David is desperate, “a step away
from death”, but God has given him perhaps the greatest friend of all time.
Despite the dangers of meeting, they find each other and through the dangers
and complexities of the situation, their friendship is strengthened. They even
make a covenant before the Lord.
Jonathan demonstrates uncommon faith.
He puts God’s plan before his own, security, before his own family, before his
own honor even before his own life. All things his father was not willing to
do. This is the last time we will see Jonathan for a while but he leaves the
narrative as an amazingly loyal and loving friend.
They devise a plan where Jonathan
will try one last time to see if there is any chance that Saul has changed his
mind killing David. Unfortunately, the outcome only proves Saul’s resolve and demonstrates
that he knows David is going to be the next chosen king. Saul can’t understand
why Jonathan would let someone take the kingdom from him, Jonathan can’t
understand why Saul would try and stand in the way of God’s plan.
Lessons:
God’s plan
is always the best plan and we are foolish to think that we can change it or
subvert it. We need to be humble enough to repent of our own sin, and live by
God’s plan even when we don’t understand why. Jonathan followed God even when
it was confusing or difficult, we can do the same.
Sin breaks
relationships, and sometimes we suffer the effects even when we are not at
fault. We should be quick to repent and reconcile with others, realizing that
our sin extends far beyond our personal relationship with God but also to those
around us.
