Old Testament # 23
“The Lord Be Between Thee and Me For Ever”
1 Samuel 18–24
Introduction
To have a true friend and to be a true friend, like David and Jonathan, is to sense what relationships will be like in the eternities. Ideally, that is your spouse, but it is also the relationship we strive to have with our Savior, Jesus Christ. The two videos at the end of this post, suggested by the Old Testament manual, help us understand the need—and way—to have and be true friends. Ministering is surely the pathway to that true kind of friendship. And it is a pathway we constantly walk along, especially in our ward family where sometimes we only have weeks to get to know someone before they move out of the area, or even just across the street into another ward. I wonder, will we meet everyone we have ever known when we cross the veil? It is a sobering thought.
On a lighter note—I wonder if Saul just kept a stack of javelins by his side and whenever he was displeased he chucked it at someone. Personally, if I was in an audience with him and saw his hand reach out for a javelin, I would hightail it out of there, lickety split!
1. Jonathan and David make a covenant of friendship. Saul becomes jealous of David and tries to kill him.1 Samuel 18:1–16.
Elder Holland’s video talks about rejoicing in your friends’ successes. Here we have the contrasting reactions to David from Saul and his son Jonathan. First, Jonathan—here is Elder Didier:
We can learn a great lesson from the friendship of David and Jonathan, which was based on a covenant to be faithful to the Lord. Let me share some excerpts of the qualities of that friendship.
“The soul of Jonathan was knit with the soul of David, and Jonathan loved him as his own soul.” (1 Sam. 18:1.)
“Jonathan spake good of David unto Saul his father.” (1 Sam. 19:4.)
“And Jonathan said to David, Go in peace, forasmuch as we have sworn both of us in the name of the Lord, saying, The Lord be between me and thee, and between my seed and thy seed for ever.” (1 Sam. 20:42.) As individuals, . . . what kinds of friends do we select, adopt, confide in, and visit with? Are we strong enough to refuse to be a friend of the world and its representatives? Are we strong enough to accept friendship with Christ? Is to be a friend to be complacent and surrender to lower standards, or is it to maintain Christlike standards and defend them? Do we consider mutual friendship as a way to maintain and develop the foundation of our testimony of Christ?[1]
Saul delighted in David’s success over Goliath, to the extent that he took him into his own household and gave him more opportunities to develop into a mighty warrior, but then that one verse: “Saul hath slain his thousands, and David his ten thousands” (1 Samuel 18:7). It might just have been a poetic form, but it was enough to create envy in Saul and turn his heart. It wounded Saul’s pride and put him farther on the path to abuse of power and self-destruction.
There is a terrible future echo here (if such a thing is possible); Saul puts David in jeopardy by not only sending him into a fierce battle, but requiring an almost impossible feat, the reward for which would be Saul’s daughter, Michal. But soon David will do the same thing with Uriah, Bathsheba’s husband, except this time sending Uriah to certain death, so he can claim Bathsheba for himself. David is victorious against the Philistines (t least 100 of them!)—Uriah was slain (2 Samuel 11). One wonders if both Saul and David, reflecting on their decisions felt as John Greenleaf Whittier put it (which President Monson often quoted), “Of all sad words of tongue or pen, the saddest are these: ‘It might have been!’”
Both Jonathan and Michal try to stem Saul’s resolve to kill David, in vain. Have we the courage to stand up to someone we love when we know they are in the wrong? It is an invidious position to be part of a conflict between people we love.
3. David and Jonathan renew their covenant of friendship, and Jonathan saves David’s life.1 Samuel 20.
What we see with Saul’s persistent jealousy of David and fixation on his destruction, is what happens when we stop listening for and to the Spirit. In contrast, the bond between David and Jonathan strengthens as they live righteously.
While searching in vain, really, for quotes about these topics, I came across this talk by Elder Maxwell given when he was first called to the First Quorum of the Seventy in 1976, which I highly recommend. First his opening paragraph is wonderful:
Now may I speak, not to the slackers in the Kingdom, but to those who carry their own load and more; not to those lulled into false security, but to those buffeted by false insecurity, who, though laboring devotedly in the Kingdom, have recurring feelings of falling forever short.
He offers 14 suggestions to combat inadequacy, but here is one that might pertain to our study:
We can add to each other’s storehouse of self-esteem by giving deserved, specific commendation more often, remembering, too, that those who are breathless from going the second mile need deserved praise just as the fallen need to be lifted up.[2]
4. Saul is consumed by hatred for David. David spares Saul’s life. 1 Samuel 23–24.
By this time in 1 Samuel, David’s army outnumbered Saul’s—so there was what might be termed a state of civil political war although they physically fought a common enemy. How does it feel to be on the same side and yet at odds with someone, to the extent that they seek your destruction? One more quote from that talk by Elder Maxwell.
We can allow for the agency of others (including our children) beforewe assess our adequacy. Often our deliberate best is less effectual because of someone else’s worst.[3]
Here’s what the Institute manual had to say:
This chapter exhibits an aspect of David’s character that is much to be admired. Although anointed by God’s prophet to be king of Israel, and although Saul constantly sought his life, this chosen servant of the Lord still would not lift his hand against Saul so long as Saul lived (see vv. 5–6). David understood an important priesthood principle, that is, that one has loyalty to those called by the Lord to preside even when they may not function perfectly in their calling. Saul was failing miserably, but David knew that it was the Lord’s responsibility to remove Saul, not his.[4]
So I think this week we are maybe closer to gaining an understanding of what it means to minister and why President Nelson has asked us in the strongest possible terms to increase our “spiritual capacity to receive revelation.” Had Saul concentrated on that instead of his increasingly virulent jealousy and hatred for David, what might have happened? So, finally, in Elder Maxwell’s words,
We can make quiet but more honest inventories of our strengths, since, in this connection, most of us are dishonest bookkeepers and need confirming “outside auditors.” He who was thrust down in the first estate delights to have us put ourselves down. Self-contempt is of Satan; there is none of it in heaven. We should, of course, learn from our mistakes, but without forever studying the instant replays as if these were the game of life itself.
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