1 Samuel 20 is on one hand beautiful, you see Jonathan and David, that relationship forged in God, in that anointing that was on David. And on the other hand, sad. Because we see the type of madness or plotting that can emerge against the one God has anointed.
1 Samuel 20
Saul was not happy. In chapter 18, David is trying to navigate this relationship with wisdom, but Saul hears the woman playing instruments and singing, in a prophetic style. They sang:
‘Saul hath slain his thousands, and David his ten thousands’.
1 Samuel 18:7
As the King, Saul was infuriated. And now, in chapter 20, we discover him plotting.
But what should we pay attention to here?
David has a sense of plotting, the Spirit of God helps us in all situations.
Jonathan had trust in the family relationship, surely his father would not behave in this way.
How many of us still hold the family in such high esteem, over and above that relationship forged in the anointing and in God? When family want you to behave a certain way, or put them first, over the Godly life, they can cause stumbling to happen, if you let it.
They put David’s theory to the test, and heartbreakingly, Jonathan sees its truth.
But their words should really be at the heart of Christian people that understand this principle:
‘…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 forever’.
1 Samuel 20:42
Is that not the ‘brotherhood’ of the saints? Or the ‘sisterhood’ if you want to get genderish about it. We are talking about the family of God, committed by the Holy Spirit, into the purposes of God. David was heading to the emergence of kingdom, are we any different?
1 Samuel 21
David is doing whatever he can to survive.
It makes me think of what the Jewish people must have had to do to survive the hunt for their lives. Or what the people of France had to do to escape the brutality of the guillotine.
It’s safe for us to sit back and say ‘oh they lied’, from our puritan safe base, but what would you do to survive being hunted?
Even to the point of acting like you’re a crazy person so no one believes you!
1 Samuel 22
People are coming from everywhere to join David, who was hiding out at the cave of Adullam. It’s a bit like the wedding that Jesus talks about, where he got all the people from the highways and byways, because the ones he’d invited rejected the invitation.
We’re introduced to another prophet, called Gad. He tells David, get thee to the land of Judah.
Saul is still hunting David, and he orders the massacre of the priests.
This brings to mind the lengths Satan will go to destroy God’s people and his plans. In Egypt he tried bondage and killing the firstborn male child, In Jesus’ day it was killing the firstborn male child. This event did not happen because David ‘lied’ as some like to say, it happened because Satan will always go after God’s anointed, and he will always make innocents pay a price in that rampage.
1 Samuel 23
You see here David walking with God.
In everything he does, he does not react first. He asks the Lord, and gets instructions.
But his military-style forays to defeat the enemy of Israel are successful.
Again David knows that ‘Saul secretly practised mischief against him’. (v9)
How much does the enemy practice mischief against us, and yet we walk right into the trap sometimes? Our spirit has not listened to God, who is there to help us, escape that trap.
The cat and mouse of being hunted is David’s life but God delivered him not into Saul’s hand.
David’s out in the wilderness, in the mountains, during this time of being pursued.
But isn’t it interesting that Jonathan found him?
And he is prophesying over David.
‘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 my father knoweth. And they two made a covenant before the Lord’…
1 Samuel 23:17-18
Saul still speaks as though God is with him. It’s the way of religious people. They don’t even realise they are powerless in that sense.
But David puts up with being hounded. They move from place to place to avoid being found. He is not retaliating or plotting against Saul, he is avoiding the confrontation. Trusting God for the outcome.
