LOVE AND DEVOTION TO OTHERS
LESSON FOR JUNIORS
Study Scripture: 1 Samuel 19
Lesson 5 October 3, 2020
Key Verse
“Then Jonathan spoke well of David to Saul his father and said to him, “Do not let the king sin against his servant David, since he has not sinned against you, and since his deeds have been very beneficial to you.
1 Samuel 19: 4
INTRODUCTION
The Bible tells us that friendship is a very beautiful thing and it gives us the story of David and Jonathan to show us how beautiful friendship can be. This friendship was between two men with completely different backgrounds.
Jonathan grew up in a palace and he was well educated and trained because he was the son of a King. He also was a senior general in the Army in Israel. He was the oldest son of King Saul and was therefore in line to inherit the throne when Saul died. He came from the tribe of Benjamin.
David was a shepherd and did not come from an extremely wealthy family. His family were not rich. So he looked after sheep out in the wilderness so that his family could survive and pay their bills. David was the youngest of eight children and grew up in the little town of Bethlehem where he was trained to look at the sheep. He came from the tribe of Judah.
But despite the differences between Jonathan and David they became the best friends the world had ever known. They met when David miraculously had a great victory over the giant called Goliath using a sling and a stone. This was an amazing thing for everybody including King Saul and Prince Jonathan were afraid of Goliath for he was about 8 feet tall and big and strong. But David was not afraid of him for he knew that God would look after him and allow him to kill Goliath because Goliath the Philistine champion fighter had attacked and mocked the God of Israel.
Jonathan was also a powerful warrior and he and his armour bearer had killed 20 Philistines soldiers all by themselves. So Jonathan knew that David had a heart for God just like he had. He could see that David was a special person and so he set up a friendship with David and since David was so poor that he didn’t have any armour that soldiers wore Jonathan took off his armour and his expensive robe that Princes wore and gave them to David so that David would be well-dressed and would be able to fight against the enemies of Israel.
The Bible says that their souls were knit together. This means that from deep down in their hearts and minds they were totally committed to look after each other. They became fast friends immediately when they met and talked about the killing of Goliath.
They were such close friends and their friendship was so strong they made a oath or a covenant between them so that they would look after each other no matter what.
Jonathan and David have different family backgrounds but they had certain special things in common. Some people think that this was an unlikely friendship. Some people think that since they were both men they should not have been so close and should not love each other dearly and swear an oath to look after and protect each other no matter what .
But we know that there are some truths about genuine friendship that we can learn from David and Jonathan.
First, friendship springs from a strong bond for their souls were knit together and Jonathan loved David as his own soul. Though Jonathan’s father had been rejected by God as King since he did not behave himself properly and the prophet Samuel anointed David as the next king Jonathan did not grow jealous of David and was willing to accept that God had appointed David as the next king of Israel.
Second, friendship comes because once people have affection and love for each other and this goes both ways the affection and love is shared.
Third, friendship requires selfless sacrifice. Jonathan went the extra mile for David.
Friendship cannot survive if one or both persons involved are self-centered and selfish, looking after their own interest.
But both Jonathan and David were men of faith who believed totally in the Lord God of Israel the God of Abraham Isaac and Jacob.
They were both warriors and were prepared to give their lives to fight in the service of the Lord God of Israel no matter how difficult the times were.
They served the living God and so God gave them both the courage and strength to fight the enemies of God and to support each other.
Friendship is a very beautiful thing for it leads to great joy. Because of this many people in the world will try to put something into this great exceptional friendship that do not belong there because they want to make trouble for others and they will always say bad things about the people that worship God.
Many times Hollywood, social media and other things in the world make something evil out of the relationship between David and Jonathan. But as far as Scripture is concerned this was a pure and godly the relationship between brave men who were spiritual men, who were highly respected and highly regarded.
We must remember that genuine friendship is based on God’s love for us. God loves us so much no matter whether we are rich or poor, educated or uneducated, handsome or not so handsome, beautiful or not so beautiful. He loves us more deeply than we could ever be loved by anyone. The Lord Jesus Christ went through all kinds of pain and difficulties on the cross for us and we should learn from this that sometimes there is a hard road in our friendship with other believers. We have to be forgiving even when friends make mistakes. We have to be prepared to stick through life with genuine friends because it’s worth the pain and the effort.
So if you want to know how to be a friend look at your Saviour the Lord Jesus Christ. He tells us that there is no greater love than one can have if someone would lay down his life for a friend. He said this is a mark of true friendship. Sometimes His disciples did things that were not the best and they made mistakes, but He understood that they were human and He loved them still.
This is exactly what Jesus does for us. He gave Himself for us and so we should have this model guide the way that we approach all our friendship,
Jonathan just didn’t talk that David was his friend. Several times he had to save David’s life when Jonathan’s own father King Saul tried to kill David. King Saul even got so upset at his son Jonathan when he defended David that Saul tried to even killed his own son Jonathan.
For both Jonathan and David love and devotion were most important.
Jonathan cared for David so much that he was prepared to give up a chance to be king over Israel to allow his friend David to become king of Israel. Jonathan knew that God wanted David to become King and he was not prepared to fight against God to make himself better off.
So David and Jonathan’s friendship inspire us. A true friend is true. One sign of a true friend is that when the friend is in difficulty he or she will be encouraged to find help and find strength in God. And above all, this example of true friendship points us to the fact that Jesus is an even greater friend to all of us that .believe in Him. He loves us and is so devoted to all those who come to Him that He will save them.