David and Jonathan Make a Pact

While Saul was occupied at Ramah, David retraced his steps to Gibeah to meet secretly with Jonathan. David had seen Saul’s bizarre behavior firsthand, and he wanted another opinion as to how serious the threat to his life might be.

He asked Jonathan, “How have I come up short? Where have I failed in service to king and country?” Jonathan assured him his father would take no action against David without telling him first. David was not so sure.

Saul certainly knew the young men were friends, and though Jonathan had been able to reason with his father thus far, that might change in the future.

Together they came up with a plan to evaluate the risk.

An annual Jewish sacrificial feast was coming up, and David would be expected to sit at the king’s table. Knowing his absence would be questioned, Jonathan was to tell his father David had asked to be excused so that he might go home to Bethlehem to share the feast with family. The reaction of Saul to this news would reveal his purpose.

Jonathan and David took a solemn oath to never betray one another.

“There is a valuable lesson in this experience. Men do not have the same heredity and environment, and consequently do not approach the problems of life in the same way. . . . Saul, in his impatient tyranny and bigotry, felt that he must be first, and that what he said was correct and final. Anyone disagreeing had to be eliminated, regardless of the means taken to do it. Yet his own son approached life from an entirely different angle. Why the difference between father and son when both had had much the same surroundings and training? . . . “The solution to these questions is found in the words of Paul: ‘to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants ye are’ (Rom. 6:16). Because of his free choice, man gives his service, his thoughts, and his outlook on life to either one or the other of two masters—two leaders who represent diametrically opposite standards.” Saul chose to walk in the darkness of his own pride and ego. Jonathan chose to humble himself and follow God’s light.

Do you feel the need to always be first? (Matthew 20:16).