Come, let us now pursue our Jonathan a little further in 1 Sam. 20. Saul still seeks the life of David. "But as then he that was born after the flesh persecuted him that was born after the Spirit, even so it is now." But persecution marks out the true followers of Jesus: "Ye are they that have continued with Me in My temptations." This was very tenderly expressed, but it showed how the heart of Jesus valued the faithful fellowship of His disciples, however dull, when the outward house sought His life, and took counsel to put Him to death. Surely this was beautifully foreshadowed in our chapter. Precious to David was the sympathy of devoted Jonathan. How it sweetened the bitter cup! Those words, "Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou Me?" tell out fully how the heart of Jesus beats for all the members here below. And do they not also show how dear to Him is sympathy with the hated and persecuted ones? Oh, what a strange thing man's hatred of Jesus was, and still is!
Have you not noticed, from that day to this, man's hatred is in proportion to the Christian's faithfulness to Christ? Is it not so? Who are really hated by the great outward house of our day but the despised few who desire to really tread in His blessed footsteps? Are any others slandered and hated as these? But from the day of Paul to this moment, the worst lie against Christ is this, that if we give to Him the honor of complete and everlasting salvation, without works of our own, that this doctrine will lead to disobedience, and carelessness of walk. How fully this lie is rebuked in our Jonathan—"Then said Jonathan unto David, Whatsoever thy soul desireth, I will even do it for thee." Precious obedience, heart obedience, fruit of faith! I might point everywhere in the New Testament and find the same fruit. "Lord, what wilt Thou have me to do?" is the first impulse of the newborn Paul.
Is this the language of your heart to your precious Lord?—"Whatsoever Thy soul desireth, I will even do it for Thee." This goes very far beyond the law, good and holy and just as it was. It is the heaven-implanted desire to do the will of the Lord, even whatsoever He desireth me to do. And there was this readiness in Jonathan to serve David in the house of his father, and to show David the disposition of his father, be it kindness or hatred. I think we may say he was truly David's man in the house of Saul.
Judging from outward appearance, David was the rejected outcast; and yet how beautifully faith knew him as the chosen of Jehovah! "And Jonathan caused David to swear again, because he loved him; for he loved him as he loved his own soul." And when the new moon was come, and the king sat in his seat, David's place was empty; yet how fully did Jonathan confess David, though his confession brought down upon him the severe anger of his father Saul! "And he said unto him, Thou son of the perverse and rebellious woman, do not I know that thou hast chosen the son of Jesse to thine own confusion, and unto the confusion of thy mother's nakedness? For as long as the son of Jesse liveth upon the ground, thou shalt not be established, nor thy kingdom. Wherefore now send and fetch him unto me, for he shall surely die." Still Jonathan speaks good for David: "Wherefore shall he be slain? what hath he done?" "If they have hated Me, they will hate you also."
"And Saul cast a javelin at him to smite him." Well did he now know the determined hatred of his father to David. How much his heart felt as the arrow of warning was shot we may gather from this: "As soon as the lad was gone, David arose out of a place toward the south, and fell on his face to the ground, and bowed himself three times: and they kissed one another, and wept one with another, until David exceeded. And Jonathan said to David, Go in peace, forasmuch 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. And he arose and departed: and Jonathan went into the city."
The sorrows of God's anointed David were but shadows of the deeper sorrows of God's only begotten Son, whether we look at the manifold sufferings by which He was perfected as the Captain of our salvation, or at the suffering of death, by which He is now glorified at the right hand of God. No doubt, the pressure on the heart of David was used in giving utterance to those then future sorrows of our Jesus.
But at this point of Jonathan's history—and it is a solemn point—we must remember that David was now an outcast from the house of Saul, and that the Lord Jesus is at this moment an outcast from this world; that as Saul hated David, so, and more as, has this world hated, rejected, cast out—yes, murdered the anointed Christ of God; and that He is still the hated and rejected Jesus.
But there was another side of the picture. God had rejected the house of Saul, though He long bore with it—yes, during all the time of David's rejection. And He had chosen and anointed David. And the Lord was with David, even as He was not with Saul. Surely Samuel knew this, and David knew this, though faith was sorely tried. And Jonathan knew this, as we shall see in his next and last interview with David.
But I must now tell you of the one thing lacking in our Jonathan. It is very painful to do so; shall I tell you why? Ah, there are so many Jonathans in our day! Is it not sad—to know Jesus, and to love Jesus, to confess Him, to delight much in Jesus, to desire to serve Him in this evil world, and yet to stop short of one—the crowning thing lacking!
What can this one thing be? My reader may say, through the grace of God, "All that you have said of this typical Jonathan as yet, is true of me." You can, then, remember the time when God brought your sins before you, and the adversary was permitted to harass your soul, as Goliath defied the armies of Israel at the valley of Elah, and you found no deliverance, no peace, until the Holy Spirit revealed Jesus to your soul, the sent One of God, and told you how He had finished the great work of redemption, and that through His precious blood your sins were forever gone, as the Philistines fled from the valley of Elah. And did this win your heart to Jesus, as Jonathan was knit to David? You may have had many a crushing of human pride since then. But can you say, "Lord, Thou knowest that I love Thee"? and have you been stripped of all self-righteousness? are you fairly shut up to Jesus? is He all and you nothing? is He precious to your soul? Can you say, "I delight much in-Him"? for sure I am He is much delighted in, even as we learn the emptiness of all else, and the worthlessness of all that is of man. And have you confessed Jesus in your own society—in, it may be, your own house? Have you held on, speaking well of Jesus in the face of all hatred and opposition? As Jonathan was David's witness, David's man, have you been the witness of Jesus? Has it been your delight to hold communion with and serve Jesus, as Jonathan delighted to tell David and serve him? If so, is it not painful that there should be all this and yet come short of the one thing lacking?
Did you notice the last few words as to our Jonathan? (chp. 20:42.) And David "arose and departed, and Jonathan went into the city." And where did David depart to? In chapter 22 we find him in the cave of Adullam. "And when his brethren and all his father's house heard it, they went down thither to him. And every one that was in distress, and every one that was in debt, and every one that was discontented, gathered themselves unto him; and he became a captain over them; and there were with him about four hundred men." But there was one that was not with him, and that one was even our Jonathan. But perhaps you ask, "Is it possible that Jonathan knew of the coming reign of David, and was not with him?" Well let us read Jonathan's last interview with David, and we shall see there can be no mistake about that.
"And Jonathan, Saul's son arose, and went to David into the wood, and strengthened his hand in God. And he said unto him, 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 Saul my father knoweth. And they two made a covenant before the LORD.
And David abode in the wood, and Jonathan went to his house"—and that house the house of the rejected Saul. Yet, it is quite clear he well knew the coming reign of his beloved David; and as well did he know the rejection of Saul's house; and yet he failed to go outside and take his place, the place of faith, with God's chosen and coming king.
Do you know, my reader, the end of the present age? Do you know that "when they shall say, Peace and safety; then sudden destruction cometh"?—that "judgment must begin at the house of God"?—that as the apostate house of Saul was cut off, so shall apostate Christendom be spewed out of His mouth? Now do you not see much around you bearing this character of soul? What a day of blowing of trumpets! Let the Hebrews hear what we are doing! Never was there such a day of man's doing and trumpeting. "Because thou sayest, I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing; and knowest not that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked." This is our Lord's own description of the last state of the great outward doomed house. (Rev. 3:15-2015I know thy works, that thou art neither cold nor hot: I would thou wert cold or hot. 16So then because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spue thee out of my mouth. 17Because thou sayest, I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing; and knowest not that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked: 18I counsel thee to buy of me gold tried in the fire, that thou mayest be rich; and white raiment, that thou mayest be clothed, and that the shame of thy nakedness do not appear; and anoint thine eyes with eyesalve, that thou mayest see. 19As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten: be zealous therefore, and repent. 20Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me. (Revelation 3:15‑20).) Great in the world, indeed, was Saul when compared with the outcast David, but how wretched and miserable his end!
But do you know, my reader, that the earth-rejected Jesus is even now at the right hand of the Majesty on high, and that He will quickly come, and with an assembling shout call up His saints to meet Him in the air (1 Thess. 4); and that afterward He will come in judgment on them who have not obeyed the gospel (2 Thess. 1); and that then the glorious reign of the now-rejected Jesus will surely take place? Do you say, Yes I know all these things will surely come to pass?
And do you know that God has by His Spirit gathered a few of the Lord's redeemed ones to the now-despised Jesus, as David's four hundred were gathered to him in the cave of Adullam? True, they were a sorry company, those four hundred, but they were gathered to such a David. Ah, had Jonathan been one of them, would his body have been fastened to the walls of Bethshan?
But it is high time to put the question to you: Where are you? Are you building wood, hay, and stubble in the great house of Saul—the outward, showy Christendom—that which professes to be the Church of God, but which has indeed become the church of the world? Or have you taken your place outside the camp with the rejected but coming Jesus? Ah, I think I hear you say, Oh, those separated Christians, they are such dreadful people! So our Jonathan might have said of David's four hundred. But what of Jesus? Is He not worthy that you should forsake everything and identify yourself alone with Him? You will find a few others, through mercy, in the same blessed place; though indeed the religious world tries hard to make them a sect, and as they were in the days of Paul, a sect everywhere spoken against. I do not mince the matter. There is the great outward house, like the house of Saul; and there is separation from it, and identification with Jesus in His rejection, like the four hundred with David; and if you are a Christian, you are certainly in one place or the other. Perhaps you say, I get my bread in this great worldly system. Well, that is, I grant a very serious matter. But so did Jonathan, and you see the end of it in his case—walls of Bethshan.
"But," says another, "do you not see the influence I have, by staying where I am? what a congregation! what opportunities to speak for Jesus!
Do you think I should have the same, or anything like the same opportunities if I took my place outside to the name of Jesus? And think how much my own relations would be against it! And to leave all the splendor and comfort of all that is admired in the world, where one can truly speak for Jesus." Ah, my friend, Jonathan could have said all this; but why did he lose his reward for his service and love to David? and why did he come to the shameful walls of Bethshan? Was it not because he acted on the very same principle that so many act upon now? He clung to the outward, which God had rejected, and failed to take his place with the poor and despised followers of God's anointed one. You know, my reader, that God is not with the bazaars and worldliness and tolerated evil of the professing church. If you delight much in Jesus, if you desire to do whatsoever He desireth you, then surely His own voice will be heard in these precious scriptures concerning Himself. Oh, is it not sad to be spending your time in and for that which is to be destroyed at the coming of the Lord? Occasional visits and communion, and then back to the outward house of Saul—Ah, this will not do! You may have Jonathan's four marks of true conversion to Christ and yet lose your reward.
1. Like Jonathan, you may have been filled with love to Jesus, beholding Him the Lamb of God that has put away your sins (1 Sam. 18:11And it came to pass, when he had made an end of speaking unto Saul, that the soul of Jonathan was knit with the soul of David, and Jonathan loved him as his own soul. (1 Samuel 18:1)); 2. Stripped of self for Jesus (v. 4); 3. Made full confession of Jesus, delighting much in Him (chap. 19:1-5); 4. You may have desired to do whatsoever Jesus desireth (chap. 20:4): but, as Rebecca left all for her coming Isaac, are you willing to leave all and take your place of devoted identification with Jesus?
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