May 20, 2002
LifeWay Family Bible Series for June 2
God can make love possible in all circumstances
___1 Samuel 18:1-4; 19:1-7; 20:1-42
___By Barbara Kent
___University Baptist Church, Fort Worth
___As children, we were taught the story of Jonathan and David. From them we learned how to love a friend.
___We will now look at the story as adults. It is a story of tragedy, pain, grief and love. It can help us learn how to love as God wants us to love.
___Prelude
___The setting for this story begins with a war between the mighty Philistines and the not-so-mighty Israelites, an unequal conflict, to say the least (17:1-2). As the battle continued, Jesse sent his youngest son, David, to take food to his brothers and to bring him a report.
___David arrived at the site of the battle and heard Goliath issue his defiant challenge to the Israelites and to see their fear (17:24). The youthful David responded to the challenge and received Saul's blessing to fight the Philistine giant (17:34-37). Empowered by God's spirit, David was successful and presented Goliath's head to Saul (17:57).
___Somewhere in the background stood Jonathan, son of Saul, who would become the loving and loyal friend of David.
___An astounding pledge of love
___Shepherd David did not return to his sheep. Saul kept David with him (18:2). Jonathan loved this young man who never failed to show loyalty to his father, loved him as he loved himself (18:1, 3). He took off his robe, his tunic, his sword, his bow and his belt and gave them to David as an expression of the covenant of loyalty and love between them.
___Jonathan's gift was a symbol of his giving himself to David and perhaps his recognition that David rather than Jonathan would succeed Saul as king.
___Courageous love
___David continued to fulfill the assignments Saul gave him. Saul acknowledged David's successes by giving him a high rank in the army (18:5). However, Saul's pleasure soon turned to anger and jealousy against David. He plotted to have David killed (19:1).
___Saul instructed Jonathan and his attendants to kill David, but Jonathan's love for David caused him to defy his father's command. Instead, he warned David of Saul's intent to have him killed, cautioning David to be on his guard and even to go into hiding (v. 2).
___Jonathan then went to Saul and reminded him of the things David had done for Saul and pointed out how pleased Saul had been by the deeds (vv. 4-5). Why, Jonathan asked his father, would you want to kill David for no reason?
___Saul listened to Jonathan and gave his promise David would not be put to death (v. 6). Jonathan reported his conversation with his father to David, took him to Saul, and the relationship between Saul and David was restored for a time. The courage Jonathan exhibited was evidence of his love for David.___
___Continued love
___As David's popularity and successes grew, Saul's anger and jealousy increased. His efforts to destroy David became more irrational and erratic. Jonathan struggled to walk the treacherous path between love for his father and love for David. He found it difficult, if not possible, to believe Saul would want to kill David (20:2).
___David told Jonathan that because Saul knew of the deep bond between them he had kept from Jonathan his treachery (v. 3). It is not difficult to hear the heartbreak and pain in Jonathan's response to David: "Whatever you want me to do, I'll do for you" (v. 4).
___Jonathan's struggle to protect David and his reluctance to believe Saul intended David harm continued even as Saul's treachery increased.
___Jonathan had recognized early in the relationship that David would be successor to Saul. He now realized that as king David would have the power to do to Jonathan whatever he wished. The anguish Jonathan endured during these days must have been almost unbearable (vv. 12-13).
___As difficult as it was for him to admit that Saul intended to kill David, he could not deny it. In that moment of recognition, he asked that David treat him with "unfailing kindness like that of the Lord" for as long as he lived (v. 14). He laid bare his heart as he asked that David not ever cut off his kindness from his family, even when the Lord had cut off every one of David's enemies from the face of the earth (v. 15). So deep and strong was his anguish that he made David reaffirm his oath of love (v. 17).
___The chapter ends with the touching scene between David and Jonathan as Jonathan pledged his continued and constant loyalty and love, noting that: "The Lord is witness between you and me, and between your descendants and my descendants for ever" (v. 42).
___Can we learn to love like this?
___This story we learned in childhood shows us love is never easy or simple. It requires courage, constancy and perhaps pain and loss. We can learn to love as Jonathan did only as God gives us the grace, and as we allow him to mold us into the people he wants us to be. Our prayer should be, "Lord, teach me to love and make me able to love even in difficult situations."
___Question for discussion
___
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