Covenant Roles
Notes
Transcript
Then David fled from Naioth in Ramah and came and said before Jonathan, “What have I done? What is my guilt? And what is my sin before your father, that he seeks my life?” And he said to him, “Far from it! You shall not die. Behold, my father does nothing either great or small without disclosing it to me. And why should my father hide this from me? It is not so.” But David vowed again, saying, “Your father knows well that I have found favor in your eyes, and he thinks, ‘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.” Then Jonathan said to David, “Whatever you say, I will do for you.” David said to Jonathan, “Behold, tomorrow is the new moon, and I should not fail to sit at table with the king. But let me go, that I may hide myself in the field till the third day at evening. If your father misses me at all, then say, ‘David earnestly asked leave of me to run to Bethlehem his city, for there is a yearly sacrifice there for all the clan.’ If he says, ‘Good!’ it will be well with your servant, but if he is angry, then know that harm is determined by him. Therefore deal kindly with your servant, for you have brought your servant into a covenant of the Lord with you. But if there is guilt in me, kill me yourself, for why should you bring me to your father?” And Jonathan said, “Far be it from you! If I knew that it was determined by my father that harm should come to you, would I not tell you?” Then David said to Jonathan, “Who will tell me if your father answers you roughly?” And Jonathan said to David, “Come, let us go out into the field.” So they both went out into the field. And Jonathan said to David, “The Lord, the God of Israel, be witness! When I have sounded out my father, about this time tomorrow, or the third day, behold, if he is well disposed toward David, shall I not then send and disclose it to you? But should it please my father to do you harm, the Lord do so to Jonathan and more also if I do not disclose it to you and send you away, that you may go in safety. May the Lord be with you, as he has been with my father. If I am still alive, show me the steadfast love of the Lord, that I may not die; and do not cut off your steadfast love from my house forever, when the Lord cuts off every one of the enemies of David from the face of the earth.” And Jonathan made a covenant with the house of David, saying, “May the Lord take vengeance on David’s enemies.” And Jonathan made David swear again by his love for him, for he loved him as he loved his own soul. Then Jonathan said to him, “Tomorrow is the new moon, and you will be missed, because your seat will be empty. On the third day go down quickly to the place where you hid yourself when the matter was in hand, and remain beside the stone heap. And I will shoot three arrows to the side of it, as though I shot at a mark. And behold, I will send the boy, saying, ‘Go, find the arrows.’ If I say to the boy, ‘Look, the arrows are on this side of you, take them,’ then you are to come, for, as the Lord lives, it is safe for you and there is no danger. But if I say to the youth, ‘Look, the arrows are beyond you,’ then go, for the Lord has sent you away. And as for the matter of which you and I have spoken, behold, the Lord is between you and me forever.” So David hid himself in the field. And when the new moon came, the king sat down to eat food. The king sat on his seat, as at other times, on the seat by the wall. Jonathan sat opposite, and Abner sat by Saul’s side, but David’s place was empty. Yet Saul did not say anything that day, for he thought, “Something has happened to him. He is not clean; surely he is not clean.” But on the second day, the day after the new moon, David’s place was empty. And Saul said to Jonathan his son, “Why has not the son of Jesse come to the meal, either yesterday or today?” Jonathan answered Saul, “David earnestly asked leave of me to go to Bethlehem. He said, ‘Let me go, for our clan holds a sacrifice in the city, and my brother has commanded me to be there. So now, if I have found favor in your eyes, let me get away and see my brothers.’ For this reason he has not come to the king’s table.” Then Saul’s anger was kindled against Jonathan, and he said to him, “You son of a perverse, rebellious woman, do I not know that you have chosen the son of Jesse to your own shame, and to the shame of your mother’s nakedness? For as long as the son of Jesse lives on the earth, neither you nor your kingdom shall be established. Therefore send and bring him to me, for he shall surely die.” Then Jonathan answered Saul his father, “Why should he be put to death? What has he done?” But Saul hurled his spear at him to strike him. So Jonathan knew that his father was determined to put David to death. And Jonathan rose from the table in fierce anger and ate no food the second day of the month, for he was grieved for David, because his father had disgraced him. In the morning Jonathan went out into the field to the appointment with David, and with him a little boy. And he said to his boy, “Run and find the arrows that I shoot.” As the boy ran, he shot an arrow beyond him. And when the boy came to the place of the arrow that Jonathan had shot, Jonathan called after the boy and said, “Is not the arrow beyond you?” And Jonathan called after the boy, “Hurry! Be quick! Do not stay!” So Jonathan’s boy gathered up the arrows and came to his master. But the boy knew nothing. Only Jonathan and David knew the matter. And Jonathan gave his weapons to his boy and said to him, “Go and carry them to the city.” And as soon as the boy had gone, David rose from beside the stone heap and fell on his face to the ground and bowed three times. And they kissed one another and wept with one another, David weeping the most. Then Jonathan said to David, “Go in peace, because we have sworn both of us in the name of the Lord, saying, ‘The Lord shall be between me and you, and between my offspring and your offspring, forever.’ ” And he rose and departed, and Jonathan went into the city.
I am no longer my own, but yours. Put me to what you will, rank me with whom you will; put me to doing, put me to suffering; let me be employed for you, or laid aside for you, exalted for you, or brought low for you; let me be full, let me be empty, let me have all things, let me have nothing: I freely and wholeheartedly yield all things to your pleasure and disposal. And now, glorious and blessed God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, you are mine and I am yours. So be it. And the covenant now made on earth, let it be ratified in heaven. Amen. - John Wesley, Covenant Prayer
It is a beautiful prayer that reveals a heart of faith. And it is a prayer that we all with sincerity pray to God.
But this is what Wesley called his “Covenant Prayer.” Because it is a commitment of the prey-er to uphold our side of the covenant we are in with our Lord, Jesus Christ.
We enter into covenant and promise to follow Jesus and have faith in Him even when we suffer. Whether we are exalted or brought low. Whether we have an abundance in this world or we have nothing in this world.
And this is not easy to live out, is it? It’s far easier when the “exalted” or “abundance” apply to us. Not so much when the “low” or the “nothing” does.
And I know what you’re thinking. Didn’t we already talk about this? In chapter 19 last week? And chapter 18 two weeks ago? Yes.
But it was true two weeks ago, and it was true last week, and it’s true today. And we were challenged by the lows two weeks ago, and last week, and will be this week.
And we will have the same choices to make this week that we had last week, and we will face the same weakness this week that we did last week, and we will need Jesus as much this week as we did last week.
Just like we see, chapter after chapter, David and Jonathan and Saul face the same weakness, the same failures - and most of all - the same choices. And we see the same struggle for the throne.
And not just in 1 Samuel - in our own lives. Just like Saul is trying to hold onto the throne that belongs to David, we often try to sit on the throne that belongs to Jesus.
We try to be the decision maker, and the judge of right and wrong. We try to call the shots.
But what we need to realize, is that the covenant that Jesus made with us at the cost of His own life means He gets the throne.
Are we honoring the covenant?
Let’s consider the covenant that Jonathan and David make and see how Jonathan upholds his end of the deal.
We pick up the story where we left off in chapter 19:
Then David fled from Naioth in Ramah and came and said before Jonathan, “What have I done? What is my guilt? And what is my sin before your father, that he seeks my life?”
So remember where we left off last week. Saul sends troops to take David three separate times, and each time, they wind up prophesying before Samuel. The Spirit comes upon them and they prophesy. So they are unable to do what they intended to do.
So then Saul himself comes, and the same thing happens to him. He winds up naked on the ground and unable to do what he intended to do. And what he intended to do was harm David. To kill him!
And we see here what happened because God intervened. David escaped. God made a way of escape for David. He preserved him when the world came against him.
This is what our God does.
And after David escapes, he comes to his ally, Jonathan.
And note how David is emphatic in what he says next. He comes to Jonathan and asks three questions. What have I done? What is my guilt? And what is my sin?
It’s basically the same question three times. That is done for emphasis. Remember we saw that Saul sent troops to take David three times, and three times they failed. The writer of the book was emphasizing that no matter what, God was not going to allow them to harm David.
Here, the threefold question that is really the same question, isn’t a question at all. It is an emphatic claim of innocence before Saul. David is saying “I have done nothing to your father! I have not sinned against him in any way! In fact, I have only done good to him!”
David is saying that he is being persecuted for no reason.
This is like Christ.
As one example, He gives a blind man sight in John 9, reveals Himself as the good Shepherd in John 10, and we are told the people are divided - some are against Him, and some believe.
Then, the people demand He tell them if He is the Christ or not - if He is God’s anointed or not. And He says that His actions speak for themselves. And then:
The Jews picked up stones again to stone him. Jesus answered them, “I have shown you many good works from the Father; for which of them are you going to stone me?”
The anointed Shepherd King was not wondering here which sin He was going to be stoned for. He was telling them that He had done no wrong. In fact, He points to His actions and how they have only been good.
But regardless of His complete and perfect innocence, Christ was going to suffer.
This is what we see with David. The anointed shepherd king points out that he has done nothing wrong. And yet he is being persecuted. Yet he is suffering. And he would yet suffer even more.
But Jonathan denies it:
And he said to him, “Far from it! You shall not die. Behold, my father does nothing either great or small without disclosing it to me. And why should my father hide this from me? It is not so.”
There are some shades of the Apostle Peter here. “You think the world is going to kill you? No way! It isn’t going to happen!”
Jonathan is ignorant of Saul’s intentions. Because remember the last conversation Jonathan had with his father. Jonathan told him that David had done nothing wrong, Saul relents, and it all resulted in restoration between Saul and David.
Here, David says he has done nothing wrong, and Jonathan agrees with that. But then, like Peter with Christ, Jonathan is correcting David about the persecution coming his way. He tells him “no way my father wants to kill you. He tells me everything.”
Remember, in the last chapter, Saul told Jonathan when he wanted David dead and Jonathan is the one who warns David. So he believes that if Saul changed his mind back to wanting David dead, he’d know.
But like Peter, Jonathan is wrong.
Saul just has not yet revealed his intentions to Jonathan.
And David tells him, “because you and I are so close, he isn’t telling you about this because he doesn’t want to upset you. But,” David says:
1 Samuel 20:3 (ESV)
as the Lord lives and as your soul lives, there is but a step between me and death.
This “as YHWH lives and as your soul lives” is used a few times in the Old Testament. It is a way to swear something. To promise something. And David is telling Jonathan: “trust me, I swear to you, I am close to death because of your father.”
And Jonathan believes him.
So Jonathan asks David what he wants him to do.
And David has a plan.
David said to Jonathan, “Behold, tomorrow is the new moon, and I should not fail to sit at table with the king. But let me go, that I may hide myself in the field till the third day at evening. If your father misses me at all, then say, ‘David earnestly asked leave of me to run to Bethlehem his city, for there is a yearly sacrifice there for all the clan.’ If he says, ‘Good!’ it will be well with your servant, but if he is angry, then know that harm is determined by him.
The new moon is beginning the next day. The command for observing the monthly new moon and the offerings involved are detailed in Numbers 28.
And because it is a special day, David would be expected to be at the dinner with the family. And since he is part of the royal family, he would be expected to be eating with the king, who would be considered the head of the royal clan.
But David tells Jonathan that he’s not coming, and if Saul asks, to tell him that there is a special yearly sacrifice in Bethlehem. This would be a valid excuse because an annual feast would be more important than a monthly observance.
And if Saul is good with it, then David will know that Saul is once again over his little episode and he’s safe for now. But if he’s angry, then Jonathan will know that Saul is out to get David.
Then David kinda guilts Jonathan into going along with the plan.
Therefore deal kindly with your servant, for you have brought your servant into a covenant of the Lord with you. But if there is guilt in me, kill me yourself, for why should you bring me to your father?”
This is akin to when I ask my wife to make something for dinner that she says she doesn’t really have the time to make, and I say, “oh okay, if you don’t love me enough to do it, that’s fine.”
David is really telling Jonathan that if he is not going to go along with the plan, then he is really changing sides. Remember, Jonathan chose his side - and he chose God’s side. Turning his back on David now would be turning his back on God.
And Jonathan is not about to do that!
So Jonathan swears his loyalty to David.
And then he expands on the plan.
Then Jonathan said to him, “Tomorrow is the new moon, and you will be missed, because your seat will be empty. On the third day go down quickly to the place where you hid yourself when the matter was in hand, and remain beside the stone heap. And I will shoot three arrows to the side of it, as though I shot at a mark. And behold, I will send the boy, saying, ‘Go, find the arrows.’ If I say to the boy, ‘Look, the arrows are on this side of you, take them,’ then you are to come, for, as the Lord lives, it is safe for you and there is no danger. But if I say to the youth, ‘Look, the arrows are beyond you,’ then go, for the Lord has sent you away.
He says Saul will indeed notice that David isn’t there. And Jonathan will gauge his reaction and come signal to David whether it’s safe to return, or if he should run for his life.
But notice Jonathan’s faith here. He says that if he signals one way, then “as YHWH lives” it is safe for David. This is the same oath language David just used to swear to Jonathan that Saul wants him dead.
He is saying - “if I signal that it’s safe, I swear to you it’s safe. Trust me.”
There are serious promises being made here. Jonathan is swearing to David that he is on his side.
And also note that Jonathan says that if Saul is against David, then the Lord has sent David away. Jonathan knows God’s sovereign hand is in it no matter what happens.
In other words, Jonathan’s faith is in God no matter how this turns out. Whether it turns out good, or whether it turns out bad from his point of view, Jonathan knows it is of God.
Now that’s faith! That’s faith that, as we saw last week, chooses God no matter what. If it turns out the way I want, then I trust God and I choose Him. If it turns out the worst way possible from my point of view, I trust God and I choose Him.
That’s what faith does.
Faith isn’t something we have only when things go our way. And while we would never define faith that way, practically that’s how we live at times.
That’s why James tells us that faith without works is dead. We can say we have faith. But if our lives don’t show that faith in good times and bad - if we only trust God enough to obey Him when He does what we want - if our faith doesn’t shine through in the way we live in both the highs and the lows - what good is that kind of faith?
As we will see, Jonathan's faith is not just a faith claimed - it’s a faith lived. No matter what.
Jonathan swears it:
And as for the matter of which you and I have spoken, behold, the Lord is between you and me forever.”
What we see in this chapter is the covenant that is foreshadowed in chapter 18. This is the covenant that knits the souls of Jonathan and David together. This covenantal love - this loyal love - is the love these brothers in Christ shared.
They promise that they would live out their faith for each other.
This is the covenant they make. Let’s back up a little bit.
First, Jonathan swears loyalty to the king.
And Jonathan said to David, “The Lord, the God of Israel, be witness! When I have sounded out my father, about this time tomorrow, or the third day, behold, if he is well disposed toward David, shall I not then send and disclose it to you? But should it please my father to do you harm, the Lord do so to Jonathan and more also if I do not disclose it to you and send you away, that you may go in safety. May the Lord be with you, as he has been with my father.
Jonathan calls God as a witness between him and David. This is covenant language. And he promises that he will act for David’s good no matter what.
And notice that Jonathan prays “the Lord be with you as He has been with my father.” He is talking about how God has been with Saul as the king. He is acknowledging David’s kingship.
Remember what we already saw, Jonathan was the heir! He is abdicating his throne to David here! He knows it rightfully belongs to David.
Which is why:
And Jonathan made a covenant with the house of David, saying, “May the Lord take vengeance on David’s enemies.”
This is akin to “long live the king!” This is saying that David is God’s anointed king.
And Jonathan is swearing his loyalty to David.
But he is also asking something of the king. He is asking him to preserve him:
If I am still alive, show me the steadfast love of the Lord, that I may not die; and do not cut off your steadfast love from my house forever, when the Lord cuts off every one of the enemies of David from the face of the earth.”
He believes that David will be victorious. He says “when” YHWH cuts off David’s enemies. Not if. When.
And Jonathan asks that he be part of that victory.
And note that he asks the king to show him the steadfast love of the Lord.
If you joined us last year in our daily walk through the Bible and read the blog, you know that I often pointed out when this word for “steadfast love” was used in the Old Testament.
And it is translated a bunch of ways in our Bibles because we don’t have an equivalent in English.
In our English Bibles, it is translated variously as love, kindness, steadfast love, loyalty, mercy, favor, devotion, and faithfulness. And all of these are in view when the word is used in the Old Testament.
And overwhelmingly - and this is the important part - the word is used of how God loves His people.
Give thanks to the Lord, for He is good, His steadfast love endures forever.
Here, in the covenant that Jonathan and David are making, Jonathan recognizes David as God’s anointed king, and he asks David to show him this same steadfast love. Twice here, Jonathan asks for this.
In other words, Jonathan pledges to follow David. To acknowledge him as God’s anointed king. To follow him no matter what it means.
And what he asks in return is that David show him steadfast love that Jonathan may not die, and that his love would extend to his offspring when - not if - when God defeats his enemies.
And this is like the covenant we are in with our King - God’s anointed - His Christ.
God has and will cut off all of His enemies.
He has defeated sin and given us power over sin. And He will yet save us from the very presence of sin when He returns. Not if, when.
He has defeated death by His resurrection and we share in that resurrection. We have been made spiritually alive never to die. And He will yet save us from physical death when we ourselves are raised in resurrection glory. Not if, when.
He has defeated the powers of darkness. He has defeated the king of this world under whose domain we all once walked. And we have authority over the powers of darkness and can now redeem the world from the power of Satan as we fulfill our calling as the church.
And He will yet defeat Satan and the powers of darkness once and for all when He completes the salvation He has begun.
Not if. When.
And indeed, Christ when He made His covenant with us showed us steadfast love. And He will forever show us steadfast love.
When He made the covenant with us He said:
for this is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins. I tell you I will not drink again of this fruit of the vine until that day when I drink it new with you in my Father’s kingdom.”
We see here the steadfast love He has shown us. He poured out His own blood to defeat sin.
And we see the steadfast love that will never end. The love that He shows us now and will into eternity. When He returns to defeat His enemies finally and forever and hands the kingdom over to the Father, a description Paul uses to describe our own resurrection from the dead.
This is what Christ gives us. Victory. And He swore it through the covenant He made with us.
And He promised us what Jonathan asks David for - eternal and complete steadfast love.
And note the order here in Jonathan’s covenant with David:
If I am still alive, show me the steadfast love of the Lord, that I may not die; and do not cut off your steadfast love from my house forever, when the Lord cuts off every one of the enemies of David from the face of the earth.” And Jonathan made a covenant with the house of David, saying, “May the Lord take vengeance on David’s enemies.”
Jonathan knows God will cut off the enemies of David. He declares it as a fact. Then he prays that the Lord would do what he already knows for sure he will do!
Christ has already cut off His enemies - and our enemies. Sin, death, the powers of darkness. And yet we await the day that God will take vengeance on Christ’s enemies finally and forever.
And until that day, all we can offer in return is what Jonathan offered to David. We acknowledge Him as our King, we pledge our loyalty to Him and Him alone, and we follow Him, no matter what.
Because we have a role in the covenant, too.
Christ fulfilled His role and is sure to complete what He has started.
Are we fulfilling our role?
Jonathan fulfilled his.
So David hid himself in the field. And when the new moon came, the king sat down to eat food. The king sat on his seat, as at other times, on the seat by the wall. Jonathan sat opposite, and Abner sat by Saul’s side, but David’s place was empty. Yet Saul did not say anything that day, for he thought, “Something has happened to him. He is not clean; surely he is not clean.” But on the second day, the day after the new moon, David’s place was empty. And Saul said to Jonathan his son, “Why has not the son of Jesse come to the meal, either yesterday or today?” Jonathan answered Saul, “David earnestly asked leave of me to go to Bethlehem. He said, ‘Let me go, for our clan holds a sacrifice in the city, and my brother has commanded me to be there. So now, if I have found favor in your eyes, let me get away and see my brothers.’ For this reason he has not come to the king’s table.”
Now, this seems a little strange to some. Remember, Saul tried to spear David, then wanted to kill him at his home, then sought to kill him in Ramah. Why in the world would Saul expect David to be at dinner with him?
And this has led many a commentator to decide that this event we are looking at today actually precedes most of what we saw last week, and the compilers of the book’s final form messed up.
Others say that there are actually two differing histories recorded in the book, and that is why we seem to go out of order or repeat events.
I don’t think that’s necessary to explain this.
I think Saul is expecting David because, first of all, he doesn’t exactly know what David knows. He had tried to spear him before - twice - and David returned to him after that. Michal told Saul David left of his own accord and Saul doesn’t know for sure why.
Saul never got to David in Ramah. Saul may wonder what David knows of his intentions, exactly?
Second, Saul has tried to keep Jonathan out of the loop on what’s going on. So David hasn’t heard anything negative from him - which we just saw. Jonathan was trying to convince David he wasn’t in danger.
Third, this is an appointed holy day. Trying to kill David during it would certainly not sit well with the people. So it is also a political move on Saul’s part to allow David back.
But, we know what David knows. So why would David actually come back? Well, he wouldn’t. But Saul thus far has not shown the greatest discernment, so that may not even come into play in his thinking. And he doesn’t yet know what David and Jonathan discussed.
What’s clear, is that Saul figured David would come back, and at first thinks David may be unclean, perhaps from killing someone in battle and touching a dead body.
But then on the second day, Saul becomes suspicious and asks Jonathan where David is. If Jonathan knows something, it might reveal to Saul what David is thinking, and maybe even tell him what Jonathan knows.
And Jonathan follows the plan and tells Saul what David told him to say.
But in this case, Saul is either discerning enough to know what’s going on, or is just plain blinded by his hatred for David:
Then Saul’s anger was kindled against Jonathan, and he said to him, “You son of a perverse, rebellious woman, do I not know that you have chosen the son of Jesse to your own shame, and to the shame of your mother’s nakedness?
That “you son of a perverse woman” is an idiom for which we have a rough equivalent in English, which I am just going to assume you have heard before.
But in the Ancient Near East, being the son of a rebellious woman was accusing someone of having improper allegiances. It’s saying, rebellion is in your blood, so to speak.
Saul is accusing Jonathan of choosing the wrong side. And Saul says, basically, that Jonathan has brought shame upon himself and his whole family.
Saul is ashamed of Jonathan. The world is ashamed of those who choose the side of God.
In choosing God’s side, Jonathan has turned his back on Saul. Not because of Jonathan, but because of Saul.
In choosing Christ - like we saw last week - at every moment of every day - we are turning our backs on the world and it’s ways.
And the world doesn’t like it.
Like Saul. Now knowing for sure which side Jonathan has chosen, he doesn’t like it. He doesn’t like it for his own sake. And he doesn’t like it for Jonathan’s sake. Look at what he says next:
For as long as the son of Jesse lives on the earth, neither you nor your kingdom shall be established. Therefore send and bring him to me, for he shall surely die.”
Saul says: “Jonathan, don’t you realize that if David lives you’ll never be king?!?”
And of course, the answer is that Jonathan knows that very well. But he has chosen to take himself off the throne and let God’s anointed have the throne. That is part of the covenant made between Jonathan and his king. That is Jonathan’s role in the covenant.
And that’s really our role in the covenant with our King. We take ourselves off the throne, and let Him take His rightful place. Regardless of what worldly wisdom tells us we deserve. Even though it will cost us dearly.
If we are in covenant with Jesus Christ, then He gets to sit on the throne.
Let me ask you: who sits on the throne in your life?
Well, that is really the decision we make every day - every moment.
And we see here, in this moment, when the world comes against him, when he is told he deserves something, when the world is hostile toward his king - Jonathan chooses to stay off the throne.
Then Jonathan answered Saul his father, “Why should he be put to death? What has he done?”
Again, these are not really questions. Jonathan is telling Saul that David doesn’t deserve to be put to death. He is saying once again that David has only done good.
And as we saw, this is ultimately true of Christ.
He came as one of us to live a perfect, sinless life. And He did it. He came to save those who couldn’t save themselves.
And even though He lived perfectly obedient to the Father, and even though He only did good, He went to the cross to die for our sins. For all we did wrong. For our disobedience.
Why should He be put to death? What has He done?
And yet He was put to death. For all we’ve done. He took our punishment and paid our debt so that the just Judge could grant us salvation.
He bled for us to make a covenant with us. He put Himself on the cross so we wouldn’t have to be put on it. That was His role in the covenant.
And now, since we did not have to be put on the cross, we can’t put ourselves on the throne. He belongs there. And removing ourselves from the throne - like Jonathan - is our part of the covenant.
And if we do, make no mistake about it, the world will come against us. It is not easy to live as we’re called.
Look at what happens to Jonathan:
But Saul hurled his spear at him to strike him. So Jonathan knew that his father was determined to put David to death. And Jonathan rose from the table in fierce anger and ate no food the second day of the month, for he was grieved for David, because his father had disgraced him.
Saul is so angry that he picks up his spear and hurls it at Jonathan now. He persecutes Jonathan just like he persecuted Jonathan’s king.
He was ashamed of his son. Like Jonathan said he disgraced David. What happens to the king, happens to those who follow him.
But as our King said:
“Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account.
Jonathan was blessed to have Saul as an enemy. Because Saul was the enemy of his king.
And Jonathan again chooses his king. He goes out in the field according to the plan, and he signals to David that he was right, Saul wasn’t going to rest until he was dead.
And he shoots his arrows beyond his weapons bearer, and then sends his servant back to the city.
And Jonathan remembered his role in the covenant.
Then Jonathan said to David, “Go in peace, because we have sworn both of us in the name of the Lord, saying, ‘The Lord shall be between me and you, and between my offspring and your offspring, forever.’ ” And he rose and departed, and Jonathan went into the city.
In few moments, we are going to share in communion together. It is what our King has given us to remember the sacrifice He made to ratify the covenant He made with us. But it’s more than that.
Christ told us to do what we are about to do in remembrance of Him and what He did. So we look back and see that our King has already fulfilled His part of the covenant. And we should be reminded that we need to fulfill our part.
But He also pointed us forward, telling us that we are to do this until He comes again. So we also look forward to the completion of all things when His victory is fulfilled at His return. And that should give us all the encouragement we need to keep our part of the covenant.
Because it isn’t “if” Christ is coming to make all things right for us, it’s “when.”
Communion is also supposed to point us inward. It is a time to reflect on our own heart. It is a time to remember that we have a role in the covenant Christ made with us and consider how we’re carrying that out.
Because it is the New Covenant that fulfills all of the covenants of the Old Testament. And in all of those covenants, there was a role for both sides.
In the creation covenant, man’s role was perfect obedience. And we broke the covenant.
In the Mosaic covenant, Israel’s role was loyalty to YHWH through obedience to the Law. And they broke the covenant.
Even in the covenant God made with Abraham, there was a role on both sides. Abraham was told that he was to walk before God and be blameless.
It is only in the promise to God’s chosen king, David, that there was only something to specifically not do. David wanted to build God a house, but God said not to. Instead, but God would build David a house.
David had to step aside and let God do things His way.
And God’s way, was to set a King on the throne of His people Who would reign forever.
And that King is Jesus Christ. Who fulfilled the covenant of perfect obedience. Who fulfilled the covenant of obeying the Law. Who walked before God and was blameless.
And Who died for us so that we could be brought into the covenant - Who was raised that we may live forever - and Who ascended to sit on the throne.
And our role now is to stop trying to put ourselves on the throne, because we already have a King.
We need to step aside and let the King have His way.
But there’s more. Because when we come together for communion, we don’t just look back, and look forward, and look within - we need to look around. Because God has called us together to fulfill our role in the covenant.
Christ gave us a command as part of our role:
“This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends. You are my friends if you do what I command you. No longer do I call you servants, for the servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all that I have heard from my Father I have made known to you. You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide, so that whatever you ask the Father in my name, he may give it to you. These things I command you, so that you will love one another.
Like Jonathan and David, we are in a covenant together where we have an active faith in Christ - but we act in faith for each other.
Because we are how our King continues to keep His covenant with us. Our love for each other is not just Christ’s love for us, it is His love for the world.
Because all people will know Who our King is by how we love each other.
So as we look back and realize all that our King has done for us. That He has brought us victory over sin and death and the powers of darkness. And as we look forward to the day that sin is no more and even physical death is no more.
And as we realize all He is still doing - as we consider His abundant provision - that we tend to take for granted - and see that He is honoring His part of the covenant day by day, moment by moment.
Let us look within, and ask ourselves - who reigns in me? Who is on the throne of my life? Of my decisions? Of my desires?
Let us ask ourselves - am I keeping the covenant?
And also let us look around, and see that this is not about “me”- it’s about “us.” It’s about our church. It’s about what God has called us to be together.
Each of us, and all of us.
Which is why it is absolutely essential for each of us and all of us, to abdicate the throne.
Because Jesus Christ is King.
Let us pray with Wesley:
I am no longer my own, but yours. Put me to what you will, rank me with whom you will; put me to doing, put me to suffering; let me be employed for you, or laid aside for you, exalted for you, or brought low for you; let me be full, let me be empty, let me have all things, let me have nothing: I freely and wholeheartedly yield all things to your pleasure and disposal. And now, glorious and blessed God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, you are mine and I am yours. So be it. And the covenant now made on earth, let it be ratified in heaven. Amen. - John Wesley, Covenant Prayer
Let us recommit ourselves to the covenant Christ died to make with us.