Loyal Friends (1 Samuel 20)

Are loyal friends hard to find? Are we loyal to our friends even to death? Is Jesus a true friend? Let’s look at a special friendship in 1 Samuel 20.

Did David ask Jonathan why Saul was determined to kill him?

David fled from Naioth in Ramah. He came to Jonathan and said, “What have I done? What is my crime, and how have I wronged your father so that he’s determined to kill me? Jonathan told him, “Far from it! You won’t die. Look, my father never does anything, great or small, without telling me; so why should my father hide this thing from me? It’s not like that!” David again took an oath: “Your father certainly knows that I’ve found favor with you, and so he told himself, ‘Jonathan must not know this so he won’t be upset.’ But as certainly as the Lord is alive and living, and as certainly as I’m alive and living, too, there is only a step between me and death.” Jonathan told David, “Whatever you say, I’ll do.” David told Jonathan, “Look, the New Moon is tomorrow, and I’m expected to sit down with the king to eat. Let me go so I can hide in the field until the evening of the day after tomorrow. If your father actually notices that I’m not there, then you are to say, ‘David urgently requested that I allow him to run to his hometown of Bethlehem because the yearly sacrifice for the entire family was taking place there.’ If he says, ‘Good,’ then your servant will be safe. But if he actually gets angry, you will know that his intentions are evil. Now, show gracious kindness to your servant because you have entered into a sacred covenant with your servant. If there is iniquity in me, then kill me yourself—why should you bring me to your father?” “Nonsense!” Jonathan replied. “If I actually knew that my father intended evil against you, wouldn’t I tell you about it?” Then David told Jonathan, “Who will tell me if your father answers you harshly?” (1 Samuel 20:1-10 ISV)

Did the two make a covenant regarding the future of each other’s families?

And Jonathan said unto David, Come, and let us go out into the field. And they went out both of them into the field. And Jonathan said unto David, O Lord God of Israel, when I have sounded my father about to morrow any time, or the third day, and, behold, if there be good toward David, and I then send not unto thee, and shew it thee; The Lord do so and much more to Jonathan: but if it please my father to do thee evil, then I will shew it thee, and send thee away, that thou mayest go in peace: and the Lord be with thee, as he hath been with my father. And thou shalt not only while yet I live shew me the kindness of the Lord, that I die not: But also thou shalt not cut off thy kindness from my house for ever: no, not when the Lord hath cut off the enemies of David every one from the face of the earth. So Jonathan made a covenant with the house of David, saying, Let the Lord even require it at the hand of David's enemies. And Jonathan caused David to swear again, because he loved him: for he loved him as he loved his own soul. (1 Samuel 20:11-17 KJV)

How did Jonathan plan to communicate with David regarding his father’s plot?

Then Jonathan said to him, “Tomorrow is the new moon, and you will be missed because your seat will be missing. When you have stayed for three days, you shall go down quickly and come to the place where you hid yourself on that eventful day, and you shall remain by the stone Ezel. And I will shoot three arrows to the side, as though I sent them towards a target. And behold, I will send the young man, saying, ‘Go, find the arrows.’ If I specifically say to the young man, ‘Behold, the arrows are on this side of you, get them,’ then come, for there is peace for you and no harm, as Yahweh lives. But if I say to the youth, ‘Behold, the arrows are beyond you,’ go, for Yahweh has sent you away. As for the agreement of which you and I have spoken, behold, Yahweh is between you and me forever.” (1 Samuel 20:18-23 LSB)

What excuse did Jonathan give as to why David was absent from Saul’s feast?

So David hid himself in the field; and when the new moon came, the king sat down to eat food. Now the king sat on his seat as usual, the seat by the wall; then Jonathan stood up and Abner sat down by Saul’s side; but David’s place was empty. Nevertheless Saul did not say anything that day, because he thought, “It must have been an accident; he is not clean, undoubtedly he is not clean.” But it came about the next day, the second day of the new moon, that David’s place was empty again; so Saul said to his son Jonathan, “Why has the son of Jesse not come to the meal, either yesterday or today?” And Jonathan answered Saul, “David earnestly requested leave of me to go to Bethlehem. He said, ‘Please let me go, because our family has a sacrifice in the city, and my brother has ordered me to attend. So now, if I have found favor in your sight, please let me slip away so that I may see my brothers.’ For this reason he has not come to the king’s table.” (1 Samuel 20:24-29 NASB)