Show Notes
1 Samuel 20
Pastor Christopher Chelpka
View Full Transcript
Episode Transcript
[00:00:04] Amen. Let's pray together.
[00:00:10] Our Heavenly Father, we're thankful that you know the weakness of our hearts, the weakness of our bodies. You know the temptations we face.
[00:00:19] You know the challenges that we we struggle against as the devil lies to us, accuses us of, of various things, some true, some not true, but tells us that your grace is not sufficient.
[00:00:36] Lord, you know the lies that are in this world that would tempt us away from your path, the lies that promise all kinds of good things apart from you.
[00:00:50] Lord, we ask that you would continue to be gentle with us, that you would provide us people and things in our lives that would bring comfort and help.
[00:01:03] We ask that you would especially this morning, use on this time of worship and the proclamation of your word to bring us closer to you.
[00:01:17] Lord, we ask that you would use your word today to open up our eyes so that we might see with more clarity who you are and what you have done for us in Christ.
[00:01:30] We ask that you would help us to set our hearts firmly on him and to know that he is our friend and he cares for us and loves us more deeply even than we know.
[00:01:44] Lord, we ask that you would give us confidence and assurance against the persecution that comes from the evil one and those who do his work.
[00:01:56] Lord, all these things and more we pour for all these things and more we pour our hearts out to you and ask that you would bless us. And we pray this in Jesus name. Amen.
[00:02:10] Well, please be seated and let's turn our attention to First Samuel, Chapter 20. It's so First Samuel, Chapter 20.
[00:02:53] This morning we hear about David and Jonathan.
[00:02:57] A problem that is being faced, a way that they come together to work through a very difficult problem. We hear how they depend on one another in great and deep friendship, a friendship that is grounded in the Lord and what he is doing, rather than their own particular desires in a particular time. So let's hear God's word this morning from first Samuel, chapter 20.
[00:03:32] Then David fled to Naioth in Ramah and came and said before Samuel or Jonathan came and said before Jonathan, what have I done? What is my guilt and what is my sin before your Father that he seeks my life? And he said to him, far from it, you shall not die. Behold, my father does nothing either great or small, without disclosing it to me. And why should my father hide this from me? It is not so.
[00:03:59] But David vowed again, saying, your father knows well that I have found favor in your eyes. And he thinks, do not let Jonathan know this, lest he be grieved.
[00:04:10] But truly, as the Lord lives and as your soul lives, there is but a step between me and death.
[00:04:17] Then Jonathan said to David, whatever you say, I will do for you. David said to Jonathan, behold, tomorrow is the new moon, and I should not fail to sit at table with the king. But let me go, that I may hide myself in the field till the third day at evening. If your father misses me at all, then say, David earnestly asked leave of me to run to Bethlehem, his city, for there's a yearly sacrifice there for all the clan. If he says, good, it will be well with your servant. But if he's angry, then know that harm is determined by him.
[00:04:53] Therefore deal kindly with your servant, for you have brought your servant into a covenant of the Lord with you. But if there is guilt in me, kill me yourself, for why should you bring me to your father? And Jonathan said, far be it from you.
[00:05:09] If I knew that it was determined by my father that harm should come to you, would I not tell you?
[00:05:15] Then David said to Jonathan, who will tell me if your father answers you roughly? And Jonathan said to David, come, let us go out into the field. So they both went out into the field. And Jonathan said to David, the Lord, the God of Israel, be witness when I have sounded out my father about this time tomorrow or the third day. Behold, if he is well disposed toward David, shall I not then send and disclose it to you? But should it please my father to do you harm, the Lord do so to Jonathan. And more also if I do not disclose it to you and send you away that you may go in safety, may the Lord be with you as he has been with my father. If I am still alive, show me the steadfast love of the Lord that I may not die. And do not cut off your steadfast love from my house forever. When the Lord cuts off every one of the enemies of David from the face of the earth, and Jonathan made a covenant with the house of David, saying, may the Lord take vengeance on David's enemies.
[00:06:17] And Jonathan made David swear again by his love for him, for he loved him as he loved his own soul. Then Jonathan said to him, tomorrow is the new moon, and you will be missed because your seat will be empty on the third day. Go down quickly to the place where you hid yourself when the matter was at hand and remain beside the stone heap, and I will shoot three arrows to the side of it as though I shot at a mark. And behold, I will send the boy saying, go find the arrows. If I say to the boy, look the arrows are on this side of you. Take them, then you are to come. For as the Lord lives, it is safe for you and there is no danger. But if I say to the youth, look, the arrows are beyond you, then go, for the Lord has sent you away. And as for the matter of which you and I have spoken, behold, the Lord is between you and me forever.
[00:07:13] So David hid himself in the field, and when the new moon came, the king sat down to eat food. The king sat on his seat, as at other times on the seat by the wall. Jonathan sat opposite, and Abner sat by Saul's side. But David's place was empty. Yet Saul did not say anything that day, for he thought, something's happened to him. He is not clean. Surely he's not clean. But on the second day, the day after the new moon, David's place was empty. Saul said to Jonathan, his son, why has not the son of Jesse come to the meal either yesterday or today? Jonathan answered Saul, david earnestly asked leave of me to go to Bethlehem. He said, let me go, for our clan holds a sacrifice in the city and my brother has commanded me to be there. So now if I have found favor in your eyes, let. Let me get away and see my brothers. For this reason, he has not come to the king's table.
[00:08:12] Then Saul's anger was kindled 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? For as long as the Son of Jesse lives on the earth, neither you nor your kingdom shall be established. Therefore send and bring him to me, for he shall surely die.
[00:08:37] Then Jonathan answered Saul, his father, why should he be put to death? What has he done? But Saul hurled his spear at him to strike him. So Jonathan knew that his father was determined to put David to death. And Jonathan rose 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 disgraced him. In the morning, Jonathan went out into the field to the appointment with David, and with him was a little boy. And he said to his boy, run and find the arrows that I shoot. And as the boy ran, he shot an arrow beyond him. And when the boy came to the place of the arrow that Jonathan had shot, Jonathan called after the boy and said, is not the arrow beyond you?
[00:09:23] And Jonathan called after the boy, hurry, be quick. Do not stay so. Jonathan's boy gathered up the arrows and came to his master. But the boy knew nothing. Only Jonathan and David knew the matter. And Jonathan gave his weapons to the boy and said to him, go, carry them into the city. And as soon as the boy had gone, David rose from behind the stone heap and fell on his face to the ground and bowed three times. And they kissed one another and wept with one another, David weeping the most. Then Jonathan said to David, go in peace, because we have sworn both of us in the name of the Lord, saying, the Lord shall be between me and you and between my offspring and your offspring forever. And he rose and departed, and Jonathan went into the city.
[00:10:16] Amen.
[00:10:30] The value of friendship, true friendship, good friendship, solid friendship, is hard to state.
[00:10:41] It's hard to calculate the value of having a a friend who is by your side, a friend who will sacrifice for you, a friend who will lead you on the right path, a friend who sees things right, helps you to see things rightly.
[00:10:58] We see the value of that here in this story, as Jonathan and David come together and deal with this very difficult problem. One by the way, that they're not on the same page about it. That begins beginning, are they Proverbs 17:17. A friend loves at all times, and a brother is born for adversity.
[00:11:23] There are times in life when we feel isolated and lonely, and sometimes this happens even because of bad friends, betrayals, people that were supposed to be there for you. Saul, I don't think, was ever David's friend, but he was certainly there at various times and supposed to be David's king, David's protector. David's master.
[00:11:48] David had done nothing but good for him. And here Saul was trying to kill him.
[00:11:54] And in addition to that, Saul's men, as we read recently, were trying to kill David. Very difficult thing to be a servant in your master's house when your master and other servants are trying to take your life.
[00:12:08] David is struggling to know whom to trust, where to go, what to do.
[00:12:14] He's been sort of in and out of the palace. Saul has tried to take his life various times.
[00:12:21] He's trying to know how to live, how to stay alive, and how to do it in a way that honors the Lord.
[00:12:30] You can only begin to imagine the kind of confusion and frustration that would be experienced here. And on top of all of that, remember that God, through the prophet Samuel, had anointed David to be the king.
[00:12:44] He had been anointed to take Saul's place, and yet he was suffering in all of these ways. That would be a difficult thing for One's faith certainly a testing in the work of God and the promises of God.
[00:13:02] Like Abraham, for example, being promised to be the father of many nations and yet not having a son of his own.
[00:13:11] Do you believe God and trust him, even though these things don't seem to be happening? Do you wait and let God do things in his time, in his way, even though it's so hard?
[00:13:24] These are hard questions. They're ones that believers in the Lord have had to face over and over again, and we do throughout our lives.
[00:13:33] But the Lord does not leave us alone in these moments.
[00:13:36] He brings people around us. He gives us his word to encourage us, strengthen us, and help us along the way. And we see that happening here with Jonathan and with David through a Christian friendship grounded in the Lord and his work, with a perspective of faith.
[00:14:00] So let's consider. Let's consider that as we walk through this story this morning, the first thing we see is that, as I said earlier, they're not on the same page.
[00:14:12] Something has been happening in David's life that Jonathan has not been aware of. Somehow, I'm not exactly sure how to know why that is.
[00:14:24] Jonathan seems pretty confident about his relationship with Saul. He says, he tells me everything, right? He's my dad. I'm the prince, right? There's nothing that goes beyond nothing that happens without him talking to me about it. And yet, obviously that's the case.
[00:14:40] There's nothing here to indicate that Jonathan's lying, right? He believes this is true about the situation. He's open to new information, right? He says, I don't understand how this could be because I don't have any evidence of that. But. But then what does he say to do David, I'll do whatever you tell me to do, right? He trusts David and is willing to have this thing proven. And they come up with a plan to do that. But Jonathan, Jonathan is first, he's confused.
[00:15:12] Which tells us a little bit about Saul's actions.
[00:15:16] It tells us a little bit more about the various ways in which Saul is falling apart and is giving in more and more to his fear and his covetousness.
[00:15:30] As he is going and attacking David in all of these ways, he's tearing apart and he's doing things that are tearing apart. A relationship between him and the son that he claims to love and a son that clearly loves him.
[00:15:45] The son Jonathan has been everything that you would want a son to be, especially a son who is going to reign over God's people, at least from Saul's perspective, right? He's being loyal, he's being honoring, he's being careful, he's respectful of the Lord and all of these things.
[00:16:07] So there's this problem, John. The David and Jonathan are friends. David's life is being threatened by Saul, and so he goes before Jonathan.
[00:16:19] Some commentators think that this phrase here means that he sort of goes to Jonathan's court, just doesn't say it to Jonathan, but goes before him in some sort of court setting. He goes before him and says, what have I done? Help me to understand what's the problem here logistically, Perhaps Saul is still away prophesying with the other prophets, if you remember, or the other men from the last, last chapter. David makes his way up to Jonathan and he asks him this question.
[00:16:50] And of course, they come up with this plan.
[00:16:55] David says to him, listen, there is but a step between me and death.
[00:17:03] So David says to Jonathan, here's what we'll do.
[00:17:07] Tomorrow is a new moon. A new moon was a regular festival. And there are sacrifices that were made and feasts that would happen on that day. At the beginning of each. At the beginning of each month.
[00:17:18] A lot of times the king would hold a feast and would be expected to hold a feast, we know from Ezekiel. And David would be expected to be there as part of the king's household. So his presence would be obvious. So they're creating this moment, like a problem moment, to see what Saul's reaction would be. I think David's probably pretty confident about what's going to happen. But this is for Jonathan to know and to see the truth about what's going on.
[00:17:47] So David's not going to attend. They come up with this. This ruse. David is going to ask leave to run to Bethlehem. A kind of explanation. And if Saul. We see in verse seven, if Saul says, oh, great, glad he gets to spend time with his family, go do the yearly sacrifice, kind of like we saw with Samuel at the beginning of the book, going to give the yearly sacrifice.
[00:18:11] If he says good, we'll know it as well. But if he's angry, then you'll know.
[00:18:18] Well, Saul proves David's point. And he's not subtle about it, is he? He lets it go for a day. Then the next day he speaks to Jonathan. He says, where is he? And Jonathan says, he's gone to Bethlehem to offer this sacrifice.
[00:18:40] And what is.
[00:18:44] What is Saul's answer?
[00:18:47] Saul's answer is aggressive.
[00:18:51] We read in verse 30, Saul's anger was kindled against Jonathan.
[00:18:57] He says to him, you son of a perverse, rebellious woman.
[00:19:02] He calls him, he says, you have done this to your own shame and to the shame of your mother's nakedness.
[00:19:09] Saul not only disgraces Jonathan, but he does so at the expense of his own wife.
[00:19:17] He does so in such a way, you see, he's just tearing. He's tearing apart his own kingdom with his own actions. And then he seeks to put his son to death. In one moment, he says, do you not know that as long as the son of Jesse lives on this earth, neither you nor your kingdom shall be established? And then he tries to kill him.
[00:19:41] Does Saul really care about Jonathan's kingdom being established if he's trying to murder his son?
[00:19:49] There's so many lessons here which we won't get into today. I'll leave that for you to discuss over lunches and other times, things to think about. Brothers and sisters.
[00:20:03] Think about anger and the effects of it. The way it makes us crazy, the way it consumes us and makes us do irrational things that go against our own desires. Think about the relationships between fathers and their children.
[00:20:20] The scriptures tell fathers not to provoke your children, right? Saul is not heeding that wisdom. Here he is saying and doing all kinds of things to provoke Jonathan, who is amazing, is restrained in some very remarkable ways.
[00:20:43] There's other things to think about. But what happens next? In the morning, Jonathan goes out to the field and they've created a message, a kind of code system in which to know what to do. And he, through this system of shooting arrows, he lets David know that it is not safe. He speaks and kind of to two people at once, right when he says to the youth, hurry, be quick. Do not, do not stay.
[00:21:13] He says it to this boy who's helping him out with the arrows, but he's obviously saying it to David as well. This is a really sad moment. Makes me sad. Anyway, you think of these brothers, not literal brothers, but brothers in the Lord, these close friends, and they're having to separate from one another because Jonathan's father is trying to kill his best friend. That just the whole tragedy of it, the loneliness of it, the hardship of it all and not knowing how it's going to work out.
[00:21:49] Will David die? He doesn't know at this moment. Will Jonathan die? He doesn't know at this moment. But in the midst of all the confusion and all the frustration, both David and Jonathan are working to see things in light of what God is doing.
[00:22:07] And that's one of the things that we can notice here about Christian friendship, is that it leads us on good paths, hard paths maybe, but Good paths. Jonathan, what are some examples of this? We see Jonathan warning David about Saul's intentions, risking his own safety and giving him wisdom on what to do next. We see David doing the same thing for Jonathan. Neither one of them are saying, this is hard, I'm out of here. Right? They're working on this problem. They're trying to figure it out. They're listening together. They're working on one towards one another, and they're doing it with thoughtfulness to the Lord.
[00:22:46] What are some ways, other ways we see that.
[00:22:49] Well, perhaps one of the most significant ways from Jonathan's side is the way that he is giving his devotion to David.
[00:23:00] We already saw a covenant that Jonathan and David made, and they reference it here. Remember, Jonathan professes his loyalty, his love, his allegiance to David. He even takes off kingly garments and things like that as to represent that he is not going to be king, that he recognizes that that is for David according to the will of God. And here we see Jonathan doing that again.
[00:23:25] Think how easy it would have been to say, things are stressful at home. I'm going to just go with what dad says. I'm going to pursue David. I'll turn on him. I can. You. You know, he could become a kind of Judas figure. He's close to David. He could take David's life. He could become a hero to Saul. He could become the next king. Right. There's a pathway here for Jonathan to have a lot of success as Saul would see it, as the world might see it. And he doesn't choose that.
[00:23:56] Instead, he sets aside those kinds of agendas and he leans into his friendship with David. He risks his own life. And as we know, Saul actually tries to take his life and he confronts Saul again on these things.
[00:24:13] He willingly relinquishes his right to the. To the throne. And he does this because he sees and he knows what God is doing in David.
[00:24:25] And that in this way, Jonathan is not just putting his trust in David, but he's putting his trust in the Lord.
[00:24:35] We also see this from David's side, right? David is not striking down Jonathan. David's not striking down Saul. David is trying to figure things out in a way that is patient, in a way that waits on the Lord.
[00:24:53] Both of these men are willing to lay down their lives for their friends, which is what Jesus says love is Jonathan's covenant by David or Jonathan's covenant with David. And David's covenant with Jonathan is marked by friendship and friendship that's rooted in God and what he is doing.
[00:25:16] You see sacrifice, you see struggle, you see willingness to lose a lot of things for the sake of what God is doing.
[00:25:27] And this is what true Christian friends do. They give up of themselves. They sacrifice their rights, they sacrifice their desires, they sacrifice momentary comforts, and even sometimes put themselves in danger for the sake of seeing benefit in another person according to God's will and what He's. He's doing.
[00:25:52] That's true of Christian friendship because that's true of Christ.
[00:25:58] Christian friendship is rooted in the chief of all friends.
[00:26:03] Christian friendship is rooted in the Lord who gave of his own life for his friends.
[00:26:11] On the night Jesus was betrayed and he met with his disciples, he calls them his friends.
[00:26:18] Even as they were about to desert him and deny him, he would die for them.
[00:26:28] They were fleeing, they were faltering, they were struggling. And he was being faithful.
[00:26:38] He remained faithful all the way to death.
[00:26:41] Jesus gave his life for those whom he loved, and those whom he loved Include you.
[00:26:49] When we think about a Christian friendship, it's not just doing a bunch of nice things, but it's treating one another according to how the Lord has treated us.
[00:27:03] It's giving grace, it's giving comfort, it's giving mercy, it's giving support, it's giving sacrifice, it's giving all of these things because that's what Jesus has done for us.
[00:27:16] Jesus came into this world and gave his own life. And in doing so, he becomes our king.
[00:27:24] And in that way, we should do exactly what Jonathan is doing with David, bow ourselves before him. Even though he is often maligned, his people are often persecuted. There are ways in which his kingdom seems weak and falling apart. In this world, we. We say it doesn't matter because we know that God's promises are being fulfilled in him.
[00:27:46] And so we promise our allegiance to him. We give our life to him because he has already given it to us.
[00:27:55] And that's the last thing I'll mention here that we see in this story. In addition to figuring out what Saul's intentions are, getting on the same page and saving David's life in this moment, there's something that happens as well that's looking forward to the future.
[00:28:11] Jonathan recognizes that David is going to be king. And so he asks of him, he says, when you, to paraphrase, when you become king, do not kill me, do not kill my house, but may but protect us and be on and treat us, treat me and my household according to love.
[00:28:36] And you know what? David promises to do that. And as we continue on throughout this story, you'll see Various ways, remarkable ways in which David keeps that promise.
[00:28:48] David, as you know, falters in other ways. David is not perfect. David was not the final Messiah. But he points us in all of these ways to Jesus, the anointed king, who does not fail in any way and protects us so much that when he comes to his kingly power, when he ascends to his throne, and ultimately when he comes again to judge the living and the dead, he will not put us to death.
[00:29:16] He will not vanquish us according to his kingly, regal power because of our sins and the things that we've done against him. Why? Because he's promised to love us. He's promised to forgive us. And those are promises that he will keep.
[00:29:35] For those reasons, you can and should and must put your faith in Christ, rely on him for everything, for this life and the life to come. And one of the things that you will often see the Lord doing in your life is providing you not only with his friendship, but with the friendship of others and a friendship that you can give to others as well. In his name. Let's pray.
[00:30:03] Our Heavenly Father, we ask that you would help us to anchor all of our relationships, both the difficult ones and the easy ones, the ones of friendship and the ones of animosity. Help us to root them all in you, to see everything that we do and all the relationships that we have in light of your promises, in light of your work. And, Lord, we ask that, chief of all, that you would be our friend and that we would be yours. Help us in the difficulties of life, in the persecution and the trials and the temptation, in the moments of loneliness, in the moments of betrayal, to remember that our hope is in you, and that although our human friends may and do falter, you never do that. You remain very close to us. You have even united us to your own life. You have knit us together and made us as one body, with you as our head and we as your hands and your feet.
[00:31:06] Lord, we ask that even though we often fail you, that you would never fail us as you have promised to do.
[00:31:16] We praise you, our God, and our King. We worship you as our Savior and as our Lord. We ask that you would protect us and give us all that we need in this life and in the life to come.
[00:31:31] We also ask, Lord, that you would provide us friends, friends that would lead us toward you, friends that would sacrifice us in your name, friends that would teach us to see things rightly and according to your word.
[00:31:46] Lord, we also ask that you would help us to be that kind of friend to others, to show others Jesus through our relationship with them.
[00:31:56] Help us to give the kind of friendship that you give and cultivate all of our relationships in a way that honors you.
[00:32:05] And as we do that within our particular church community and our denomination, and even with other denominations in our city and throughout the world, Lord, we ask that you would be honored. As people see the work of love at work in your saints, may you be honored and glorified in all of these things. We pray this in Jesus name, Amen.
