Jonathan’s True Devotion

The magnolia is the first to announce spring, throwing its blossoms wide open while every other tree is still huddled against the bitter cold. Seeing it flower in such weather, people let their frozen hearts thaw and look forward to the warm days soon to come. The magnolia blooms on the day God has appointed. Under the same conditions as every other tree, it is the first to push through hard wood; in the same way, there are saints who see the light of life and come out of a world of darkness. The magnolia flowers on time because God has set its time. Life through the light of Christ is God’s promise, and because it is his promise, it will surely come to pass.

Saul had been anointed by Samuel, had prophesied, and had known the power of God firsthand before he ever became king. For all that, he saw David, a man who lived by the word of God, only as a rival after his throne, and he kept trying to kill him. Jonathan, on the other hand, saw David’s victory over Goliath as Yahweh saving Israel through David. So he did everything in his power to rescue the man God had chosen.

We know that Jesus saved our souls because he won the war against Satan. Through the Holy Spirit we know that he is the Christ, and we believe that on the last day he will come to celebrate the wedding feast of the Lamb with his saints. So, just as Jonathan laid down his life for David, we too must take our seat where we die for Christ. Jonathan was the only prince in line for the throne, yet once he let go of ambition, he began to see the world through God’s eyes. Only those who have grasped God’s providence can discern and act, as Jonathan did, in a way that rises above the world. Each time his father set out to kill David, Jonathan knew such evil for what it was, rebellion against God, and that knowledge drove him to hold back a father who was running toward death. But he could not stop Saul, who cared for no one but himself, from rushing headlong to destruction. Saul’s greed stood in the way of God’s will, and that is the reason Jonathan was doing all he could to save his father.

But because Saul would not let go of his own thinking, he refused the counsel his son gave to save him. People are like this: once they are convinced their own view is right, they will not heed counsel even when it is the word of life. Look at the people in Scripture who were chosen by God yet ended up standing against his work, and you will find one thing in common—they clung to their own opinions. The spiritual world is not this world, and God’s law is not the world’s law; for that reason a believer must weigh things differently from worldly people. Had Saul listened to his son, the throne would have passed to Jonathan, and God’s grace would have continued.

Saul sent his men to Naioth in Ramah, where Samuel was, to kill David. Those men were overtaken by grace and joined Samuel and his students in prophesying and praise, and at this Saul flew into a rage and came to Naioth in Ramah himself. But God’s grace shows no partiality, so Saul too received great grace and, under the compelling hand of God, prophesied before Samuel. God knew Saul would not turn back even after receiving grace, and still he gave it; his reason was to stop Saul from harming David, a good man.

While God was pouring out grace to keep Saul from harming David, David escaped from Naioth and met Jonathan once more. Spared by God’s astonishing grace, David must have become certain that God is alive and at work. And Jonathan, watching his father Saul and his men prophesy before Samuel without one evil word against David, would have seen plainly how fearsome God is, and been convinced that David was the one God had chosen.

Having fled from Saul, David met Jonathan. Then, in verses 12 to 15, Jonathan speaks to him: “If I sound out my father and find that he has no mind to kill you, I will send someone to tell you. And if I learn what my father intends and do not tell you, may Yahweh punish me.” He went on, “I am helping you like this so that, when Yahweh has cut off every one of your enemies from the surface of the earth, I may have your promise to spare me and my house.”

Jonathan knew that in the end David would be king, and so he pleaded for his life. We, however, have already received the promise, and Christ has already fulfilled it; all we need is faith, and eternal life is ours. The people of the world would probably call Jonathan a fool. If he killed David, they would say, he could be king after Saul—so why entrust his descendants to David? It is the same as the world today saying that gaining earthly power is a wiser choice than believing in a lowly Jesus. By human reckoning, if Jonathan helped Saul kill David and took the throne himself, he would be assured of a far easier life. Why go out of his way to restrain an angry father and abjectly hand his children over to David, when holding power himself would put an end to all his worries? It is the same as saying that, rather than entrust your life to a heaven and a Jesus that are not even certain, the real blessing is to do well in this world, even if it means sinning.

But Jonathan knew how God was weighing Saul, David, and himself, and because he knew it, he did not give way to ambition. He knew that the king Israel needed was David rather than Saul, and that God had chosen David to lead his people. Jonathan was not looking at a David who seemed of little account; his heart was set on how God would lead Israel, and he looked farther. He did not see David hunted from place to place in his human weakness; he saw the God who had brought about a great deliverance through David. And when, with his own father on the throne, Jonathan sensed that David would be king and helped him, he did something good that no one can do without having met God. Those who believe in the living and almighty God, rather than weighing things with human eyes fixed only on the world, recognize the person God has chosen and graced. And they do their utmost to protect that person, so that the one God has chosen can carry out God’s work.

It grieves me to think how Jonathan must have suffered every time his father did evil. Had Saul not been his father, Jonathan could have entrusted even his life to David and joined him in some great undertaking. But such an undertaking would in the end have meant killing his father, so Jonathan could not bring himself to it, and instead he committed everything to David. He knew what God was doing and knew how great a king David would become; yet because Saul was his father, Jonathan could not follow David, and in the end he died alongside his father. Saul’s foolish choice drove his son all the way to death. At Jonathan’s request, David swore to him that he would spare Jonathan’s descendants.

1 Samuel 20:16

16So Jonathan made a covenant with David’s house, saying, “Yahweh will require it at the hand of David’s enemies.”

What is Jonathan worried about here, and whom does he mean by the enemies? He means his own father, Saul, and he is weighed down by the deeply sorrowful thought that because of Saul his whole house might be destroyed. David’s house runs not only through David but on to Jesus, David’s descendant. Jonathan saved David’s life and stood by him, and by doing so he saved his own descendants; in the same way, those who believe Christ’s promise and hold fast to their faith will receive eternal life. The promise David made to Jonathan does not change, because it was sworn in the name of Yahweh; and the promise of salvation does not change, because it is a promise Christ himself spoke.

On the first day of every month, at the new moon, Israel offered the continual burnt offering and the sin offering. At that time they received God’s forgiveness for the sins of the past month and resolved to live with a new heart, and families ate together for three days—yet David was absent from such a gathering. When David did not appear on the first day, Saul supposed that something had happened to make him unclean, so that he could not take part in the new moon. When David was still missing the next day, Saul asked Jonathan why. Jonathan answered that David had asked to go to Bethlehem to offer a sacrifice, and that he had given him leave. Jonathan is lying to his father for David’s sake here, and he does it because he believes that protecting David is the only way to save his father. In other words, he is not so much striving to save one man named David as working to keep Saul from sin, because he knows the heart of God.

You may find that natural affection for your own flesh and blood, more than the word of God, hems in your faith, and that holding fast to it becomes hard. I always tell you to leave your family behind and run. When I tell you to leave the family that hinders your faith where they are and to stand on the word first yourself, I do not mean that you should abandon them; I mean that, like Jonathan, you should first have a whole faith. That is because only then can you boldly lead to God those of your family who are wandering in the dark, and save their souls. Jonathan’s choice is what made it possible for him to save his son. Having promised David that he would watch Saul’s reaction and let him know, Jonathan must have been heavy-hearted. I say so because his heart—wanting to rescue Saul and to save David too, and so seeking a wise way through—is just like ours when we long to see our families saved. If you, too, want your family to be saved, I hope you will give your all for Jesus, as Jonathan gave his all for David.

When Saul heard Jonathan say that he had sent David home, he flew into a rage, called him the son of a perverse and rebellious woman, and roared that he knew full well Jonathan had chosen the son of Jesse to his own shame and to the shame of his mother’s nakedness. Saul drags even Jonathan’s mother into his rebuke, and that alone shows how fierce his hostility and hatred toward David were. Seeing Saul in such a state, we understand why God went so far as to make Jonathan, the prince, David’s protector. Saul was determined to kill David, if only to put Jonathan on the throne; yet here was his son, blind to his father’s purpose, shielding David, and at the sight Saul exploded in fury.

Unable to contain his anger, Saul hurled his spear at Jonathan. This is what happens when we cannot master our temper: our character crumbles, we lose all self-control, and we end up throwing a spear even at our own son. Saul would probably say he did it out of love for Jonathan—that he hated David because his son had to sit on the throne. But he was wrapping his own greed in the guise of love for Jonathan, and his wariness of David, who excelled in everything, had grown into murder. Understand that if you cannot rule your greed and anger, you too may be carried away by temper like Saul and commit murder, and be sure to keep your temper under control.

Just as danger followed Jonathan when he worked to save David, Satan will attack the saints who believe the Lord’s promise and take up the calling he has given them. Helping David is God’s own work, and Satan will therefore try to obstruct it; unless we stand wholly in faith we may stumble. Helping God’s servant is not merely helping a man; it is laboring alongside him for the glory of God. So God saw Jonathan’s devotion and blessed his son.

Once Jonathan knew that his father’s mind was set, he took a boy with him, shot an arrow toward the place where David was hiding, and shouted that the arrow was beyond him. The signal Jonathan and David had agreed on was this: Jonathan would shoot toward the stone Ezel, where David was hiding, and if he told the boy who went to fetch the arrow that it was beyond him, that meant Saul was set on killing David, and David was to flee. Taking in the situation as a whole, Jonathan shot the arrow to save David, and David now had to flee, as Jonathan had told him, to save his life.

But the boy who ran the errand between them had no idea what situation he was in or what he was doing. He was carrying out a great task—warning David of danger—and still knew nothing of what he was about. Without the boy between them, Jonathan and David would have faced the complication of meeting face to face; but because the boy ran his errand well, the matter was settled with ease. We who belong to Christ play the part of this boy. When God is at work to rescue a soul from the hand of Satan, all we need to do is obey his command, as this boy did. When he says go, we go; when he says stand, we stand. But if we grumble at God’s command and say we want to go when he tells us to stand, his work will be delayed, because he will have to accomplish it through someone else.

God wanted to work through Saul. In calling Saul out of an ordinary life, he gave him the opportunity to live as a king. He did many mighty works to make Saul a strong king, respected by all, and Saul became exactly the strong and respected king God intended. But Saul did not have it in him to bear that blessing. When he foolishly made God’s blessing his own possession, his son Jonathan urged him to turn back, but he would not listen to that either. Saul let slip every chance he had to make something fine of his life. God’s calling him to be king was a chance; Jonathan’s counsel was a chance; David’s driving away the evil spirit was a chance as well. But those who cannot lay down their own righteousness end up going so far as to kill the son they love.

I hope you will turn back when God gives you the chance. Only then can you enjoy every blessing God has given you. God did not make use of Saul from the start in order to establish David; God removed Saul from the throne because Saul could not let go of his evil greed and obscured the glory of God.

John 6:29

29Jesus answered them, “This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he has sent.”

The one God has sent is Jesus, and believing in him is itself doing the work of God. To believe in Jesus, whom God sent, is to live for him the life he desires, offering ourselves so that God’s work may be done on this earth. All we need to do is believe that promise and live by the word; but to fulfill it, God put his only Son to death on the cross, sent the Holy Spirit, and is ceaselessly at work through every circumstance, every season, and every person so that we can live according to the word.

David was hiding behind the stone Ezel, a name that means “the stone of help.” After sending away the boy who had gathered the arrows, Jonathan told David that he had helped him because he knew God meant to make him king, and he asked David to promise that even when he became king, he would not wipe out Jonathan’s family. Through this promise, though Jonathan died with Saul, his son lived. In 2 Samuel 9:1, after he had become king, David asked whether anyone was still left of the house of Saul, so that he might show him kindness to keep his promise to Jonathan; and he sought out Jonathan’s son Mephibosheth and took him under his protection.

True faith is a faith like Jonathan’s, one that risks life itself to do God’s work and leaves behind the fruit of life. My hope is that you who love your families will hold fast to Christ’s promise and love Christ without pretense, as Jonathan loved David with all his heart. In the same way, if you serve Christ faithfully, he will not forget your descendants but will bless them and save them.

Through this one sermon, God is giving you another chance. Or perhaps, every day and every moment, he is giving you the chance to lay aside your own righteousness and turn back. May you love God, find co-workers like Jonathan, and run with them along the way of Christ. I bless you in the name of Jesus Christ.

1 Samuel 21:1-6

1Then David came to Nob to Ahimelech the priest. Ahimelech came to meet David trembling, and said to him, “Why are you alone, and no man with you?” 2David said to Ahimelech the priest, “The king has commanded me to do something, and has said to me, ‘Let no one know anything about the business about which I send you, and what I have commanded you. I have sent the young men to a certain place.’ 3Now therefore what is under your hand? Please give me five loaves of bread in my hand, or whatever is available.” 4The priest answered David, and said, “I have no common bread, but there is holy bread; if only the young men have kept themselves from women.” 5David answered the priest, and said to him, “Truly, women have been kept from us as usual these three days. When I came out, the vessels of the young men were holy, though it was only a common journey. How much more then today shall their vessels be holy?” 6So the priest gave him holy bread; for there was no bread there but the show bread that was taken from before Yahweh, to put hot bread in the day when it was taken away.