We left Jonathan in the middle of his plan in the last article, so we need to see what is happening to him and through him. I Samuel 20:14-17 says, “And thou (David) shalt not cut off thy kindness from my house for ever: no, not when the LORD hath cut off the enemies of David every one from the face of the earth. So Jonathan made a covenant with the house of David, saying, Let the LORD ever require it at the hand of David’s enemies. And Jonathan caused David to swear again, because he loved him: for he loved him as he loved his own soul.” Jonathan knew in his heart that God had determined to make David the King of Israel some day, therefore he asked that David show him kindness during his lifetime that he would not die at the hands of any of David’s soldiers when David would become king. He also asked David to refrain from cutting off his household, when David would become king, for Jonathan knew that God would cut off the enemies of David at some point in the future. Now we come to a most touching part of our story about David and Jonathan, for verse 16 shows Jonathan making a covenant with the house of David, asking God to deal with David’s enemies, even if his own father Saul should continue to be David’s enemy! In essence, Jonathan choose loyalty to a faithful friend over allegiance to his own father, who had already tried to kill David because of his jealousy of him.
I Samuel 20:17 shows that Jonathan caused David to swear again concerning the descendants of Jonathan that he would not cut them off when he became king. The reason for this covenant was the love of Jonathan for David, for Jonathan loved David as he loved his own life; the word “soul” comes from a word that literally means: a breathing creature. So, Jonathan was fulfilling the actual command of “Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself”, as found in Leviticus 19:18 and in the New Testament, as stated by Jesus in Matthew 5:43 and 19:19. The love relationship between Jonathan and David was absolutely not a homosexual relationship, for both of these men were godly. and Leviticus 18:22 strictly forbids any sexual relationship between two men. Moreover, other references forbid sexual relationships between both men and men and women and women (Romans 1:26-27; I Timothy 1:10 etc.). In our day we have allowed those who do not know Scripture to put their own “slant’ on the story of David and Jonathan!
By J. Briggs King
Evangelist
Rainsville, AL
(678) 451-0921