Image via WikipediaIf two sons were born to me today, I would name them Jonathan and David to memorialize and invoke a bond of friendship that transcended time and circumstance. When David, son of Jesse, and Jonathan, son of Saul, became friends, their spirits connected more deeply than blood. They remain soul mates for all eternity. The covenant of friendship they made before G0d (1 Samuel 20) cemented their desire to protect each other and their descendants. Jonathan, who embraced God's will, understood that David was G-d's anointed leader over Israel. Even though he had to honor his father King Saul, he vowed to protect David.
Some time after the deaths of King Saul and and his son Jonathan, Israel suffered a drought that lasted for three successive years. When David inquired of God, he learned that Israel was being judged for violating the covenant Israel made in God's name, with the Gibeonites (Joshua 9). King Saul had wrongly attacked and nearly exterminated all of the Gibeonites.
Since this was an affront to His Name, to His very character, God instructed David to avenge those massacred. David was to do what the Gibeonites requested in order for God to arrest the judgement against Israel. When the Gibeonites asked that seven men of the descendants of Saul be released to them for execution, David spared Mephibosheth, the son of Jonathan.
Here God showed how seriously He took vows made in His Name by men He appointed as leaders before Him. When a leader of Israel made a vow or covenant in God's Name, he declared God as party to the it. Since God will not be shown to lie or to deceive, any covenant made by His representative had to be honored. God's Word is absolute to all to whom it is given.
If David violated the vow he made with Jonathan, Israel would probably have been judged because David, as the anointed King, represented Israel. If it weren't for the covenant David and Jonathan made, David's advisers would probably have prevailed upon David to give Mephibosheth, a likely contender for the throne, up to the Gibeonites. So, this covenant of love protected David from being forced to act on a political expediency that would have broken his heart. In this victory over man's wisdom, David had much
about which to praise God.
Some time after the deaths of King Saul and and his son Jonathan, Israel suffered a drought that lasted for three successive years. When David inquired of God, he learned that Israel was being judged for violating the covenant Israel made in God's name, with the Gibeonites (Joshua 9). King Saul had wrongly attacked and nearly exterminated all of the Gibeonites.
Since this was an affront to His Name, to His very character, God instructed David to avenge those massacred. David was to do what the Gibeonites requested in order for God to arrest the judgement against Israel. When the Gibeonites asked that seven men of the descendants of Saul be released to them for execution, David spared Mephibosheth, the son of Jonathan.
Here God showed how seriously He took vows made in His Name by men He appointed as leaders before Him. When a leader of Israel made a vow or covenant in God's Name, he declared God as party to the it. Since God will not be shown to lie or to deceive, any covenant made by His representative had to be honored. God's Word is absolute to all to whom it is given.
If David violated the vow he made with Jonathan, Israel would probably have been judged because David, as the anointed King, represented Israel. If it weren't for the covenant David and Jonathan made, David's advisers would probably have prevailed upon David to give Mephibosheth, a likely contender for the throne, up to the Gibeonites. So, this covenant of love protected David from being forced to act on a political expediency that would have broken his heart. In this victory over man's wisdom, David had much
about which to praise God.
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