e186 Friendships – “The Lord is Witness Between You and Me Forever” (friends in the name of the Lord, Part 1)

This is Faith to Witness 99, motivating us to hear God and share the Shepherd. 

Here’s the gist, human. Jonathan, son of King Saul told the future king, David, that “the Lord is witness between you and me forever.” Now that’s a friendship sealed by a God who doesn’t mess around with the truth. Two warriors who immediately connected, bonded through God’s covenant, and made the pact Jesus talks about in John 15:13. 

So for one, can we just ponder the strength of having our Lord be a witness to the relationships he brings us to on this earth? And for another, can we rally our free will toward choosing friends that God ordains, friends who are invested in bringing a daily witness to others? Hold each other accountable? 

This resonates. If you want to strengthen your witness to others, then commit to God as the witness between you and every friend you hold close. Choose wisely. I am not talking about connections built on emojis and amens. I am talking about shooting three arrows beyond the path of your friends and forging friendships that keep you on the path to find the one. The kind of friend who is working the same terrain, from a different cave, looking for lost sheep. Just like you.

Had to be said. Let’s think about it. 

Join us. E186. Friendships – “The Lord is Witness Between You and Me Forever” (friends in the name of the Lord, Part 1)

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The God connection between Jonathan and David was spiritual. It was anchored in a sacrificial covenant, a friendship in the name of the Lord. The scope and scale of their commitment to each other inevitably leads to Jesus’s command to witness to others and how we hold to this. But it starts with God and his chosen people. 

I’m Kathryn Bise, your host.

When we look at the Biblical story of David and Jonathan it beckons honesty, love, commitment, courage, anger, grief and sacrificial death. And although their friendship took place in a palace, in the presence of a king, and on the hilly surrounding terrain—such a small geographical footprint—the imprint on their hearts was deeply eternal.

Let’s consider the conversations in this enduring friendship.

A Friendship Anchored by Three Arrows and a Covenant

1 Samuel 18:1-3

Saul’s Growing Fear of David

18 After David had finished talking with Saul, Jonathan became one in spirit with David, and he loved him as himself. 2 From that day Saul kept David with him and did not let him return home to his family. 3 And Jonathan made a covenant with David because he loved him as himself. 

When David realized Saul was pursuing him to kill him he went to Jonathan. 

Here’s their conversation. 

1 Samuel 20:1-17

20 Then David fled from Naioth at Ramah and went to Jonathan and asked, “What have I done? What is my crime? How have I wronged your father, that he is trying to kill me?”

2 “Never!” Jonathan replied. “You are not going to die! Look, my father doesn’t do anything, great or small, without letting me know. Why would he hide this from me? It isn’t so!”

3 But David took an oath and said, “Your father knows very well that I have found favor in your eyes, and he has said to himself, ‘Jonathan must not know this or he will be grieved.’ Yet as surely as the Lord lives and as you live, there is only a step between me and death.”

4 Jonathan said to David, “Whatever you want me to do, I’ll do for you.”

5 So David said, “Look, tomorrow is the New Moon feast, and I am supposed to dine with the king; but let me go and hide in the field until the evening of the day after tomorrow. 6 If your father misses me at all, tell him, ‘David earnestly asked my permission to hurry to Bethlehem, his hometown, because an annual sacrifice is being made there for his whole clan.’ 7 If he says, ‘Very well,’ then your servant is safe. But if he loses his temper, you can be sure that he is determined to harm me. 8 As for you, show kindness to your servant, for you have brought him into a covenant with you before the Lord. If I am guilty, then kill me yourself! Why hand me over to your father?”

9 “Never!” Jonathan said. “If I had the least inkling that my father was determined to harm you, wouldn’t I tell you?”

10 David asked, “Who will tell me if your father answers you harshly?”

11 “Come,” Jonathan said, “let’s go out into the field.” So they went there together.

12 Then Jonathan said to David, “I swear by the Lord, the God of Israel, that I will surely sound out my father by this time the day after tomorrow! If he is favorably disposed toward you, will I not send you word and let you know? 13 But if my father intends to harm you, may the Lord deal with Jonathan, be it ever so severely, if I do not let you know and send you away in peace. May the Lord be with you as he has been with my father. 14 But show me unfailing kindness like the Lord’s kindness as long as I live, so that I may not be killed, 15 and do not ever cut off your kindness from my family—not even when the Lord has cut off every one of David’s enemies from the face of the earth.”

16 So Jonathan made a covenant with the house of David, saying, “May the Lord call David’s enemies to account.” 17 And Jonathan had David reaffirm his oath out of love for him, because he loved him as he loved himself.

What does this conversation tell us? Jonathan assures David that he would know if his father wanted to kill him. But David believes Saul has deceived Jonathan. When a conversation is steeped in honesty it goes deeper places. Where covenants live.

When God Gets in the Middle of a Friendship

Jonathan then presents a plan to protect his friend and his destiny. It comes with deep risk. And a beautifully defined display of being friends in the Lord’s name.

1 Samuel 20:18-34

18 Then Jonathan said to David, “Tomorrow is the New Moon feast. You will be missed, because your seat will be empty. 19 The day after tomorrow, toward evening, go to the place where you hid when this trouble began, and wait by the stone Ezel. 20 I will shoot three arrows to the side of it, as though I were shooting at a target. 21 Then I will send a boy and say, ‘Go, find the arrows.’ If I say to him, ‘Look, the arrows are on this side of you; bring them here,’ then come, because, as surely as the Lord lives, you are safe; there is no danger. 22 But if I say to the boy, ‘Look, the arrows are beyond you,’ then you must go, because the Lord has sent you away. 23 And about the matter you and I discussed—remember, the Lord is witness between you and me forever.”

24 So David hid in the field, and when the New Moon feast came, the king sat down to eat. 25 He sat in his customary place by the wall, opposite Jonathan, and Abner sat next to Saul, but David’s place was empty. 26 Saul said nothing that day, for he thought, “Something must have happened to David to make him ceremonially unclean—surely he is unclean.” 27 But the next day, the second day of the month, David’s place was empty again. Then Saul said to his son Jonathan, “Why hasn’t the son of Jesse come to the meal, either yesterday or today?”

28 Jonathan answered, “David earnestly asked me for permission to go to Bethlehem. 29 He said, ‘Let me go, because our family is observing a sacrifice in the town and my brother has ordered me to be there. If I have found favor in your eyes, let me get away to see my brothers.’ That is why he has not come to the king’s table.”

30 Saul’s anger flared up at Jonathan and he said to him, “You son of a perverse and rebellious woman! Don’t I know that you have sided with the son of Jesse to your own shame and to the shame of the mother who bore you? 31 As long as the son of Jesse lives on this earth, neither you nor your kingdom will be established. Now send someone to bring him to me, for he must die!”

32 “Why should he be put to death? What has he done?” Jonathan asked his father. 33 But Saul hurled his spear at him to kill him. Then Jonathan knew that his father intended to kill David.

34 Jonathan got up from the table in fierce anger; on that second day of the feast he did not eat, because he was grieved at his father’s shameful treatment of David.

So what did Jonathan demonstrate here as an enduring friend? 

-He promised protection, three arrows to warn David of an imminent physical threat. 

-He summoned the presence of the Lord between them as the divine witness.

-He defended David’s life in the presence of a troubled king, and an angrier father.

-He grieved the injustice, the unjust treatment of David. 

Verse 35 continues on.

The Cost of Friendship

1 Samuel 20: 35-41

35 In the morning Jonathan went out to the field for his meeting with David. He had a small boy with him, 36 and he said to the boy, “Run and find the arrows I shoot.” As the boy ran, he shot an arrow beyond him. 37 When the boy came to the place where Jonathan’s arrow had fallen, Jonathan called out after him, “Isn’t the arrow beyond you?” 38 Then he shouted, “Hurry! Go quickly! Don’t stop!” The boy picked up the arrow and returned to his master. 39 (The boy knew nothing about all this; only Jonathan and David knew.) 40 Then Jonathan gave his weapons to the boy and said, “Go, carry them back to town.”

41 After the boy had gone, David got up from the south side of the stone and bowed down before Jonathan three times, with his face to the ground. Then they kissed each other and wept together—but David wept the most.

Jonathan shot his three arrows beyond the boy and posed the question that fell on David’s ears. Then Jonathan sent the boy back to town. 

When David came out from “the south side of the stone” he bowed before Jonathan three times, honoring his sacrifice. What sacrifice? Well, why did David weep most? I believe David knew Jonathan was laying down his life to honor the covenant between them. Because Jonathan loved him as himself. Does this sound familiar? It should because these are Jesus words. 

I Samuel 20 verse 42 tells us Jonathan’s parting words to David.

42 Jonathan said to David, “Go in peace, for we have sworn friendship with each other in the name of the Lord, saying, ‘The Lord is witness between you and me, and between your descendants and my descendants forever.’” Then David left, and Jonathan went back to the town.

David spared King Saul’s life twice in the coming days. I believe he was honoring his covenant friendship with Jonathan and the divine anointing of God who had made Saul King. 

And Jonathan, he soon died by the sword of the Philistines at the Mount of Gilboa. On that same day as his father and others (1 Samuel 31). This was the cost of friendship with God as the witness between them.

Jonathan died first, before his father. He fulfilled God’s purpose for him without ever becoming king. But he acted like a king. Not just any king. 

The King. 

So it is impossible to not make the journey from Jonathan to Jesus, following the royal path of what it means to be a friend. This is where you begin a spiritual inventory of your friendships, praying for clarity on investing in relationships that have a covenant through the name of our Lord. It starts with God as your witness between you and your friend.

It starts with three arrows. Who in your life comes equipped to protect, who summons the presence of the Lord as a divine witness between you, who stands ready to defend you in the presence of the world, who will grieve injustice done to you?

If we are ever to embrace enduring relationships we must seek God as our witness. 

Like Jonathan.

I thought this episode was one of one. But it is not. It is Part 1 of two episodes. When we follow the example of Jonathan to the life of Jesus, the urgency of friendship in this life literally explodes. 

How Jesus lived John 15:13 makes all the difference. So what is spiritually simmering today? What it means when God becomes the witness between me and a friend, between you and a friend. That we get super clear about it. 

Because it is God’s witness in our friendships that elevates our witness, our ability to go find the one. Then another, and another. 

Covenant friendships fuel our rescue mission, human.

So let’s go at this again. Can we ponder the strength of having our Lord be a witness to the relationships he brings us to on this earth? I am talking about God bringing his nature to reside between you and a friend. Can we rally our free will toward choosing friends that God ordains, friends who are invested in bringing a daily witness to others? Hold each other accountable? 

If we want to strengthen our witness to others, then let’s commit to God as the witness between us and every friend we hold close. Let’s choose wisely. Because I am talking about shooting three arrows beyond the path of our daily friends and forging friendships that keep us on the path to find the one. The kind of friend who is working the same terrain, from a different cave, looking for lost sheep. Like David. Like Jonathan. 

But more. The kind of friend the disciples sat face to face with in John 15:13. 

Join us for Part 2,  e187.