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“One day Y’honatan the son of Sha’ul said to the young man carrying his armor, ‘Come, let’s go across to the garrison of the P’lishtim on the other side.’ But he didn’t tell his father.”-1 Samuel 14:1
It should be pretty clear by now that when it came to Jonathan and his father, the apple didn’t fall far from the tree.
When Jonathan suggested to his armor-bearer that they ought to stroll across the dry river bed and challenge the Philistines to come out and fight, we can see that Jonathan was just as impulsive and bullheaded as his father was.
This mindset was further demonstrated in the verse “But he didn’t tell his father”.
You would think that a faithful soldier serving the king, much less the son of a father, would at least have informed his dad beforehand that they were planning to challenge the enemy.
But to be fair, there was a good reason why Jonathan didn’t tell his father.
Saul was still back in Geba with his 600 troops camping under a Pomegranate tree.
A Pomegranate tree?
That’s some interesting symbolism there, don’t you think?
In ancient times, leaders often set up their military headquarters near a tree that everyone knew about.
That’s because it served as a recognizable landmark making it easy to tell soldiers where to gather before launching their attack.
Plus, we shouldn’t overlook the fact that pomegranate trees are often mentioned in the Bible for their symbolic and metaphorical significance.
They represent ideas such as fertility, abundance, wisdom, and faithfulness.
They were also cited as one of the fruits found in the land of Canaan.
Later pomegranates were incorporated into the design of items associated with the Temple such as the priestly garments, pillars, and the capitals of the pillars.
Some scholars have even suggested that the “forbidden fruit” in the Garden of Eden may have been a pomegranate.
But that’s obviously debatable.
The bottom line, pomegranates were always considered to symbolize the importance of the Promised Land and the spiritual richness of God’s blessings.
And that’s all I’ve got for you today.
I doubt it- have you ever tried to open a pomegranate? And when you get it open, the seeds are very difficult to get out.
We are told the serpent was very crafty, so it doesn’t make sense that if he wanted to trick Eve into eating from that tree, that he would have picked so difficult a fruit to try.
Ever since I read that God picked the pomegranate to adorn the high priest’s robe, I thought of it as His favorite fruit. So, I agree it probably wasn’t forbidden seeing as God seems to like it so much.