Sometimes
I get carried away when I don’t focus on tiny sections of scripture, so I will
limit myself to one chapter, which tells about potentially two of the best
friends ever. I don’t want you to take my word for it, though, so open your
Bible to 1 Samuel 20. Who is it about? That’s right; it is about David and
Jonathan. If you want the full back-story on these two, read 1 Samuel chapters
one through nineteen. The basic story behind David is that at this point in
time, he is way more popular than Saul, the king at the time (See 1 Samuel
18:7). Another thing that irritates Saul is that David has been anointed as
king by the prophet Samuel (see 1 Samuel 16). Basically, Saul hates David, and
on a number of occasions has tried to kill David.
David is more or less the palace
musician, playing the harp for Saul and other members of the court, and while
on this job runs into Saul’s son, Jonathan. Jonathan must have been an easy guy
to get along with, because they become best friends rather quickly. Now, to get
to the passage, 1 Samuel chapter twenty picks up with David fleeing the city of
Naioth, and he somehow goes and meets with Jonathan. David is saying, “What
have I done that has made your Dad this mad? He will surely kill me!” Jonathan’s
immediate reply goes along the lines of this, “No! You will not die! Dad
doesn’t do anything without letting me know!” David then explains that Saul has
picked up on the fact that they’re BFFs, and he won’t tell Jonathan anything
based on that fact. So they talk a little bit more and then devise this plan to
find out Saul’s intentions.
The following day was to be the
great celebration, the celebration of the New Moon, which was a mandatory
three-day feast in Israel (commanded in Numbers 10:10). So the first part of
the friends’ clever scheme was to have David be absent from the palace New Moon
celebration/feast. Of course, Saul would recognize that they were missing
someone, and when he would ask about it, Jonathan would say that he had given
David permission to go to another city (Bethlehem) for the feast, for David had
relatives in Bethlehem. Jonathan would then judge his father Saul’s intentions
by his reaction; if Saul treated it like no big deal, then David was safe, but
if Saul became angry, it could be assumed that David’s life was in trouble. So
this was serious, Jonathan going against Saul, who was not only his father, but
was also the king of Israel.
So the second part of their plan was
that Jonathan would come out after the three-day feast and shoot three arrows
out into this field where David would be hiding. If he sent a servant, who
would retrieve the arrows, to one side of this large boulder which was in the
field, it was safe, but if he sent the servant to the other side, it meant for
David to get out of the city as fast as he could. Jonathan and David part at
this point and David hides in the field during the feast. The first night of
the feast, all goes well, and Saul is not angry with David’s absence. Then the
second night, Saul is really angry, saying, “Why hasn’t David showed up today
or yesterday!” Jonathan explains once again that David is in Bethlehem and that
makes Saul go nuts. Saul grabs a nearby spear and chucks it at Jonathan,
intending to kill him, causing Jonathan to storm off in anger (and probably
some part of it was from fear).
Morning came; making it the third
day of the feast, and Jonathan took the arrows and shot them to the side that
meant danger. After his servant retrieved them and was on his way back to town,
David emerges from behind the rock. Jonathan runs out into the field and
embraces David in what was probably the saddest parting of any two friends, as
they knew that they would likely never see each other again (which they never
did). Before finishing this article, I want to touch on something that Saul
says in 1 Samuel 20:31, which says, “For as long as the son of Jesse [David]
lives on the earth, you shall not be established, nor your kingdom…” Now this
is very important in understanding the friendship between David and Jonathan.
Jonathan was the heir of Saul, and under normal circumstances, Jonathan
would’ve been king after Saul died. This was not a normal circumstance,
however, as David had already been anointed king, and therefore, Jonathan would
not get his “rightful” place as king. This fact had no effect on their
relationship, and Jonathan saw that David was God’s appointed king, and he was
happy for David. So this has been part two of the friendship series, and I pray
that this has also given you some insight into what a good friend should be
like.
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