1 Samuel Lesson 31
Jonathan and David’s Covenant - 1 Samuel 20
I’d like to answer a question that asked: why does it seem that David
isn’t very concerned about who he marries; I see the importance of asking about
the dowry but shouldn’t David be just as concerned about whether or not Michal
is his best woman. The answer has to be
seen in the context of Ancient Near Eastern culture. In the Ancient Near East part of the process
of discovering the best woman or man was through the Holy Spirit’s operation in
the family unit as the parents chose the couple. So even in so-called [not sure of word,
sounds like: laws] marriage, such as Samson, showing that he did care for the
girl and did ask his parents permission, it nevertheless was a contract worked
out between the parents. This was done
for several reasons. Namely in the
Ancient Near East because of warfare, because of early maturity, couples
married very early and people who are physically mature at a very early age are
not always mentally and spiritually mature and so therefore they simply trusted
that God would work through their parents.
And they accepted this as part of submission to the authority of the third
divine institution. So you have to understand
that when David accepted Michal he accepted her through the negotiations that
were done between Saul and Jesse and the situation. So David was one who submitted to the third
divine institution and he did his marrying in a different way than we do but
God is sovereign and could work in that situation also.
Turn to 1 Samuel 20, this is a very long chapter and one that can’t be
broken. Therefore we will have to finish
all 42 verses. The thing about this
particular chapter is that it requires a great deal of background. I will review some of the main points that
have been made to date because now, in this chapter, to understand the issue
you’re going to have to rely on the previous chapters. They all play a role and they were all
designed to lead us to the crisis of chapter 20.
Going back, in the earlier section of chapters 8-15 we said there God
created the office of king and chose Saul as its first incumbent. Saul was chosen, he was genuinely chosen, the
evidences are in the text, Saul was not an unbeliever who just professed faith;
Saul was a genuine believer. He was one
who had genuinely been anointed and he showed evidences in his life of this
office. However, Saul failed at many
points. Three are picked out by the
Holy Spirit for our study. The first
failure of Saul was given in 13:8-9, when under pressure as commander of the
Israelite army, he failed to use the faith technique. He panicked and as a result, when his army
needed him for stability of leadership he was unavailable because as a carnal
Christian he couldn’t take the pressure, and because he couldn’t take the
pressure, others around him who depended upon him for leadership couldn’t take
pressure either. So Saul lost the army
but he lost more than that, because in
The second failure was given in 14:24 when in the middle of pursuing the
Philistines he gave a very foolish order, that was the order where he told his
men don’t eat, chase the Philistines, kill them, destroy them. It was an order that was poor because it
violated one of the great principles of war.
You pursue your enemies but you must have logistics; you must never get
too thin and allow your lines of communication get strung out, become
broken. And Saul did just his, he
violated a principle of war, he violated wisdom out of personal vengeance. What was a holy war became Saul’s war; an
issue between Jehovah and Dagon became an issue between Saul and his opponents
and he let personal animosity and bitterness creep into his orders. As a result, in
Then he had a third failure recorded by the Holy Spirit in the canon of
Scripture and that was right after fighting with the city of Amalek he spared
Agag, their king, in direct violation of the orders of Samuel. As a result, in
So 1 Samuel 8-15 is Saul’s choice.
Now in chapter 16 through 2
Samuel 1 we have David’s increase and Saul’s decrease. And this whole section is a slow revelation
of the superiority of a great believer to a carnal believer at one point after
another. So during this time period we
have dramatized how one man, Saul, going on negative volition, finally commits
the sin unto death whereas another believer, David, operating in the
environment of Ancient Near Eastern politics actually goes against it, as we
will see tonight, in a very fantastic way.
The political word of the Ancient East was a world of intrigue,
fascination and all sorts of political maneuvering. David is the unique individual of ancient
history. David’s life is utterly unknown
in all of history; you can take the biographies of every major leader of the
ancient world and you will never find a man with the character of David. All the other men in ancient history had
their throne by power; they attained their throne by military victory and by
overthrowing the previous dynasty. David
had opportunity after opportunity to slaughter Saul and David did not take
it.
David is the only character and great political leader of history who
obtained his office by a direct series of events of God’s miraculous
grace. And he was a man who faith-rested
the whole operation, relaxed, unlike every other single political leader of his
day, instead of forcing his way into office he just relaxed and let the Lord
open every single door. David,
therefore, has a very, very unique life.
You won’t appreciate David by reading him from the New Testament point
of view. This is why very few believers
ever come near to appreciating David’s life, because we have all been raised in
New Testament instead of the Old and we don’t understand what kind of a world
David lived in. We don’t understand
because we are used to living in the New Testament era; David didn’t live in
the New Testament era. David was an
utterly, new, revolutionary lifestyle in the ancient world of politics. So during these chapters, from 16-2 Samuel 1
we have how David gained the throne by faith-resting, just relax and let the
Lord provide.
Now during this period of time, after Saul has been doomed by the decree
of
Now we have just finished a study on the seven attempts on David’s life
and we want to go back through some of these to show how Saul’s soul operates
because you must understand that chapter 20 is going to be an interplay of three
men: Saul, Jonathan and David, and how these three men’s soul operated in
different ways. And to get background we
want to make sure we understand what is going on in the mind of Saul. In 18:8 we have the prelude to the first and
second attempts on David’s life; Saul is going to try to assassinate David
seven times and these are the first two attempts on David’s life. Notice what motivates Saul to kill David.
“And Saul was very angry, and the saying displeased him,” remember the girls
got in the street and began to dance.
Why did the women dance? Because
the women of that day understood that wherever you have a weak military you
will have women persecuted, women slaughtered, raped, this was the SOP of the
ancient world. Wherever armies went they ravished the women. This is why when you see women today who are
against the military you are looking at some of the most stupid idiots
alive. These women realized that their
happiness and their freedom depended on men like David who killed the enemy; so
they began to sing, in verse 7 you see what they sing. Saul heard what they sang and didn’t like it
and he became very jealous.
So the first two attacks by Saul on David were motivated by personal
jealousy, mental attitude sin. At this point we don’t know how much Saul knew
about David but by the end chapter 20 Saul has come to a long, careful study of
David and he knows exactly who David is.
At this point we’re not sure Saul knows everything, all he knows is
there is a young officer back in the parade who has done some heroic things and
the women like him ten times better than they like Saul; that’s all he knows
now and he’s very jealous of the attention David is getting. That is symptomatic of a compound carnal
believer. These kinds of believers are
always high on approbation lust. They
love personal attention, they love people to spend hours and hours looking at
them, praising them, doing this for them, doing something else for them. So we have Saul displeased because all the
ladies aren’t singing his song. So the
first two attacks are mental attitude sin jealousy.
The third attack, 18:12, “Saul was afraid of David,” this leads to the
third attack; remember he tried to stab David twice with a javelin during music
therapy sessions. He missed twice,
because of David’s superior agility as the Lord worked through him. Now at this point Saul becomes “afraid of
David, because the LORD was with him, and was departed from Saul.” This teaches us that in Saul’s soul he is
beginning to see something he didn’t see before in David; now he begins to look
at this man and say just a minute, I’m looking at this guy and this guy is not
only turning out to be a national hero but there’s something about his life and
it looks to me like Jehovah, he knows that God’s Spirit has left him; and it
looks like God’s Holy Spirit has come to protect him, to guide him, and what
Saul is afraid of here for the first time is he is afraid of his own
throne. At this point he is desperately
afraid that David is going to take his throne.
So again, instead of relaxing because he already has received the decree
that his throne is doomed in chapter 16, he knows the will of God, but Saul is
a man on habitual negative volition.
And although in his conscience he knows that… let’s draw his mind and
his conscience so you can see the clash.
Here’s what’s going on inside Saul’s heart. His conscience has been informed by the Word
of God, Heb. 4:12 says that the Word of God penetrates to the conscience. So when the Word of God is taught it goes
through the mind immediately to the conscience.
And what was the Word of God? The
Word of God in chapter 16 through Samuel the prophet was you are not the man
for the throne. Now his conscience knows
that and his conscience has never forgotten this. This is something that has eaten away his
soul because deep down in the very depths of his heart he knows that he is not
the man. The Word of God has penetrated
to the dividing asunder of his soul and spirit; the Word of God has become the
judge of the thoughts and intents of the heart and so Saul is constantly being
judged on the inside, you’re not the man, you’re not the man, you’re going to
get off this throne, you’re going to be replaced, you’re not the man. And this has gone on for months and months
inside Saul’s soul.
But inside Saul’s mind, he has, because he is on negative volition, has
said I am the man. And so his mind is in
rebellion against his conscience; he’s on mental revolt, he is in compound
carnality because he has insisted that he will not submit to God’s will. Now this wouldn’t necessarily mean that he’d
be killed. Now Saul would use this
excuse because it was customary to execute the outgoing king. When he was ousted from the throne he was
just assassinated. They did this in Biblical
times and it was just normal custom. So
Saul could argue that I must stay on my throne or I die. Now we’re going to watch how Jonathan sees
the issue tonight and he handles it very well because he uses the faith
technique but Saul isn’t using the faith technique. Therefore Saul is rebelling against his
conscience; he is rebelling at the point of God’s will for his life. Instead of being thankful and saying all
right, Father, Samuel has told me that the throne isn’t mine, it’s just going
to be a matter of time before Your man replaces me, but when and if that event
occurs I’m going to give thanks and I’m going to trust You to protect me and
just move on from there, you can still use me.
Saul could have done that, but Saul didn’t; he persisted in negative
volition. Therefore, he heightened the
chaos of his heart, and he began to plot.
So we come to the fourth attempt on David’s life, 18:28, at this point,
after the third incident, Saul wanted to destroy David by a very clever
gimmick, and the gimmick was to destroy him through military service, this is
the foreskin incident, and in verse 28, after David survived the third crisis,
here again is Saul’s soul in action, and in verse 28, “Saul saw and knew that
the LORD was with David,” you see, every time David survives one of his
assassination attempts, that’s more empirical evidence for Saul that the Lord
is with David. In any other Ancient Near
Eastern court it would have been very easy to assassinate, and he’s saying to
himself, well why is it this hard in my court to assassinate, all the other
kings do this and I can’t even get rid of this kid. And now he’s walked away with my
daughter. So it’s more of an issue with
Saul because now his own daughter, Michal, is none other than David’s life. So
as a result of this fooling around, he’s not only lost an opportunity to kill
David, he’s now lost his own daughter.
And verse 29 is his response, again rebelling against the Lord’s will
for his life; instead of giving thanks, what does he do. “And Saul was yet the more afraid of David,”
now he didn’t have to be afraid of David; fear of David is just the
illustration of Proverbs 10:9, [“He that walks uprightly walks surely; but he
that perverts his ways shall be known.”] it’s just the fact that he has twisted
his way and he is going to be found out.
And he knows it, and the fear here is a problem in his conscience, his
conscience is the cause of his fear.
This sends him into neurosis, this constant rebellion against his
conscience, and he becomes David’s enemy continually, day in and day out. So here is his hostility to David, and
through David of course to God, becomes intense.
Now 19:8-9, the fifth attempt on his life was a general order that he
issued in verse 1, Jonathan overheard it and then Jonathan went and
straightened things out. Through
Jonathan’s intercession his father Saul vowed never to kill David again. But there was war; David, in verse 8, slew
the Philistines “with a great slaughter, and they fled from him.” And verse 9, “the evil spirit from the LORD
was upon Saul,” why? Because Saul,
though he had made a vow before Jehovah, being a believer in compound
carnality, vows don’t mean anything because now his mind has revolted against
his conscience; his mind has said no to his conscience, his mind is busy
twisting the [can’t understand word], his mind is busy building up human
viewpoint, his mind is busy building up scar tissue; his mind is busy having –R
behavior patterns and his mind is losing its ability to control his emotions. As a result we have a second phase in his
life, now Saul’s emotions are completely out.
They were going before and here is another example of how this has even
become worse. Here his emotions are now
in revolt against his mind as his mind is in revolt against his
conscience. You see, his soul is just
one mess; his soul is one mixed up piece of anarchy from top to bottom.
And here we have, in verse 8-9 another one of the javelin
incidents. After having made the oath in
verse 6, Saul breaks the oath in an emotional outburst of anger against David
and tries to kill him with a javelin. Again, please notice, it is a fit of
emotion because of jealousy. And then
finally he is absolutely enraged that David has escaped. So this prepares us now to understand the
goings on of chapter 20.
Verse 1, “And David fled from Naioth in Ramah, and came and said before
Jonathan,” now let’s position the men:
Saul was at the seminary in the nude, that was where we left him last
time. And this is an act of God’s grace
and humor, incidentally, because you have the king completely incapacitated;
without a stitch of clothing he’s lying on his back groveling around the dirt
of the seminary floor. And making a very
interesting spectacle to all the seminary students; this is very funny to all
the seminary students, I’m sure the Holy Spirit had a good laugh about this,
but it was actually God’s sense of humor in doing several things for Saul. First, the Holy Spirit, by making Saul take
all his clothes off and lie down on the floor kept Saul from murdering
David. So at least the Holy Spirit was
restraining Saul from further violence.
The second that the Holy Spirit was doing in this was that He physically
got Saul in a place where Saul could recover from compound carnality. How does a believer recover from carnality
and how does a believer recover from compound carnality. From simple carnality recovery is very quick
by 1 John 1:9. However, from compound
carnality you have to have 1 John 1:9, that enables you to be filled with the
Spirit to get you back in fellowship, but then there’s a second step to
recovery from compound carnality and that is a crash program in the Word. And by crash program I mean 1-2 hours every
day for 3 or 4 months. That’s what has
to happen.
So what has the Holy Spirit done to Saul; he has put Saul in the center
of the best teaching of the Word in his day.
Where is Naioth? Naioth is a
theological seminary run by Samuel where the Word of God is taught from dawn to
dusk. So not only is Saul very
humorously incapacitated, but there’s something beyond the sense of humor; it’s
the wisdom of the Holy Spirit of putting Saul in the place where Saul, if he
chooses, can recover from compound carnality. He can take a vacation to Naioth,
let Jonathan take care of the administration of government and recover and
become a great king, to serve out his term until David replaces him. But Saul had a tremendous opportunity here
and I want you to see God is a God of grace.
Even here God is gracious to Saul; Saul doesn’t deserve this kind of
treatment but Saul gets in anyway. God
is a God of grace and loves Saul in spite of his carnality, so He provides
everything Saul needs. Saul is not going
to go face to face with the Lord and say well God, you left me all alone on the
throne, Samuel retired and left me alone, and the Lord is going to say no Saul,
when you were at your worst, what did I do for you? I put you right under Samuel’s Bible
teaching, you could have stayed there until you recovered. Samuel is not a vindictive teacher, he was a
very gracious teacher and you could have a relaxed time there and recovered
slowly and surely and then gone back to reign.
You could have recovered Saul, I gave you every opportunity.
So while Saul is lying nude in the seminary we have David fleeing from
Naioth. David was able to leave because
not only was Saul incapacitated but he had three contingents of his police
incapacitated also. So David runs from
Naioth “and came and said before Jonathan, What have I done? What is mine iniquity: And what is my sin before thy father, that he
seeks my life?” Now it’s on David’s
heart at this point to understand something about his spiritual life. David is not angry, David is not out of
fellowship. David wants some
answers. Up until this point in his life
he has always noticed the principle of category one, two, three type
suffering. He knows category one
suffering, Genesis 2:17, we suffer because we are identified with Adam under
the principle of imputed sin. He knows
principle number two that where you destroy grace through negative volition you
get suffering; he knows principle number three, that when you are affiliated
with people who are under discipline in the divine institution you also share
their discipline. David understands
those kinds of suffering.
But what David doesn’t understand and what he demands an answer for is
what we call category four, five and six type suffering. This is new to him, he hasn’t done anything
to deserve this kind of suffering and this is undeserved suffering in his life
and he wants to know why. Why has this problem occurred in my life, what is
happening. Turn to Psalm 59, the Psalm
that was written to give background on this section of David’s life, you
remember from verse 3 what was on David’s mind.
“For, lo,” he says, “they” the workers of iniquity and the bloody men,
“lie in wait for my soul,” they, “the mighty are gathered against me” and what
does it say at the end of verse 3, “not for my transgression, nor for my
sin.” In other words David recognizes
that he is under suffering and it’s category four, five and six type suffering;
it is suffering not because he’s out of fellowship. It is suffering not because he’s done
something. But David doesn’t fully
understand this and so his question to Jonathan is have I done something wrong
before your father? Have I alienated
your father in some way? Now he
obviously did because he was a gracious believer and gracious believers always
alienate compound carnal believers. But
David was think of a legitimate grievance, not an illegitimate one. And he was simply asking Jonathan, Jonathan,
you know your father, why is he hacked at me right now? Why is he chasing me all over the place?
And in verse 2 we have a most interesting thing. We’ve seen Saul’s soul. We’ve seen a little of David’s soul; by the
way, David’s soul looks real good, David’s soul in his mind and in his
conscience he’s looking like this: his conscience has the Word of God, Heb.
4:12, it’s become the judge of the thoughts and intents of the heart, he has
the Word of God there. And so inside
David’s soul you are the man, and so David has that, he knows he’s the man, and
his mind says thankful, and David is thankful that he is the man and he’s
responding. So David is one who
habitually walks in integrity, Prov. 10:9, he is walking in the light, he is in
fellowship, he’s giving thanks. He’s not
irritated here, he just wants to find out, have I sinned against your father.
So that’s David’s soul; now we’re introduced to Jonathan’s soul in verse
2, “And he” Jonathan, “said unto him, God forbid; thou shalt not die: behold,
my father will do nothing either great or small, but that he will show it to
me: and why should my father hide this thing from me? It is not so.” Now Jonathan is a very interesting
person. Jonathan is a great
believer. But Jonathan at this point is
a naïve believer. Jonathan has a lot of
the Word in his conscience, his conscience is accurate, we’ve already seen the
fantastic performance of Jonathan under conditions of military pressure;
Jonathan is a great soldier, he’s a very gracious man. But Jonathan has a little area of weakness
and it’s coming out right here. And
many, many believers have the same kind of weakness so pay attention to
Jonathan’s weakness; it isn’t fatal but it can be if you let it go.
Jonathan’s weakness is that he cannot evaluate believers in compound
carnality; Jonathan, in his conscience, respect believers and that’s fine; he
respects those who are identified with Jesus Christ. After all, isn’t that why you respect David
so much; he respects his father, not because he likes his father so much but
simply he respects his father’s office.
So Jonathan respects the Lord’s plan.
But, Jonathan at this point is immature in one area and that area is he
does not appreciate how bad believers can be; he does not know about the
doctrine of compound carnality, even though it is in his own family. And he insists that if his father had truly
turned against the oath that was given back in chapter 19, then he would have
been informed of the oath. Now the thing
that you want to remember is that it goes back to this oath. Saul had sworn to Jonathan, I am never going
to issue a general order again calling for David’s murder; Jonathan, you can
trust me. Jonathan, I put my hand on the
Bible and swear it. So here you have a
compound carnal believer making an oath; but Jonathan is a believer and he
respects that, he says my father is a believer, he doesn’t do those things, my
father has sworn an oath. It’s not so
that he would do this.
In other words, Jonathan is a naïve person. Jonathan is like a lot of believers today who
think just because someone is a believer you can expect everything to go
fine. Jonathan is like the people who
come across a compound carnal believer and they say oh, is he a believer, he
can’t be a believer and do that, he must be one who just professes Christ but
really doesn’t possess Christ. That is a
nimble-minded way of handling compound carnality, but you should learn, don’t
be like Jonathan. Don’t be naïve; some
of the worst people you’ll ever meet, some of the most screwed up people you’ll
ever meet are believers. Some of the
best people you’ll ever meet are believers; but some of the most screwed up
ones are too.
Let’s see how Jonathan handles this.
Remember, both these men are believers on positive volition; both of
these men are men who are going to seek the Lord’s will in the matter, and
we’re going to have a tremendous test by these two young men; both David and
Jonathan face a crisis. Let’s look at
the crisis. David wants to know what sin
have I done, because he’s still thinking in terms of one, two, three type
suffering; he hasn’t thought yet of category four, five and six suffering. So that’s what’s on David’s mind. And he’s trying to find that out. On the other hand, Jonathan is a believer on
positive volition but Jonathan isn’t think of what David’s problem is, he’s
saying what is my father doing? That’s
his thing. So here these two men are,
actually the destiny of the nation hinges on them. I want you to notice now, beginning in verse
3, how two believers faced with a crisis, faced with a difference of opinion,
settle it, stay in fellowship, and submit to God’s will functionally in the
middle of great personal costs. These
men are both going to pay a fantastic price for solving this problem the Lord’s
way, but both of them are magnificent believers because they are going to solve
it the Lord’s way and they’re going to give thanks to Him in spite of the fact
that both of them are going to be very hurt in their emotional life by it.
Notice in verse 3, “And David swore, moreover, and said, Your father
certainly knows that I have found grace in your eyes; and he said, Let not
Jonathan know this, lest he be grieved;” in other words, David analyzes the
situation, “but truly as the LORD lives, and as thy soul lives, there is but a
step between me and death.” So David
correctly analyzes the situation. Verse
4, “Then Jonathan said unto David, Whatsoever thy soul desires, I will do it
for thee.” Now this is a magnificent
point and I want to spend some time on verse 4 so you can see what a tremendous
act of faith that Jonathan has going for him.
The test overall is this: Jonathan is the crown prince; on the human
viewpoint basis Jonathan should reign on that throne. By all rights, by the human viewpoint culture
of the time, apart from God’s intervention, Jonathan would be the crown prince;
he is the one who should sit on the throne and at this point Jonathan outranks
David. David is a junior officer, and he is under the crown prince. So David has inferior rank to Jonathan;
Jonathan outranks David. But just as
Saul has become slowly aware that David is not just a hero, he’s not just a
hero, David is something more than a hero, David is his replacement. So in this chapter Jonathan comes to the
awareness that David is not just a close spiritual friend of his, this close
spiritual friend was something far more threatening than a close spiritual
friend. David is to Jonathan what he is
to his father; he is his replacement.
Now the test is going to be, is Jonathan going to react to God’s will to
replace him like Saul reacts to God’s will to replace him? Saul knows David is God’s replacement; Saul
goes negative volition and hates David and tries to stop it. What is Jonathan going to do, as he slowly
comes to an awareness that his best friend is not only going to be his best
friend, but is destined by Jehovah God of Israel to replace him. Is Jonathan the son going to react to the
same will of God like his father. And
that’s the critical test over this background and we’re going to see how
magnificently Jonathan meets this.
In verse 4 “Then said Jonathan unto David, Whatsoever thy soul desires,”
the word for “soul” is nephesh, and
here nephesh means the mind. Whatever your mind desires, in other words,
whatever plan you have, I agree to it.
Now this is something; the crown prince is saying this to a junior
officer who is his friend. And Jonathan
at this point begins to recognize something about David, that David’s got
something going for him and Jonathan better hitch up his wagon to the Lord’s
man. So he says all right, I’ll
cooperate, what do you suggest. And then
David proposes a fantastic plan.
Verse 5, “And David said unto Jonathan,” look, “Behold, tomorrow is the
new moon, and I should not fail to sit with the king at meat [the table]; but
let me go, that I may hide myself in the field unto the third day at evening.
[6] If your father at all miss me, then say, David earnestly asked leave of me
that he might run to Bethlehem, his city; for there is a yearly sacrifice there
for all the family. [7] If he say thus, It is well; thy servant shall have
peace: but if he be very angry, then be sure that evil is determined by him.
[8] Therefore, thou shalt deal kindly with thy servant; for thou hast brought
thy servant into a covenant of the LORD with thee: notwithstanding if there be
in me iniquity, slay me thyself; for why should you bring me to thy father?”
Now what is David doing here? He
is proposing a plan; the plan of the three days. For three days they’re going to celebrate the
new moon. This is a national
celebration. All the parties and social life are going to go on outside the
city of Jerusalem and other cities, they can’t be inside, the Jebusites still
hold Jerusalem. But there are going to
be parties and they’re going to be lots of social life, social activity, and
while all this is going on, David, the military hero, the junior officer that
slew Goliath should appear with the king.
This is normal courtesy, this is normal diplomatic operation. But David is going to deliberately be absent
to test Saul. Notice, David and Jonathan
work out an empirical test; they don’t settle their difference and they don’t
discern God’s will by some emotional gimmick; well I think this, well I think
that; my opinion is this, well my opinion is this. They don’t do it that way; they go and
examine the data and find out what is the truth, let’s suppose some sort of a
pact so we can find the real truth. It’s
a brilliant test, David proposes it; David has maschil. Remember what was
said of David in 18:5, “And David went out wherever Saul sent him, and behaved
himself wisely;” sachil is the word,
and I defined the word and I said sachil
in the Hebrew means success based on wisdom. David was skillful, he is clever,
and here you have the cleverness of David.
Jonathan does not propose the test, Jonathan is not a clever believer;
he is a good man but he is not a wise man. David is the wise man. So it’s David that proposes the test.
And in verse 8, a very important verse because it shows you something of
the Hebrew mentality of the Old Testament, something you want to understand to
understand the New Testament, this covenant thing. Notice what it says, David is speaking,
“Therefore thou,” Jonathan, “you should deal kindly,” or “will deal kindly with
thy servant; for you” Jonathan “have brought your servant” David “into a
covenant of the Lord,” or a berith. Now when a covenant was made, the covenant
was made in chapter 18, it was a friendship covenant between Jonathan and
David, now the word “kindly” is the Hebrew word chesed, and it’s a Hebrew word to love within a framework of
promise. It is like marital love after
the wedding; chesed, after the vow,
after the covenant has been established you have a loyalty to the
covenant. So David’s appeal to Jonathan
is for chesed. You will deal chesed, you will deal mercifully and loyally with me because of the
covenant that we have made.
And then at the end of verse 8 David admits he is open to truth, he’s
seen the mental attitude bitterness and he says look, if it is true that your
father is angry at me because of… [tape turns]
…your father in some way. So
David puts his life on the line under the terms of this covenant. And he is open to it, there’s no bitterness,
he says let’s clear this thing up, if there’s something genuinely against me,
then let me know about it. Verse 9, “And
Jonathan said, Far be it from you; for if I knew certainly that evil were
determined by my father to come upon you, then would not I tell it thee?” You see, Jonathan is still on the other
issue, David is on the issue of has he sinned; Jonathan is not on that issue, Jonathan
still can’t believe his father is out to kill David. Jonathan is still naïve at this point. Verse 10, “Then said David to Jonathan, Who
shall tell me? Or what if thy father
answer thee roughly?”
Now Jonathan proposes a test or a modification of David’s proposal. Verse 11, “And Jonathan said unto David,
Come, and let us go out into the field.
And they went out both of them into the field. [12] And Jonathan said
unto David, O LORD God of Israel, when I have sounded my father about tomorrow
any time, or the third day, and, behold, if there be good toward David, then I
will not send unto you, and show it to thee.
[13] The LORD do so and much more to Jonathan: but if it please my
father to do thee evil, then I will show it to you, and send thee away, that
thou may go in peace.” So far very
simple, Jonathan is going to find out what the score and he’s going to report
to David. But beginning at verse 13b and
going through verse 15 you have one of the most important sections in the
chapter because here we have revealed to us by the Holy Spirit what has been
going on in Jonathan’s soul.
Now we get a glimpse inside the heart of this young man who is a
tremendous believer and we see what’s going on because his words, beginning at
the last part of verse 13 tell us why he does what he does, and tells us now
what he knows about his best friend, David.
You see, Jonathan was attracted to David first sheerly he loved him
personally. Jonathan admired David;
David was the great hero that slaughtered Goliath. David was the one who loved the Lord like
Jonathan loved the Lord and they had tremendous times of fellowship
together. The greatest friendships are
friendships between believers who are mature in the Word of God, and when they
get together they talk and share things about the Word. Some of you have tremendous friendships
because that friendship has been based on the common love for God’s Word, a
friendship that transcends personal differences. In fact, it’s always amazing to me as pastor
how some friendships work because sociologically they shouldn’t; we have people
from very low economic means, people from higher economic means; we have people
with hardly any formal education and people with a lot of formal education. And yet it’s interesting to watch the
tremendous friendships grow because those differences just wash off, they’re
insignificant because both parties love the Lord and His Word, and as a result
they can get together, relax, have a great time together and enjoy one another
because of this common bond in the Word.
That’s been the basis of friendship up to now; now something else,
there’s another thing that occurs.
Here’s Jonathan, up until now the bond between these men, Jonathan and
David has been the Word, the use of the faith technique, they both admire each
other’s faith. But now they both
discover there is something else between them.
This is a beautiful biography of how believers who discover something
that threatens their personal relationship handle the problem. Both David and Jonathan discover something
here that is so powerful it could just blow their friendship right out of the
tub; that beautiful friendship could be left on the rocks by what they discover
here. But here is something they
discover and they’re going to cope with it and increase the friendship in spite
of it.
Verse 13b, “And the LORD be with thee, as he has been with my father.
[14] And thou shalt not only while yet I live show me the kindness of the LORD,
that I die not, [15] But also thou shalt not cut off thy kindness from my house
forever; no, not when the LORD has cut off the enemies of David, every one from
the face of the earth.”
Now what is on Jonathan’s soul at this point? First let’s go back to the end of verse 13,
when he says “the LORD be with thee,” David, “as he has been with my father,”
that tells us something tremendous. It
tells us that Jonathan has recognized David is mashach. David, that
military hero, his close friend, is not just a close friend any more. He’s the mashach,
he is the one who is going to replace Saul and if David replaces Saul, guess
who else he replaces? Jonathan, Saul’s
son. David is going to replace the whole
Saulite dynasty and Jonathan at this point recognizes it, and what is he
doing? He’s giving thanks for it. He couldn’t say this and even give thanks if
he resented, you see, at this point there’s a tremendous temptation for
Jonathan to begin to resent the Lord, after all, Jonathan could say listen, I
got David off the hook, if it wasn’t for me David would be gone by now, I was
the one that got David off the hook when my father gave a general order to
assassinate him, I saved David, and now what does the Lord do? He turns around and takes this little junior
officer who I saved, and He’s going to replace me with that junior officer and
I don’t like it, and I’m going to stop the Lord’s will. I’m going to join my father, he’ll take care
of this problem. That would be the end
of the friendship; the friendship that had previously been built on the basis
of the Word of God, now because of the will of God becomes threatened. David’s life is going to replace Jonathan and
Jonathan is going to have to have a lot of grace to take it.
And when he says this blessing at the end of verse 13 that tells us
something tremendous about Jonathan. He
can step back and say David, God has chosen you to replace me, you are the
crown prince, I’m not, you are, “the LORD be with you, as he has been with my
father,” that is a tremendous statement if you recognize all the political
intrigue that goes that statement. You
have to understand that in the Ancient Near East when a king was replaced it
meant slaughter for his family. Usually
the execution would go into his harem for his wife and his daughters, it just
meant a complete destruction of the family.
But what is Jonathan going to do?
First point: Jonathan recognizes the will of God and he is positive
toward the will of God. And he expresses
his positive volition by saying “the Lord be with you.” In other words what he’s saying is the Lord
be with you David in what He has chosen you to do. This is true love for someone else.
You love someone maturely when you put God’s will for their life first,
independent of your will. You may like
somebody an awful lot, this is what happens in premarital courtship, you may
love someone an awful lot and care for that person an awful lot but that other
person may not be your best woman or your best man; they may not be God’s will
and as you work with them and as you have a tremendous relationship with them
it dawns on both of you that it’s not God’s will. Now at that point you’re in a position like
David and Jonathan are, a similar principle, and that is that the will of God
is crossing your personal desires. Your
desire is this: God’s will is this, and they’re on a collision course and you
can go either way; you can go on negative volition and become very bitter and
very resentful, why is God doing this, God is taking away the only person I
ever loved, God is taking away my happiness, God is out to get me, God is going
to make the most miserable person on earth and all the rest of it. God has somebody else out here and He’s been
giving them ugly pills for 20 years and that’s the woman He’s picked out for
me; God is a meany or He’s after me. So
there’s negative volition again. All
right, some of you can respond to this like Jonathan, in grace and say all
right, you’re not my right person, but may God be with you and I want God’s
will for your life because I really do love you; if I didn’t love you I
wouldn’t and couldn’t say I want God’s will for your life, thankfully and
honestly. So this is what Jonathan was
saying, he’s saying the Lord be with you, may God have His way with your life
and I will stand aside and I will honestly give thanks; that’s the mark of a
great believer.
Verse 14, now the second point, not only does he thankfully receive
God’s will but now he expresses his faith in God’s plan. You see, the first point was he gave thanks
for God’s plan, responded positively for God’s plan. And in verse 14 he now operated by
faith. “Thou shalt not only while yet I
live show me the kindness of the LORD, that I die not, [15] But also thou shalt
not cut off thy kindness from my house,” now what he’s asking David, now keep
in mind at this point who’s superior in rank?
The crown prince or David? David is a junior officer, who’s got the rank
when this meeting occurs. When these two
men are talking, who has the rank?
Jonathan has the rank, and look at this, though he has the rank and he
has the right to order David, what is he doing?
On the basis of the faith technique, because he knows the destiny of
that junior officer, he looks ahead, he’s foresighted, and he says all right,
this junior officer is under me now but by God’s standard David is over me;
David is superior to me. And when Jonathan, the crown prince, turns around and
asks a favor of a junior officer, that is an expression of his faith technique,
right there. That is faith and trust in
God’s promotion system. Jonathan is saying
look, I know all this human viewpoint jazz, and I know right now on the human
viewpoint basis I’m in charge, but I know and I’m not going to let it go to my
head, on the faith technique I know what David is, I know he is mashach, I know he is the Lord’s
anointed one and I am going to respond on that basis.
And so he makes two petitions. In
verse 14 he petitions that David will respect the covenant that he has made,
“yet I live, show me chesed of the
Lord.” See, David has asked him for chesed in verse 8, now Jonathan, the
crown prince, turns around and asks David for chesed. He asks when you
take over David, don’t kill me; that may sound strange, his best friend and so
on, but it was customary in the Ancient East, if we had time I could take you into
some of the Egyptian material, some of the Assyrian material, I would show you
instructions that we have, archeologists have found them, that are given to
crown princes that when the crown prince attains the throne his first job is to
annihilate all competing family to clear the throne; that has to be done. It is done in 2 Samuel, when Solomon attains
the throne that’s what Solomon does; he eliminates all competitors to the
throne. He systematically assassinates
and destroys every single one; it is the normal way it was done. So in verse 14 Jonathan is looking ahead,
accepting by faith God’s plan and saying look David, I know by faith you’re
going to be king; now when you are king, I ask you two things, save me alive, I
am not going to be your competitor, we’re friends; I accept God’s will, I am
not going to be a threat to your throne.
Second petition, verse 15, for his family, Jonathan provides for his
loved ones. “cut off not your chesed from my house forever,” and we’re
going to notice later on in this book how David honors this promise; David
always protects the house of Jonathan because David loved Jonathan. And you see, this has to be put in here for
several reasons. Under Ancient Near
Eastern custom it would be unusual, and many, many of the Hebrews must have
thought this, David, you’re nuts; when David got on the throne what did he
do? He keeps Jonathan’s sons alive;
David, you’re crazy, when you get on the throne you don’t keep possible
competitors to the throne alive, you kill them.
So the book of Samuel is written in part to justify David’s maneuvering
after he attains the throne. This is why
David keeps the house of Jonathan alive, because of chesed, chesed to the berith,
the covenant that he has made. All
right, he goes further and we can skip to verse 25.
[16, “So Jonathan made a covenant with the house of David, saying, Let
the LORD even require it at the hand of David’s enemies. [17] And Jonathan
caused David to swear again, because he loved him; for he loved him as he loved
his own soul. [18] Then Jonathan said to David, Tomorrow is the new moon; and
thou shalt be missed, because thy seat will be empty. [19] And when thou hast
stayed three days, then thou shalt go down quickly, and come to the place where
thou did hide thyself when the business was in hand, and shall remain by the
stone, Ezel. [20] And I will shoot three arrows on the side of it, as though I
shot at a mark. [21] And, behold, I will send a lad, saying, Go, find the
arrows. If I expressly say unto the lad,
Behold, the arrows are on this side of thee, take them, then come thou; for
there is peace to thee, and no hurt, as the LORD liveth. [22] But if I say thus
unto the young man, Behold, the arrows are beyond thee, go thy way; for the
LORD has sent thee away. [23] And as touching the matter which thou and I have
spoken of, behold, the LORD be between thee and me forever. [24] So David hid
himself in the field; and when the new moon was come, the king sat down to
eat.”]
Verse 25, “And the king sat upon his seat, as at other times, even upon
a seat by the wall; and Jonathan arose, and Abner sat by Saul’s side, and
David’s place was empty.” Very
conspicuous, it’s the party and it’s the head table, and there are four chairs
at the head table; this is the head table at the party, the banquet, Saul, to
his right Abner, to his left Jonathan, and an empty chair with the name David
Ben-Jesse; where is David Ben Jesse?
Nobody knows where he is; is this an insult socially to Saul? Why isn’t David Ben-Jesse here tonight? And so the rumor goes out, where is David,
where is David, where is David, his chair at the head table is empty. Verse 26, “Nevertheless Saul spoke not
anything that day; for he thought, Something has befallen him, he is not clean;
surely he is not clean. [27] And it came
to pass on the next day, which was the second day of the month, that David’s
place was empty;” so they have another banquet, and the second big banquet comes
and again the fourth chair is empty, nobody is in the chair, where is he, where
is David. “…and Saul said unto Jonathan,
his son, Why cometh not the son of Jesse to the table, neither yesterday, nor
today? [28] And Jonathan answered Saul, David earnestly asked leave of me to go
to Bethlehem.” That’s a lie and it was
legitimate; lying in Scripture under certain conditions is authorized, this is
one of them. This is lying for just reason, and lying, since it is not
condemned absolutely can be used to promote just ends. So therefore lying here is used, Jonathan
lies to his father, he covers up for David.
Verse 29, “And he said, Let me go, I pray thee; for our family has a
sacrifice in the city, and my brother, he has commanded me to be there; and
now, if I have found favor in thine eyes, let me get away, I pray thee, and see
my brethren. Therefore he comes not unto the king’s table.” Now it’s important that Jonathan is doing
this, he’s saying look, David came over, David is junior office and he’s under me,
I am crown prince, and I gave him the
authority to be missing from this banquet tonight. And at this point Saul explodes and here we
have one of the most violent exchanges in all of God’s Word verbally. A tremendously violent statement and this
shows again
Saul’s mentality. To understand
what’s going on again let’s review. Here’s what Saul’s soul looks like, he has
his conscience, his conscience says you aren’t the man; his mind says I am the
man; his mind is in revolt against his conscience; his mind is again in revolt
against his conscience and he’s manufactured human viewpoint, human viewpoint
is always weak, his emotions no longer are under the control of his mind, and
at this point his emotions are in rebellion against his mind as his mind is in
rebellion against his conscience. He’s
all mixed up and he has an extensive temper and it just boils up right
here.
Verse 30, “Then Saul’s anger was kindled against Jonathan, and he said
unto him, Thou son of perverse, rebellious woman, do not I know that you have
chosen the son of Jesse to thine own confusion [shame], and unto the confusion
[shame] of thy mother’s nakedness.” Now
look at verse 31, that shows you what’s on Saul’s mind, “For as long as the son
of Jesse lives upon the ground, thou shalt not be established, nor thy
kingdom. Wherefore, now wend and fetch
him unto me; for he shall surely die. [32] And Jonathan answered Saul, his
father, and said unto him, Why shall he be slain? What has he done? [33] And Saul cast a
javelin at him,” now he’s throwing javelins at his own son. You see, the man is neurotic at this point,
he’s completely falling apart. He’s out
to kill his own son. If he’s really
concerned with the welfare of his son what’s he throwing a javelin at him
for.
Now let’s go back and look at the verses; as you might have guessed, the
translation of verse 30 is very interesting.
The Word of God, again, paints pictures as they are. And when you come to a text like this, this
is not saying that God’s Word promotes this kind of language on all
occasions. But God’s Word is faithful to
report what was said under those situations.
And here this word, “rebellious” or “perverse” is best translated as
just a bitch. So this is an explosion by
the king of Israel, and he turns to Jonathan and says you son of a bitch, I
know what you’ve chosen, you have chosen to defy this family. Now that’s a picture of the explosion of Saul
and that’s the way the Holy Spirit means for you to see it, and if you’re too
proud or prissy to see that, that’s your tough luck; live in our little prissy
tower some place, this is the real world, this is the way men react.
And so Saul explodes at this point and he says “do you not know that you
are choosing,” the words “choose” is a Hebrew participle and this is very
interesting because he says Jonathan, I know that right now you’re in the
process of changing your allegiance from me to David. That shows you how much Saul is doing, Saul
is out of it but he knew his son Jonathan; he never quite trusted his son Jonathan;
remember when Jonathan started a war and his father never could finish it. And Jonathan just drops out of the picture,
where’s Jonathan during the Goliath incident; he just doesn’t appear. We can only come to one conclusion, that
Jonathan had been canned by his father from all military activity, just out of
the way. Saul never could quite trust
his son and at this point he really explodes. He says “do not I know that you
are choosing,” right now, “the son of Jesse to thine own shame and to the shame
of your mother’s nakedness.” Now “mother’s
nakedness” refers to family ties; in other words, you were brought up in the
wrong line. You’re the crown prince,
what are you doing being a traitor to your mother and father.
And here we have a most interesting thing. Here we have Jonathan, who must decide
between loyalty and the third divine institution, and loyalty to God. Many of you have had to choose this, for
you’ll take loved ones who are in compound carnality, people who are
unbelievers, and they’ll usually put the pressure on and they’ll say if you
really loved your parents you’d come to the First Apostate Church without
them. Or, if you really respected your
parents, you would go on and get a college degree in human viewpoint, etc. Now we’re not teaching disrespect for
authority but all human authority is limited by the Word. And when the authority of the parents
transgresses the Word, that’s the point where you break. And this is the point where Jonathan rebels
against his father and he does it in the filling of the Holy Spirit. This is going to hit some of you as hard as
killing people by the filling of the Holy Spirit under the fourth divine
institution, but here is where it is legitimate for the children to rebel
against the authority of the parents when their parents force them to go
against the will of God. At this point
it’s a breakout, and Jonathan is going to actively be a traitor to both his
father and his mother.
And in verse 31 it shows you the real reason; what Saul has discovered
Jonathan has discovered. Remember verses
13-15, I spent time there to show you what Jonathan had understood; now in
verse 31, this verse proves that Saul also, beside his son, knows who David
is. See chapter 20 is a tremendous
chapter in the response of father and son to this young junior officer because
David’s true identity is exposed. In
verse 31 it says, “For as long as the son of Jesse lives upon the earth, you
sill never be established,” in other words, Jonathan, this man is going to
outdo you, out maneuver you, and take away your throne; the only way, Jonathan,
you’re going to keep your throne is kill him.
That’s why it’s prefaced in verse 31, “as long as the son of Jesse lives
on the ground,” you are never going to win against this boy. This boy has already got popular support,
he’s a military hero, he’s evaded seven attempts on his life, you’re never
going to make it Jonathan, as great a soldier as you are, you can’t beat David,
now let’s get him out of the way.
So at this point his father, who is again in rebellion against the Lord,
who is defying God’s will, because we know, if you’ll turn to 1 Samuel 13:13
I’ll show you the Word of God that he is rebelling against. This is what is stored in Saul’s conscience. In Saul’s conscience, verses 13-14, “You have
done foolishly: you have not kept the commandment of the LORD thy God, which He
commanded thee; for now would the LORD have established thy kingdom upon Israel
forever. [14] But now your kingdom shall not continue.”
So it is 1 Samuel 13:13-14, that is the Word of God, that is the Word
that he is rebelling against, that is the portion of Scripture that Saul hates,
and he will never bow his knee to that portion of God’s Word. Just like some of you have points in your life or will have points in your life
where there will be some part of the plan of God that you will never bow your
knee to, you think, till God works you over good, then you decide it’s cheaper
to bow your knee. That’s the part of the
plan of God that he’s in rebellion against, and the proof of it is over here in
chapter 20:31 when he says, Jonathan, go ahead and establish your kingdom, that
means that he is counseling his son to defy the will of God and when the father
counsels his son to defy the Word of God, the son, as unto the Lord, should
defy his father. And that’s the breakout
point, whenever a parent counsels a child to go against the Word of God that
child has the authority given to him by Jesus Christ to defy his parents. It is the Word first; parents second. It is the Word first, the country second. The priorities have to be established.
Now in the end of this chapter it shows you how they resolved, Jonathan
goes out in the field, he communicates it to David.
[33, “And Saul cast a javelin at him to smite him; whereby Jonathan knew
that it was determined of his father to slay David. [34] So Jonathan arose from the table in
fierce anger, and did eat no food the second day of the month; for he was
grieved for David, because his father had done him shame. [35] And it came to
pass in the morning, that Jonathan went out into the field at the appointed
time with David, and a little lad with him. [36] And he said unto his lad, Run,
find now the arrows which I shoot. And as the lad ran, he shot an arrow beyond
him. [37] And when the lad was come to the place of the arrow which Jonathan
had shot, Jonathan cried after the lad, and said, Is not the arrow beyond
thee? [38] And Jonathan cried after the
lad, Make speed, haste, stay not. And
Jonathan’s lad gathered up the arrows, and came to his master. [39] But the lad
knew not anything; only Jonathan and David knew the matter. [40] And Jonathan gave his weapons unto his
lad, and said unto him, Go, carry them to the city.”
And finally in verse 41 we have the parting of the ways. This is a very, very emotional section. Both of these men deeply love one
another. And this should be a tremendous
passage for some of you who think that we teach that the emotions don’t count,
or the emotions should be negated or go into non-existence. That’s not true. We’re simply saying the emotions should never
rebel against the authority of the mind.
Now I want you to see certain points in verse 41 how emotional a man
David naturally was. David had a
tremendous set of emotions; David, therefore could write the Psalms; David
experienced life to the hilt. When David
responded to the Lord he had such a fantastic emotional life that out of this
emotional life came much of the Psalm material.
He enjoyed the Lord; his emotions enabled him to enjoy life to the
full. And so here his emotions come out.
“And as soon as the lad was gone,” Jonathan had decided all right, my
father is a rebel, you’re his replacement, I will stay as the crown prince
under Saul until you replace him David, and we’re going to part our ways. David is going to have to flee, this is the
last chapter when David is accepted in Saul’s court, the two men will meet once
more, they’ll only have one brief meeting later on, they will never see each
other again except that one time, they will not be able to communicate one with
another, they will be on opposites of a civil war. They will see the country bathed in blood
because of the right and the rivalry for the throne. Both will be on opposite sides, both love the
Lord, and they part, both of them here, and it shows in verses 41-42, it’s put
in here by the Holy Spirit to show you that it wasn’t easy for these men to
follow God’s will. I’m convinced that
this why verses 41-42 are placed here, it is to show us the price these men
paid in their souls for following God’s will.
It wasn’t easy; they hurt in their souls by following God’s will, but
when the test came between being hurt and following the Lord, they chose to
follow the Lord. Let’s read it.
“And as soon as the lad was gone, David arose out of a place toward the
south, and fell on his face to the ground, and bowed himself three times;” this
is an oriental expression of recognition of rank, the junior officer to the
crown prince. “…and they kissed one
another, and wept one with another, until David exceeded [controlled himself],”
if you understand the Arabic culture today, you understand this, this is not an
expression of homosexuality. [42] “And
Jonathan said to David, Go 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 forever. And he arose
and departed; and Jonathan went into the city.”
Now the phrase to note is the last phrase in verse 41, “…and they kissed one another, and wept one with
another, until David exceeded [controlled himself],” and this is a very
interesting statement in the Hebrew, it’s incomplete, the sentence is never
finished in the Hebrew text; it just reads “until David [not sure of word,
sounds like: grievely]” and it’s just left blank, it’s never finished, and this
is the author’s way of expressing the tremendous emotions. At this point Jonathan, in verse 42, has to
be the one that says David, let’s go.
Now David is not falling apart in emotional revolt of the soul at this
point, but David has a tremendous emotional thing, and he loved Jonathan and
his emotions are responding to their friendship and the direction of his
emotions during this friendship now has to be shifted and that ache of the
soul, when the soul has to shift from a pattern of response over here to a
pattern of response over there is what David is feeling. This is to David what Gethsemane was to Jesus
Christ, where the natural inclination of the soul IS in one direction, the Holy
Spirit doesn’t deny that, but what God says, I don’t care what your natural
inclination is, in this case My call is in that direction, get turned. And this is the process that great believers
have to go through, and it’s a tremendous passage because it shows you that the
process does not come easily, even for great believers. There is suffering and sorrow and heartache
but the great believers make it through.
Next week we’ll enter a new era of David’s life, the period when he is
[can’t understand word] and in fact when most of the Psalms are written.