1 Samuel 20: All things to the Glory of God?

We face challenges from all sorts of places that make us doubt, make us turn away from God, that make us angry, or drive us into isolation and away from this Christian family that we have.

This week when we come to 1 Sam 20, we have a long single story of David testing to see if Saul truly wants to kill him. Throughout this chapter, like all of life, God continues to be in control. We will consider how David, Saul and Jonathan live in response to God.

Let’s pray.

Dear Lord,

Help us now as we look at the lives of David, Saul and Jonathan that we might meet with you, see your faithfulness and your glory and be transformed because of it.

1. David and God

The first cab off the rank is the hero of our story in 1 Samuel, David.

At this point of the story, David is on the run from Saul. So David is a fugitive. Loved by God, but hated by Saul the king.

At the end of chapter 19, David had successful fled from Saul to a place called Naioth at Ramah and that is where chapter 20 begins.

And 1 Samuel 20.1 is very surprising isn’t it.

1 Samuel 20:1 NIV

Then David fled from Naioth at Ramah and went to Jonathan and asked, “What have I done? What is my crime? How have I wronged your father, that he is trying to kill me?”

David has just escaped with his life and now he returns to see his friend Jonathan. He goes back to the most dangerous part of the world. He is the criminal driving the stolen car right into a police convention. If Saul sees David he is in the mood to shoot first and ask questions later.

And what is David’s appeal to Jonathan: he simply says, look you know your old man - what is it I have done?

David simply asks on his return, what is it I have done wrong to deserve death?

Think of everything David has been through.

Chosen by God through Samuel.

Defeated Goliath.

Defeated the Philistines over and over again. Going to see the Philistines at this point is safer for him.

Married the daughter of the king.

Escaped an assignation from that king. A couple of times.

And now he comes back to the most dangerous part of his world to argue his innocence.

How can David have such courage?

Simply put - David knows that in the eyes of God he is not guilty. David knows that despite Saul being against him, God is with him.

So they hatch a fairly dangerous plan to asses if Saul is really out to get him. David is expected to be at this important festival and his absence would result in questioning. His reason, a return to Bethlehem was to be the hinge as to if Saul would snap. Saul had previously not allowed David to go home back to his family (1 Sam 18.2) and a sacrifice in Bethlehem invokes thoughts of his anointing in 1 Sam 16.5,13) so if Saul was remotely grumpy, he would get angry at this. If he didn’t want David to be killed he would let it go.

At the most crucial time before hatching David’s plan, he places his trust in an agreement or covenant.

The crux and the centre of the agreement is that it is all based upon their mutual relationship with the Lord.

David initiates the covenant and essentially shows that he is laying it all on the line here trusting that the Lord’s will is to be done.

In all of these things David shows us that he is far more concerned with his relationship with God than he is with Saul.

David’s language is humble, yet confident. Think back to when Saul was trying to arrange a marriage that would end in David’s death - “Do you think it is a small matter to become the king’s son in law?”

David is a challenge to us in having the similar sort of courage and faith in our own Christian lives, isn’t he? We run ESL classes here at Guildford and I think this morning David is running a bit of a FSL class - faith as a second language. Because all of his actions here are to bring glory to his primarily relationship - God.

Matthew 10.26-28 reminds us that as Christians today we can come from whatever background and take Jesus’ Faith as a second language course. In sending out the twelve disciples, Jesus describes the hostility they will face in the world because of Him. Mt 10.28

Matthew 10:28 NIV

Do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather, be afraid of the One who can destroy both soul and body in hell.

The Christian life is marked by a walk humbly, yet confident walk, knowing that the Lord has gone before us and paid the price for our sins. The humble and confident walk of the Christian is marked with the comforting knowledge that whoever acknowledges Jesus before others is acknowledged to God the Father, the judge of all things.

Faith in Jesus might be our second language as our hearts so readily want to turn away from Him in sin - but it is the language we need to use.

With a humble yet confident walk we can go into this world and not be afraid of brining glory to God through our lives.

2. Saul and God

Someone who struggled to live with this sort of faith was Saul. The Spirit of the Lord had been removed from Saul and increasing we have seen him try and cling onto his kingdom instead of handing things over to God’s anointed David.

Saul was frustrated over and over again, ironically because David was so successful for him. Saul was an angry man because of how things have turned out for him.

I have spent a good portion of this year frustrated and angry at my upbringing. Not that it was horrible or anything but for a different reason. You see, I have grown to really love youth ministry and what an amazing opportunity it is for young men and women to love Jesus.

But there has been a level of jealousy stirred up in me because I didn’t have that opportunity. I even have got angry from time to time. “Why didn’t I ahve that opportunity?!”

I’ve been angry that I didn’t get that chance. But who am I angry at?

It’s not my parents. It’s not me.

It’s God. “Why God did you not let me see this joy sooner!” It’s so frustrating because I love Jesus so much is that I look back at all the other days and years where I could of been walking with him. Sinfully, I get frustrated because I have moments where I cannot accept God’s plan for how things have turned out. I struggle to accept God’s will and think I would be so much better now if I had been saved sooner. Gone unchecked, such an attitude, thinking my way is smarter than God’s leads to horrific relationships not just with God, but with others here on earth.

Because we see this problem wiht Saul don’t we. David and Jonathan’s plan get’s hatched and Saul asks Jonathan why David is away. Jonathan spells out what he had prepared this is Saul’s reaction. Look now at 1 Samuel 20.30-34

1 Samuel 20:30–34 NIV

Saul’s anger flared up at Jonathan and he said to him, “You son of a perverse and rebellious woman! Don’t I know that you have sided with the son of Jesse to your own shame and to the shame of the mother who bore you? As long as the son of Jesse lives on this earth, neither you nor your kingdom will be established. Now send someone to bring him to me, for he must die!” “Why should he be put to death? What has he done?” Jonathan asked his father. But Saul hurled his spear at him to kill him. Then Jonathan knew that his father intended to kill David. Jonathan got up from the table in fierce anger; on that second day of the feast he did not eat, because he was grieved at his father’s shameful treatment of David.

Who is Saul angry at?

David who ran?

Jonathan his son who is protecting him?

Saul’s anger was kindled against Jonathan, but that anger has been there for a while. Saul’s greatest struggle is not with his son, it is with God.

God’s plan and will has not gone the way Saul wanted and now his is enraged. His relationship with God has fractured and so has his relationship with his son. The ugliness of Saul’s sin is horrible isn’t it? He tries to kill his own son. But that ugliness is not unfamiliar to us is it?

If my frustration at my upbringing is anything like you have or are experiencing, we can relate to Saul. We see the ugliness and sickness of our hearts and we struggle to know what to do.

When confronted by the ugliness of his sin with Bathsheba, David penned Psalm 51. in it he pleads for God to be merciful, to forgive him of his sins to wash him clean. Instead of wallowing in the ugliness of sin, David pleads with confidence to the only person who can do anything about it—God.

Ps 51.6-8

Psalm 51:6–8 NIV

Yet you desired faithfulness even in the womb; you taught me wisdom in that secret place. Cleanse me with hyssop, and I will be clean; wash me, and I will be whiter than snow. Let me hear joy and gladness; let the bones you have crushed rejoice.

We hear these words and know that the only place we can go when confronted by sin is to the cross of Jesus Christ. It was Jesus who died. The perfect lamb sacrificed and his blood washes us to be whiter than snow.

And the glorious soothing news is that those who come to him, and he loves it when we do come to him, are forgiven, cleansed, pure. Our relationship with God healed. And despite our brokenness and our worldly difficulties, we rejoice that our king Jesus did that. Scripture shows us the ugliness of sin but also points us to what God is offering to do about it.

What Saul fails to do, but what David prompts us to do is to bring glory to God by humbly repenting each and every day. Saul simply shows the absolutely disastrous effects of living a life in active rebellion to God - even the closest of our relationships here on earth suffer. In realising that despite being sinners we can still bring glory to God in repentance, are we committed to living lives of repentance to God?

3. Jonathan and God

Finally, Jonathan and God.

Jonathan’s commitment to David, and in turn the will of God, is amazing isn’t it?

Jonathan’s actions really do echo Jesus radical call for those to follow him. Luke 14.26

Luke 14:26 NIV

“If anyone comes to me and does not hate father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters—yes, even their own life—such a person cannot be my disciple.

Everything Jonathan does is simply not to be a good person, but to be a person committed to serving God and bringing glory to him above all things. The gravity of Jonathan’s decision to bring glory to God above bringing glory to his father is seen in those final verses 1 Sam 20.41-42.

The Bible certainly teaches for children to be obedient to their parents and such relationships bring glory to God.

But what Jonathan points us towards here is that these new lives of faith that we are blessed into means that our family is not much larger than the one we are born into.

Do we share a similar attitude to Jonathan? Do you consider the persons in the row in front, behind and beside you a brother or sister? Yes? Well, do we act like it?

The sorrow of Jonathan and David’s departure here is matched only by their love for each other. We likewise bring glory to God when as a family we long to build each other up in the faith. We long for lives that intertwine with each other. Church as a family where the the older members from the 8 am congregation are seen as the spiritual grandparents of the youngest in creche or night church would be a amazing wouldn’t it? With this family brought together by the love of God, are we prepared to look around here and see what brothers, sisters, mums, dads, aunties or uncles we could have and invest in those relationships.

In doing so we allow our earthly relationships to be shaped by our heavenly relationship. We build relationships that don’t bring glory to Guildford Anglican, but to God.

Considering the boldness of Jonathan here in investing in God’s relationship above earthly ones, are we praying that God would transform us into a family with similar hearts?

4. Guildford and God

So here in Guildford. Are we doing all things to the glory of God?

So we walk with David’s faith?

Do we repent like Saul should have?

Do we love Jesus more than anyone else and will we invest in our spiritual family here in Guildford?

In every situation, we are to consider first our relationship with God and bring him the glory.

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