“Sworn Friendship”
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? 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!”
“Why should he be put
to death? What has he done?” Jonathan asked his father. But Saul hurled his
spear at him to kill him. Then Jonathan knew that his father intended to kill
David.
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.
In the morning
Jonathan went out to the field for his meeting with David. He had a small boy
with him, and he said to the boy, “Run and find the arrows I shoot.” As the boy
ran, he shot an arrow beyond him. When the boy came to the place where
Jonathan’s arrow had fallen, Jonathan called out after him, “Isn’t the arrow
beyond you?” Then he shouted, “Hurry! Go quickly! Don’t stop!” The boy picked
up the arrow and returned to his master. (The boy knew nothing about all this;
only Jonathan and David knew.) Then Jonathan gave his weapons to the boy and
said, “Go, carry them back to town.”
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.
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.
1 Samuel
20:30-42
Friends are crucial
during difficult times. Jonathan was that type of friend to David. Saul would
have had David killed, had Jonathan not been able to tell David to get away as
quickly as possible.
Do you have loving
Christian friends you can count on in a crisis? Are you also that person
someone can call when they are also having problems?
A true
friend stands with us in times of trial.
Our Daily Bread –