“Then David fled from Naioth at Ramah and went to Jonathan and asked, ‘What have I done? What is my crime? How have I wronged your father, that he is trying to kill me?”
1 Samuel 20:1 NIV
David has been anointed as Israel’s next king. However, Saul is still the king. Jonathan is Saul’s son; he’s next in line, by lineage, to be Israel’s next king. David and Jonathan are friends. Saul is trying to kill David. Can you see the conflict of interest with these two being friends?
” ‘Never!’ Jonathan replied. ‘You are not going to die! Look, my father doesn’t do anything, great or small, without letting me know. Why would he hide this from me? It isn’t so!
But David took an oath and said, ‘Your father knows vey well that I have found favor in your eyes, and he has said himself, ‘Jonathan must not know this or he will be grieved.’ Yet as surely as the LORD lives and as you live, there is only a step between me and death.’
Jonathan said to David, ‘Whatever you want me to do, I’ll do for you.’ ”
1 Samuel 20:2-4 NIV
How many of us could do this? Jonathan agrees to help David and this means that he is taking a position that is against his dad. Helping David is not in his best interest, because he is helping David to be king and that means he won’t be king. Also Jonathan’s life is in danger because the king to overthrow the throne, kills off the bloodline of his rival. So, not only is it not in his best interest; it’s also a threat to him. How many of us could help a friend be greater than we are and it’s literally at our expense?
“So David said, ‘Look tomorrow is the New Moon feast, and I am supposed to dine with the king; but let me go and hide in the field until evening of the day after tomorrow. If your father misses me at all, tell him, ‘David earnestly asked my permission to hurry to Bethlehem, his hometown, because an annual sacrifice is being made there for his whole clan.’ If he says, ‘Very well, then your servant is safe. But if he loses his temper, you can be sure that he is determined to harm me. As for you, show kindness to your servant, for you have brought him into a covenant with you before the LORD. If I am guilty, then kill me yourself! Why hand me over to your father?’ ”
1 Samuel 20:5-8 NIV
Jonathan is going to help David. He does it because of friendship. He does it because God wants him to help David.
” ‘Never!’ Jonathan said. ‘If i had the least inkling that my father was determined to harm you, wouldn’t I tell you.’ ”
1 Samuel 20:9 NIV
Jonathan does help David. In this choice of conflicting loyalty, Jonathan followed what God wanted him to do.
“A friend loves at all times,
and a brother is born for a time of adversity.”
Proverbs 17:17 NIV
