1 Samuel 20 The Power of the Covenant

Recast Church in Matawan, Michigan. This week, Pastor Don Filsak preaches from his series in 1 Samuel, Timely Prophet, Tragic King. Let's listen in.

Opening Welcome and The Morning’s Context

Well, good morning, Recast Church. I'm Don Filsak. As Dave said, I'm the lead pastor here. And I wanna start off by welcoming everybody. I'm glad that you're here on this foggy Sunday morning. Kind of crazy, crazy weather out there.

A little bit different than what you expect for this month. But I'm glad to be back. We had a vacation. My family had a vacation in the Smokies a couple weeks ago. God gave us a great time away. And just a good time of refreshing and chilling in the mountains.

We actually got to see a black bear while we were down there. It was kind of cool. And I'm so thankful for Dan DeVries being willing to step in and preach in my absence last week. I'm just grateful for godly men here in the church who can just kind of jump in and fill in and do such an excellent job.

And so I'm glad that he was willing to do that. And I hope you were blessed by the message last week as well. This morning we're gonna be digging back into 1 Samuel and we're gonna continue to follow the life of King Saul and David throughout the remainder of this book.

And we know that kind of, those of you who know the stories, those of you who have been part of like a church for a while or something, you kind of have some notion about where things are heading. But some of these accounts in 1 Samuel may not be as common or as routine for us.

And so as we dig in, hopefully you're gaining insight as we go. Those of you who have been here for this series for a while now already know that the tensions have grown high between Saul, and he is serving as the first king of Israel, so King Saul, and David, who is going to replace Saul, and we know that because he was anointed in a private ceremony by the prophet Samuel, who the book is named after, and he is going to be the next king, but we're seeing an intermediate time.

During the rest of this book, David knows he is called by God to be the next king of Israel, and we're seeing that gap time. Now many of us have experienced a gap time in our lives where we have a notion or a sense of what God desires for us to do, but there could be months, weeks, years, sometimes it feels like decades between the time that what we feel God has called us to do and what it's actually realized and comes to fruition.

And so that's kind of the period of time that we're looking at here for the remainder of this book of 1 Samuel. And what we're gonna see in our text this morning centers around a couple of themes. We see these themes woven all throughout the remainder of 1 Samuel, but a new theme, well, the way that the author seems to write is that he weaves these themes in a tapestry and then highlights one of the cords, highlights one of the strands or one of the strings, and brings it to light for us in a way that makes it shine, and that's what we're gonna see here this morning.

Some of these common themes, one theme in the text this morning is the theme of friendship. We'll see the theme of humility, the theme of eyes of faith, that is like trusting in God and seeing things as they really are.

We saw that theme spelled out with David and Goliath. We saw that theme spelled out when Jonathan and his armor bearer took on the Philistines, just the two of them, and they were able to see things that other people were not able to see because they had eyes of faith and trust.

And so we'll see that theme again crop up in our text. But the theme that comes over the top in the text this morning is the surprising theme of covenant faithfulness. Now, that doesn't seem to be a theme that you would expect the covenant faithfulness of God to show up in this context where David is running for his life and things are not going well for him, and we see Saul's animosity and anger towards him, and we're gonna see some intense discussion about the covenant faithfulness of God.

We see a steadfast love and help coming to David from the last person we should expect covenant faithfulness to come from. Now, I want to suggest to you that if Charles Darwin was right, if survival of the fittest is the true and honest operating principle in nature, if the way that the world really operates is on this fundamental principle of survival of the fittest, then what we read about here is kind of ignorant.

It just flies in the face of the way that Darwin says that life ought to go. If Frederick Nietzsche was right and whatever comes from weakness is evil, then Jonathan, in our text, is going to prove himself to be one of the weakest and most evil.

But when I look around at the world around me, I cannot account in any material sense for the good that I see without God. Nietzsche and Darwin could account for the evil, but they really struggled to account for sacrifice, for good, for covenant keeping, like we're gonna see in our text, for genuine humility, for sacrificial friendship.

They struggled to account for these values of noble sacrifice, noble things that we sense in our chest, that we feel deeply when we see it. When you see the soldier, you hear the story of the soldier who falls on the grenade and saves everybody in his group.

When you hear about the sacrifice of a mother for her daughter who gives up a kidney for her own child, or all of the different things that you can think of and conceive of that have moved you in your spirit regarding human good and self-sacrifice for others, they struggled to account for those things.

So what do you feel when you hear those stories? What do you feel when you read about those kinds of sacrifices, where true heroes lay down their lives for others? You see, scripture points to another way of understanding the world around us, other than Darwin and Nietzsche.

When we see sacrificial friendship, when we see true humility, when we see covenant-keeping, we are encountering signs that there is more value to this life than the sum of its parts. Ask yourself this question.

Who would give up their rightful kingdom in order to bless another? Who would be next in line for the throne and would step aside and allow somebody else who is better than them and more equipped than them and called by God to enter into that role instead?

We see in our text an amazing example of humility, and we're gonna read it here in a second. We're gonna see in this text a model of true and genuine friendship. We see in our text this morning the eyes of faith that believe that God is going to do exactly what he says he will do.

And most importantly, we're gonna see a covenant faithfulness that reflects the very faithfulness of our God toward his covenant people, his covenant people being anybody who has come to him by faith through his Son, Jesus Christ, who made the covenant of grace on the cross.

Reading 1 Samuel 20 and Praying Over the Text

So let's open our Bibles, if you're not already there, to 1 Samuel chapter 20, 1 Samuel 20. And it's a longer text. We're gonna read it all, so I'm just gonna encourage you to navigate into your device over to that or open in your Bible or grab the Bible under the seat in front of you.

Find 1 Samuel 20 and follow along and listen and take this in and with your eyes of imagination and with eyes of faith, take this in as God's very word to us. Recast, this is what God desires to communicate to us this morning.

And so listen for him. Listen to what he is saying in the pages of Scripture, 1 Samuel chapter 20. Then David fled from Naoth and Ramah and came and said before Jonathan, what have I done? What is my guilt?

And what is my sin before your father that he seeks my life? And he said to him, far from it, you shall not die. Behold, my father does nothing, either great or small, without disclosing it to me, and why should my father hide this from me?

It is not so. But David vowed again, saying, your father knows well that I have found favor in your eyes. And he thinks, do not let Jonathan know this lest he be grieved, but truly as the Lord lives and as your soul lives, there is but a step between me and death.

Then Jonathan said to David, whatever you say, I will do for you. David said to Jonathan, behold, tomorrow is the new moon and I should not fail to sit at table with the king, but let me go that I may hide myself in the field till the third day at evening.

If your father dismisses me at all, then say, David earnestly asked leave of me to run to Bethlehem, his city, for there is a yearly sacrifice there for all the clan. If he says good, it will be well with your servant, but if he is angry, then know that harm is determined by him.

Therefore deal kindly with your servant, for you have brought your servant into a covenant of the Lord with you. But if there is guilt in me, kill me yourself, for why should you bring me to your father?

And Jonathan said, far be it from you. If I knew that it was determined by my father that harm should come to you, would I not tell you? Then David said to Jonathan, who will tell me if your father answers you roughly?

And Jonathan said to David, come, let us go out into the field. So they both went out into the field, and Jonathan said to David, the Lord, the God of Israel, be witness. When I have sounded out my father about this time tomorrow, or the third day, behold, if he is well disposed toward David, shall I not then send and disclose it to you?

But should it please my father to do you harm, the Lord do so to Jonathan, more also if I do not disclose it to you and send you away, that you may go in safety. May the Lord be with you as he has been with my father.

If I am still alive, show me the steadfast love of the Lord that I may not die, and do not cut off your steadfast love from my house forever, when the Lord cuts off every one of the enemies of David from the face of the earth.

And Jonathan made a covenant with the house of David, saying, may the Lord take vengeance on David's enemies. And Jonathan made David swear again by his love for him, for he loved him as he loved his own soul.

Then Jonathan said to him, tomorrow is the new moon, and you will be missed because your seat will be empty. On the third day, go down quickly to the place where you hid yourself when the matter was in hand, and remain beside the stone heap.

And I will shoot three arrows to the side of it, as though I shot at a mark, and behold, I will send the boy, saying, go find the arrows. If I say to the boy, look, the arrows are on this side of you, take them, then you are to come, for as the Lord lives, it is safe for you, and there is no danger.

But if I say to the youth, look, the arrows are beyond you, then go, for the Lord has sent you away. And as for the matter of which you and I have spoken, behold, the Lord is between you and me forever.

So David hid himself in the field, and when the new moon came, the king sat down to eat food. The king sat on his seat, as at other times, on the seat by the wall. Jonathan sat opposite, and Abner sat by Saul's side, but David's place was empty.

Yet Saul did not say anything that day, for he thought, something has happened, he is not clean, surely he is not clean. But on the second day, the day after the new moon, David's place was empty, and Saul said to Jonathan his son, why has not the son of Jesse come to the meal, either yesterday or today?

Jonathan answered Saul, David earnestly asked leave of me to go to Bethlehem. He said, let me go, for our clan holds a sacrifice in the city, and my brother has commanded me to be there. So now, if I have found favor in your eyes, let me get away and see my brothers.

For this reason, he has not come to the king's table. Then Saul's anger was kindled against Jonathan, and he said to him, you son of a perverse, rebellious woman, do I not know that you have chosen the son of Jesse to your own shame, and to the shame of your mother's nakedness?

For as long as the son of Jesse lives on the earth, neither you nor your kingdom shall be established. Therefore send and bring him to me, for he shall surely die. Then Jonathan answered Saul his father, why should he be put to death?

What has he done? But Saul hurled his spear at him to strike him. So Jonathan knew that his father was determined to put David to death, and Jonathan rose from the table in fierce anger, and ate no food the second day of the month, for he was grieved for David, because his father had disgraced him.

In the morning, Jonathan went out into the field to the appointment with David, and with him a little boy. And he said to his boy, run and find the arrows that I shoot. As the boy ran, he shot an arrow beyond him.

And when the boy came to the place of the arrow that Jonathan had shot, Jonathan called after the boy and said, is not the arrow beyond you? And Jonathan called after the boy, hurry, be quick, do not stay.

So Jonathan's boy gathered up the arrows and came to his master, but the boy knew nothing. Only Jonathan and David knew the matter. And Jonathan gave his weapon to his boy, and said to him, go and carry them to the city.

And as soon as the boy had gone, David rose from beside the stone heap, and fell on his face to the ground, and bowed three times. And they kissed one another, and wept with one another, David weeping the most.

Then Jonathan said to David, go in peace, go in peace, because we have sworn, both of us, in the name of the Lord, saying the Lord shall be between me and you, and between my offspring and your offspring, forever.

And he rose and departed, and Jonathan went into the city. Let's pray. Father, I thank you so much for your word. Sometimes we encounter text, and it can be confusing to our minds, like what is the point?

Is this just connected material? Is this just a story for us to take in about two friends? Father, there's a richness and a depth to your word, that by your spirit, you can transform us and change us, as we come into contact with the humility that we see in this text.

The way that you work in history, and in people's lives, and bringing them together. And Father, the way that you have reconciled us by covenant keeping, by being faithful to the promises that you have made to your people.

Which is reflected in the faithfulness of Jonathan to David, and David to Jonathan. Father, I thank you that you are a God who keeps what you promise. You do exactly what you say you will do, and you promise that there is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in your son.

And so, Father, I pray that that would move all of our hearts to rejoice. Father, I recognize that some people have had really rough weeks. Some are just stressed. Some are just disengaged right now, and disconnected a little bit, or even distracted.

But Father, I pray that you would allow all of us to come to sing these songs here in just a moment based on genuine joy, and genuine awe, and genuine delight that you have loved us with a steadfast love.

That you are never letting go of your people. And that is our hope, Father. And that is our motive for worshiping you. That is the foundation of our worship, is that we love because you have first loved us.

It's first your act toward us. Your initiation. And then our response. And so, Father, I pray that you would allow our worship now, the praise that comes out of our mouth, to be genuine praise that's in response of your great and awesome salvation deeds that you have done in our history.

And I ask this in Jesus' name. Amen. You can go ahead and be seated. And I encourage you, over the remainder of our time, to get comfortable and keep your Bibles open to 1 Samuel 20. We read it earlier, but some of you weren't in here yet.

And so, turn over there, and you'll be able to see that the flow of what I'm talking about is coming from that text. And, whoa. That wasn't me. You didn't do it? Okay. All right, Dave. Wasn't me either.

So, yeah, and then if you need it at any time to get more coffee, or juice, or donuts, while supplies last back there, take advantage of that. But, yeah, I mean, really, we need to catch up to where we're at.

David on the Run and the Last-Ditch Effort to Reconcile with Saul

If you haven't been a part of these messages so far, you need to know, fundamentally, that David, when we come to this text, David is on the run. And he's gonna be on the run during the remainder of this, during the remainder of this book.

So, we're gonna see him always just one or two steps away from Saul catching him. Now, last week, we saw, or two weeks ago, rather, we saw his wife, Michael, tipped him off that King Saul, that is, her father, was planning to kill David in the morning.

So, she helped him escape out the window of their house, and he fled to visit the prophet Samuel in Ramah. Now, go to Samuel for some protection. Go to Samuel for some advice, probably. And while Saul was on the way there to Ramah to arrest and murder David, the spirit of God came on Saul and put him in a trance-like state to buy David some more time to escape.

So, now David is now fleeing from Ramah, and that's where we pick our text up in verse one. David fled, it says, from Ramah, where Saul is passed out for the day and night in a trance-like state. And again, he's able to escape there now.

And David fled to the one who he hoped could provide answers for him. Now, in reality, chapter 20 is the final, last-ditch effort on David's part to reconcile with King Saul. It's a last-ditch effort to try to heal this relationship and try to really say, is there any potential here for this to be resolved?

Is there any potential here for this to be healed and fixed? And he goes to his covenant friend, who is also on the inside, presumes is on the inside of all of Saul's plans, that is Saul's son, Jonathan.

And so he goes to him and goes to this guy who has covenanted friendship to him, and covenanted his loyalty to David, and he goes to him. And if you put yourself in David's shoes at the start of our text, you would be just as confused as he is.

What have I done wrong? Why in the world does the king want me dead? He has no understanding in his mind and is actually racking his brain to figure that out. And some of you actually write just direct application to your life.

You could potentially be there right now. I don't know your week. I don't know who you work with. I don't know your family situation. But some of you, right now, there's somebody in your life that doesn't like you, and you don't even know why.

Now, I'm not gonna ask for a show of hands on that, but you know that if that's you, there's a lot of confusion involved in that, and it can be really hard to determine why in the world would people have it out for me.

I don't know what I've done wrong. And I'm sure that all of us can think, well, we speculate, maybe that offended them. Maybe this put them off. I don't know. But sometimes the truth is that people don't like you because of an issue of jealousy in them.

How many of you know that that's a reality? You know that there's sometimes that jealousy just crops up and people just kind of get a burr under their saddle and get all upset about you. But how many of you know that at times you can be annoying?

You can raise your hand on that one. I think all of us should. You're not raising your hand. Come on, I mean, really? Some of you are really, really got it all together. But we can all be annoying at times, and there's a difference between, obviously, there are times where we ought to know why people are upset with us, and we don't because we're thick, and then there's sometimes where we really just don't get it.

But often I would point out that pain in life is often coupled, like to add insult to injury, is confusion on top of it. Not knowing why the bad is happening, not knowing what is causing it is often the problem.

That's where we see David at at the start of our text. David doesn't know what he's done to warrant the wrath of the king. Why in the world does Saul want me dead? I've served him. I killed the giant, didn't I?

I've served God to the best of my ability in the service of the king. I've taken it on as though I'm serving and rendering my service unto the Lord, and the king wants me dead. I'm rewarded with spears chucked at my head and threats of murder.

Like, what in the world is going on? So can you see, you ought to start this text with a sense of David's correct confusion. But Jonathan is equally confused because the last interaction that Jonathan had about this subject a couple of weeks ago in our sermon was his dad swearing an oath that he would not put David to death.

Jonathan had reason, went for a walk with his father, the king, out in the field, and they talked for a while, and he rationalized and said, he's innocent. Hasn't he only blessed you? Hasn't he only ever done good to you?

And Saul pledged an oath. There in the presence of his son Jonathan said, I swear by the living God, by the very life of God as much as God is alive, I swear that I will not put David to death. So that's the last interaction that Jonathan had.

How many think that Jonathan might be confused when David says, your dad still wants to kill me? Jonathan's going, no, I was there, I heard his oath. He said he wouldn't. He swore by God Almighty himself, of course.

And so Jonathan's a little bit caught in the middle here. Like, what is true and what isn't true? And so this entire text is trying to figure out what is indeed the truth of Saul's heart. And we probably already have some issues, or I mean, already have some understanding because we know how the text ends and we know where everything is moving in David and Saul's life.

Many of us do anyways. And so, Jonathan is confident that his father, by the way, in the text would tell him if he was seeking David's life. He's like, me and my dad are pretty tight. Like, I mean, if my dad was going to kill you, he would tell me.

He assumed that the animosity had been buried between Saul and David and that the hatchet had been buried. So David swears in verse three. He says, honest to goodness, cross my heart, hope to die. Stick a needle in my, whatever.

But he promises that Saul is indeed trying to kill me. He is indeed trying to take my life. And Saul just isn't including you, Jonathan, in the plan because he suspects that you're on my side, says David.

So Jonathan and David came up with a two-part plan that we see woven throughout this text to find out where Saul really stands regarding his servant, David. So the next day was gonna be a new moon festival that would often take two to three days depending on where the new moon fell.

And it included evening feasting together, banquets, that kind of stuff, celebrated by the king. And so some people find it strange, and you might have as well, that knowing what we know about the text of 1 Samuel, that Saul would expect David to even show up for this meal.

Didn't he threaten to kill him? Wasn't David let down through a window because he knew that Saul was going to kill him? So why in the world would Saul expect him to show up for a banquet at his place?

That doesn't seem to make a whole lot of sense, and some people find that strange. But David was still under, as we are in this text right now, David is still under Saul's leadership. He hasn't been dismissed from his duty as a military commander.

So you might have it out with your boss on a Friday, but if you're scheduled to work Monday, does your boss expect you to show up on Monday? Yeah, and that's what we've got going on here. So that makes sense of the expectations here, that David is gonna show up to this festival anyways.

It's his duty, it is his responsibility. So Jonathan and Saul decided that David should hide out in the field and stay away from the banquet, because David is confident that Saul is attempting to kill him.

So if Saul asks what in the world is going on, why is David not there, they come up with a lie that David had to return home for a celebration to make a sacrifice in Bethlehem. Now, this is not a lie in order to save somebody's life.

At the end of the day, this is a convenient lie that it gains them something, and you can get into all of that. The interesting thing is the narrative of Scripture often just tells us what happened, and doesn't moralize too much about it.

So it's not gonna tell us the consequences of this lie in David's life, but Jonathan and David come up with a lie to tell Saul. And they say, if Saul is okay with David's not being there, then they will take that as a sign that all is well between Saul and David, they're okay.

And Saul and David could come back and work for Saul. But if Saul loses his temper, then they will take that as a sign that Saul does indeed have it out for David, and that's the direction that things are gonna go.

The Covenant of the Lord, Hesed, and David’s Humility

But in the middle of this planning, there's a reaffirmation of the loyal covenant between David and Jonathan, a covenant that they had already established when Jonathan gave David his royal robes. Basically saying, I acknowledge that God's call on your life is to be the next king.

Even though I'm next in line, even though I'm the crown prince, says Jonathan, I'm gonna give you my sword to show my pledge of allegiance to you. I'm going to give you my bow and my belt and the royal robes.

And in a formalizing ceremony, Jonathan gives his throne away to David. That had already happened. And so in verse eight, David appeals to that previously ratified covenant of political loyalty between David and Jonathan.

He reminds Jonathan of the binding power of a covenant. You pledged to me, he says. In essence, kind of turning in the chips for a favor. Have you ever had somebody kind of owe you something? Even just to say, I owe you one?

And there comes a point where you need to make good on that? And that's kind of what's going on here in this text. He says, you've made a covenant with me and that's binding on you. And reminding ourselves of covenant is meant to be a powerful force in our lives, routinely and regularly.

God has a hard and fast covenant with those who come to him by faith and trust. Particularly in this new covenant through his son, Jesus Christ. That's why I constantly encourage you to remember the cross, to reflect on the cross, to think about the cross, to meditate on the cross.

The cross is the place that the covenant was struck. The cross is the place where our sin was dealt with and we were brought into a forgiving relationship with the Almighty. And that by faith in that activity on the cross, by his sacrifice and his death for us, our forgiveness was sealed and the deal was brokered, so to speak, and he paid the penalty that we owed.

And so we need to be reminded regularly of the covenant that God has made with us. Being under God's covenant should move us out to live lives of relief. You should have a sense of relief when you think about the covenant.

When you think about the forgiveness that's been given to you at the cross, it's like a, whew, oh, that's right. How many of you need a routine, regular reminder of that? Because you live in your sin and in living in your sin, you have a weight that you keep heaping back on your shoulders, a weight that's been taken from you on the cross.

That's why you need to keep coming back to the cross, to remember, oh, that's right, I don't bear that anymore. He bore it for me. That's the beauty of coming back to the covenant. It's a life lived in relief, a life lived in joy.

Now, how many of you, when you have that weight and you're reminded of your sin and you're sitting under it and it just feels like you're being crushed, live with joy. Do you live with joy in that? Not at all.

How could you ever live with joy if you had your own sin on your shoulders? But when you come to the cross and you come back to the place of the covenant, you remember, oh, that's right, I'm set free from the bondage of sin.

I'm set free from the weight of that guilt and I can live today in joy only because of the cross, only because he struck that covenant and we live lives of obedience for him. Why? Because we've been set free.

We've been set free by the covenant that he's made with us. Further, it's not just that covenant, but there's all different kinds of covenants in life. There's a covenant in marriage that is not a minor thing, for those of you who have entered into that.

And in our text, it is a covenant here, particularly a specific type of covenant, a political loyalty that we're looking at, a loyalty that David is appealing to. Jonathan gave a formal covenant to David to protect him and recognize David's authority.

And David, in some amazing statements of humility, even though he's in the point of having received the authority from Jonathan, he calls himself Jonathan's servant and even opens up the possibility, think about this level of humility, and how often do we do this?

To reflect on when we're criticized or when there is something that's going on or when somebody doesn't like us, do we ever consider that we could be maybe the problem? Jonathan does. Jonathan says, maybe I have indeed incurred some guilt.

Maybe indeed there is something that Saul rightly has against me. And maybe it's even so extreme and my eyes are so blinded to my own sin and to my own failures that it's deserving of the death penalty according to Israelite law.

And if so, Jonathan, take my life. Put me to death right here if that's what I deserve. And I think David is not just being facetious, I think David is being honest in his humility. If I deserve death, then put me to death.

If I have done something that is that egregious and that much of an affront that the king wants me dead, then by all means. And by the way, how many of you can identify in the flow of this storyline that this is an ultimate test for Jonathan?

Jonathan, who is the next in line for the kingdom, is being told by the guy who is the usurper, the one who is going to take the throne in a humanistic way, is being said, kill me if you want to. How many of you know that down through history, many have taken up that offer to kill the person who would come behind, who ought to be behind them and is coming ahead of them?

And they, I mean, Jonathan is being tested here. And I also want to point out David's attitude. I mean, David and Jonathan, this beautiful picture of humility intertwined in this. Jonathan, I mean, David, never wants, never once in this text does what he could rightfully do.

He doesn't spout off his credentials. I killed a giant. I'm the one who's been anointed by Samuel. I'm the best commander in the army of Saul and the most victorious on the battlefield. You see, David's anointing doesn't come up regularly in his daily conversations.

He was humble. We see this powerful theme of humility in the life of David primarily in that he never appeals to his rights over the entire course of this book where he's running and fleeing and has been anointed to be the next king of Israel.

He doesn't bring it up. He never appeals to what he deserves. He doesn't appeal to his rights. He never appeals to the things that were promised to him. Every indication is that David is intentionally serves for us in scripture as an excellent model of humility for us.

We live in a culture that clamors for attention. Am I wrong? We live in a culture that everybody wants to go viral, get their 15 seconds or 15 minutes of fame. Everybody wants to be recognized. We want to be rewarded.