Principles of Christian Living. Lesson 8 Lesson Text—I Samuel 23:8-10 I Samuel 23:8-10 8 And Saul called all the people together to war, to go down to.

Principles of Christian Living

Lesson 8

Lesson Text—I Samuel 23:8-10

I Samuel 23:8-108 And Saul called all the people together to war, to go down to Keilah, to besiege David and his men.9 And David knew that Saul secretly practised mischief against him; and he said to Abiathar the priest, Bring hither the ephod.


10 Then said David, O LORD God of Israel, thy servant hath certainly heard that Saul seeketh to come to Keilah, to destroy the city for my sake.


I Samuel 23:11-1211 Will the men of Keilah deliver me up into his hand? will Saul come down, as thy servant hath heard? O LORD God of Israel, I beseech thee, tell thy servant. And the LORD said, He will come down.


12 Then said David, Will the men of Keilah deliver me and my men into the hand of Saul? And the LORD said, They will deliver thee up.


I Samuel 23:13-1513 Then David and his men, which were about six hundred, arose and departed out of Keilah, and went whithersoever they could go. And it was told Saul that David was escaped from Keilah; and he forbare to go forth.


14 And David abode in the wilderness in strong holds, and remained in a mountain in the wilderness of Ziph. And Saul sought him every day, but God delivered him not into his hand.15 And David saw that Saul was come out to seek his life: and David was in the wilderness of Ziph in a wood.


I Samuel 23:16-1816 And Jonathan Saul's son arose, and went to David into the wood, and strengthened his hand in God.


17 And he said unto him, Fear not: for the hand of Saul my father shall not find thee; and thou shalt be king over Israel, and I shall be next unto thee; and that also Saul my father knoweth.18 And they two made a covenant before the LORD: and David abode in the wood, and Jonathan went to his house.

Focus Verse—I Samuel 20:23

I Samuel 20:23And as touching the matter which thou and I have spoken of, behold, the LORD be between thee and me

for ever.

Focus Thought

Jonathan’s friendship with David

is a beautiful study in loyalty.

Jonathan remained loyal to his

friend even though it would have

been better for himself if he had

not.

I. Jonathan with His Father against the Philistines

CULTURE CONNECTIONLoyal unto Death

Loyalty is one of the most admirable qualities a person can exhibit. Perhaps one thing that adds to its value is its rarity today. Sadly, people are becoming less and less loyal in the twenty-first century—less loyal to employers, to employees, to friends, to family members, to traditions. Loyalty is becoming a rare commodity, but we need it more than ever.


I discovered some amazing facts about geese at the US Humane Society’s website: “Geese are fiercely loyal animals. Unlike many other animals, geese choose their mates and stay with them ‘until death do they part.’ A goose will only seek out a new partner when his or her original mate has died, and some will refuse to mate again. This is particularly interesting since geese can live to be 25 years old.


“These birds are also very protective of their loved ones. If a goose’s mate or gosling becomes sick or injured, she will often refuse to leave her ailing family member. This protective instinct takes priority over her own survival; she will remain by her loved one's side even if winter is approaching and the other geese in her group are heading south.”

“Emotionally, a goose will respond to the loss of her mate or unhatched eggs by secluding herself from others and taking the time to mourn”

I. Jonathan with His Father against the PhilistinesWe need loyalty today. We need

believers who are loyal unto death—loyal to their friends, family, church, and God. We need those who are loyal to right principles and loyal to truth. We need those who are loyal unto death.


Contemplating the Topic

The word loyalty does not appear in the King James Version of Scripture, but the Bible clearly teaches the principle of loyalty throughout. The examples given of this principle often are found in the word faithful, which comes close in meaning to the term loyalty.

No bond of loyalty is better displayed in the Scriptures than that of David and Jonathan. In fact, the name Jonathan means “Jehovah has given.”


God strategically placed Jonathan in David’s life for the very time David needed a genuine friend. Jonathan proved to be the dearest friend David would know in his entire life.

In a study of the relationship between David and Jonathan, scholars disagree as to the age difference between the two. They may have been close to the same age, or Jonathan may have been somewhat older. We simply do not know for certain their ages.


What we do know from Scripture is that they maintained a peer relationship as deeply bonded friends. Their friendship forged an inseparable bond that endured beyond the grave. Many people have had the devastating experience of being betrayed by someone whom they thought was a friend. A friend who betrays the confidence of another is not really a friend at all. This was well illustrated by a “friend” of the great musician Jan Paderewski.


“When Jan Paderewski was to leave his native Poland to play his first recital in London, he asked an influential compatriot to give him a letter of introduction to a leading figure in Britain’s musical world who might be of assistance should anything go amiss. The friend gave him the letter in a sealed envelope, and he took it, unopened, with him to London. He hoped everything would proceed smoothly and he would not have to use it.


“All went well at the recital and Paderewski did not need the letter of recommendation. His debut was a success and no snags developed. Some years later, while going through his papers, he came upon the letter and opened it. It read: ‘This will introduce Jan Paderewski, who plays the piano, for which he demonstrates no conspicuous talent.’ Fortunately his ‘friend’s’ attempted betrayal failed” (Bits and Pieces, January 9, 1992).


God seems to like to work by twos. The Scriptures demonstrate this principle repeatedly: Moses and Aaron, Saul and Jonathan, Peter and John, Paul and Barnabas, Paul and Timothy, Paul and Silas. Jesus sent out the seventy two by two. It shows how well God recognizes and knows our human feelings. Few people like to work alone. Even though He was God manifested in flesh, still Jesus yearned for close companionship.


The poet John Donne expressed this reality so well:

No man is an island entire of itself;Every man is a piece of the continent, apart of the main; If a clod be washed away by the sea, Europe is the less, as well as if a

promontory were,As well as any manner of thy friends Or of thine own were; any man’s deathdiminishes me, Because I am involved in mankind. And therefore never send to know For whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee.


Searching the Scriptures Jonathan with His Father

against the Philistines

Jonathan was loyal to his father, King Saul. The Philistines had placed a garrison at Geba in order to suppress the Israelites. After Saul was appointed king, he amassed an army to throw off the Philistine yoke and entered into battle against them at Michmash. (See I Samuel 13.)


Saul’s army was small, numbering around six hundred men. Apparently, the Philistine army greatly outnumbered them; however, the Israelites prepared for battle.

A. Jonathan Challenged the Philistines

A. Jonathan Challenged the Philistines

While Saul maintained a group of men in Gibeah, Jonathan pursued the Philistines on another battlefront, unknown to his father. He and his armor bearer consulted the priest’s ephod. The answer from God was affirmative: “Go!”


The Philistine garrison was ensconced between two sharp crags near Michmash. When surveying the overwhelming odds, Jonathan made a statement that would immortalize him among all people facing the impossible.

“There is no restraint to the Lord to save by many or by few” (I Samuel 14:6).

B. Jonathan Won a Great Victory

B. Jonathan Won a Great Victory

Miraculous power surged through the two men as they dispatched the whole garrison. When God sent a great seismic earth tremor to augment their efforts, the whole army fled before the two heroes of faith and their small battalion of men.


Moses, as his ministry came to a close, composed a song, the words of which find meaning and application through Jonathan and his armor bearer: “How should one chase a thousand, and two put ten thousand to flight . . .?” (Deuteronomy 32:30). Jonathan and his armor bearer first took the garrison, and then discomfited and put to flight the whole host of the Philistine army of thousands.


Jonathan had the enemy on the run, but Saul hindered the efforts of his armies by issuing a foolish order that no Israelite soldier should eat until the battle was over. In contrast to Jonathan’s tactic of direct confrontation and action, Saul gave his orders from the safety and shade of a pomegranate tree. Jonathan, who had not heard Saul’s vow that the men not eat, consumed honey from a honeycomb he found on the ground.


Although one of the soldiers told Jonathan about Saul’s vow, Jonathan retorted that Saul’s vow was militarily unwise since lack of food physically weakened the army.

The people wanted to continue to pursue the Philistines by night, but the priest said they should consult God for advice. God was silent, so Saul concluded that someone must have sinned.


Saul decided Jonathan should die for his violation of the king’s vow, but the commanders of the Israelite army rescued Jonathan from his father. Jonathan had, in their view, brought them victory over the Philistines.

This placed Jonathan in the same troubling situation as David. Saul’s carnal ambition and insane jealousy put both David and Jonathan in life-threatening situations. The mutual dilemma these men faced drove them to each other’s company. Nothing bondspeople as does a common challenge or a common enemy.

II. Jonathan with His Father When Goliath Challenged

Jonathan with His FatherFather When Goliath

Challenged

Another event caused Jonathan to gravitate from his carnal father to spiritually hungry David. The Scriptures describe King Saul as “head and shoulders” above the rest of Israel. However, King Saul met Goliath, who was by far a greater physical specimen than he.

A. Jonathan Did Not Accept the Challenge

A. Jonathan Did Not Accept the Challenge

David accepted Goliath’s challenge. As he approached the giant, David shouted, “I come to thee in the name of the Lord” (I Samuel 14:45).


The Philistine giant taunted the Israelites every day, defying their God and mocking their cowardice. As king, Saul took the brunt of the mockery and it took its toll on both his army and his son Jonathan. Not even Jonathan, who had charged and chased the Philistine army, rose to meet the giant’s challenge. Perhaps his failure to accept Goliath’s challenge was due to the accusations and threats his father had hurled at him on the heels of his amazing feat against the Philistines.

B. David Accepted the Challenge

B. David Accepted the Challenge

A young challenger to Goliath arose—an unknown young man from the hills of Judea who was full of faith in God. With a simple sling and a heart full of faith, David dispatched the ugliest, most imposing enemy of his day.


Giants walk the perimeters of our spiritual battlefield hurling the same insults and challenges against us. What child of God has not sensed a shadow looming over him and heard the “giants” mock God and curse His followers? Although his giant was physical and ours are usually spiritual, the challenge David faced is much the same as challenges we face in our day: “Slay me or serve me.”


We battle daily to suppress and conquer our carnal giants. David’s formula is as timeless as his battle with the Philistine giant: “I come to thee in the name of the Lord” (I Samuel 17:45). Often in the Old Testament, when confronting situations, men and women of God called upon the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

I. Jonathan with His Father against the PhilistinesGoliath had four brothers who also

defied David’s army. They too were giants. However, David’s initial confrontation had already established a precedent: The first one is the worst one. David’s victory over the giant fortified the courage of Jonathan and the Israelite army. They chased the Philistines from their borders, and from that time forward giants no longer threatened them.

C. Jonathan Recognized the Hand of God on David

C. Jonathan Recognized the Hand of God on David

After King Saul praised David for his heroic valor, the Scripture records that when David finished speaking with Saul, “the soul of Jonathan was knit with the soul of David, and Jonathan loved him as his own soul” (I Samuel 18:1). Jonathan recognized the hand of God upon David. Unknown to Saul, Jonathan’s loyalty and faith swung to the new hero of Israel. His heart was knitted to that of David.


Great demonstrations of faith profoundly affect others who observe. All believers need spiritual heroes who will teach and model faith in real time. “The things that thou hast heard of me among many witnesses, the same commit thou to faithful men, who shall be able to teach others also” (II Timothy 2:2).

Faith must be meaningful and alive if we are to inspire others by example to exercise their faith.

A. David Was WorriedJonathan with David against His Father

A. David Was Worried

Saul became increasingly insane. When David returned from killing the giant, the minstrels went before him and sang: “Saul has slain his thousands and David has slain his ten thousands.” Saul was accustomed to having his servants fawn upon him and his sycophants exaggerate his great military power.


Now this son of Jesse went in and out before all of Israel and was greatly loved.

The biblical narrative shows a strange progression that led to the dangerous depression that would plague King Saul for the rest of his life. Saul’s jealousy goaded him to command his generals and servants and even his son Jonathan to take the life of David. In hopes of provoking the Philistines to kill David, he gave his second daughter, Michal, to be married to David.


The dowry he required was the slaying of one hundred Philistines. David promptly slew two hundred Philistines.

Then Saul put David over his army, hoping the enemy would target and kill him. This only made David an even greater conquering hero.

King Saul sent three war parties down to Samuel’s house to kill David. Each time the Spirit of God came upon them and they prophesied. Finally, Saul himself went down to kill David and God cast him upon the ground. There, slain in the Spirit, Saul began to prophesy.


Apparently his final stage of insanity came from God Himself. “It came to pass on the morrow, that the evil spirit from God came upon Saul” (I Samuel 18:10).

Paul later wrote to the believers in Rome about the affliction suffered by those who refuse to acknowledge God. “And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not convenient” (Romans 1:28).


Saul’s constant entertainment of the evil spirit of jealousy caused God to allow that spirit to take possession of him. Seasoned pastors have observed this terrible condition that often possesses backsliders. If a person resists God long enough, he may open himself to a controlling evil spirit. Saul’s depression was sometimes alleviated by David’s coming in and playing his harp. However, at other times Saul’s obsession to destroy David became so great he tried to kill him with a javelin, possibly as he played his instrument.


When Jonathan tried to speak well of David, Saul cast a spear at his own son and called him the son of a rebellious woman. When a war party came to kill David at his home, his wife Michal helped him escape and arranged a dummy in his bed. She pretended David was sick and could not come out.

Finally, David and Jonathan had to plan an escape. David was so weary of Saul’s pursuits that he said to Jonathan, “There is but a step between me and death” (I Samuel 20:3).


The two men arranged for a signal that would let David know if he should leave the country to escape from Saul. If Saul spoke well of David, Jonathan’s servant lad would chase Jonathan’s arrows to the near side of a pile of stones. If Saul spoke of killing David, the young boy would chase the arrows to the far side of the pile of stones.


When Jonathan signaled that Saul would pursue David to kill him, David fled. He escaped, but not before he met Jonathan one last time and the two shared a quiet moment of sad departure. Saul’s jealousy caused the permanent separation of two best friends. Small wonder that Solomon observed, “Set me as a seal upon thine heart, as a seal upon thine arm: for love is strong as death; jealousy is cruel as the grave: the coals thereof are coals of fire, which hath a most vehement flame” (Song of Solomon 8:6).

B. Jonathan Displayed True Loyalty

B. Jonathan Displayed True Loyalty

Jonathan’s last speech conveys a covenant relationship that rarely happens in a person’s lifetime.

“And Jonathan said to David, Go in peace, forasmuch as we have sworn both of us in the name of the Lord, saying, The Lord be between me and thee, and between my seed and thy seed for ever. And he arose and departed: and Jonathan went into the city” (I Samuel 20:42).


Often in ancient times, individuals or groups of people entered into covenant relationships. Sometimes these relationships were between two warring factions. Other times, it represented the closeness shared between two people. The latter was the experience of David and Jonathan. God seemed to knit their hearts together after David killed the giant Goliath.

The Bible describes clearly what happened with David and Jonathan:


“After David had finished talking with Saul, Jonathan became one in spirit with David, and he loved him as himself. . . . And Jonathan made a covenant with David because he loved him as himself. Jonathan took off the robe he was wearing and gave it to David, along with his tunic, and even his sword, his bow and his belt” (I Samuel 18:1, 3-4, NIV).


Young David found in Jonathan someone who was more than just a friend. This relationship was one of the most profound friendships described in the Bible. Several characteristics of this covenant relationship can serve as a model for strong, healthy friendships today. First, David and Jonathan became one in spirit. It is not often that God simply knits two hearts together. If a person has one relationship in life like that, then he is fortunate.


When the ancients entered into a covenant, they often exchanged a piece of clothing and a piece of armor. This happened in David and Jonathan’s covenant. The clothing represented their material possessions. Jonathan was saying to David, “All of my possessions are now available to you.” The sword represented the exchange of power. Jonathan was saying that all the power available to him as Saul’s son was now available to David.


This covenant relationship between David and Jonathan is the clearest Old Testament picture of the covenant relationship we have with Jesus Christ. He has said to us: “All that I possess is now yours. All of My power belongs to you.” The Lord’s Supper is a reminder of that covenant. Every time we participate in that great symbolic event, we need to remember our covenant with Him. We have entered into the deepest of relationships known to man. We have an incredible inheritance because of the covenant Christ made with us.


There is one more aspect of the covenant between David and Jonathan that is important to us. In ancient times when two people made a covenant, it was until death; only death could break the covenant. Likewise, Jesus made a covenant with us. He was faithful until death. We too must be faithful until death. Once we have entered the covenant, there should be no turning back. We have all the riches of His kingdom available to us, but we also have the responsibility to follow Him

all the way unto death.


Jonathan’s love was an uncommon love. Jonathan removed his princely robe and placed it on David. He even gave David his sword, his bow, and his girdle, or belt. In other words, Jonathan willingly laid aside the symbols of his position as the crown prince of Israel and gave them to David. When someone saw David on that day, they might have mistaken him for Jonathan. That is a picture of a love that involves profound personal sacrifice. It is a picture of uncommon love.


A person can also observe this kind of love in I Samuel 23:17 when Jonathan revealed to David that he knew David would ascend to the throne of Israel after Saul. But Jonathan was not jealous of David. He intended to stand by David, even as David assumed a throne that should have belonged to Jonathan. That is a picture of selfless, personal sacrifice. Jonathan consistently placed David ahead of himself, which is what a true friend always does.


Christ’s love for us is the ultimate example of true friendship. His love is pure, perfect, and uncomplicated. His love is a primary love. John, in his first epistle, told the beloved of God that even when we could not love Him because of our sinful condition, He loved us anyway. “Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us. . . . We love him, because he first loved us” (I John 4:10, 19).

The love of God is a perpetual love. Jeremiah assured that God’s love for us is a love that had no beginning and will have no ending.


“Yea, I have loved thee with an everlasting love: therefore with lovingkindness have I drawn thee” (Jeremiah 31:3). His love is everlasting.

God’s love is proven love. Paul wrote, “God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8). The love of God found its ultimate expression the day Jesus died on the cross for our sins. God became man and as the Son of God, He gave His life for a fallen, wayward, sinful race because He loves us.


Internalizing the Message

David and Jonathan’s love for each other went beyond the grave. The Philistines eventually routed King Saul’s army and slew the king and his son Jonathan on Mount Gilboah. To appease the Philistines the entire royal family was executed. During their ruthless search from house to house for Saul’s children and grandchildren, a nursemaid hid Jonathan’s child Mephibosheth in a frantic attempt to save his life.

I. Jonathan with His Father against the PhilistinesWhile they fled to safety, the five-year-

old fell to the ground, permanently injuring his feet. Hidden in safety, the child grew to be a man.

David later became king, but he mourned the complete devastation visited upon the household of Saul. He sent out search parties that found one young man in a remote village whose name was Mephibosheth. They brought him to David.


Mephibosheth probably feared he was to be executed like the rest of his family. Instead of bringing judgment upon the young man, however, David was overjoyed by his presence. Remembering his covenant with Jonathan, David mandated that Mephibosheth be given a permanent home in the palace. He gave him a pension and a piece of ground that was to be tilled and harvested by servants. He gave him a place of honor at his table for the rest of his life.


When David covenanted with Jonathan, he had vowed to be faithful to the covenant forever.

To redeemed believers, Jonathan and David’s loyalty foreshadowed Christ’s covenant with us. When we give an oath at the altar to follow the Lord, our souls are knit to Him forever. Further, the promises of our eternal covenant will extend beyond the grave. As David said in Psalm 23:6, “I will dwell in the house of the Lord for ever.”

Principles of Christian Living. Lesson 8 Lesson Text—I Samuel 23:8-10 I Samuel 23:8-10 8 And Saul called all the people together to war, to go down to.

Documents

lesson texti samuel

hand of saul

david abode

focus versei samuel

saul seeketh

men of keilah

o lord god of israel

loyal animals