Day 18
"I grieve for you, Jonathan my brother; you were very dear to me." 2 Samuel 1:26
Jonathan and David had a remarkable friendship, forged through tension, conflict and loyalty. David as a young man had been anointed to become the next king of Israel by the prophet Samuel. However, King Saul was on the throne and Jonathan was his firstborn son and heir, and Saul was determined Jonathan would succeed him. Saul, driven by jealousy over David's military success and popularity, beginning when he slayed the giant Goliath, hated David and conspired to kill him.
Faced with the truth, Jonathan is confronted with a choice; standing by his beloved friend and God's anointed, or the father he loved whose throne was his to inherit. But Jonathan sought the mind of God. He said to David when Saul was seeking his life, "Don't be afraid. My father will not lay a hand on you. As God’s anointed, you shall be king over Israel, and I will be second to you" (1 Samuel 23:17). Jonathan knew the sun was setting on his father’s reign and was rising in David's life. He aligned himself with what he discerned God was doing and stood strong with David.
On one occasion Saul traced David to Horesh and came to take his life. 1 Samuel 23.16 tells us, ‘And Saul's son Jonathan went to David at Horesh and helped him find strength in God’. This must be the key to Jonathan’s life. He didn’t help him either fight or escape, but to ‘find strength in God’. Jonathan was secure enough himself in God, to not have to defend either his own position as heir to the throne, or David’s position as anointed successor, but to help David turn his attention away from the conflict and circumstances to ‘find strength in God’.
Jonathan subsequently died fighting alongside his father against the Philistines on Mount Gilboa. Jonathan had been a tower of strength, support and God-centeredness to David, and he mourned him deeply, ‘I grieve for you, Jonathan my brother; you were very dear to me. Your love for me was wonderful, more wonderful than that of women’ (2 Samuel 1:26). Loyalty is an irreplaceable gift.