24-0904wc Transcript

Teacher: Mike Mathis

Good evening. I am taking the place of Tom Freed, who currently is having the Wednesday night class, but he, for this week and next week, will be at work. And I am filling in for him for this week and next Wednesday for the lesson that I’m going to discuss tonight and possibly next week.

It will be part two of it, depending on how far I get tonight on this. The title of it is David and Jonathan. These are two Old Testament characters, and I’m pretty sure that we are well aware of who David is.

We know that he became king of Israel after Saul died, and we’re really familiar with him, especially for those who had Sunday School Bible class lessons on his battle with Goliath. You may be less familiar with Jonathan. Jonathan is the son of King Saul, the first king of Israel, and the relationship between David and Jonathan is interesting.

There was a question raised concerning their relationship, which will be discussed later in this lesson, but we first are introduced to Jonathan in 1 Samuel 13, verses 2 and 3. I’m going to read the first verse of this chapter. And a thousand were with Jonathan in Gibeah of Bethlehem. The rest of the people he sent away, every man to his tent.

And Jonathan attacked the garrison of the Philistines that was in Gibeah, and the Philistines heard of it. Then Saul blew the trumpet throughout all the land, saying, Let the Hebrews hear. So here in verse 2 and 3, we are introduced to Jonathan.

We’re not told who he is in these verses, verses 2 and 3, but in verse 22 of the same chapter, chapter 13. So it came about on the day of battle that there was neither sword nor spear found in the hand of any of the people who were with Saul. And Jonathan, my favorite man was Saul, and Jonathan his son.

So Jonathan is introduced here as being the son of King Saul. Now, in chapter 14, we have an interesting thing about Jonathan and his armor bearer in verses 13 and 14. Now, this is when Jonathan and his armor bearer went out, and in this place were these men there, and David is telling him, or Jonathan is telling him, the armor bearer, Come, let us go over to the garrison of these uncircumcised, that it may be that the Lord will work for us, for nothing restrains the Lord from saving by many or by few.

So his armor bearer said to him, Do all that is in your heart, go then. Here I am with you according to your heart. Then Jonathan said, Very well, let us cross over to these men, and we will show ourselves to them.

If they say thus to us, Wait until we come to you, then we’ll stand still in our place and not go up to them. But if they say thus, Come up to us, then we will go up, for the Lord has delivered them into our hand, and this will be a sign to us. So both of them showed themselves to the garrison of the Philistines, and the Philistines said, Look, the Hebrews are coming out of the holes where they have hidden.

Then the men of the garrisons called to Jonathan and his armor bearer and said, Come up to us, and we will show you something. Jonathan said to his armor bearer, Come up after me, for the Lord has delivered them into the hand of Israel. I read from verse 6 to verse 12, but then 13 and 14 said, And Jonathan climbed up on his hands and knees with his armor bearer after him, and they fell before Jonathan.

And as he came after him, his armor bearer killed them. That first slaughter which Jonathan and his armor bearer made was about twenty men within about half an acre of land. So this is pretty interesting, that Jonathan and his armor bearer, these two slaughtered twenty men, and they were within an acre of land.

Now in chapter 16, we are introduced to David. In the chapters after chapter 14, we learn that King Saul does some unauthorized things that God did not allow him to do. One of them was sacrificing, and it was the priest’s job to do that.

At least it was for Samuel to offer sacrifices, but King Saul took it upon himself to do that. And then King Saul was told to go out and to probably destroy the Amalekites. But King Saul, when he attacked, he spared Agag, the king of the Amalekites, and took some of the lands, and he was waiting on Samuel to appear.

Samuel delayed coming, and so Saul took it upon himself to offer sacrifice, and then Samuel came, and Samuel let him know that the Lord was displeased with him. Because King Saul was supposed to utterly destroy the Amalekites, and he spared Agag, and then took the sheep, and Samuel was harsh with him. He says, Why then did you not obey the voice of the Lord? Why did you swoop down on the spoils, and do evil in the sight of the Lord? In 1 Samuel 15, verse 19, Saul said to Samuel, But I have obeyed the voice of the Lord, and gone on the mission on which the Lord sent me, and brought back Agag, king of Amalek.

I have utterly destroyed the Amalekites, but the people took of the plunder, sheep, and oxen, the best of the things which they have utterly destroyed, as sacrifice to the Lord your God, and give God. So Samuel said, Has the Lord disgraced the life, and burned off his sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of the Lord? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to heed than the fat of rams, for rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, and stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry. Because you have rejected the word of the Lord, he also has rejected you from being king.

Now, you see, Saul is being rejected. Now, in 1 Samuel 16, David is introduced and anointed as the next king to succeed Saul. But now, David is anointed as the next king, but David does not take the throne until after Saul dies.

But in the verses 12 and 13 of chapter 16, all the brothers of David, the sons of Jesse, were brought before Samuel. And each one of these that was brought before him, God said, No, this is not the one. And then, thus Jesse made seven of his sons to pass before Samuel, starting with verse 10.

And Samuel said to Jesse, The Lord is not chosen of these. And Samuel said to Jesse, Are all the young men here? Then he said, There remains yet the youngest. And there he is keeping the sheep.

And Samuel said to Jesse, Send and bring him, for we will not sit down till he comes here. So he sent and brought him in. Now he was ready with bright eyes and good looking.

And the Lord said, Arise, anoint him, for this is the one. And then Samuel took the horn of old and anointed him in the midst of his brothers. And the Spirit of the Lord came upon David from that day forward.

So Samuel rose and went to Rhino. So that’s in the 16th chapter in David we are introduced to. And then in the next chapter, in chapter 17, David has his battle with Goliath.

And kills him with the stone from his sling. And then the Israelites overcome the Philistines. At the end of this chapter 17, that is in verse 53, David is brought before King Saul after his win over the Philistines.

Abner took him and brought him before Saul. With the head of the Philistine in his hand. And Saul said to him, Whose son are you, young man? So David answered, I am the son of your servant, Jesse the Bethlehemite.

Now we see that we have separately been introduced to Jonathan. We’ve been introduced to David. But in the next chapter 18, beginning with verse 1, it says, Now when he had finished speaking to Saul, the soul of Jonathan was knit to the soul of David.

And Jonathan loved him as his own soul. Jonathan must have been present there when David told Saul who he was. Or whose son he was.

But then it says that the soul of Jonathan was knit to the soul of David. And Jonathan loved him as his own soul. Saul took him that day and would not let him go to his father anymore.

We see that Jonathan and David make a covenant because he loves him as his own soul. And this, in verse 4, this led them to, for Jonathan to take off his robe that was on him and gave it to David with his armor, even to his sword and his bow and his belt. Now David and Jonathan then have come together.

They make friends with each other. They make a covenant between themselves. And Jonathan, as a result of that, gives his robe and his armor and his sword and his bow and his belt to David.

Jonathan is very well close to David. Now he is King Saul’s son. As we read this, there will be times that King Saul is looking to kill David.

And it is because of envy or jealousy that David is considered an enemy in the eyes of King Saul. And it stems from when, after the battle with Goliath, we learned that wherever David would go, Saul sent him. And David behaved wisely.

And it would happen that as they were coming home, when David was returning from the slaughter of the Philistines, that the women had come out of all the cities of Israel, singing and dancing to meet King Saul, with tambourines, with joy, and with musical instruments. So the women sang as they danced and said, Saul has slain his thousands and David his ten thousands. Now that made Saul angry when he heard that.

And the sage displeased him and he said, they have ascribed to David ten thousands and to me they have ascribed only thousands. Now what more can he have but the kingdom? So Saul eyed David from that day forward. And there were times when Saul would go out pursuing David.

When he would find out where David or heard where David was and go out hunting for him. And I know of a couple of accounts where David had the opportunity to do King Saul harm, but David wouldn’t do it. Because David considered King Saul as the Lord’s anointed.

And I know of one final time that to show King Saul that David had a heart in him that wasn’t meant to hurt King Saul. David in his honor bed while King Saul was sleeping, he was right there. What David did was take his water and his sword and then he called out to Saul and let him know just how close he was.

That if he meant to do him harm, he had the opportunity that he could have done it then, but he didn’t. To show Saul that David did not mean King Saul any harm. But it just seemed like King Saul eyed David as the enemy.

Well, time has passed me by. We’ll then do the rest of this, part two, next week. And finish it up next week.

We want to see some things happening. And we’ll see how close the friendship between Jonathan and David really is, when it really counts. And if there are any comments or questions, we shall, if not, let us have a word of prayer.

Father in heaven, we come before you now, giving you thanks for this time that we’ve had. For this midweek gathering to study a portion of your Word. And we pray, oh Father, that each one of us have been blessed by the hearing of this, of what we have learned from your Word.

Today, we pray, oh Father, that we will take this lesson and apply it to our hearts and our everyday lives. Father in heaven, we pray again that you’ll be with those that have been mentioned that we need to pray for. Bob Jordan, Larry Noble, Devon Lewis.

We pray that you’ll be with them and their individual needs. We pray that you’ll be with the doctors and those that are caring for each. We pray that these things will be finally taken care of, as you know how to do.

Oh Father, we pray that you’ll go with us as we leave. But we pray, oh Father, we don’t leave you. Help us day by day to search your Word.

And help us to keep the faith and keep the commandments that you have given to us. For us to obey. Father in heaven, we pray that you’ll take us safely to our places of abode, safely.

And at the next appointed time, may we be able to meet again and to worship you and give you the praise. In the name of Jesus, we pray. Amen.