1 Samuel 20; The Comfort of a Covenant

Introduction

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The impact of family structure on the health of children: Effects of divorce https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC4240051/#FN2

“Nearly three decades of research evaluating the impact of family structure on the healthuio and well-being of children demonstrates that children living with their married, biological parents consistently have better physical, emotional, and academic well-being. Pediatricians and society should promote the family structure that has the best chance of producing healthy children. The best scientific literature to date suggests that, with the exception of parents faced with unresolvable marital violence, children fare better when parents work at maintaining the marriage. Consequently, society should make every effort to support healthy marriages and to discourage married couples from divorcing. to

The child may change his or her outlook on sexual behavior

1. There is increased approval (by children of divorced parents) of premarital sex, cohabitation, and divorce (Jeynes 2001).llll l ll

2. There is earlier sexual debut (Jónsson et al. 2000).

3. Girls whose fathers left the home before they were five years old were eight times more likely to become pregnant as adolescents than girls from intact families (Ellis et al. 2003).

4. Boys similarly have earlier sexual debut and higher rates of sexually transmitted disease when they have experienced divorce in their family.

5. As adults, the female children of divorced parents experience less trust and satisfaction in romantic relationships (Jacquet and Surra 2001).

6. The children of divorced parents are less likely to view marriage as permanent and less likely to view it as a lifelong commitment (Weigel 2007).

7. The children of divorced parents are two to three times more likely to cohabit and to do so at younger ages (Amato and Booth 1997, 112, as quoted in Fagan and Churchill 2012, 26).

The child may lose his/her religious faith and practice (Myers 1996)

1. Following a divorce, children are more likely to abandon their faith (Feigelman, Gorman, and Varacalli 1992).

2. As adults, those raised in step-families are less likely to be religious than those raised by both biologic parents (Myers 1996).

3. Since religious practice has benefits in areas such as sexual restraint, the child of divorce may lose this protection (Rostosky, Regnerus, and Wright 2003).”

Need

As a culture, we are transactional. What can you give me? What can you offer me? We need to return back to the safety and comfort of covenants.

Topic

This morning, we are going to see the protection and comfort that can be found in covenant.

Dale Ralph Davis says,

1 Samuel: Looking on the Heart The Covenant Provides Recourse in Uncertainty (20:1–9)

The text is not merely describing a relation of David and Jonathan; rather, the text is extending its comfort to any Israelite who will receive it. Its message is: In confusion and trouble, you take yourself to the one person who has made a covenant with you. In David’s disintegrating world there was yet one space of sanity, one refuge still intact—Jonathan. There was covenant; there David could expect ḥesed. There was kindness in a raw world.

Referent

1 Samuel 20

Organization

Sermon in a sentence: I can have comfort in my covenant.

Covenantal Kindness (vs. 1-17)

Covenantal Comfort (vs. 30-42)

Explain vs. 1-4.

Read 1 Samuel 20:5-17 .

Sermon in a sentence:

I can have comfort in my covenant.

Covenantal Kindness (vs. 1-17)

v. 7

Saul is known for his outbursts and anger.

As one who bears the name Christian, are you known for your kindness or your hostility? We’ve all heard about those church business meetings that turn violent over the color of the carpet.

The reason I make my monthly calls is to encourage and equip our saints. I don’t want to call to be a burden. I call because I want to shepherd the flock God has put here at Colgate. I don’t want to call to criticize or condemn.

Some brothers and sisters seem to be made that the good Lord woke them up. Especially as a pastor, it takes a toll. We are not going to hold hands and sing around a campfire. But, we can show each other kindness.

Proverbs 15:1 “1 A soft answer turns away wrath, but a harsh word stirs up anger.”

v. 8 and 14

v. 8

David asks Jonathan to show David (his servant) kindness (Hesed) because of the covenant of Yahweh.

This covenant is not just a covenant between two friends. Jonathan and David made a covenant before Yahweh.

David’s appeal to kindness makes no earthly sense. David is a servant. Jonathan is the prince! How could David ask Jonathan for anything in this kind of position.

v.14

Jonathan now turns the discussion around. He knows that the day will come that the prince will need Hesed (kindness) from the shepherd boy.

Jonathan asks David to show his whole family kindness. He asks David to not kill his family.

It will be about 20 years between David’s anointing and kingship. Yet he still shows mercy to Mephibosheth.

2 Samuel 9:7 “7 And David said to him, “Do not fear, for I will show you kindness for the sake of your father Jonathan, and I will restore to you all the land of Saul your father, and you shall eat at my table always.””

Brothers and sisters, I want to remind you of the covenantal kindness you have been shown. The King of Heaven, Jesus Christ took off his royal robes like Jonathan. He came not to servants but rebels. He showed us such abundant kindness that he would willingly lay down his life to make sinners into saints.

Let me also remind you of our covenant that we made with our spouses. Our marriage covenants are not just covenants between two people that like spending time together. Our marriage covenants are between husband, wife, and God himself. Jesus teaches us this in Matthew 19:6 “6 So they are no longer two but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together, let not man separate.””

If you are a member of Colgate Baptist Church, you have also agreed to our church covenant. I don’t have to recount all the times I have been told to my face by people I had meet for the first time that they were members of Colgate Baptist Church. One gentleman forgot “brother Bullock’s” first name while telling me he was a member of Colgate.

Let me give us some relevance for us.

1. Our covenants should mean something.

a. For most people, the marriage covenant or church covenant are about as strong as the piece of paper we sign.

2. Our covenants should cause us to show kindness (loving kindness, long suffering kindness, slow to anger kindness) to those who we are in covenant with.

Explain 1 Samuel 20:18-29.

Read 1 Samuel 20:30-42

Covenantal Comfort (vs. 30-42)

Saul’s discomfort is clear.

Saul’s famous anger comes against his own son. He has anything but comfort.

Read v. 25. We see Saul and Jonathan’s relationship has strained.

Read v. 27. We see Saul’s discomfort with David when he refers to him as Jesse’s son. Not David, the champion, the general, or even his son-in-law.

Saul recognizes Jonathan covenant with David. We will see him say that explicitly in chapter 21.

Saul then commands Jonathan to bring David to die ((vs. 31)

Saul’s hatred and sin continued to separate a father and a son.

Jonathan and David weep deeply because of this sinful world.

David falls upon his face, they greet each other, and weep together.

The Bible doesn’t white wash this broken world.

The Psalms are honest about the deep struggles of the soul.

We have a book called “Lamentations”.

Jesus wept at the tomb of Lazarus.

Jesus is weeping in the garden of Gethsemane.

Despite the pain of this broken world, David and Jonathan could say to each other “Go in peace… God is between us.”

Covenant does not mean we will always be comfortable but we can have comfort even in the brokenness of this world. When God gives you a difficult providence, you can know that He is still good. He is still your heavenly Father that wants to bless you. He will turn this evil and suffering into a glory that you won’t even be able to compare it to.

Our marriages can have problems, issues, disagreements but we can find comfort in the fact that we don’t have a partnership but a covenant. Its not the money in the bank account, the number on the scale, or all the other things that we want. We have something that can endure all these things.

Our church covenant can cover a multitude of sins. When someone sins against us we can still come to each other in covenant. We can call each other to repentance and reconciliation. It can also give us comfort when we are sinned against and there is no reconciliation. We can find comfort in our covenant members.

Conclusion

In closing, I want to remind us of our need for comfort and security offered by covenant. We can see that our society does not understand words like security, stability, comfort. If someone is a Republican then they hate poor people and people that look my mother, my stepfather, myself, and Moses. If you are a Democrat you hate America. If you don’t sign some declaration then you are a liberal that doesn’t believe the Bible. We have lost the idea of covenant in our society.

I want to read to you the words of Dale Ralph Davis.

1 Samuel: Looking on the Heart The Covenant May Demand Costly Commitment (20:24–34)

Is that not an accurate sketch of biblical peace? Biblical peace is not often a general tranquillity but rather a rightness at the center in the midst of much turmoil. Paul implied that Christians “enjoy peace” with God (

Application

If you have not put your faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, today is the day to do that. You can enter into an everlasting covenant with the Triune God. The God that created you, loves you, and will protect you.

If you have put your faith in the Lord Jesus, I call you to submit yourself into a covenant with your spiritual family - the church. We have a church covenant. I want us to use that covenant this week to encourage us to take comfort and edification in our covenant with God and his people. Each day, during family worship I would like us to read this church covenant. If there is any part of the covenant that you are not fulfilling call out to the Lord for forgiveness. Ask him for the mercy and grace to do what we have agreed together.

“Having been led as we believe, by the Spirit of God, to receive the Lord Jesus Christ as our Savior, and upon the profession of our faith, having been baptized in the name of the Father and of the Son, and the Holy Spirit, we do now, in the presence of God the Creator of the Universe, most solemnly yet joyfully enter this covenant together as one body in Christ. We promise, therefore, by the aid of the Holy Spirit to walk together in Christian love: to strive for advancement of this church, in knowledge, holiness and comfort; to promote its prosperity and spiritually to sustain its worship, ordinance, discipline and doctrines, to contribute cheerfully and regularly to the support of the ministry, the expense of the church, the relief of the poor, and the spread of the Gospel through all nations. We also promise to maintain family and personal devotions; to educate our children in the Christian Faith, to seek the salvation of our kindred and acquaintances: to walk upright in the world: to be honest in our dealings, and exemplary in our behavior: to avoid all gossip, slander, and excessive anger; and to avoid drunkenness or anything which demoralizes the individual. We further promise to watch over one another in brotherly love, to remember each other in prayer: to aid each other in sickness and distress: to cultivate Christian sympathy in our character and courtesy in our speech: to be slow to take offense, but always ready for reconciliation, and mindful of the rules of our Savior to secure it without delay. We promise that when we remove from this place, we will, as soon as possible, unite with some other church where we can carry out the spirit of the covenant that involves the principles of God’s Word.”