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1 Samuel 20
20:1 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?” 2 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.” 3 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.” 4 Then Jonathan said to David, “Whatever you say, I will do for you.” 5 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. 6 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.’ 7 If he says, ‘Good!’ it will be well with your servant, but if he is angry, then know that harm is determined by him. 8 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?” 9 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?” 10 Then David said to Jonathan, “Who will tell me if your father answers you roughly?” 11 And Jonathan said to David, “Come, let us go out into the field.” So they both went out into the field.
12 And Jonathan said to David, “The LORD, the God of Israel, be witness!1 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? 13 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. 14 If I am still alive, show me the steadfast love of the LORD, that I may not die; 15 and do not cut off2 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.” 16 And Jonathan made a covenant with the house of David, saying, “May3 the LORD take vengeance on David’s enemies.” 17 And Jonathan made David swear again by his love for him, for he loved him as he loved his own soul.
18 Then Jonathan said to him, “Tomorrow is the new moon, and you will be missed, because your seat will be empty. 19 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.4 20 And I will shoot three arrows to the side of it, as though I shot at a mark. 21 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. 22 But if I say to the youth, ‘Look, the arrows are beyond you,’ then go, for the LORD has sent you away. 23 And as for the matter of which you and I have spoken, behold, the LORD is between you and me forever.”
24 So David hid himself in the field. And when the new moon came, the king sat down to eat food. 25 The king sat on his seat, as at other times, on the seat by the wall. Jonathan sat opposite,5 and Abner sat by Saul’s side, but David’s place was empty.
26 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.” 27 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?” 28 Jonathan answered Saul, “David earnestly asked leave of me to go to Bethlehem. 29 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.”
30 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? 31 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.” 32 Then Jonathan answered Saul his father, “Why should he be put to death? What has he done?” 33 But Saul hurled his spear at him to strike him. So Jonathan knew that his father was determined to put David to death. 34 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.
35 In the morning Jonathan went out into the field to the appointment with David, and with him a little boy. 36 And he said to his boy, “Run and find the arrows that I shoot.” As the boy ran, he shot an arrow beyond him. 37 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?” 38 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. 39 But the boy knew nothing. Only Jonathan and David knew the matter. 40 And Jonathan gave his weapons to his boy and said to him, “Go and carry them to the city.” 41 And as soon as the boy had gone, David rose from beside the stone heap6 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. 42 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.7
[1] 20:12
[2] 20:15
[3] 20:16
[4] 20:19
[5] 20:25
[6] 20:41
[7] 20:42
(ESV)
Redeemer exists to celebrate and declare the gospel of God as we grow in knowing and following Jesus Christ.
If you would, open your Bibles to 1st Samuel 20. The whole chapter is in your worship guide, but we are just gonna read the first 17 verses. And this is a beautiful day. And this is a beautiful day. And this is a beautiful day.
Joel Brooks:And this is
Collin Hansen:a beautiful day. And this is a beautiful day. And this is a beautiful day. And this is a beautiful day. And this is a beautiful day.
Collin Hansen:And this is a beautiful day. And this is a beautiful day. And this is a beautiful day. And this is a beautiful day.
Joel Brooks:And this is a beautiful day. And this is a
Collin Hansen:beautiful day. And this is a beautiful day.
Joel Brooks: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?
Joel Brooks:It is not so. 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 shall not fail to sit at the table with the king.
Joel Brooks:But let me go that I may hide myself in the field till the 3rd day at evening. If your father misses me at all, then say, David earnestly asked leave of me to run to Bethlehem, his city, 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?
Joel Brooks: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. And so they both went out into the field.
Joel Brooks:And Jonathan said to David, The Lord, the God of Israel, be my witness. Shall I not 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.
Joel Brooks:And do not cut off your steadfast love for 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. Pray with me.
Joel Brooks:Lord Jesus, we honor you in this moment. We declare your worth, that you're worth everything. I pray that would be clear tonight. I pray through your spirit you would come and you would speak to us, that you would be lifted up high. In this moment, I pray that my words would fall to the ground and blow away and not be remembered anymore.
Joel Brooks:But, lord, may your words remain and may they change us. And we pray this in the strong name of Jesus. Amen. Thank you for your prayers as, as we went to Haiti this past week. We're gonna give a report on that in a couple of weeks.
Joel Brooks:And I just wanna say before we look at the text that my heart is really full. After coming back from Haiti and seeing what the Lord is doing there and how he's using our church and being able to send the Webbers off to Uganda, and And Sarah Dunn's already in Uganda. My heart's full because this is actually 5 years we've been around as a church today. It marks our 5 year anniversary, Palm Sunday 5 years ago. And I don't know how many of you were there during that time.
Joel Brooks:Probably, you know, I could count you on a hand, maybe 2. When we began our church at our house, really just as a time of prayer, praying and trying to seek the Lord for what he might want for us. And for those of you who were around during that time, you might remember me saying, just know if we're starting a church, nobody gets the church they want. Nobody does. Not even me, and I'm starting it.
Collin Hansen:But we're
Joel Brooks:gonna get the church that God wants for us to have. We're gonna give get the church that God says that we need, and we'll move in the direction that he sends us. And so we spent a lot of time in prayer, praying and meeting at our house. It got a little awkward and uncomfortable as we grew a bit and had to move furniture out each week, for our services. But just seeing how the Lord just gradually started bringing in just a faithful, committed few that love him and love this community.
Joel Brooks:Oh, we were only committed really to a few things that that we knew we wanted as a church. One, we wanted a place where the word of god will be preached because god transforms people, he transforms cultures through his word and his spirit breathing life into that. And so so we wanted to do that. We wanted to be a place of prayer. You've heard me say a number of times, if we cease to be a people who pray, let God close our doors.
Joel Brooks:We want to be a people who engage ourselves with him, who hear from him, who who kinda lean in close to his heart, and that happens through prayer. We wanted to be a, a church that wasn't program driven, but a church that just focused on a very few things and tried to do them well, so it would free up our time so we could invest in our neighbors, invest in our community, and not try to spend every waking moment inside of a church, while people outside were dying. We wanted to be a place that lived and spoke the gospel. I guess if you were to say what was our vision for a church and just being the the founding pastor here, it's one of those questions I get a whole lot. You know, what is the vision for the church?
Joel Brooks:And I'm always a little stumped. I don't I don't really know what to say to that. Because I have friends or pastors of other churches and, you know, they have this really clear cut vision of, you know, like we're the we're the church for the the homeless people downtown or we're we wanna live and we want to preach the gospel. And we wanna seek God's spirit and however he leads us. I I don't know.
Joel Brooks:I can't tell you where we're going to be in 5 years. I don't know, but we really wanna be sensitive to the Lord in his direction. And so I guess that's the vision for our church. And and we want to be able to to use our resources, everything, our homes as a way of reaching out to the community, our finances that you give here. You know, there's a reason we meet in a building where it has dead rats.
Joel Brooks:Okay. And before this, we met in Girls Incorporated. We spend about 3% of our budget on facility, and it enables us to give to missions and to sponsor people like the Webbers, the people that we have because that's where what we want to do. We wanna be out in this community and out in the world. I'm not saying we do that perfectly at all, but it is a heartbeat of our church.
Joel Brooks:Years ago, about 15 years ago, I was doing college ministry and it was growing a whole lot, and I was really discouraged through our growth. I I'm I'm weird that way. I always just wanted small, and it was really large. And everybody was just saying how the Lord's blessed. The Lord's blessed, and I didn't know if that was true or not.
Joel Brooks:And it wasn't till I I took a team out on the mission field, and we were out. It was in Northern Ireland, and we were seeing people come to know the Lord that the Lord broke me just with joy. And I I still remember that morning, I could not stop weeping. They're seeing the impact that that college ministry was actually having in the world. And I feel when I say my heart is full, I feel that same way.
Joel Brooks:When when I see the impact the redeemer is having around the world and in this community, and that we just haven't built walls and looked inward, It makes my heart full because Jesus is worth it. And I I hope that in another 5 years, we're we're going on the same trajectory. Alright? And and the text I wanna look at tonight, I wanna talk about what I see god calling us as a church to be, where I hope we are 5 years from now. There's 4 things in this text I wanna talk about.
Joel Brooks:How are to be a community of prayer, a community of grace, a community of discipleship, and a community shaped by our future hope. Let's look at a community of prayer. When I first began studying the life of David, and I began months ago working through a number of things, something just seemed off to me. And,
Collin Hansen:I
Joel Brooks:had read and I had read, reread just all the chapters that we have gone through up to this point. And, it was hard for me to put my finger on it, but just something seemed off when we're studying David. And it it really did not dawn on me until a couple of weeks ago. And that's you never actually know what David's thinking. You never actually know what David feels know when David is anointed by Samuel, we know what Samuel is thinking.
Joel Brooks:We know he's thinking, oh, there's Eliab And Eliab, he's the one God wants to anoint. And God says, no, God doesn't look at the outward appearance. He looks at the heart. And we get this internal dialogue. But when it comes to David, nothing.
Joel Brooks:When the spirit of God rushes upon David, nothing is described other than just it rushed on. We don't know how David felt. We don't know what the experience felt like, which is really unusual today because when we talk about being filled with the spirit, we use very emotional language and it's completely absent there. Only the actions are there. And we know that David is a man after God's own heart, but we don't actually know what's going on in his heart.
Joel Brooks:We we only see his actions. When David fought Goliath, we're told what he did. We're told what he said, but we were not told what he felt. And, but we're told what everybody else was feeling. We know that Goliath disdained David.
Joel Brooks:We know that the people were trembling with fear. So we get everybody else's perspective, but David, we don't know what's going on. And it really gets unusual when we get to chapter 18, when David and Jonathan's, friendship is described. And it says, Jonathan loved him like his soul was knit to him. He loved him like his own soul, and there's nothing from David.
Joel Brooks:It's like saying the, you know, the I love you and you're getting nothing in return. That's that's that's the bell for the other church on the other side. It's just really awkward. I mean, like, Jonathan loves him, loves him. David, there's nothing.
Joel Brooks:And very, very unusual. And so actually up to this point, we read that Saul loved David like a son. We read that Jonathan Bible having love for a man. The only one. And it's like the altar wants to put it in there, so we know that everybody loves David.
Joel Brooks:And when Saul begins trying to break David's heart, trying to kill him. You know, he tries to break his heart by giving him a daughter to marry and then taking her back at the last minute. Well, that's gotta break your heart, but we don't know how David feels. He He tries to kill David a number of times. We don't know how he feels.
Joel Brooks:We don't know if he's scared. We don't we don't know what's going on, But we do. The narrator goes to great lengths to hide David's emotions for us because I think he knows we have his emotions in the Psalms. David pours out his heart not to others. He pours out his heart to God, and you see that over and over.
Joel Brooks:He is a man after God's own heart when he gets in his closet, and he gets on his knees, and he pours out his soul before the lord. So even though we don't read in 1 Samuel, how David felt when, Saul was trying to betray him, trying to trick him. You know, one of the things he did was like, oh, you can marry my daughter, Michael. I just I just need a 100 foreskins. That's not much.
Joel Brooks:Those people weren't gonna give those willingly. I mean, he's gonna he's gonna have to fight for these things. And Saul's trying to kill him, but it's very flowery language. Oh, yes. I'd love to have you of us as a son-in-law.
Joel Brooks:Just do this one little thing. We we the only place we know where what's going on in David's heart and mind during these things is when you read the Psalms. So let me read to you Psalm 55. Give ear to my prayer, oh God. Hide not yourself for my plea for mercy.
Joel Brooks:Attend to me. Answer me. I am restless in my complaint, and I moan because of the noise of my enemy, enemy, because of the oppression of the wicked. For they drop trouble upon me, and in anger they bear a grudge against me. My heart is in anguish within me.
Joel Brooks:The terrors of death have fallen upon me. Fear and trembling come upon me. Horror overwhelms me. And I say, oh, that I had wings like a dove, and I would just fly away from here and be at rest. Yes, I'd wander far away.
Joel Brooks:I'd lodge in the wilderness. I'd hurry to find shelter from this raging wind and this tempest. For it's not an enemy who taunts me. If so, I could bear it. My companion, my familiar friend.
Joel Brooks:We used to take sweet counsel together within God's house. We walked in the throng. And so David begins just pouring in his heart to the Lord. It's like, it's my friend. He's he's the one betraying with me.
Joel Brooks:He's the one I thought I thought I was like a son to him. And so he pours that out and and then we hear these things. This makes me think of when when Saul was just saying, oh, I'd love to have you as a as a son-in-law. Just just get this little dowry price that's gonna get you killed. And we we read this from David.
Joel Brooks:He says, my companion stretched out his hand against his friend. He violated his covenant. His speech was smooth as butter, yet war was in his heart. He will never permit the righteous to be moved. But you, God, will cast them down into the pit of destruction.
Joel Brooks:Men of blood and treachery shall not live out half their days. But I I will trust in you. David was a man after God's own heart because he poured out his heart before God. His all of his fears, all of his anxieties, all of his burdens, all of his questions, all of his hopes and dreams, everything he just poured out to him. He doesn't lash out at Saul.
Joel Brooks:To him. He doesn't lash out at Saul. He doesn't try to find allies and like say, can you believe what Saul's doing to me? He doesn't speak to others first, he speaks to God. God's the one he goes to.
Joel Brooks:His is his is his is his Later, he's gonna begin opening up a little bit more to his friends, but he's always first and foremost, he goes to the Lord. And it shows exactly whom David trusted, whom he knew to be in control of his life. And it wasn't him, and It wasn't what he could do with the situation. It was the Lord. Listen.
Joel Brooks:Our first instinct is to go to others with our problems. I know that. Our first instinct is just to complain, but we should do so before the Lord. So one of my prayers for us as a church is that we would be a community of prayer and that during our times of pain, our times of frustration, our conversations would not first be outward to one another, but would be upward to the lord because he's the one in control. 2nd thing that I want us to learn as a church here is that we are to be a community of grace.
Joel Brooks:A community of grace. Look at verses 14 and 16 again. Now Jonathan and David are all about making some covenants. I mean, they're they're making covenants all the time. They made a covenant back in 18.
Joel Brooks:They make a covenant like here at the beginning, here at the end of the chapter. They make another covenant in chapter 23. So so they like making covenants with one another. But this is a unique covenant here. There's an interesting word here.
Joel Brooks:There's the two words here translated steadfast love. Show me the steadfast love of the Lord. That's the single word in Hebrew, hesed, which we've talked about a lot as a church. The word hesed hesed is this unending, unconditional, never failing, kindness and love of God towards us. That is a hesed love.
Joel Brooks:It's a love that will always be there no matter what the other party does. A love that never ever will fail. Hesed.
Collin Hansen:That's the kind
Joel Brooks:of covenant that's being made Hesed. That's the kind of covenant that's being made here. It remains immovable even when everything else falls apart. Hesed remains. And and notice here what Jonathan says to David.
Joel Brooks:He says, show me the steadfast love of Yahweh. He's asking David, this is astounding. He's saying, you love me like Yahweh loves me. I want you to have mercy on me like Yahweh has mercy on me. Show me God's hesed love.
Joel Brooks:That is that is astounding. Yet that's exactly what we are called to do as a community of believers. We are to demonstrate that unconditional, gracious never ending loving kindness of the Lord towards one another no matter what the other person does. We could do that because Jesus is the one who has demonstrated that love to us perfectly on the cross. We did nothing to earn that love.
Joel Brooks:We did everything to betray his love, yet he graciously showed hesed love. And the spirit of Jesus is poured in us. So that hesed love flows out into the community of God. It's a love based not on how others treat us. It's a love based on how God has treated us.
Joel Brooks:We're to be a community of grace. We're also to be a community of disciples, a community of disciples. Our call to follow Jesus is nothing less than a radical call to discipleship. It's a call to sacrificially give up your whole lives, everything you have in obedience and surrender to him. It means you are to love Jesus above all else.
Joel Brooks:And Jonathan Jesus said this, for I have come to set a man against his father and a daughter against her mother and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law. And a person's enemies will be those of his own household. Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me. Whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. And whoever does not take up his cross and follow me is not worthy of me.
Joel Brooks:Whoever finds his life will lose it. Whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. This is the exact choice that Jonathan had. He had to make this. Would he follow his father, or would he follow god's anointed one?
Joel Brooks:David. Would he leave his father's household and now become an enemy of his dad, or would he be an enemy of David? The the the choice was there. It was clear. What what was he to do?
Joel Brooks:And he gave up the love of his father in order to love God's anointed one. I mean, it had to be a gut wrenching decision. Because when we follow god's anointed one, we begin to become persecuted like god's anointed one. Just as they treated David, Jonathan is now being treated. Just as they treated Jesus, we are treated the same way.
Joel Brooks:That's the cost of discipleship. Jesus said, if they persecuted me, they will persecute you. Jonathan now shares in David's persecution. One of the things that I love, though, about Jonathan is in this, you really see a calling, of our church as he doesn't abandon his dad. Jonathan is in an impossible situation.
Joel Brooks:Okay? He wants to love his dad and he wants to serve David. And how how can you do that? Yet Jonathan's going to die on the field by his dad, all the while serving David. He becomes David's mediator.
Joel Brooks:He if you notice, Jonathan and David. Jonathan, the friendship is introduced in kind of the beginning of David's persecution, and the relationship is highlighted again at the end of Saul's life. And what you see is that the the friendship with Jonathan kind of bracketed the evil on David. It was kind of a buffer of it. Jonathan was was a mediator in a sense, a buffer in a sense.
Joel Brooks:He kept evil at bay as best as he could. It's very similar to our calling into the world, how we're to be salt and light into the world. We're to not just to withdraw and say, I want no part of you, and we're not to just assimilate and become just like the world. We are to become agents of truth within a dark world, agents of light within a dark world. Jonathan beautifully illustrates that.
Joel Brooks:And it doesn't have a happy ending for him because it cost him his life. But I promise you, he would say it was worth the cost. That's our calling as a church. It's not an easy calling, but it is our calling. Finally, we're to be a community shaped by our glorious future.
Joel Brooks:The reason that Jonathan was able to do this, the reason he can make all of these hard choices he had to make is because God had given him eyes of faith to see the future. There's there's some irony in this because Jonathan actually sees David's future a lot better than David does. David doesn't quite see it, but Jonathan sees it clearly. And if you notice in this text, David is the one who's on the run. David is the one who's been, you know, like repeatedly, Saul's tried to kill him.
Joel Brooks:So he's the refugee here. And Jonathan comes to him and says, will you make a covenant with me? Can we make a covenant so I'm not cut off forever? It's like, what? Wait.
Joel Brooks:David's the one who's in danger of his life. And Jonathan says, he's the one who's gonna be cut off. He's been given eyes to see what's really gonna happen. Look at verse 14 and 16 again. At the end of verse 16, it says, Jonathan made a covenant with the house of David.
Joel Brooks:You almost wanna laugh at that point. House of David? He's already treating, David's kingdom like it's a dynasty. David's a fugitive, and he's like, it's the house of David. But he's been given eyes to see.
Joel Brooks:Look at verse 15. He asked for David to show hesed to him and his household forever. Forever. Where where does he get that word from? Not till death do us part or something like that.
Joel Brooks:He's like, show me God's faithfulness, the faithfulness of Yahweh to my house forever. He's been given eyes of faith to see that David's kingdom will be an everlasting kingdom. That God is doing something through his anointed one, establishing a kingdom that will never end. And he wants the hesed love of God shown towards him for all of eternity. He's been given incredible eyes to see what God is creating here.
Joel Brooks:And hear me. I want us to be a community that is shaped by God's kingdom coming to this earth. I want our cry to be our father who art in heaven, thy kingdom come. Alright? That our future glorious hope of being part of a kingdom that will never end, that that becomes the factor that shapes everything.
Joel Brooks:It shapes our relationships. It shapes the way we treat our family. It shapes the way we deal with our money. It shapes the jobs that we have, the community that we're a part of. It shapes everything knowing that the kingdom will be established and Jesus will reign victorious for all of eternity.
Jeffrey Heine:It shaped Jonathan.
Joel Brooks:I pray it would shape us. So I want us to be a a community 5 years now, a community of prayer. I want us to be a community of the gospel of grace that shows hesed love towards one another, and a community that is committed to discipleship and following Jesus no matter the cost. And I want us to be a community that's shaped by our glorious future. I want us to take a a time to pray.