1 Samuel 20:30-34 – Be on God’s side

The question that David and Jonathan anticipated Saul would ask came about on the second day of the new moon celebration. Verses 28-29 then show how tactfully Jonathan tried to answer the question. Whatever it was, he lied for David. The fact was that David was hiding in the field somewhere awaiting news concerning Saul’s attitude toward him. As we have said, Jonathan unwittingly let slip of David’s intention when he said David pled with him saying “…let me get away….” This phase could not be interpreted anyway but that he was planning to escape. Jonathan's answer to the question triggered a hostile response from his father. In their planning to ascertain Saul’s attitude, David had anticipated the king to react negatively or respond positively. One way or the other they would be able to tell the king’s state of mind.

First Samuel 20:30-34 describes how Saul reacted to the answer given by Jonathan. His father went into a tirade when he heard what his own son told him. He even cursed him  saying, “You son of a perverse, rebellious woman! Do I not know that you are choosing the son of Jesse to your own shame and to the shame of your mother’s nakedness?” He went on to accuse him of taking David’s side and of course, he was right. But he failed to understand that Jonathan was not taking side with the son of Jesse per se, he was taking God’s side. Naturally speaking, the choice he had to make was not easy. On one side was his own father and on the other was his good friend. However, it is always a wise move to take the side where God is on, and Jonathan did. Many of us may have to face similar situations in life where we may have to decide to side between God and the person we love, such as our parents, spouse, children and, etc. When the crunch time comes, whose side would we take? Wisdom dictates that we will never be wrong to go with God.  

Saul accused his son of betraying his own family and said, “For as long as the son of Jesse lives on the earth, neither you nor your kingdom will be established.” He was spot on. What he thought should rightly be Jonathan’s would not be established. The words recorded in 1 Samuel 13:14 which Samuel told him at Gilgal must have stuck and reverberated in his mind. The prophet said to him, “…now your kingdom shall not endure. The Lord has sought out for Himself a man after His own heart, and the Lord has appointed him as ruler over His people….” It must have dawned on Saul that David was the man Samuel talked about. So he ordered Jonathan to bring him for he must be killed.    

Jonathan rose up to his friend’s defense. He asked his father, “Why should he be put to death? What has he done?”  With that, Saul lost his plot. He could not contain his anger any longer. Taking a spear, he hurled it at Jonathan, his son. His action revealed the intense hatred he had for David. Whatever doubt Jonathan had about what his father would do to David, he now knew for sure. What David told him earlier was not just an imagination. Jonathan now felt it for himself.  However, Jonathan refused to back down, he had taken David’s side and he would see it through. So verse 34 tells us that he “…arose from the table in fierce anger, and did not eat food on the second day of the new moon, for he was grieved over David because his father had dishonored him.” We learn that, in life, it is always better to take the side of God even when it is in opposition to people dearest to us. Being on God’s side, you can never be wrong.