We closed yesterday's study with Jonathan making it clear that his allegiance is to his best friend David who is to be the future king of Israel. Jonathan knows the Lord intends to take the throne from Saul and he knows this means the monarchy will not travel down Saul's family line. Jonathan will never be king but, because he is a man who loves and obeys the Lord, he accepts the Lord's will in this matter. He puts his support behind David, the man the Lord has chosen, and does not seek honor and glory for himself as king.
David points out that a serious problem is looming over him. "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 the evening of the day after tomorrow.'" (1 Samuel 20:5) The New Moon feast is coming up the next day. (We studied the New Moon feast in Numbers 11 and in Numbers 28 if you'd like to turn back to those passages to refresh your memory of the details regarding this feast.) King Saul requires all the royal family and all his high officials to celebrate the New Moon feasts with him. Apparently it is considered a personal insult to the king if someone fails to attend. A person would have to have a very good excuse for missing the feast, such as a serious illness or being away with the army. Does it really make sense that Saul expects David to be present after he's made several attempts on his life? Well, not to anyone who is thinking logically, I don't believe. But Saul hasn't been reasonable for quite some time now. If David plans to miss the feast, he will have to hide rather than go about the town openly.
He continues, "'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.'" (1 Samuel 20:6) David asks Jonathan to pretend he isn't in town at all but has gone to Bethlehem to be with his family. This is an untruth but we have studied previous incidents in which lies have been used to protect someone's life. A lie is a sin, but if it's necessary to lie to a wicked person in order to preserve the life of an innocent person, we find no words of condemnation being spoken against telling a lie to keep someone safe.
David tells Jonathan that Saul's reaction to being informed David is out of town will reveal whether or not he intended to harm David at the New Moon feast. "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 20:7-8) David says something like, "You have pledged your loyalty to me but that pits you against your father and it works against what everyone would consider your own best interests, for supporting me blocks your path to the throne. If I am dead I can never be king, so if you have anything against me or feel I have committed a crime worthy of death, go ahead and execute me here and now. I'd rather settle the matter between the two of us than be dragged off to Saul and be tormented and humiliated before he takes my head off."
David is saying something to Jonathan that he'll say to the Lord during another perilous time in his life. When asking the Lord to protect him from a man named Cush, who was his enemy due to being of the clan of Saul, David told the Lord he was willing to die if he had somehow brought this trouble on himself. "Lord my God, if I have done this and there is guilt on my hands---if I have repaid my ally with evil or without cause have robbed my foe---then let my enemy pursue and overtake me; let him trample my life to the ground and make me sleep in the dust." (Psalm 7:3-5) He says, "Lord, if I have done anything deserving of death, I accept my fate." That's what he's saying to Jonathan in our passage today. If he has been treasonous toward the king in any way (which he does not believe he has) then Jonathan as the king's son has the right to go ahead and put him to death where he stands.
Jonathan is horrified at the very idea. "'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) He says, "I'm not putting on an act in order to deliver you to the king. I truly did not know he pursued you to Ramah intending to kill you. I'm not pretending to be your friend so I can hand you over to him. If I'd had any idea he had no intention of keeping his vow about leaving you alone, I would have warned you ahead of time. I would have put my friendship with you over my relationship with my father. I would have put right before wrong. I would have done everything possible to protect your innocent life from the paranoid plot of a mentally and spiritually ill man."
In tomorrow's passage the two young men will devise a way in which Jonathan can get word to David without Saul or anyone else finding out he's still in the area. Jonathan will ask for, and will be granted, a promise that David will be careful to keep in the future. Jonathan will ask him to show kindness toward himself and toward his offspring, for it would have been customary at the time for a new king (to whom the old king had been an enemy) to put to death the entire royal family to ensure that no heirs of the former king are left alive to make claims against the throne. David will not only continue to show kindness to Jonathan but will later bring Jonathan's son to live in his own household, to eat at his own table, and to be treated like one of his own sons.
As we close our study today I think we should stop and recognize Jonathan and David as being men of their word. That is something of great value in the sight of the Lord! We have clearly seen that Saul is not a man of his word, not even when he makes a promise in the name of the Lord, but these two young men take promises seriously. The Bible advises us to think carefully and soberly about any vow we make; it should not be a promise that contradicts the word of God and it should not be a promise we will be unable or unwilling to fulfill. After having made a promise we are obligated to fulfill it, as David says in Psalm 15:4b when he praises the character of the one who "keeps an oath even when it hurts, and does not change their mind". Keeping a promise isn't always easy. It couldn't have been easy for Jonathan to oppose his own father, not just because he loves his father but because his father holds the highest political office in the land. Opposing him could be construed as treason---a capital offense! But Jonathan makes a promise to help David because it's the right thing to do and he will keep the promise because it's the right thing to do. Keeping a promise isn't always easy but if we aren't men and women of our word we aren't honoring the name of the Lord we serve. No one will trust our testimony about Him if we don't take our promises and obligations seriously.
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