climb. But how often it is that physical ailment comes with financial embarrassment. When the fortune failed it broke the man’s spirit. His nerves were shattered. His brain was stunned. I can show you hundreds of men in New York tomorrow whose fortune and health failed at the same time. Now, what is such a man to do? In the name of Almighty God, I will tell him what to do. Do as Jonathan did--climb; climb up into the sunlight of God’s favour and consolation. I can go through the Churches, and shew you men who lost fortune and health at the same time, and yet who sing all day and dream of heaven all night.

II. Again, that man is in the crisis of the text who has home troubles and outside persecution at the same time. The world treats a man well just as long as it, pays best to treat him well. As long as it can manufacture success out of his bone, and brain, and muscle, it favours him. The world fattens the horse it wants to drive. But let a man see it his duty to cross the track of the world, then every bush is full of horns and tusks thrust at him. They will belittle him. They will caricature him. They will call his generosity self-aggrandisement, and his piety sanctimoniousness. The very worst persecution will some time come upon him from those who profess to be Christians. Now a certain amount of persecution rouses a man’s defiance, stirs his blood for magnificent battle, and makes him fifty times more a man than he would have been without the persecution. So it was with Millard, the preacher, in the time of Louis XI. When Louis XI sent word to him that unless he stopped preaching in that style he would throw him into the river, he replied: “Tell the king that I will reach heaven sooner by water than he will reach it by fast horses.” A certain amount of persecution is a tonic and an inspiration, but too much of it, and too long continued, becomes the rock Bozez, throwing a dark shadow over a man’s life. What is he to do then? Go home, you say. Good advice, that. That is just the place for a man to go when the world abuses him. Go home. Blessed be God for our quiet and sympathetic homes. But there is many a man who has the reputation of having a home when he has none. Sometimes men have awakened to find on one side of them the rock of persecution, and on the other side the rock of domestic infelicity. What shall such an one do? Do as Jonathan did--climb. Get up into the heights of God’s consolation, from which he may look down in triumph upon outside persecution and home trouble.

III. Again, that woman stands in the crisis of the text, who has bereavement and a struggle for a livelihood at the same time. How many women there are seated between the rock of bereavement on the one side, and the rock of destitution on the other, Bozez and Seneh interlocking their shadow and dropping them upon her miserable way. “There is a sharp rock on the one side, and a sharp rock on the other side.” What are such to do? Somehow, let them climb up into the heights of the glorious promise: “Leave thy fatherless children; I will preserve them alive, and let thy widows trust in Me.” Or get up into the heights of that other glorious promise: “The Lord preserveth the stranger and relieveth the widow and the fatherless.”

IV. That man is in the crisis of the text who has a wasted life on the one side and an unilluminated eternity on the other. Though a man may all his life have cultured deliberation and self-poise, if he gets into that position, all his self-possession is gone. There are all the wrong thoughts of his existence, all the wrong deeds, all the wrong words--strata above strata, granitic, ponderous, overshadowing. That rock I call Bozez. On the other side are all the retributions of the future, the thrones of judgment, the eternal ages, angry with his long defiance. That rock I call Seneh. Between these two rocks ten thousand times ten thousand have perished. O man immortal, man redeemed, man blood-bought, climb up out of those shadows! Climb up by the way of the Cross. To become a Christian is not to go meanly down; it is to come gloriously up--up into the communion of saints; up into the peace that passeth all understanding; up into the companionship of angels. He lives upward; he dies upward. (T. De Witt Talmage.)

Difficult extremes

There are critical periods in the life of man, where decision is of the utmost importance. Life and honour, or disgrace and death, are dependent on the course to be taken at such periods. If difficulties multiply, the greater decision is required. This was precisely the case with Jonathan. The approach to the garrison would have been pronounced impassable by a less decisive and less courageous mind. But nothing is too hard to accomplish, with the help of God on your side and a decided perseverance.

I. The difficult extremes of the present crisis are a sceptical spirit on one hand and a superstitious spirit on the other. Infidelity and superstition are like two rocks.

1. The mind commencing an independent train of thinking, and directing its thoughts to the inquiry, “What is truth?” is met by the avowed infidel, who begins by a subtle augmentation to burden and perplex the soul.

2. On the other hand, superstition claims from the inquirer after truth implicit confidence in its priests and reliance on its ceremonies.

II. The second class of difficult extremes may be seen in the urgent claims on business and the temptations of leisure.

1. The competition in business. The large portion of time and mental energy consumed in providing for “the bread that perisheth,” leaves but fragments of time and mental power for the interests of the immortal soul--the less has the first claim, the greater has the second. But when the first has been answered there is little but exhaustion left.

2. The temptations of leisure are usually in the same proportion as the demands of business are exhausting. Mind and body endeavour to recruit expended energy. Then the allurement to pleasure becomes powerful.

III. The third class of difficult extremes may be seen in the danger of presumption on the one hand and the equal danger of despondency on the other.

1. Presumption sometimes so infatuates the mind as to subdue it with an entire indifference to the realities of eternity.

2. Despondency. The remedy must be prompt and decided faith. An acquaintance with the Word of God. Courageous decision in complying with its requirements. There are no rocks before the cross, though there may be one on either side. (Preacher’s Assistant.)