The strongest of all men will still fail without the help of others. We all need others in our lives. Over centuries, the mystery of covenant love of friendship lingers through history. We keep hearing about the stories of generals that formed infallible bond with others in their journey of possessing lands and territories. One of such cases is the story of King David and Prince Jonathan. This is a story that cannot be overlooked in the scripture. Jonathan lived as one of the most trusted companions of all times! A man that loved his friend David like his own soul. The bible never described any other friendship in such manner ever again. It was that unique and scarce! Who stoops low to friendship at the expense of a sure crown on the line? Jonathan did just that! The reality of the issue is that Jonathan actually needed the crown more than David, he deserved it more at least outwardly and base on human selection. He was a valiant man in battle like David, he loved the people, what more would the Israelites of old require of a king? Yet, he displayed an extraordinary character of friendship love and understanding. In this series, we will be trusting God to open our hearts to the salient lessons that are embedded in this mysterious story so as to learn for our lives. Get ready for an eye opener! Allow the penetrating and purifying fire of God’s word to enter you to make you a better person. Remember, all that was written before were written for us to learn and live by. Welcome to The Fire Place!
“By the time David had finished reporting to Saul, Jonathan was deeply impressed with David-an immediate bond was forged between them. He became totally committed to David. From that point on he would be David’s number one advocate and friend” 1 Samuel 18:1 MSG
This is what we can call the foundation of the friendship of David and Jonathan. The verse above gave a clear description of the basis of the friendship. Jonathan could not say NO to such excellence and expertise displayed by David when he was reporting to Saul. This is the first lesson to be gleaned. Who you are and how you do all that has been committed to your hands speaks volumes about your life! your personality (character) is your unwritten resume that you carry about as you go about living your life. it will only attract and fetch you great things in proportion to its content! Just as a man with bachelors’ degree is not qualified to be a university dean, then a man with a valueless and careless personality coupled with the wrong attitude will never attract great people! Here in this passage, David was only doing his job unknown to him that his character and attitude already qualified him to be the best friend of the prince of the great Kingdom of Israel! What a lesson! Who can your life attract to you right now? Will your presence in the King’s court not bring shame and contamination to everything that royalty represents? You might need to start the journey of friendship by working on yourself.
your personality (character) is your unwritten resume that you carry about as you go about living your life. it will only attract and fetch you great things in proportion to its content!
The friendship was initiated based on the credibility of David. David’s testimony before Saul and Jonathan’s response to hearing it established a friendship, admiration and loyalty! Jonathan was impressed with the results of David and he immediately got attracted to him. The law of attraction was initiated immediately. We attract who we are! Your life will only attract to the kind of life you live yourself. Jonathan was a man of excellence himself, so he couldn’t resist the temptation of associating with a fellow excellent man! The question here is, who are the type of friends attracts always? The answer is not far-fetched, you only need to name your friends and check out their lives. An unserious worker will attract other unserious workers in the office! The outcast child of the family will always look out for other outcasts in the area and school to associate with. On the other hand, success attracts success! Great men make friend during conferences, elite business meetings, etc. Where success can be celebrated openly without intimidation! If you will truly get quality friends that will push you into success, you must work on making sure you are that kind of person you want to attract! The journey of friendship starts with your personality! The change must start with you!
We attract who we are!
The desire in the heart of Jonathan to David did not end as an idea that can be delayed, he acted on his latest discovery immediately by demonstrating his love towards David. He made a covenant of friendship with David and sealed it with act of giving. Love is full of action! The extent of the love of Jonathan was known in the weight and magnitude of his gifts to David. “And Jonathan took off the robe that was on him and gave it to David, with his armor, even to his sword and his bow and his belt” 1 Samuel 18:4. The gifts are symbolic! It is more than just a normal gift that can be overlooked. If a warrior gives you a sword, then he truly loves you as that is the symbol of his choicest weapon.
Jonathan practically stripped himself of everything that glorifies him at that moment and hand them over to David. I can see more than a gift of love, that’s sacrificial giving! A symbol of loyalty and connecting to the future he could see in David. Jonathan obeyed the law of connection! The way great men are fashioned, one of the things that makes them consistently great and victorious in all they do is their ability to discern people, times and seasons. A great man will never let an anointing pass him by! Do you understand the law of seedtime and harvest? Jonathan honoured David and passed the test to access all of God’s virtues through David. David was bound to return such magnitude of love and ardent allegiance to mysterious laws of life. Honour is the acknowledging, celebrating and rewarding of success in any ramification. Whatever we fail to acknowledge and honour, we can never be a partaker of it! Jonathan realized that David was carrying evidently the virtues and seed of the future he desires, so he connected with him and instantly become part of that future spiritually!
Honour is the acknowledging, celebrating and rewarding of success in any ramification.
Within the space of a day, we have seen Jonathan obeyed three of the many laws of greatness already! The Law of attraction, the law of connection and the law of honour! As the friendship of David and Jonathan develops, a lot of lessons and attribute of quality friendship were displayed at different points. Jonathan was a man with the access to all that David needed in the Kingdom of Israel being the heir apparent to the Throne of his father, King Saul. He used his position to positively shield David from all coming danger. In 1 Samuel 19:1-7, Jonathan defended David before Saul, the clear enemy of David his friend.
Jonathan made Saul to realize all the good deeds of David to the benefit of the Kingdom of Saul. Although, it was only a temporary solution to the escalating evil in the heart of Saul against David, Jonathan proved that he was a true and faithful friend by doing what he could to save David even in the absence of David. Can your friends stand for you in your absence? Won’t they become the reason for your doom immediately you are not around again? Friendship is all about being there for others even when they have no idea that evil looms over them. Jonathan took a step forward by alerting David about the evil intentions of his Father. If your friends can’t shield you from coming evil by all means, then you don’t deserve the pity of the coming enemy! At different points in our lives, God do bring to our paths, men with access and the help we need for that hour to prevent us from evil.
Friendship is all about being there for others even when they have no idea that evil looms over them.
However, it is our duty to discern and recognize the helps God sent to us in form of friends, colleagues, etc. we must always remember that, the friend we fail to cultivate today can become the judge over our death sentence tomorrow! David’s early escape from the hand of Saul was only possible because he was connected to the son of Saul, not any other access point to Saul would have saved him from the glaring destruction coming for him at those points. As we go about living inside God’s will for our lives, we will meet men like King Saul that will be jealous, uncomfortable and threatened by all that God is doing through our lives. It will take meeting a “Jonathan” that is close to our “attacker” to deliver us from such evil! Remember, God’s help to man is always through men to men. God will never come down to help you, He will only make available resources that will make you able to thrive in that season in form of men, information, etc.
the friend we fail to cultivate today can become the judge over our death sentence tomorrow!
The lessons from the friendship of David and Jonathan is way deeper than we can imagine. We can’t finish it up here in this episode, watch out for the concluding part of this part coming up on Friday where we shall be discussing on the later dealings between David and Jonathan and the things God would have us learn from their times together. Till then, keep living! Remember to drop your comments and drop your email so as to be notified when next a new post drops! Thanks for choosing the Fire Place!