SixThirty3 Student Ministry

Today's passage was 1 Samuel 20:1-42. In the passage, David approaches Jonathan looking to find out what he has done that has made Saul want to kill him. Jonathan finds it hard to believe that his father wants to kill David. David devises a test to reveal Saul's true feelings toward him to Jonathan and makes Jonathan swear to reveal to David the results of the test. Jonathan carries out the test (almost losing his life in the process when his own father tried to kill him) and is upset to find out that his father indeed wants to kill David. True to his word, Jonathan reveals the results of the test to David, and the two weep at the separation that Saul's jealousy and hatred toward David brings upon them.

Just one thing that God really spoke to me about this morning:

Honor your covenants regardless of personal feelings. David and Jonathan had entered into a covenant together. Never was that covenant tested more than in this case. Here you have the love for a father pitted against the covenant made with a friend. Can you imagine how it must have pained Jonathan to have to choose the covenant he made with his friend over the love he had for his father? Vs. 34 said this about Jonathan: "He got up from the table in fierce anger and did not eat any food that second day of the New Moon, for he was grieved because of his father's shameful behavior toward David."

At times, the covenants we make with people will be SEVERELY tested. Maybe it's a marriage covenant; maybe it's a covenant we make with a friend; maybe it's some other covenant. Whatever the case may be, we will be forced to choose between keeping our covenant or surrendering to that which is testing our commitment to keeping our covenant.

Friendships like David and Jonathan's are rare. In a world which values people and things simply for how they can be used to selfishly benefit a person, finding someone who cares for another individual as he does himself is like finding the proverbial needle in a haystack. Jesus said the second greatest commandment is to "love your neighbor as yourself."

Will you? Will you sacrifice your desires for those of another? Will you love them as you love yourself?