2013-03-22
Good Morning Dear Ones,
Last week, we learned that covenant trumps family relationships with the story of how Saul’s son, Jonathan, was brought to making a decision to let David, his covenant partner with God, know that Saul was eager to kill David. In 1 SAM 20: 15-17, Jonathan’s response to David’s request to keep the latter informed, Jonathan makes this request of David: “’And do not ever cut off your kindness from my family---not even when the Lord has cut off every one of David’s enemies from the face of the earth.’ So Jonathan made a covenant with the house of David saying, ‘May the Lord call David’s enemies to account.’ And Jonathan had David reaffirm his oath out of love for him, because he loved him as he loved himself.”
“Loving kindness” is a covenant term, one which comes from the influence of our Covenant Partner, the Lord. Without the Lord’s goodness, it would be unknown on earth, due to the congenital sinful nature of mankind. We must understand that God, our Strong Tower, is the Administrator of covenant promises. That is because He is a Witness to all these promises, as Jonathan reminds David in (23). Jonathan definitely wanted David to understand that this covenant promise would extend to his family forever. We will see later that David did indeed understand this and acted on it. We will also see that as time went on and Saul continued to plot David’s death, Jonathan also remained faithful to this covenant.
David hid in the field away from Saul’s table and the sacrifices being made at the New Moon Festival. Saul’s temper flared up at this, and he turned his anger on his son, Jonathan (30). The situation between them deteriorated, and Saul hurled his spear at Jonathan, missing him but convincing Jonathan that Saul intended to kill David (33). The next morning, Jonathan gave the signal they had agreed upon beforehand for David to flee to save his life (38-39). The two men said good-bye to each other amidst tears, and David fled.
An interesting sidelight to this situation is seen with what Saul said to Jonathan at the time of their argument over David’s absence. Saul said, in (30-31), “You son of a perverse and rebellious woman! Don’t I know that you have sided with the son of Jesse to your own shame and the shame of your mother who bore you? As long as the son of Jesse lives on this earth, neither you nor your kingdom will be established.” To the person not familiar with Judaism, this would seem like a strange way for Saul to express his anger. However, it must be understood that the family of a person’s mother passes down the faith to him. Saul was saying that if Jonathan didn’t believe in Judaism’s male primogeniture, then it was due to his mother’s having not taught him the faith rightfully. According to Saul, Jonathan was disgracing his mother as well as insuring he will never rule over Israel. What Saul still didn’t realize was that God had removed His blessing from him to rule Israel by that time[1 SAM 16: 13-14].
Before leaving each other’s company in tears, Jonathan had something else to say to his dear friend, David, that was to have considerable importance in this covenant relationship between them and the Lord. “Go in peace, for we have sworn friendship saying, ‘The Lord is Witness between you and me, and between your descendants and my descendants forever’” (42). The next time David and Jonathan saw each other was in the Desert of Ziph at Horesh. Originally, David had gone to Keilah, and he had asked the Lord if the citizens of Keilah would turn him over to Saul and his troops after God had given him victory over the Philistines there [1 SAM 23: 4, 11]. When the answer was “yes,” then David left there for the desert, and Saul with his men didn’t go to Keilah. “Day after day Saul searched for David, but God did not give David into His hands” (14b). Jonathan went to Horesh and helped David find strength in God (16). Yes, David’s Strong Tower, and ours is the Lord.
PRAYER: O Lord, You have the capacity to put Your words in the people You choose. Jonathan in this instance was the one to be the conveyor of Your encouraging message to David. In 1 SAM 23: 16-18, Jonathan encourages David that Saul knows that he will not be allowed to lay a hand on David. Furthermore, David will be king of Israel. The two men renewed their covenant and then parted company with David remaining in Horesh. You made Jonathan, David’s covenant partner and encourager, and this was no accident. Lord, You have done the same with many people over the generations of believers. Even today, You give us courage, strength, and inner peace. Our faith in You helps keep us calm in situations that are inherently stressful and allows us to face them with courage. IS 41: 10, 13, “So do not fear, for I am with you; do not be dismayed for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you; I will uphold you with My righteous right hand…For I am the Lord, your God Who takes hold of your right hand and says to you, ‘Do not fear; I will help you.’” Your loving kindness and willingness to take on being our Strong Tower has never been matched by any other entity on earth. You give each of us talents to use in Kingdom-building [RO 12: 4-10]. Some teach, some lead, some heal, some build, and so forth. What a great God You are! We can do no better than to be obediently faithful and to offer You our thanks and praise. We feel motivated to live honorably and to serve You to the best of our ability [RO 12: 2]. You are forgiving, wise, and compassionate. You gave us the great gift of salvation through the Atonement, sin-sacrifice of Your Son, Jesus Christ [JN 3: 16, RO 3: 24-25]. We stand before You in utter reverence to offer our lives as living sacrifices of service in bringing life to Your Kingdom on earth [RO 12: 1]. We feel the urgency to discover and expunge the sins in our lives. Again we say, “Praise, honor, loyalty, glory, and thanks be to You, in the holy/mighty name of Jesus Christ. Amen.
NEXT WEEK: I have been led by the Holy Spirit to write about the covenant words, “Don’t touch My anointed ones.” We’ll recall the fact that God kept Saul and his men from finding David in the desert seen in 1 SAM 23: 14b, using it as a jumping off point to look at Israel and our own lives. In the meanwhile, we need to feel God’s presence in our lives and to know that when we have inner peace amidst adversity, it is a gift that God gives to us to let us know we are pleasing Him and obeying Him rightly. IS 26: 3, “You will keep in perfect peace those who trust in You, whose thoughts are fixed on You. Trust in the Lord always, for the Lord God is the Eternal Rock.” It would be easy to substitute the words “Strong Tower” for Eternal Rock, and this verse would still convey the same meaning. We need to accept that God is indeed stronger than humans and that He is trustworthy. Even in the worst of adversity, our God lives among us and is here for us. All we need to do is to remember to turn to Him. NH 1: 7, “The Lord is good; He protects His people in time of trouble; He takes care of those who turn to Him.” Can we feel encouraged to know that He is in our lives? Indeed we can! When we suffer pain, loss, and/or disappointment, we can turn to Him and know He will help us with His guiding, comforting, and loving hand. PS 46: 1, “God is our Shelter and our Strength, always ready to help us in times of trouble.” We, who believe the Scriptures are inerrant truth, will take the story of David and Jonathan seriously and will pay attention to what the Lord did for them and still does for us today. Praise and thanks be to the Lord!
Grace Be With You Always,
Lynn
JS 24: 15
© Lynn Johnson 2012. All Rights Reserved.
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