1 Samuel 20

Well good morning. Andy, will you open us up with a word of prayer please, sir? Before we get started, last week as I was walking down the hallway, it comes to mind that I gave a chronological error. I said that we would be coming to the point now this be the last time that Jonathan and David would see each other and it's actually not.

He strengthens David in the Lord in two more chapters. I just want to clarify that. Please forgive me for the error. Don't throw any rocks. Okay, that's my plan. It bothered me all week. I was like I'm walking down the hallway and then, don't you remember when Keith, as he's administering the table, he's like, you know, every time you get finished teaching or preaching, you always think about what you said.

I'm like, yeah, I want to stop right and say everybody come back in here real quick and let me, I spoke too fast. So, go to 1st Samuel. I'll consider my brother more important than myself. All right, well we're gonna, sometimes I just think it's me.

It could be 64 in here and I'll still be hot. I know. Sybil says they didn't put my censors back together when they, all them accidents. Let me, let me begin reading in chapter 1 of verse, I mean, chapter 20 verse 1.

I'm gonna read the whole chapter and I probably overshot my mouth too last week. I said I was gonna try to get through the whole chapter and I may not, but my plan is to try to do that. So, let's start.

David and Jonathan Ask Why Saul Wants to Kill David

Then David fled from Naoth to Ramah and came and he said to Jonathan, what have I done? What is my iniquity? What is my sin before your father that he is seeking my life? He said to him, far from it. You shall not die.

Behold, my father does not do anything either great or small without disclosing it to me. So why should my father hide this thing from me? Is it not so? Yet David vowed again saying, your father knows well that I found favor in your sight.

And he, if he said, do not let Jonathan know this or he will be grieved. But truly as the Lord lives and as your soul lives, there is hardly but a step between me and death. Then Jonathan said to David, whatever you say I will do.

So David said to Jonathan, behold tomorrow is the new moon and I ought to sit down to eat with the king, but let me go that I may hide myself in the field until the third evening. And if your father misses me at all, then say, David earnestly asked leave of me that he would run to Bethlehem, his city, because it is the yearly sacrifice there with his whole family.

And if he says it is good, your servant will be safe. But if he is very angry, know that he has decided on evil. Therefore deal kindly with your servant, for you have brought your servant into a covenant of the Lord with you.

But if there is iniquity in me, put me to death yourself, for why then should you bring me to your father? And Jonathan said, far be it from you, for if I should have indeed learned that there was evil has been decided by my father to come upon you, then I would not would I not tell you it myself?

Then David said to Jonathan, who will tell me if your father answers you harshly? Jonathan said to David, come let us go out into the field. So both of them went out into the field and then Jonathan said to David, the Lord the God of Israel be witness this day, when I have sounded out my father about this time tomorrow or the third day, behold, if there is good feeling towards David, then I shall not then send to you and make not make it known to you.

If it pleased my father to do you harm, may the Lord do so to Jonathan, and more also if I do not take it and make it known to you and send you away, that you may be safe. And may the Lord be with you as he has been with my father.

If I am still alive, will you not show me the loving kindness of the Lord that I may not die, and shall you not cut off your loving kindness from my house forever? I'm sorry, shall you not cut off the loving kindness from my house forever, and not even when the Lord cuts off all the enemies of David from the face of the earth?

So Jonathan made a covenant with the house of David saying, may the Lord inquire of it at the hands of David's enemies. And Jonathan made David vow again because of his love for him, because he loved him as he loved his own life.

And then Jonathan said to him, tomorrow is the new moon and you will be missed because your seat will be empty. When you have stayed for three days, you shall go down quickly and come to the place where you've hid yourself on that eventful day, and you shall remain there by the stone easel.

And I shall shoot three arrows to the side as I shot them at a target, and behold, I will send the lad saying, go find the arrows. If I especially say to the lad, behold the arrows on the side of you, get them, then come for there is safety for you, and there will be no harm as the Lord lives.

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

Saul’s Suspicion at the New Moon Feast

So David hid himself in the field, and when the new moon had come, the king sat down to eat food at the table, and the king sat at his seat as usual, and the seat by the wall, and then Jonathan rose up and Abner sat down by the Saul's side, but David's place was empty.

Nevertheless, Saul did not speak anything that day, for he thought, is it an accident? Is he not clean? Surely he is not clean, and it came about on the next day that the second day of the new moon that that David's place was empty.

So Saul said to Jonathan, his son, why has the son of Jesse not come to the meal, either yesterday or today? And Jonathan then answered Saul, saying, David, earnestly ask leave of me to go to Bethlehem.

For he said, let me go, since our family has a sacrifice in the city, and my brothers have commanded me to attend, and now if I have found favor in your sight, please let me get away, that I may see my brothers, and for this reason he is not at the king's table.

Then Saul's anger burned against Jonathan, and he said to him, you son of a perverse and rebellious woman, do I not know that you have chosen the son of Jesse over your own shame and the shame of your mother's nakedness?

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

What has he done? Then Saul hurled his spear at him to strike him down, so Jonathan knew that his father had decided to put David to death, and then Jonathan arose from the table in fierce anger. He did not eat on that second day of the new moon, for he was grieved over David because of his father had dishonored him.

Jonathan and David’s Covenant of Loving-Kindness

Now it came about that in the morning that Jonathan went out into the field for the appointment with David, and the little lad was with him, and he said to the lad, run, find now the arrows which I'm about to shoot, and as the lad was running, he shot an arrow past him, and when the lad had reached a place where the arrow which Jonathan had shot, Jonathan called after the lad and said, is not the arrow beyond you?

And Jonathan called after the lad, hurry, be quick, do not stay, and Jonathan's lads picked up the arrows and came to his master, but the lad was not aware of anything. Only Jonathan David knew about the matter, and then Jonathan gave his weapons to his lad and said to him, go, bring them to the city, and when the lad was gone, David rose up from the south side, he fell on his face to the ground, and he bowed three times, and they kissed each other, and they wept together, but David wept all the more bitterly.

Jonathan said to David, go in safety, and as much as we have sworn to each other in the name of the Lord, saying, the Lord will be between me and you, and between me and my your descendants forever, then he arose and departed, and Jonathan went into the city.

Okay, this is basically a continuation of chapter 19, and how do we know that? Because it starts off, David's running still, okay? This is going to be David's life. Remember the turning point last week was chapter 19, and it is going to be the consistent pattern of David's going to flee and escape, flee and escape, flee and escape, and he's going to be on the run.

And so David, it says he comes to, they flee Ramah, and he comes to Jonathan, and he asked, I mean, three specific things. What have I done? What is my iniquity? And what is my sin before your father that he seeks his life?

I think those are legitimate questions, but he had already, Jonathan had already told his dad basically the same thing, but just in other terms. Why are you trying to kill David? What has he done? So obviously, Jonathan is not aware of what has just taken place of sending messengers to try to kill him at Michael's house, and then those men being filled or being overpowered by the Spirit and prophesying, and then that happening three times, and then not being able to handle the work that Saul had sent him, and then Saul goes to try to handle it, and he's stripped down naked before the Lord as an act of humility and as an act of rejection, as now the no longer the anointed king.

So these questions are legitimate. I mean, if somebody had thrown a spear at you two times, or like Caleb thinks three, three times, I mean, I would have the impression that this dude's trying to kill me.

Then he sends to his daughter's house to have you killed upon your bed. There's no doubt these questions are legit, and here's what here's the answer that Jonathan gives in verse 2. He said to him, far be it.

You will not die. Well, hold on a second. You don't know what has taken place. Behold, he says, behold, my father does not do anything great or small without disclosing it to me. Well, we know that's not an accurate statement, because he did not know anything about the messengers going.

He didn't know anything about the men coming to take him at Michael's house. He knew nothing about that. He said, so why should my father hide this thing from me? It is not so. In verse 3, he says, 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, or he will be grieved.

David speaking a truthful statement. Did King Saul know that Jonathan and David were bosom buddies? Yeah? Sure he did, yeah, and he's gonna do it again. He's gonna give him other things again, and so he knew that Jonathan and David were tight, and why were they tight?

And he said, kindred spirit? Yes, certainly, and that could cover a wide range of things. Was it kindred spirit? First and foremost, I think it was their love for Yahweh, and their zeal to see God's enemies put under his feet.

Not only that, he was a man of valor. He was a man of integrity. He was a man that loved his dad, and he loved his dad. So yeah, that's what brought them together, and he says, do not let Jonathan know this, or he will be grieved, and we're gonna see as we get towards the end of this, as we have already read, Jonathan is grieved over the foolishness of his dad.

He says, but truly as the Lord lives, and as your soul lives, there is hardly a step between me and death. Basically, David's saying, man, I look behind me, and the Grim Reaper is a step behind me. Now, you hear people talk about near-death experiences and all that, and that's kind of what David is saying is, hey, man, these near-death experience, but know this, we're no closer to death when we come to these, quote, near-death experience than we are right this very second.

We're closer to our day of appointment of death right this second than we've ever been. What he is saying is, man, everywhere I go, it just seems like, man, death is trying to overtake me, or someone is trying to kill me, and Jonathan said to David, what you say I will, whatever you say I'll do for you.

Is that not a covenant relationship between two friends? Hey, you, he hasn't even, he hasn't even made a stipulation. He said, whatever it is you need me to do, I'm gonna do, and now we're gonna see for the first time that David's going to ask his best friend to lie to his father.

That's what he's gonna ask in the day. He said, whatever you ask me to do, I'll do it for you, so David said, tomorrow is the new moon, and I ought to be sitting down to eat with the king. Now, the way that the calendar worked with the Jews, obviously, is somewhat like hours, new moons, beginning of the, the beginning of the new month, so they would have a festival on your new moon.

Do you see this? I think it's in Colossians, and Keith will deal with it. It talks about, you know, your new moon feast, and your Sabbaths, and all that. That's what it is. They would have, as long as there was a new moon, there was a party, because it was the beginning of a new month.

It was a new beginning, basically, and with the king, he would have a party, so he's saying, hey, there's gonna be a, at the new moon, let me see, back up here, he says, behold, tomorrow's the new moon.

I should sit down to eat with the king, but let me go, that I may hide myself in the field until the third day, and here it is, if your father misses me at all, then say, David earnestly asked leave of me to run to Bethlehem his city, because it is a yearly sacrifice there for the whole family.

That's a blatant lie. He is, that's not what he's doing. It would have been different if David would have said, hey, Jonathan, I'm going to actually go to Bethlehem, and I'm gonna do the sacrifice with my family.

He said, but that's not what he's doing. How do we know it's a lie? Where's he going? He's gonna sit out in the field, so it's a lie. Now, we're gonna see, probably over the next three to four weeks, you're gonna see times when lies or deception is used, and you go, well, dude, he did it to save his life.

Does that make it okay? It's a legitimate question. Does it? Yes and no. Okay, let's do the yes and no. Can we have a yes first? Okay. Is he bound by the character and nature of God to answer accurately?

Hey, well, hey, this is where it comes into what's called situational ethics, and we dealt just briefly with it when we were going through it. Are we bound to tell the truth? I'm not saying if somebody knocks on the door and they're to kill my wife, first of all, I'm slicing them.

That's all there is to it. I'm cutting that joker in his neck, okay, but I'm not saying that the first response is going to be to do whatever I have to do, but I am bound by the character and nature of God for me to be truthful.

It does not make that lie not a lie. When we were, like I said, we did a do not lie to one another and going through the one another's, you have under the umbrella of deception. Is every act of deception sinful?

It's not. Every act of deception is not sinful. God ordained acts of deceit when they were in war. They send them in as spies. They send them in under the covering. They sit, God said, told them to set an ambush.

Is an ambush not an act of deceit? Okay, all right, but it's different than going in there and telling someone with the intent of deceiving them for personal gain. This is not an act of war. This is a man, look, David has already been anointed king, has he not?

I'm not saying that I probably wouldn't have done the same thing, but I want you to think that's what I'm saying. But what David's doing is wrong, and he's gonna do it again, and I don't, we won't, if we'll get to it next week, but he tells another whopper and it kills 85 priests, and then not only does it kill 85 priests, then people then leave after killing the 85 priests, and then they go under the command of the king of the lot, and they kill a whole city, man, woman, boy, girl, infant, cattle, everything, because of a lie that David gives to a Himalayan, okay?

So, this is a lie. If we use the, well, under the situation, it's okay, that becomes subjective in every action. So, okay, well, you know what, how many told y 'all in here told your kids, hey, if dad's gonna tear your butt up, tell me a big whopper and you'll get away with it?

How many? Well, if situational ethics is going to work, well, that's all right for the kid to do as well. Always bound to tell the truth, always, especially in this case, David was already guaranteed safety to the throne by God, had he not.

Yeah? What about Rahab? Great act of faith. Those spies came up, she let them in, she said, hey, our hearts melt inside of us for what happened when they left Egypt. Remember, this is, how long had that been going on?

Forty years. They had still heard of the major things that God had done. They promised her safety, did they not? Right? Promised her safety. They even, they said, this will be a token of it by you hanging that scarlet rope out the window, and she said, yep, I have, will have safety by Yahweh, and they promised her safety under a swear to Yahweh, and what did she immediately do when they knocked on the door?

They ain't here. They ain't here. All right. Now, she was all, great act of faith, was it not? And then immediately follows by a great act of unbelief. She didn't have to lie to them. We know why she did, and we try to understand, hey, she was trying to save her own teeth, and we understand it, but did she, was she not already promised safety by God?

Yes, there was no reason to lie. Same thing in this case. No reason for David to lie. You know, David could have, but in not wanting to be killed, he could have walked right in, sat down at that table, and said, check it out, Saul, God's given me this, man, and God has protected me, and I'm gonna see this thing through, but dude, he did not.

He, he began to trust in his own self. Is telling a lie not trusting in one's own self? Is it? Yeah, it is. All right. So, he says in verse 8, therefore deal kindly, I'm sorry, in verse 7, if he says it is good, your servant will be safe, but if he is very angry, know that he will have, he has decided evil.

Therefore, deal kindly with your servant, for you have brought your servant into a covenant with the Lord with you. What was the covenant they had already made with one another? It was good. They were, they were, their souls were knitted together.

Go ahead. Did you just say something?

No, I was just gonna say, their families, their descendants would care for each other.

Care for each other. Yep, forever, and it's because their souls were knitted together, and we get down here a little further when he actually says, you know, they, they loved one another as he loved his own self.

I only found one other place in Scripture where that even that kind of terminology is used, because I've tried to say, hey, is there any time, any other place where we see two people so knitted together, other than husband and wife, okay, we're talking about friends, two men so joined together that they loved each other, and the only one I could find was in Genesis chapter 44, and this is still a familiar relationship.

If you remember when Joseph asked about Benjamin, and he says, well, you don't have to, he brings Benjamin back, and he says, hey man, Benjamin's gonna have to stay till you go back and get your father.

I'm gonna hold him basically ransom. He said, oh man, you can't do that. He said, man, you can't do that. Do you understand that my dad's life is so bound up in this person's life that if he stays and I come back with him, he'll die.

So you see the connection, although that was familiar, that their lives are so intertwined with one another. So he says, deal kindly with us, but if there's iniquity in me, you can put me to death. He said, all right, if there is iniquity within me, look, this is David is saying, you find something within me, Jonathan, that is deserving of death, you will go ahead and put me to death.

If I deserve it, you do it. For why then should you bring me to your father? It doesn't mean for you to take me to your dad to have me put to death. If I've done something, you can do it right now. Jonathan said, far be it from you.

For if I should indeed learn that evil has been decided by my father to come upon you, then would I not tell it to you? And I do believe that Jonathan, if he knew at this point that, hey, my dad's intention was to kill you, he would have told him.

We have no reason to believe that Jonathan's pulling his leg or trying to whitewash his dad's actions. Then David said to Jonathan, who will tell me if your father answers harshly? And Jonathan said to David, come, let's go out into the field.

So they both went to the field, Jonathan, and said to David, the Lord, the God of Israel, be witness. All right, they're making a witness before the Lord, a covenant before the Lord that this is what's going to happen.

When I sound out my father at about this time tomorrow or on the third day behold, if there is a good feeling towards you, I shall send to you and make known. If it pleases my father to do you harm, may the Lord do to Jonathan, and more also if I don't tell you.

He's saying, look, if I don't tell you the truth, my dad's intentions to kill you, let that come upon me. That is a lot of how covenants are. Like when they used to cut a covenant, you cut something in half, one side on one, one side on the other.

We see that with the Abrahamic covenant. And it's saying, look, whatever has happened, if I violate this side or this person violates this side, let me be cut asunder in the same way. In other words, put me to death.

And that's what Jonathan is saying. Put me to death. And that he may, I'm sorry, and the Lord do so to Jonathan, more also if I did not make it known to you that you may be safe. And may the Lord be with you as he has been with my father.

You understand what Jonathan is saying here? He is saying, look, just as the Lord has put my father in the position that he is in and has given him success. Had Saul had a successful, humanly speaking, okay?

Forget his disobedience. Forget God for a second, okay? Humanly speaking, had Saul had a pretty awesome kingship? Yeah. I mean, he was a warring king. He was killing. It said he subdued those around him.

Anytime he found an uprising from the Philistines or those around him, what did he do? He squashed it. He killed him. He was a great deliverer, but he was a failure as an obedient king. He says, and just as he is with my father, let him be with you.

He says, and if I am still alive, will you not show me loving kindness of the Lord that I may not die? He's saying, basically, when you become king, are you going to be kind to me? Why would he say that?

Anybody know? Anybody have any idea why he would say that? Anybody know historically what you did when you became king to the former king's descendants? You killed every one of them. Yep. That way you don't have to worry about it.

You don't have to worry about, hey, so-and-so was supposed to be heir to the throne, and I have taken the throne either by coup or by force or some way. Well, if we just kill all the heirs, then you don't have to worry about it.

And if you think about Jesus in the parable of the wicked vinedressers, when the king sends his son in there, what do they say? We'll kill the heir. We'll kill the heir, and then we can have it all. That's basically what he's saying.

Don't kill me. Now, the word that you used here is for loving-kindness. Anybody have, in verse 14, anything other than loving-kindness of the Lord? Does anybody say anything else? Steadfast? Anybody else got anything else other than that?

Who? Faithful? That word is chesed. Anybody know chesed? Chesed meaning it has a semantic range, and it means faithful, steadfast, kind, long-suffering, and it has a lot to do with steadfastness in a time of harsh persecution.

Why do you think you, you know, heard of the Hasidic Jews? Right? What did they, remember in the, I think it was in the 1920s, it really started when they were being persecuted, and these men who started wearing the black, the black coats, the black top hats, the hangly-danglies, and they were called the Hasidic Jews.

They were the more Orthodox saying, hey, we're going to follow Judaism steadfastly, even if it means to a gas chamber to death. Okay? That's where that, the word Hasidic means that. It means steadfast, faithful, and he says, show me the faithfulness of the Lord that I may not die, and you shall not cut off your loving-kindness from my house forever, not even when the Lord cuts off every one of the enemies of David from the face of the earth.

He's saying, when God even wipes out my dad. He, does he not know that Saul is his enemy, David's enemy at this point? Does he not? What is he saying there? When God kills my dad, remember me. Be faithful to me.

Yeah, you say it for me. Yeah, yeah, he sure does. Yep, and, and he, he actually, he doesn't even know that he's around, and David actually goes, hey man, is there someone here left? Because remember, all the, all the, all his sons were killed in battle.

Jonathan, he says, hey, is there anybody else that I can show kindness? Because they also, he, David makes a covenant with Saul to be faithful to his family, even after death. Now, you do have an issue that takes place in 2nd Samuel 23, where there was a plague in the land.

They don't know why. David entreats the Lord, and he says, why has there been three years of famine? And he said, because of what Saul did to the Gibeonites. And you're like, what? And if you're reading that, you got to go, well, who were the Gibeonites?

Well, if you remember, the Gibeonites, and Andy was teaching through Josh, well, you'd remember when they came up, they came up in the ragtag clothes, the molded bread, and what did they do? They, they did.

They lied and tricked them into being safe, and making a covenant with them. And if you remember, Joshua made a covenant with them under Yahweh. Before Yahweh, he made a covenant with them not to harm them, and God honored that.

Well, under the zeal of Saul being in Gibeon, right here, he goes over here to exterminate them. And God says, because of what he did, that's why the famine. I made a covenant with those people, with Joshua, that we were going to take care of them.

He goes over there, and he kills the whole, tries to kill the whole city. And we don't know anything about this until, you know, the 23rd chapter of 2 Samuel, and God says, go talk to those people, see what they want.

They say, we don't want reparations. We don't want no money. We want seven men from Saul. We want seven descendants. So, what he does is, he rounds up seven descendants. He, there's a textual variant there.

We'll deal with that whenever we get there. He, he finds the descendants of Merab, the sons, and he gets two other sons of another wife, and he brings them, and he saves Meshith. Say it again? Mephibosheth.

He saves Mephibosheth again. He said, you can take all of them, but you're not taking them. And then, because of the covenant that the Gibeonites had made with Yahweh, David lets him hang seven of Saul's family.

So, but even at that, he, he continually, up until that point, looks for opportunities to, to be faithful to Saul, even in his death. You know, he never defamed Saul's name. As a matter of fact, when Saul dies, at the end of the book, you know what?

He writes a song telling how great they were, how great Jonathan was, how great Saul was. I mean, it'd be like, all right, I'm chasing to kill Mike Smith for 15 years, and then somebody finally whacks me, and he's gonna write a song about how great I was.

Like, dude, that's crazy. All right, so he says, make a covenant with the house of David, saying, may the Lord require it of the hands of the David's enemies. And Jonathan made a, made David vow again, because of his love for him, because he loved him as he loved his own life.

And then Jonathan said to him, tomorrow's that new moon, and we're gonna be missed, because you're gonna be missed, because that seat's gonna be empty. And when you have stayed for the three days, you shall go down quickly, and come to the place where you have hid yourself for that eventful day.

By the stone of Ezel, I will shoot three arrows, and behold, to the target, and behold, I will send out the lad, go find him. If I especially say to the lad, basically says the same thing he had already said.

Saul’s Suspicion and Jonathan’s Cover Story

So then we get to verse 24. So David hid himself in the food, and when the new moon came, the king sat down to eat the food, and the king sat on, at his seat, the seat by the wall, and Jonathan rose up, and Abner sat down by the Saul's side.

David's place was empty. Saul didn't say a word that day, for he said, this is an accident. Okay, well, Saul says, surely this is an accident. He's under the command of the king to be there, is he not?

Yeah, he's like, okay. Well, I thought it was a gracious act of Saul to go, well, maybe it's an accident. Maybe he forgot, maybe. And that was the next, that was the next, I think he's making two, he's making two things in his mind.

One, it's an accident that he's not here, okay. Two, he's unclean. What would make someone ceremonially unclean that was not sinful? We got one deal with this twice, actually, in the next couple weeks.

Ma 'am? Could be touch a dead person. That's true. There's another one. That's, that is actually one of them. Yeah, he's a man of war. Huh? He could say he had, let's say he went home, and he had sex with his wife.

If he had sex with his wife, he was unclean till the evening. Had nothing to do with sexual relation between a man and the husband and a wife being not holy. It has to do, and you can go back and look if it's in Leviticus 24, Leviticus 15, 16 through 18, and part of it's in Leviticus 24, has to do with the emission of the fluid from the body, whether it be blood or semen, because they hold life with their emitted, once it's emitted, it's, it dies, and it was an act of being unclean because that which was holy had now died, okay?

That's, so, had he been, had he gone home, so, hey, maybe he's gone home. Maybe he went home, slept with his wife, you know, he'd been out killing a bunch of people, probably ready to see his wife. You home?

Slept with her? Maybe he's unclean. Or, as Rosanna said, maybe he did whack somebody's head off on the way there. Oh, you know, I just held up some other guy's head. I can't make it today. And then, on the second day, the new moon, David's place was empty again.

So Saul said to Jonathan his son, why has the son of Jesse not come to the meal either yesterday or today? Now, we're going to see a parallel here. This section, you're going to see Saul ask a question, Jonathan's answer, Saul's hostility and anger.

Then, in the next conversation, you're going to have Jonathan ask a question, Saul's going to respond, and then Jonathan has huge anger towards his dad. So, he says, it came about that on that next day, that second day, it was empty.

Saul said, Jonathan, where's he at? Verse 28, Jonathan then answered Saul, David earnestly asked to leave to go to Bethlehem, for he said, please let me go, since the family has a sacrifice in the city, and my brother has commanded me to attend.

Well, we already see a breakdown in what was supposed to be said. He didn't say his brother. He didn't say any of that. So, now we see Jonathan begin to embellish a little bit, and I do believe that's a hint of how he's fixing to get busted.

He says, for I have found favor in your sight, please let me go away, let me get away, that I may see my brothers, and for this reason he was not at the table. Now, there's two words used here. Please let me go is the word shalak in Hebrew.

That means to just let go, right? The next one down, where it says, does anybody from where it says, please let me get away, and does anybody else have any other phraseology of that at the end of that verse, verse 29?

See where it says, please let me get away? Anybody say anything else? No? Hey, the word there is the word we've already seen used four times considering David, and the word means to escape. That is a hint, okay?

I'm not saying this is the dead giveaway. Why didn't he just say, why didn't Jonathan just say, let me shalak, let him get away again, go away? Why didn't he say that? He used a word to escape. How many times has David already escaped the hand of Saul, and Saul even said it?

Why have you let my enemy escape? So, when he's saying this, he's embellishing, hey, let me escape, let me get away. That's what David is saying. Let me escape your dad's hand, and it's at this point that he arises, and Saul is very angry.

What would have given anything else or other way that David was trying to escape the hand of Saul if he had not said that? We have no reason. I don't know about y 'all, but when I'm reading through that, you go, what triggered Saul's anger?

What word? What gave the hint that Jonathan was somehow in a conspiracy to keep David away? I think the word that was used is the reason, the escape. He was trying to escape the hand of Saul, and then Saul's angers burned against Jonathan, and he said to him, you son of a perverse and rebellious woman.