Saul and his son Jonathan

In the book of 1 Samuel, Saul's son Jonathan was introduced in the beginning of chapter 13--the Israelites were warring with the Philistines and Jonathan had killed a Philistine commander.

Saul took 3,000 of his best men against the might of the Philistines, an army that was so large, the number was likely to be in the hundreds of thousands--in verse 5, it was said that they had as many soldiers as grains of sand on the seashore.

The problem with fighting the Philistines was that they had blacksmiths and the Israelites had none.  They completely relied on the Philistines for their agriculture implements and metal weapons.

Saul's son Jonathan took one other man, and sneaked over to a Philistine camp.  He prayed to God for him to be given victory, and he was.  They defeated a camp of 20 with only Jonathan and his companion.

Afterwards, Saul took up the rest of his army and defeated the rest of the Philistine army there.  In victory, Saul ordered all men to eat no food until all of their enemies were defeated.  Jonathan had not heard this.  He ate some honey.  When he found out what his father had done, he was prepared to be put to death.

The Israelites intervened, saying that Jonathan had prayed for victory from God, and despite him eating food, he had God's favor.

This act saved Jonathan's life, and they went on to defeat other enemies nearby.