1 Samuel 20

1 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 take my life?”

2 “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!”

3 But David took an oath and said, “Your father knows very well that I have found favor in your eyes, and he has said to 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.”

4 Jonathan said to David, “Whatever you want me to do, I’ll do for you.”

5 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. 6 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.’ 7 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. 8 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?”

9 “Never!” Jonathan said. “If I had the least inkling that my father was determined to harm you, wouldn’t I tell you?”

10 David asked, “Who will tell me if your father answers you harshly?”

11 “Come,” Jonathan said, “let’s go out into the field.” So they went there together.

12 Then Jonathan said to David, “I swear by the LORD, the God of Israel, that I will surely sound out my father by this time the day after tomorrow! If he is favorably disposed toward you, will I not send you word and let you know? 13 But if my father intends to harm you, may the LORD deal with Jonathan, be it ever so severely, if I do not let you know and send you away in peace. May the LORD be with you as he has been with my father. 14 But show me unfailing kindness like the LORD’s kindness as long as I live, so that I may not be killed, 15 and do not ever cut off your kindness from my family—not even when the LORD has cut off every one of David’s enemies from the face of the earth.”

16 So Jonathan made a covenant with the house of David, saying, “May the LORD call David’s enemies to account.”17 And Jonathan had David reaffirm his oath out of love for him, because he loved him as he loved himself.

18 Then Jonathan said to David, “Tomorrow is the New Moon feast. You will be missed, because your seat will be empty. 19 The day after tomorrow, toward evening, go to the place where you hid when this trouble began, and wait by the stone Ezel. 20 I will shoot three arrows to the side of it, as though I were shooting at a target. 21 Then I will send a boy and say, ‘Go, find the arrows.’ If I say to him, ‘Look, the arrows are on this side of you; bring them here,’ then come, because, as surely as the LORD lives, you are safe; there is no danger. 22 But if I say to the boy, ‘Look, the arrows are beyond you,’ then you must go, because the LORD has sent you away. 23 And about the matter you and I discussed—remember, the LORD is witness between you and me forever.”

24 So David hid in the field, and when the New Moon feast came, the king sat down to eat. 25 He sat in his customary place by the wall, opposite Jonathan, and Abner sat next to Saul, but David’s place was empty. 26 Saul said nothing that day, for he thought, “Something must have happened to David to make him ceremonially unclean—surely he is unclean.” 27 But the next day, the second day of the month, David’s place was empty again. Then Saul said to his son Jonathan, “Why hasn’t the son of Jesse come to the meal, either yesterday or today?”

28 Jonathan answered, “David earnestly asked me for permission to go to Bethlehem. 29 He said, ‘Let me go, because our family is observing a sacrifice in the town and my brother has ordered me to be there. If I have found favor in your eyes, let me get away to see my brothers.’ That is why he has not come to the king’s table.”

30 Saul’s anger flared up at Jonathan and he said to him, “You son of a perverse and rebellious woman! Don’t I know that you have sided with the son of Jesse to your own shame and to the shame of the mother who bore you?31 As long as the son of Jesse lives on this earth, neither you nor your kingdom will be established. Now send someone to bring him to me, for he must die!”

32 “Why should he be put to death? What has he done?” Jonathan asked his father. 33 But Saul hurled his spear at him to kill him. Then Jonathan knew that his father intended to kill David.

34 Jonathan got up from the table in fierce anger; on that second day of the feast he did not eat, because he was grieved at his father’s shameful treatment of David.

35 In the morning Jonathan went out to the field for his meeting with David. He had a small boy with him, 36 and he said to the boy, “Run and find the arrows I shoot.” As the boy ran, he shot an arrow beyond him. 37 When the boy came to the place where Jonathan’s arrow had fallen, Jonathan called out after him, “Isn’t the arrow beyond you?” 38 Then he shouted, “Hurry! Go quickly! Don’t stop!” The boy picked up the arrow and returned to his master.39 (The boy knew nothing about all this; only Jonathan and David knew.) 40 Then Jonathan gave his weapons to the boy and said, “Go, carry them back to town.”

41 After the boy had gone, David got up from the south side of the stone and bowed down before Jonathan three times, with his face to the ground. Then they kissed each other and wept together—but David wept the most.

42 Jonathan said to David, “Go in peace, for we have sworn friendship with each other in the name of the LORD, saying, ‘The LORD is witness between you and me, and between your descendants and my descendants forever.’” Then David left, and Jonathan went back to the town.

Points of Interest

• ‘Why would he hide this from me?’--I guess this answers my question from yesterday. Saul has started to hide his plans from Jonathan, knowing that they have different attitudes toward David.
• ‘Whatever you want me to do’--this is a pretty big step, I think. Jonathan goes from advocating for David with his father to actively siding with David over against his father.
• ‘let me go and hide in the field until the evening’--I think the idea here is for David to lay low to give Saul a chance to cool down. It seems like a risky proposition, though. David is planning to skip out on a holiday feast; for such a highly ranked person as David to be so conspicuously absent could in and of itself be taken as evidence of disloyalty.
• ‘If I am guilty, then kill me yourself’--David is very unsettled. He’s even a little bit suspicious that Jonathan is setting him up.
• ‘not even when the LORD has cut off every one of David’s enemies’--it seems to me that Jonathan has his father in mind here. Jonathan foresees that David will end up winning this showdown with Saul. Right now, David is weak and needs Jonathan’s help. Someday, it’ll be the other way around; Jonathan’s family will be at David’s mercy. Jonathan will protect David now, if David shows mercy to his family later. It’s a risky proposition for both of them. Jonathan is siding with a poorly-resourced usurper against his own father, the king; if it goes badly for David, it’ll go badly for Jonathan too. And David, by promising to keep Jonathan’s family alive, is practically welcoming future political trouble. It would be standard protocol for the founder of a new dynasty to wipe out the former royal family, to eliminate once and for all any rival claimants to the throne.
• ‘son of a perverse and rebellious woman’--in other words, ‘You didn’t learn this kind of behavior from me!’
• ‘Don’t I know that you have sided with the son of Jesse’--this reminds me of the old line, ‘Just because you’re paranoid, it doesn’t mean they’re not out to get you.’ Saul is clearly a raving lunatic, and he’s absolutely right.
• ‘neither you nor your kingdom will be established’--here is the difference between Saul and Jonathan. Saul is willing to do anything to stay king. Jonathan would rather lose the kingdom than lose his friendship and partnership with David. For Jonathan, the kingdom is more important than his kingship; and he knows David is good for the kingdom.
• ‘After the boy had gone, David got up from the south side of the stone’--David and Jonathan set up this elaborate system of signals so that David wouldn’t need to show himself if there’s trouble. And Jonathan uses the signals. But David can’t help himself. Instead of staying hidden and sneaking off, he breaks cover, because he has to give Jonathan a proper good-bye.

Taking it home

• For you: Thank God for each person in your life who in one way or another acts like a Jonathan to you. Tell that person today that you are grateful for them and say what they mean to you.
• For your six: How can you commit to support and look out for your six? Ask God for open doors and ways that you can be a Jonathan to your six.
• For our church: Ask God to make our church a place of incredibly great friendships, where everyone would feel like they have caring community of people who love them.
• For families: Tell one another about your friends and why they are good friends to you. Have each person in your family make a list of their close friends, and take time together to pray for each friend. Consider continuing to pray for your family’s friends throughout Lent. Add any answers to prayer to your poster about what God has done during Lent. Older children might enjoy keeping a journal instead of using a poster.