Bible Commentaries

Still Protected

1 Samuel 23:14).

In the sixteenth verse we have a beautiful exemplification of social ministry:

"And Jonathan, Saul's son arose, and went to David into the wood, and strengthened his hand in God." ( 1 Samuel 23:16).

Jonathan took the larger view of life; that is to say, when he looked out upon things he took in more field and more horizon than is generally included within the scope of inferior men. He said: "Fear not: for the hand of Saul my father shall not find thee; and thou shalt be king over Israel, and I shall be next unto thee; and that also Saul my father knoweth" ( 1 Samuel 23:17). Jonathan thus fixed his vision upon destiny, and accepting that stern fact, he ordered his conduct accordingly. Here we have two different ways of acting in the matter of destiny: we have Saul's way, and we have Jonathan"s. What was Saul"s? It was a way of peevishness, opposition, and bitter hostility; it was a strenuous and even desperate attempt to turn back the purposes of Providence and reverse the decrees of Heaven. Saul kicked against the pricks; Saul seemed to apply his poor hands to smite the forces of Omnipotence, and he only suffered in the unequal contest. What was Jonathan's method of looking upon this solemn question of destiny or predestination? His way was to adopt it, to act in harmony with it, to believe that in the outworking of it the most gracious results would accrue. This was profound philosophy. When we see any man evidently called to a great leadership or to supreme influence, however much our personal dignity may be supposed temporarily to be injured, depend upon it, we are only wise in proportion as we accept the new primacy and bid it good-speed, in the name of the Lord. The process indeed is not always easy; sometimes it amounts to little less than a living sacrifice, a burning out of the soul of the most inveterate elements of evil, the destruction as by fire of the spirit of envy, jealousy, and malice. If, however, we do not submit to undergo this process of purification, we shall become the victims of our own insanity, and be ground to powder by the calm but irresistible march of events. These reflections have their great spiritual application, as we have already seen. The coming King is the Son of God, and it is hard for any man to oppose his enthronement. In such a contest it is man who must go down, yea, even go down to the point of destruction. "Kiss the 1 Samuel 23:16).—Jealousy and every mean or low feeling were strangers to the generous heart of Jonathan. Valiant and accomplished himself, none knew better how to acknowledge valour and accomplishment in others. The act of David in meeting the challenge of Goliath, and in overcoming that huge barbarian, entirely won his heart; and from that day forward the son of Jesse found no one who loved him so tenderly, who admired his high gifts with so much enthusiasm, or who risked so much to preserve him from harm, as the very prince whom he was destined to exclude from a throne. Jonathan knew well what was to happen, and he submitted cheerfully to the appointment which gave the throne of his father to the young shepherd of Bethlehem. In the intensity of his love and confidence he shrank not to think of David as his destined king and master; and his dreams of the future pictured nothing brighter than the day in which David should reign over Israel, and he be one with him in friendship, and next to him in place and council—not because he was covetous even of this degree of honour, but because "next to David" was the place where he wished always to be, and where he desired to rest.

When Saul began to hate David as his intended successor, he was highly displeased at the friendship which had arisen between him and his son. This exposed Jonathan to much contumely, and even to danger of life; for, once at least, the king's passion against him on this account rose so high that he cast a javelin at him "to smite him to the wall."

This unequivocal act taught Jonathan that the court of Saul was no safe place for David. He told him 1 Samuel 23:16-18). Nothing more is related of Jonathan till both he and his father lost their lives in the fatal battle of Gilboa, combating against the enemies of their country. When informed of this catastrophe David uttered a lamentation ( 2 Samuel 1:17-27) over his lost friend, than which there 1 Samuel 23:19.

A useful spiritual application of these words instantly suggests itself; still we are simply on the ground of accommodation, and not on the ground of critical exposition.—The great spiritual lesson is that the good man is always hidden in a stronghold.—"God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble."—We are to be hidden in the Rock of Ages.—We are not protected merely by the shadow of some perishing substance; we are hidden under the wings of the Almighty.—The Lord is our shield and buckler, our sword and our invincible defence.—There are strongholds of faith, reason, experience; there are strongholds of history, of general testimony on the part of Christian believers, and above all in our own consciousness of the divine nearness and the divine ministry in our personal life.—We know in whom we have believed, and we know that he is able to keep that which we have committed to his charge.—It is in no poor hut that the Christian lives, but in the very centre of the pavilion of God.—Our citizenship is in heaven: we seek a country out of sight: we have bread to eat that the world knoweth not of.—They who take the soul of the Christian captive must first overcome the Almightiness which guards it.—Being assured that we are in a stronghold, let us be cautious how we adventure out of it.—Imagination may tempt us, speculation may promise us glittering rewards, foolish friends may implore us to come away and to range the larger country and increase our experience of life and nature: all these temptations may be addressed to us without any purpose of mischief: we should therefore so know ourselves as to realise our weakness, and so far be assured of our need of divine help as never to go beyond the limit which God has imposed upon us;—Let the soul say morning by morning, "I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills, from whence cometh my help: my help cometh even from the Lord, who hath made heaven and earth."—We can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth us.—Our sufficiency is of God.—All these promises are full of sacred and tender comfort, and were written not to be looked upon with the eye of the body only but to be gazed upon with the vision of the soul, until all that is most beautiful in them passes into the spirit and becomes part of our manhood.—Whenever the enemy rises against us may we remember that we are hidden in a stronghold; may we never live so loosely and vainly as to give that enemy the impression that we can be found wandering alone in any place at any hour; may our steadfastness and our zeal be such that we shall be found evermore within the sacred and impregnable enclosure of the divine sovereignty and protection.