Jonathan’s True Devotion

The magnolia blooms fully and is the first to announce spring, while the trees are all still huddled against the biting cold. Seeing the magnolia bloom even in cold weather, people open their frozen hearts and look forward to the warm spring days that will soon come. The magnolia blooms on the day God has set. Like the magnolia, the first under the same conditions to break through the hard wood, there are believers who see the light of life and come out of the darkness that is the world. Just as the magnolia blooms on time because God has set it so, gaining life through the light of Christ is God’s promise, and so it will surely come to pass.

Saul was a man who was anointed by Samuel, prophesied, and experienced God’s power firsthand before he became king. Even so, he saw David, who lived according to God’s word, only as an enemy after his throne, and he kept trying to kill him. Jonathan, however, saw David’s victory over Goliath as Yahweh saving Israel through David. So he did his utmost to save David, whom God had chosen.

Believers know that Jesus saved souls because he won the war against Satan. Through the Holy Spirit they also know that he is the Christ, and they believe that he will come on the last day to hold the marriage feast of the Lamb with believers. So, just as Jonathan laid down his life for David, we too must take our place in dying for Christ. Jonathan was the only prince who would inherit the throne, yet when he let go of his greed, he came to see the world through God’s eyes. Only those who have grasped God’s providence can judge and act in a way that rises above the world, as Jonathan did. Every time his father Saul tried to kill David, Jonathan knew that such evil was an act of opposing God, so he tried to stop his father as he ran toward death; but he could not stop Saul, who thought only of himself, from rushing headlong to destruction. Saul’s greed was standing in the way of God’s will, and that is why Jonathan was doing his utmost to save his father.

But Saul did not give up his own thinking, so he did not listen to the counsel of his son, who was trying to save him. In this way, when people think their own judgment is right, they will not listen to counsel even when it is the word of life. Among the figures in the Bible, those who were chosen by God but in the end took a place against God’s work had one thing in common: they held stubbornly to their own thinking. The spiritual world is different from the world, and God’s law is different from the law of the world, so the judgment of believers must be different from the judgment of the people of the world. If Saul had listened to his son’s counsel, the kingship would have passed to Jonathan and God’s grace would have continued.

To kill David, Saul sent men to Naioth in Ramah, where Samuel was, but the men received the grace of prophesying and praising with Samuel and the students. So Saul, enraged, came to Naioth in Ramah himself. But God’s grace does not pick and choose among people, so Saul too received great grace and, by God’s compelling work, prophesied before Samuel. God knew that even with grace Saul would not turn back, yet he gave him grace anyway, and the reason was to stop him from harming David, a good man.

While God gave Saul grace to keep him from harming David, David fled from Naioth and met Jonathan again. David, who had survived by God’s wonderful grace, would have become sure that God is alive and at work. And Jonathan, who saw his father Saul and his men prophesying before Samuel without being able to say one evil word to David, would have seen clearly how fearsome God is, and would have been sure that David was the one God had chosen.

David, having fled from Saul, met Jonathan. Then, in verses 12-15, Jonathan says this to David: “When I have sounded my father and it is clear that he has no mind to kill you, I will send and let you know; and if I know my father’s intent and do not tell you, Yahweh will punish me.” And he went on, “I am helping you like this in order to receive your promise that you will spare me and my house when Yahweh has cut off every one of your enemies from the surface of the earth.”

Jonathan, knowing that David would become king in the end, begs for his life; but believers have already received the promise, and it has already been fulfilled, so if only they have faith, they receive eternal life. Worldly people would probably look at Jonathan and call him foolish. They would ask why he entrusts his descendants to David, when he could become king after Saul if he just killed David. It is the same as the world saying today that having power in the world is a wiser choice than believing in a lowly Jesus. From a human point of view, if Jonathan helped Saul kill David and took the throne himself, a far more comfortable life would be guaranteed. For rather than going out of his way to hold back his raging father and servilely entrusting his descendants to David, he could hold the power himself, and his worries would be gone. It is the same as saying that rather than entrusting one’s life to a heaven that is not even certain, and to Jesus, it is a blessing to live well in the world even if one sins.

But Jonathan knew how God was judging Saul, David and himself, so he did not give way to greed. He knew that the king Israel needed was David rather than Saul, and that God had chosen David as the leader to guide his people. Jonathan did not look at the lowly David of the moment; he cared about God’s will for how he was leading Israel, and he looked farther ahead. He did not look at David being chased from place to place in his human weakness; he looked at the God who had brought about a great salvation through David. His own father was the king, yet he sensed that David would become king and helped him. No one could do such a good deed without having met God. Those who believe that God is alive and almighty, rather than judging by a merely human view fixed on the world, recognize the one whom God has chosen and graced. And they do their utmost to protect that person so that the work of God can be carried out.

It pains me to think how much Jonathan must have suffered every time his father did evil. If Saul had not been his father, he could have entrusted even his life to David and undertaken a great venture with him. But undertaking such a venture would in the end have meant killing his father, so Jonathan could not do it, and he entrusted everything to David instead. Jonathan knew God’s work and knew how great a king David would become, yet because Saul was his father he could not follow David, and in the end he met his death together with his father. Saul’s foolish choice drove his son to his death. David, receiving Jonathan’s request, swore to Jonathan that he would spare his 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 now, and whom does he mean when he speaks of enemies? It is his own father Saul, and Jonathan is thinking the very sad thought that his house might be destroyed because of him. The house of David continues not only through David but down to Jesus, the descendant of David. Just as Jonathan, who saved David’s life and helped him, saved his own descendants, believers who have believed Christ’s promise and kept the faith will gain eternal life. The promise David made with Jonathan was sworn in the name of Yahweh, so it did not change; in the same way, the promise of salvation does not change, because Christ himself spoke it.

On the first day of every month, the new moon, Israel offers the continual burnt offering and the sin offering. At this time they receive God’s forgiveness for the sins committed during the month and resolve to live with a new heart, and the family eats together for three days; but David did not attend this gathering. When David was absent on the first day, Saul thought something unclean had happened to him 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, so he had given him leave to go. Jonathan is now lying to his father for David’s sake. He did so because he thought that protecting David was the only way to save his father. So rather than working to save one man, David, he is working to stop Saul’s sin, because he knows God’s heart.

You may at times find your faith held back, or struggle to keep your faith, because you put the ties of blood above God’s word. I always tell you to leave your family behind and run. When I tell you to leave the family members who hinder your faith where they are and to stand on the Word first yourself, I do not mean that you should abandon your own flesh and blood; I mean that, like Jonathan, you should first have a whole faith. For only then can you boldly lead your family, who are wandering in the darkness, to God, and save their souls. Because Jonathan made such a choice, he was able to save his son. Jonathan, who had promised David to watch Saul’s reaction and let him know, must have been heavy-hearted. For he wanted to rescue Saul and to save David as well, and his heart, seeking to handle it wisely, is the same as ours when we long to see our own flesh and blood saved. If you, too, want to see your family saved, I hope you will do your utmost for Jesus, just as Jonathan did his utmost for David.

When Saul heard Jonathan say that he had sent David home, he flew into a rage and thundered at him, calling him the son of a perverse rebellious woman and asking whether Jonathan thought his father did not know that he had chosen the son of Jesse to his own shame, and to the shame of his mother’s nakedness. Look at how Saul drags in even Jonathan’s mother as he rebukes him. Then you can see how great his hostility and hatred toward David are. Seeing Saul in this state, you understand why God deliberately set up Prince Jonathan as David’s protector. Saul had to kill David, if only to put Jonathan on the throne; so when he saw his son shielding David without understanding his father’s heart, he vented his fury to the extreme.

Unable to hold back his anger, Saul ended up hurling his spear at Jonathan. When people cannot govern their temper like this, their character is destroyed, they lose control of themselves, and they throw a spear even at their own son. Saul would probably say it was because he loved Jonathan. He would say he hated David because he had to set his son on the throne. But he had wrapped his own greed in the guise of love for Jonathan, and his wariness of David, who excelled in everything, had gone as far as murder. Be sure to govern your temper, knowing that if you cannot govern your greed and anger, you too may be carried away by your temper, like Saul, and commit murder.

Just as danger followed Jonathan as he worked to save David, believers who believe the Lord’s promise and carry out their mission will face Satan’s attacks. Helping David is God’s work, so Satan will try to hinder it, and anyone who does not stand wholly in faith may stumble. Helping a person of God is not helping a mere human being but working together for God’s glory, so God saw Jonathan’s devotion and blessed his son.

Knowing that his father’s resolve was firm, Jonathan took a boy along, shot toward the place where David was hiding, and shouted that the arrow was beyond him. The arrangement between Jonathan and David was this: if Jonathan shot toward the stone Ezel where David was hiding and told the boy who had gone to pick up the bow that the arrow was beyond him, it meant that Saul had a mind to kill David, and it was the signal for David to flee. Looking at the whole situation now, Jonathan shot to save David, and David must flee to save his life, as Jonathan said.

But the boy who ran the errand in between has no idea what situation he is in or what he is doing. Even though he is doing the great work of warning David of danger, he does not know at all what he is doing. Without the boy between Jonathan and David, the two of them would have had the complication of meeting in person, but because the boy ran the errand well, it was easily solved. Believers are taking on the role of this boy. When God works to rescue a soul from the hand of Satan, all we need to do is obey God’s commands like this boy. When he says go, we go; when he says stand, we stand. But if we grumble at God’s command and insist that we want to go when he tells us to stand, God’s work will be delayed, because he will have to work through someone else.

God wanted to work through Saul. When God called Saul out of an ordinary life, he was giving him the chance to live as a king. God did many works to make Saul a powerful and respected king, and just as God wanted, Saul became a powerful and respected king. But Saul did not have the capacity to bear that blessing. When he foolishly made God’s blessing his own, 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 his life a splendid one. God calling him as king was a chance; Jonathan’s counsel was a chance; and David driving away the evil spirit was a chance too. But because he could not let go of his own righteousness, he ended up going as far as killing the son he loved.

When God gives you a chance, I hope you will turn back. Only then can you enjoy all the blessings God has given. God did not use Saul from the beginning in order to raise up David; God took Saul off the throne because Saul could not let go of his evil greed and hid God’s glory.

John 6:29

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

The one God sent is Jesus, and believing in him is carrying out the work of God. To believe in Jesus, whom God sent, is to live your life according to the will of Jesus, and to live a life that gives itself so that God’s work may be done on this earth. Believers need only believe that promise and live by the Word, but God, to fulfill that promise, put his one and only Son to death on the cross and sent the Holy Spirit, and he is ceaselessly at work through every circumstance, time and person so that believers can live by the Word.

David was hiding behind the stone Ezel, and the name Ezel means “the stone of help.” After sending away the boy who had brought back the bow, Jonathan said to David, “I have helped you because I know God’s intention to set you up as king; promise me that even when you become king you will not wipe out my family.” Because of this promise, although Jonathan died together with Saul, his son lived. In 2 Samuel 9:1, after David became king, he said that if anyone was still left of Saul’s house, he would show that person kindness to keep the promise he had made with Jonathan, and he sought out Jonathan’s son Mephibosheth and protected him.

A faith that stakes its life on carrying out God’s work, as Jonathan did, and leaves behind the fruit of life, is true faith. If you, too, love your own flesh and blood, I hope you will hold fast to Christ’s promise and love Christ without falsehood, just as Jonathan loved David with all his heart. In the same way, if you are faithful in faith, Christ will not forget your descendants but will bless them and save them.

Through this one sermon, God is giving you another chance. Or perhaps he is giving you, every day and every moment, the chance to lay down your own righteousness and turn back. May you love God, meet fellow workers like Jonathan, and run with them on 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.