1 Samuel 20:3-34.
David said, “There is but a step between me and death.” Dear reader, how would it be with you if there were but a step between you and death? Are you ready? Are you cleansed from your sins in Christ’s most precious blood? Remember you cannot tell when your turn will come—you may be but a step from death now.
David said that he would hide in a field, and then if Saul missed him, Jonathan was to say that David had asked permission to go to Bethlehem. If Saul became angry then he would know that evil was in his father’s heart toward David, but if he said, “It is well,” then Jonathan would know there was peace in his heart toward him. Jonathan then asked David to promise to show kindness to his household, even after his own death, and this David did. When he came to the throne one of the first things he did was to find Mephibosheth, Jonathan’s son, and show kindness to him. How the Lord delights in blessing, even to those who are unfaithful, a’s Jonathan was here.
Jonathan left David out in the field and returned to Saul’s court. On the first day, when David’s place was empty at the table, Saul did not say anything, but on the second day when he was still absent, Saul asked Jonathan why David was not there, and Jonathan began to explain how he had asked leave to go to Bethlehem. King Saul then became very angry and railed on Jonathan for the “foolish” choice he had made in becoming so attached to David. Jonathan then began to ask his father why he hated David so, but Saul did not answer; instead he threw a javelin at Jonathan. He could not bear to have anyone speak well of David; neither can the world bear to have anyone speak well of Christ.
If Jonathan never knew before the full enmity and hatred of his father to David—an enmity without cause—he surely knew it now. Jonathan felt so keenly that his father had spoken against David that he got up and left the table in the heat of anger. This was righteous anger (Ephesians 4:26). It is not righteous anger when we get upset over personal insults, but we ought to feel angry inside over anything that is said against the Lord Jesus Christ. Jonathan did not eat all day. Now the test had come. He knew exactly how his father felt toward David, and he loved David greatly, but whose company was he going to choose? He could not have both.
Dear reader, has this crisis come in your life? Have you, like Jonathan, been walking with the world, thinking it is not really so bad after all? Then has the Lord allowed you to see its real enmity against Christ? Has that unsaved boy or girl friend come out in his or her true colors, so you really found out they hated Christ and did not want you to speak of Him? What are you going to do? Is your heart broken? Jonathan’s was. Have you gone to the Lord, telling Him all about it? Jonathan went to David and told him all about it too; but it was a time for action, not just talking. Sometimes God brings us to this point, when everything comes out in the light of His presence and we must act one way or the other. There is only one right way, and we know it! Is He worthy of our ALL? Indeed He is!
ML 11/07/1954