Scripture: 1 Samuel 20:24-42 (NKJV)
24 Then David hid in the field. And when the New Moon had come, the king sat
down to eat the feast. 25 Now the king sat on his seat, as at other times, on a
seat by the wall. And Jonathan arose, and Abner sat by Saul’s side, but David’s
place was empty. 26 Nevertheless Saul did not say anything that day, for he
thought, “Something has happened to him; he is unclean, surely he is unclean.”
27 And it happened the next day, the second day of the month, that David’s
place was empty. And Saul said to Jonathan his son, “Why has the son of Jesse
not come to eat, either yesterday or today?” 28 So Jonathan answered Saul,
“David earnestly asked permission of me to go to Bethlehem. 29 And he said,
‘Please let me go, for our family has a sacrifice in the city, and my brother
has commanded me to be there. And now, if I have found favor in your eyes,
please let me get away and see my brothers.’ Therefore he has not come to the
king’s table.”
30 Then Saul’s anger was aroused against Jonathan, and he said to him, “You son
of a perverse, rebellious woman! Do I not know that you have chosen the son of
Jesse to your own shame and to the shame of your mother’s nakedness? 31 For as
long as the son of Jesse lives on the earth, you shall not be established, nor
your kingdom. Now therefore, send and bring him to me, for he shall surely
die.” 32 And Jonathan answered Saul his father, and said to him, “Why should he
be killed? What has he done?” 33 Then Saul cast a spear at him to kill him, by
which Jonathan knew that it was determined by his father to kill David. 34 So
Jonathan arose from the table in fierce anger, and ate no food the second day
of the month, for he was grieved for David, because his father had treated him
shamefully.
35 And so it was, in the morning, that Jonathan went out into the field at the
time appointed with David, and a little lad was with him. 36 Then he said to
his lad, “Now run, find the arrows which I shoot.” As the lad ran, he shot an
arrow beyond him. 37 When the lad had come to the place where the arrow was
which Jonathan had shot, Jonathan cried out after the lad and said, “Is not the
arrow beyond you?” 38 And Jonathan cried out after the lad, “Make haste, hurry,
do not delay!” So Jonathan’s lad gathered up the arrows and came back to his
master. 39 But the lad did not know anything. Only Jonathan and David knew of
the matter. 40 Then Jonathan gave his weapons to his lad, and said to him, “Go,
carry them to the city.” 41 As soon as the lad had gone, David arose from a
place toward the south, fell on his face to the ground, and bowed down three
times. And they kissed one another; and they wept together, but David more so.
42 Then Jonathan said to David, “Go in peace, since we have both sworn in the
name of the LORD, saying, ‘May the LORD be between you and me, and between your
descendants and my descendants, forever.’” So he arose and departed, and
Jonathan went into the city.
Devotion
How tragic the hardness of King Saul’s heart! Having driven out the Holy Spirit
in the pursuit of establishing a dynasty for himself, Saul’s anger so burned
toward David that he would even throw his spear at his own son—the one whom, in
Saul’s mind, David was depriving of the throne.
Jonathan, though, is resigned to God’s will and loves the one who would be king
instead of him. “Why should David be killed? What has he done?” he asks his
father. That is, “What is wrong with David other than that God chose him,
instead of your son, to be the next ruler of His nation? Why do you seek to
kill David, when you really wish to kill the Lord?”
This is so often the case with our anger and our transgressions of the Second
Table of God’s Law (Commandments 4–10). Sometimes it is not people that we wish
to hurt, but the Lord Himself. Consider Genesis 9:6, when God says that the man
who sheds another’s blood shall have his blood shed by Man because God created
Man in His image. Whenever we seek to murder another human, we are, as it were,
murdering God in effigy.
Such is the case also when we steal, because we do not believe the Lord has
given or will give us what He’s ought; and when we lie because we do not trust
Him to work all things together for our good if we abide in the truth. And so
forth with the other Commandments.
Posted by The Reverend Jeffrey A. Ahonen on behalf of the Evangelical Lutheran
Diocese of North America
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