True love in friendship

Day 16

Love and friendship

Back to David, I just love that man; he had his strengths and his weakness but through it all, he stood in God and the love and fear of God kept him standing.

In 1 Samuel 20, we find a story about two people that shouldn’t have stayed in the same space without killing each other.  David and Jonathan were people who were both contenders for the throne of Israel.  David was a contender by anointing and Jonathan by birth.  Jonathan's father Saul was king, so by right, Jonathan was to inherit.  David was the man God anointed to be the next king and the whole of Israel was aware of that.

These two men met in the palace when David came to work for Saul. The bible says in 1 Samuel 19 that Jonathan was very fond of David and even protected David against his own Father.

David was born a shepherd, whiles Jonathan was a prince.  David was Saul’s servant whiles Jonathan was Saul’s son, yet their bond and love for each other grew. The bible says that they went into an oath of love; they swore to love each other and protect each other.

Now Saul, the king of Israel, saw the exploits of David and knew that David would one day be king. But being human that he was, he was intent on making sure that his son would inherit the throne so he set out to kill David.  He knew that as long as David was alive, nothing would keep him from the throne because Samuel the prophet had already told him that his throne had been taken away from him and given to another.  And so to protect his throne, he set out to kill David. 

 David, having escaped a few attempts by Saul to kill him, went to Jonathan and asked for help, and the bible says, Saul got angry at Jonathan's intervention and threw his spear to kill him.  Anybody  would have been afraid and backed off after nearly facing death because of a friend.  Any son would have apologised to his father and turned their back on David.  Any son knowing his father was protecting his throne for his sake would have cut off all ties with David so as to protect his own interest, and yet Jonathan, knowing what the Lord had said concerning his father’s throne and David, chose to walk in the path of love and not follow blindly the evil that his father was plotting. 


Not much was said about Jonathan’s spirituality in the bible, but the story recounted here lets me know that Jonathan must have been a very godly and spiritual man.  He probably, had heard over and over since his father became king that he would inherit the throne.  I bet that from the day his father was crowned and he became the crown prince; he was tutored on how to behave as king and on all the protocol of kingship. Yet this man, choose to accept what God had said and allied himself with God’s chosen ruler.  He saw where God was going and he followed.

 A true friend would not envy when God is leading someone where he or she would rather be, and would not join forces with the enemy to destroy their friend even if that enemy was their family.

Here was a friendship of love, two men who should have been at each other’s throat, were bound together by love.  Jonathan was aware that David was going to be king; he even made David swear to protect his family when he became king.  Because of the friendship they had, when Saul’s house rebelled against David when he became king, the bible says, David still looked for any of Jonathan's survivors so he could protect them.

This is the kind of friendship that the bible encourages us to have.  Jonathan and David were human just like us, yet they let love lead their friendship.  When we are bound together in love as friends, we won’t back bite, we won’t be selfish and mean to each other and we will protect each other from harm.

As Christians, let us look at the example these two men set for us, and like the early church in Acts, let us learn and practice what true friendship is.

Written by Aba Dadson





























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