1 Samuel 20:1-23
Jonathan’s Loyalty to David
1 Then David fled from Naioth in Ramah, and went and said to Jonathan, “What have I done? What is my iniquity, and what is my sin before your father, that he seeks my life?”
2 So Jonathan said to him, “By no means! You shall not die! Indeed, my father will do nothing either great or small without first telling me. And why should my father hide this thing from me? It is not so!”
3 Then David took an oath again, and said, “Your father certainly knows that I have found favor in your eyes, and he has said, ‘Do not let Jonathan know this, lest he be grieved.’ But truly, as the LORD lives and as your soul lives, there is but a step between me and death.”
4 So Jonathan said to David, “Whatever you yourself desire, I will do it for you.”
5 And David said to Jonathan, “Indeed tomorrow is the New Moon, and I should not fail to sit with the king to eat. But let me go, that I may hide in the field until the third day at evening. 6 If your father misses me at all, then say, ‘David earnestly asked permission of me that he might run over to Bethlehem, his city, for there is a yearly sacrifice there for all the family.’ 7 If he says thus: ‘It is well,’ your servant will be safe. But if he is very angry, be sure that evil is determined by him. 8 Therefore you shall deal kindly with your servant, for you have brought your servant into a covenant of the LORD with you. Nevertheless, if there is iniquity in me, kill me yourself, for why should you bring me to your father?”
9 But Jonathan said, “Far be it from you! For if I knew certainly that evil was determined by my father to come upon you, then would I not tell you?”
10 Then David said to Jonathan, “Who will tell me, or what if your father answers you roughly?”
11 And Jonathan said to David, “Come, let us go out into the field.” So both of them went out into the field. 12 Then Jonathan said to David: “The LORD God of Israel is witness! When I have sounded out my father sometime tomorrow, or the third day, and indeed there is good toward David, and I do not send to you and tell you, 13 may the LORD do so and much more to Jonathan. But if it pleases my father to do you evil, then I will report it to you and send you away, that you may go in safety. And the LORD be with you as He has been with my father. 14 And you shall not only show me the kindness of the LORD while I still live, that I may not die; 15 but you shall not cut off your kindness from my house forever, no, not when the LORD has cut off every one of the enemies of David from the face of the earth.” 16 So Jonathan made a covenant with the house of David, saying, “Let the LORD require it at the hand of David’s enemies.”
17 Now Jonathan again caused David to vow, because he loved him; for he loved him as he loved his own soul. 18 Then Jonathan said to David, “Tomorrow is the New Moon; and you will be missed, because your seat will be empty. 19 And when you have stayed three days, go down quickly and come to the place where you hid on the day of the deed; and remain by the stone Ezel. 20 Then I will shoot three arrows to the side, as though I shot at a target; 21 and there I will send a lad, saying, ‘Go, find the arrows.’ If I expressly say to the lad, ‘Look, the arrows are on this side of you; get them and come’—then, as the LORD lives, there is safety for you and no harm. 22 But if I say thus to the young man, ‘Look, the arrows are beyond you’—go your way, for the LORD has sent you away. 23 And as for the matter which you and I have spoken of, indeed the LORD be between you and me forever.”
Jonathan the son of Saul knew he would not inherit the throne of the kingdom because God had given it to his dear and best friend David, so his loyalty was split between the two. He could not conceive that his father really meant deadly harm to David, especially without telling his son those plans, even though David told him plainly Saul sought to kill him. David therefore had him lay out a fleece to test Saul’s resolve by asking permission for him to go to his hometown of Bethlehem for a yearly sacrifice there with all his family. If Saul allowed it, Jonathan was right; if not, David was and plans would be made for his safety. If Saul was out to get David, he was to make a covenant promise between David’s house and his to show kindness to him and his family for generations to come. This brotherly love bonded them as best friends of loyal devotion to one another despite their circumstances and blood. Jonathan would feel out his father’s reaction and let David know the outcome by shooting three arrows and saying to his helper that would fetch them either that they are on the side of the target he would miss or that they are beyond it; if beside, David was safe, but of beyond then he was beyond reconciling with Saul who intended evil for David. Either way, the covenant between them and their descendants was to be honored with ongoing loyal devotion in spite of the danger. Do we support our other brothers and sisters in this same devotion as to the Lord and His Anointed? This is true brotherly love in action (Romans 12:10, Philemon 1:7, Galatians 6:2, 1 Thessalonians 3:7) in the face of peril and danger to ourselves and them. This is loyal devotion in the face of danger that bonds us together in Christ as it did with Jonathan and the house of the Messiah who is Christ Jesus, the descendant of David, according to (Romans 1:3-4) the flesh.
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