Key Text: Jonathan said to David, God in peace, forasmuch as we have sworn both of us in the name of the Lord, saying, The Lord be between me and thee, and between my seed and thy seed for ever. And he arose and departed: and Jonahan went into the city 1 Samuel 20:42.
David should be envisioned more than a shepherd boy who killed Goliah and went on to greatness. The scriptures exposes the suffering that marked his early life. David knew despair and fear, doubt and loneliness. Like us, David had a personal relationship with the Lord–and found the secret of living above and beyond his potential. David stands as a spiritual model for us through a process in which God is now at work to make us great. The process begins and is rooted in the silent years and places where we are tested and challenged as we grow awareness and learn to trust God. During the lonely years of shepherding, David developed a heart for God. He sensed God’s greatness through His creation and he learned to see God as his Shepherd (Psalm 23).
David had already established a reputation as the sweet singer of Israel, for his musical talents had soothed King Saul, who was subject to demonic oppression. David was taken into the household of Saul for his victory over Goliath and musical talents. King Saul was overtaken with jealousy, and because of the people’s praise of David for his victories, Saul tried to kill David. Saul devised a plot to have David killed by the Philistines while in enemy territory. But, the king’s heir (Jonathan) had already befriended David for, “the soul of Jonathan was knit with the soul of David” v 1, and they made a covenant that endured as long as Jonathan lived. But Jonathan’s father came to hate and fear David “because the Lord was with him, and was departed from Saul” v 12. Jonathan warned his friend about Saul’s planned assasination. Still, Saul could not restrain his envy for the “man after God’s own heart” Acts 13:22. In a second attempt to kill David, Saul speaks to his son about David, “for as long as he liveth upon the ground thou shalt not be established, nor thy kingdom (20:30-33). Jonathan went to the field where David was hiding and by their prearranged signal warned him to flee. In a private moment of farewell, the two friends kissed one another, and both wept; and, Jonathan said, “God in peace, for as much as we have sworn…The Lord be between me and thee” (20:41-42). They never met again.
No doubt the Amalekite thought he would be well treated with great reward by David since he brought news of the death of King Saul and his son, Jonathan. They were killed in battle against the Philistines at Mount Gilboa. The Amalekite claimed to have killed Saul. David lamented his king and his friend with poetic passion of his soul, “The beauty of Israel is slain upon thy high places; how are the mighty fallen…I am distressed for thee, my brother Jonathan…the love to me was wonderful, passing the love of women. How are mighty fallen, and the weapons of war perished” (II Samuel 1:19-27). Jonathan was survived by his five-year-old son Mephibosheth, who was lame. When David became king of Israel, he had the boy brought to his court and raised him as his own son, out of love he had held for Jonathan. Three years of famine in the days of David was attributed to God’s anger at the unexpiated crime of Saul in slaying the Gibeonites. He did this “in his zeal” and fretted at the inconvenience of having the Bibeonites among them. When David tried to arrange matters with them, they stood upon their ancient rights, claiming “life for life.” They would take no blood money, they demanded blood from the family of the slayer of their people. This plan David did not resist, and he handed over to them seven sons of Saul v 1. When the sons of the house of Saul were to be hanged by the Gibeonites to lift the famine on the land of Israel, David spared Mephibosheth because of the Lord’s oath that was between David and Jonathan” v 7. AMEN!
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