In this passage David once again confronted his best friend Jonathan about Jonathan’s father Saul. Saul wanted to kill David. Jonathan denied this. In verses 2-3, he told David, “Behold, my father does nothing either great or small without disclosing it to me. So why should my father hide this thing from me? It is not so! Yet David vowed again, saying, ‘Your father knows well that I have found favor in your sight, and he has said, ‘Do not let Jonathan know this, lest he be grieved.’”  So the two stressed friends made a plan to find out the truth about Saul wanting to kill David. I wonder if both of them hoped that Jonathan was correct. As it turned out, David was correct. As Saul and Jonathan talked about David, Saul became so angry with Jonathan that he took a spear and tried to kill his own son. The next day, Jonathan told David to run for his life. Saul really did want to kill him. 

 

As I read these verses, two thoughts occurred to me. First, David’s life was probably not turning out the way he thought it might, back when he was first learning to herd sheep. Second, I am sure Jonathan’s life was not exactly turning out the way he thought it would either. Where was God in all of this real-life drama? If people can really depend on God to be active in their lives, then where was he for Jonathan and David? I’m drawn to Jonathan’s plight more so than David’s. David was escaping to safety. Jonathan actually went back home. The same home he shared with Saul, the father who tried to kill him. Jonathan didn’t run away with David. That truly is a wonder. Why didn’t he run away? What made him return home? I can only guess at how tumultuous Jonathan’s home life must have been for him. Life was not going well for him. When my life takes a turn I do not expect, I wonder, where is God when I need Him? What I have discovered is that God is in control now just as He was during Jonathan’s life. He does not threaten us when we don’t instantly do as he wants. God cares so much about you and me that He prepared a way for us to connect with Him, anytime we need to. Unlike Jonathan, we don’t have to wonder if we are understood by our Heavenly Father. When we reach out to God through His son Jesus, He meets us where we are. We never have to wonder how He will respond. Will He be happy or angry? Will He love us or hurt us? God sent Jesus to bridge the gap created by the sin in our lives. God has a plan for each of us. To know that plan, we need to go to God in prayer and ask.

 

Your fellow traveler,

 

Kathy