Saul has tried to kill David 3 times with a spear, with the Philistines, and with hit men at his house. Saul sent 3 hit squads to kill him at Naioth, and then he finally went himself. But the Spirit of God protected David in Naioth in a powerful way.
1 Samuel 20:1-4 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?” 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.”
David flees Naioth and goes to Jonathan, the one person he thought he could trust. David wants to know why he didn’t warn him about the hit squads that were sent to kill him.
Jonathan believes his father doesn’t do anything without telling him, and that is clearly not the case, as David explains to him. Jonathan assures David he has not bought into Saul’s lies about him and that he is still his loyal friend.
There is only a step between me and death: David felt he was walking a tight rope over the great canyon with wind blowing 50mph. (158K)
1 Samuel 20:5-11 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.
David proposes a plan to test Saul’s attitude toward him. David here still seems somewhat shaken and unconvinced by the fact that Jonathan did not tell him about the attempted assassinations at Naioth. David says look Jonathan, if I am guilty, if I have done something deserving of death, just kill me yourself. Why hand me over to your father?
Jonathan’s response is the same as before. He didn’t know that Saul had sent out those hit squads to kill David at Naioth.
1 Samuel 20:12-13 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.
Jonathan promises to find out his father’s true intentions toward David and report them to him, whether good or bad.
May the Lord be with you as he has been with my father. Remember, God put Saul in the position to succeed and provided him with every tool he needed to be successful as king, including the Holy Spirit. And even though Saul has chosen his own path in rebellion against God. The door of repentance remains open.
(Jonathan) 1 Samuel 20:14-17 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. (Jonathan is sure of David as king)
Jonathan is aware of the political dynamic between the family of David and the family of Jonathan. In these times when one royal house replaced another, it was common for the new royal house to kill all the potential rulers from the old royal house.
Jonathan knows that one day David and his descendants would rule over Israel, and he wanted a promise from David that he or his descendants would not kill or mistreat the descendants of Jonathan.
So Jonathan made a covenant with the house of David: David fulfills this promise to Jonathan in 2 Samuel.
1 Samuel 20:18-23 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.”
So, once Jonathan learns of his father’s intention towards David, he would communicate to David through a signal. He would shoot 3 arrows, and depending on what he said to the young boy, either Saul’s heart had changed towards David, and he is safe, or Saul is still determined to kill David, and the LORD has sent you away.
This is a crucial moment in David’s life. Either he would be welcomed back to the palace and his home, or he would be a fugitive until Saul died or gave up the hunt for him. A lot was riding on the message brought through a few arrows.
1 Samuel 20:24-34 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? (Ahinoam) 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.
Jonathan knows from Saul’s response that his heart is set on evil against David.
Jonathan’s support of David enraged Saul to the point Saul hurled his spear at him to kill him. This shows how deep Saul’s envy, jealousy, and hatred of David are — he would kill his own son for siding with David.
1 Samuel 20:35-40 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.”
It took courage for Jonathan to warn David— because he knew that if his father found out, he would focus his murderous rage on him.
TRANSITION: the process or a period of changing from one state or condition to another.
A small thing — the signal of a single arrow — told David his whole life had changed. He would no longer be welcome at the palace. He would no longer be welcome among the army of Israel. He could no longer go home. David was now a fugitive on the run from an angry, jealous king determined to destroy him.
Our lives can/will change in a moment. So much can change in the twinkling of an eye. And there will be emotions involved. I think it will help us if we understand that a lifetime is simply made up of nothing but small and sometimes huge moments of change and transition.
1 Samuel 20:41-42 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.
Jonathan and David once envisioned they would be working together, fighting Israel’s enemies side by side, winning victory after victory for the Lord. But now in a moment all that was gone because David couldn’t stay and Jonathan couldn’t go, so they wept together.
Jonathan has good reason to weep; he was losing his best friend, but David wept the most because David knows he is now cut off from everything that meant anything to him and is destined to live the life of a fugitive.
Behind David is his friendship with Jonathan, his relationship with his brothers and his father. Behind David is the royal favor, the songs the people sang about him, and the popularity he once enjoyed. Behind David is his wife Michal and his home life. And in front of David is an Uncertain Path.
David and Jonathan will only meet once more, shortly before Jonathan’s death.
David will not return to “a normal life” until Saul is dead, and David is king, for about 20 years. David is completely unaware of how long this will last. This seems to be a very bleak and uncertain path for David to walk.
Is this God’s will for David? Because why would anyone who (Anointed king-Holy Spirit) be given such an uncertain path to walk and be in the will of God? YES, it is God’s uncertain path for him. (Read story-God still has some changes to make)
I know this because God has often appointed some of His most faithful people, most effective people to spend some time on this uncertain path — think of Job, Moses, Noah, Joseph, Debra, Ruth, Rehab, the Apostles and even Paul.
This uncertain path will play an important role in David’s life because if David is to be placed by God into such a great position of power and authority as the king of God’s people, David must learn to submit to God’s authority. David must learn to trust and depend on God alone.
God is symbolically turning David upside down and emptying him. Everything he thought he knew or had is gone.
Let God empty you out that He may keep you from becoming spiritually stale. God is always calling/challenging you and me to go beyond the things we know, beyond our comfort zone, into the unknown, onto that uncertain path where all that we have is Him. (Deut. 31:6-Joshua 1:5 Heb. 13:5..last thing Jesus said..)
Don’t be afraid of transition or change. If anything, be afraid of remaining the same. Because God’s goal in these times of transition and change is to make you more like His Son Jesus….Romans 8:28 All things work together….
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