Scripture: 1 Samuel 20:1-23 (NKJV)
1 Then David fled from Naioth in Ramah, and went and said to Jonathan, “What
have I done? What is my iniquity, and what is my sin before your father, that
he seeks my life?” 2 So Jonathan said to him, “By no means! You shall not die!
Indeed, my father will do nothing either great or small without first telling
me. And why should my father hide this thing from me? It is not so!” 3 Then
David took an oath again, and said, “Your father certainly knows that I have
found favor in your eyes, and he has said, ‘Do not let Jonathan know this, lest
he be grieved.’ But truly, as the LORD lives and as your soul lives, there is
but a step between me and death.” 4 So Jonathan said to David, “Whatever you
yourself desire, I will do it for you.” 5 And David said to Jonathan, “Indeed
tomorrow is the New Moon, and I should not fail to sit with the king to eat.
But let me go, that I may hide in the field until the third day at evening. 6
If your father misses me at all, then say, ‘David earnestly asked permission of
me that he might run over to Bethlehem, his city, for there is a yearly
sacrifice there for all the family.’ 7 If he says thus: ‘It is well,’ your
servant will be safe. But if he is very angry, then be sure that evil is
determined by him. 8 Therefore you shall deal kindly with your servant, for you
have brought your servant into a covenant of the LORD with you. Nevertheless,
if there is iniquity in me, kill me yourself, for why should you bring me to
your father?” 9 But Jonathan said, “Far be it from you! For if I knew certainly
that evil was determined by my father to come upon you, then would I not tell
you?” 10 Then David said to Jonathan, “Who will tell me, or what if your father
answers you roughly?” 11 And Jonathan said to David, “Come, and let us go out
into the field.” So both of them went out into the field. 12 Then Jonathan said
to David: “The LORD God of Israel is witness! When I have sounded out my father
sometime tomorrow, or the third day, and indeed there is good toward David, and
I do not send to you and tell you, 13 may the LORD do so and much more to
Jonathan. But if it pleases my father to do you evil, then I will report it to
you and send you away, that you may go in safety. And the LORD be with you as
He has been with my father. 14 And you shall not only show me the kindness of
the LORD while I still live, that I may not die; 15 but you shall not cut off
your kindness from my house forever, no, not when the LORD has cut off every
one of the enemies of David from the face of the earth.” 16 So Jonathan made a
covenant with the house of David, saying, “Let the LORD require it at the hand
of David’s enemies.”
17 Now Jonathan again caused David to vow, 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 you will be missed, because your seat will be empty. 19 And when
you have stayed three days, go down quickly and come to the place where you hid
on the day of the deed; and remain by the stone Ezel. 20 Then I will shoot
three arrows to the side, as though I shot at a target; 21 and there I will
send a lad, saying, ‘Go, find the arrows.’ If I expressly say to him, ‘Look,
the arrows are on this side of you; get them and come’—then, as the LORD lives,
there is safety for you and no harm. 22 But if I say thus to the young man,
‘Look, the arrows are beyond you’—go your way, for the LORD has sent you away.
23 And as for the matter which you and I have spoken of, indeed the LORD be
between you and me forever.”
Devotion
Jonathan and David established a treaty that will endure regardless of what
Jonathan’s father, Saul, the current king, intends for David. God has anointed
David to be king after Saul, rather than the kingship passing to Jonathan. That
is an enormous truth in itself—that the expected crown prince resigns himself
to God’s will so fully as not only to accept, but to love, the one who will
reign in place of him.
The content of the treaty and oath do the same: the Lord be with you and defeat
all your enemies as He did for my father, and if I become such an enemy, then
may He destroy me as well. Yet, not intending to oppose David, Jonathan seeks a
similar attitude from David, that David may truly rule in a godly manner. He
adds, “you shall not only show me the kindness of the Lord while I still live,
that I may not die; but you shall not cut off your kindness from my house
forever, no, not when the Lord has cut off every one of the enemies of David
from the face of the earth.”
Truly, the grace of God shown David by Jonathan was met with faith—this
undeserved kindness paid to David simply because the Lord had chosen him and
given it to Jonathan to believe that David was so chosen—was remembered and
acted upon by David when his enemies were cut off and David restored
Mephibosheth.
Posted by The Reverend Jeffrey A. Ahonen on behalf of the Evangelical Lutheran
Diocese of North America
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