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In Christ, Mark
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Saul told his son Jonathan and all the attendants to kill David. But Jonathan was very fond of David and warned him, "My father Saul is looking for a chance to kill you. Be on your guard tomorrow morning; go into hiding and stay there. I will go out and stand with my father in the field where you are. I'll speak to him about you and will tell you what I find out."
Jonathan spoke well of David to Saul his father and said to him, "Let not the king do wrong to his servant David; he has not wronged you, and what he has done has benefited you greatly. He took his life in his hands when he killed the Philistine. The Lord won a great victory for all Israel, and you saw it and were glad. Why then would you do wrong to an innocent man like David by killing him for no reason?"
Saul listened to Jonathan and took this oath: "As surely as the Lord lives, David will not be put to death."
So Jonathan called David and told him the whole conversation. He brought him to Saul, and David was with Saul as before.
1 Samuel 19:1-7
This ends our reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.
In chapter 18 of 1st Samuel, we witnessed the deterioration within the relationship between Saul and David…a deterioration which resulted in Saul attempting to murder his young head of the army. This happened directly first as Saul hurled a spear at David but then indirectly as he tried to use his daughters to do his evil bidding, trying to get David to go to war with the Philistines so he would get killed there.
Well, as chapter 19 begins, we see that Saul refused to give up on his efforts to eliminate David for we find him telling “his son Jonathan and all the attendants to kill David”, despite fully knowing that the Lord was with him and had protected him from harm up to that point.
Now, we know from earlier in this book that Jonathan had befriended David and they had become one in spirit. In fact, you’ll remember where the scriptures told us that Jonathan loved David like he loved himself and showed his devotion by giving David his robe, sword, bow, and belt (1 Samuel 18:1-4). Given this, we knew that Jonathan wasn’t about to allow any harm to come to his beloved friend, no matter what his father wanted.
Back to the scriptures for today for after Saul gave the order to kill David, Jonathan went and warned him saying:
"My father Saul is looking for a chance to kill you. Be on your guard tomorrow morning; go into hiding and stay there. I will go out and stand with my father in the field where you are. I'll speak to him about you and will tell you what I find out."
And David did as Jonathan asked…going into hiding, out of harm’s way while Jonathan went to Saul to discuss his behavior towards David. Here’s what he had to say as he “spoke well of David”:
"Let not the king do wrong to his servant David; he has not wronged you, and what he has done has benefited you greatly. He took his life in his hands when he killed the Philistine. The Lord won a great victory for all Israel, and you saw it and were glad. Why then would you do wrong to an innocent man like David by killing him for no reason?"
To Jonathan, his father’s actions were totally uncalled for. There was no need to kill David for no good reason, that’s the point he drove through to Saul and his challenge had to cut through to the core of Israel’s king because his son believed he had lost his mind.
Unfortunately, Jonathan wasn’t wrong because Saul had long before allowed himself to be infected with evil and sin…an evil and sin that led him to be blinded by jealousy and unable to see the good that was in David…a good that had directly benefited him during his reign as well as the Israelite people as a whole. Through his efforts, Jonathan was trying to break through the sinful spell his father was under so to try and bring him back to leading in a just and holy way.
And as we see, his efforts were successful…even if just for the short term.
For we read where “Saul listened to Jonathan” and took an oath saying:
“As surely as the Lord lives, David will not be put to death."
Convinced that no harm would come to his good friend, “Jonathan called David and told him the whole conversation” before bringing “him to Saul”, restoring things to the way they were before. For the moment, things had been returned to normal…all because Jonathan was not afraid to stand up for what is right.
Certainly, we, as believers today, have a lot to learn from Jonathan. For he showed a great deal of bravery and courage by standing up to his father and questioning his orders. Saul could have easily had Jonathan killed for being defiant and disrespectful…but of course, that didn’t happen. In fact, Jonathan didn’t need to fear confronting his father anymore than David.
Why?
Because Jonathan had the Lord with him just as much as David did. And the good news is that we do as well if we surrender our lives to the Lord fully.
In the end translation, it was the Lord who empowered Jonathan to speak to Saul about his unjust orders and that same power of God’s Spirit helped convince Saul to spare David’s life. This is what happens when someone goes forth in the name of the Lord for the cause of justice and righteousness. Both of those things, justice and righteousness, follow.
My prayer today is that we will all be ready to follow the lead of Jonathan…not only to be a true and faithful friend to others but also to stand firm against injustice when we see it, never afraid to advocate for what is right. For when we do, we receive the reward from the Lord proclaimed in the 106th Psalm:
Blessed are they who maintain justice, who constantly do what is right. Psalms 106:3
Amen.
In Christ,
Mark
PS: Feel free to leave a comment and please share this with anyone you feel might be blessed by it. Send any prayer requests to TheChristianWalkPrayers@gmail.com.
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