all right if you can't hear me in the back i'm sorry but uh we'll just we'll just keep going here now it's not clear whether or not Saul actually knew that David had been anointed by Samuel to be the next king i mean here Samuel or Saul is is still king And here Samuel is being sent out to the house of Jesse there in Bethlehem to anoint a new king. So that's an unusual situation, but we don't know whether Saul knew that or not. But if not, Saul certainly suspected that David was being groomed to take his place. Saul had been informed that because of his disobedience, God had rejected him as being king over Israel. I didn't even put the thing up here. We're in Lesson 10. Our focus text is 18, 1 through 9, and 20, 41 through 42. The name of the lesson, A Devoted Servant. So now, here we are in 1 Samuel 15, 26. And Samuel said unto Saul, this is previous to our current text, Thou hast rejected the word of the Lord, and the Lord hath rejected thee from being king over Israel. Wow, what a... a downer of a statement. Your Saul is king over God's chosen people, the nation of Israel, and he's being told, God's not in your kingdom anymore. He's not in your reign anymore. He's rejected you from being king. That doesn't mean that Saul's actual reign ended at that moment, because it went on for about 12 years, I think it was, but God had removed his hand of blessing upon Saul. It doesn't mean he abandoned Israel, but he did not any longer sanction the kingdom or the kingship of Saul. Now, David, on the other hand, was growing in favor with both God and the people. Now, don't think that David was out there you know, infiltrating the people and saying, you know, you really ought to vote for me, for King, and you ought to kick Saul out. Nothing like that. David's own son would do that to him later on. You remember Absalom sat in the gate and stole the hearts of the people. But that wasn't David's Operation at all wasn't what? David was doing David was just being obedient and David was just trying his best to do a good job For Saul as Saul sent him out to do his military Expeditions and all David just just was trying to do the best job that he possibly could and You could see that God was setting the table for David to become king. And the thing of it is, Saul could see it too. He could see the handwriting on the wall, so to speak. David was increasing in popularity. Saul's own standing with Israel was slowly eroding away. He no longer has a relationship with God. He no longer has God's blessings upon his rule. Some people believe that Saul was actually going insane. And Saul developed an intense hatred of David. Like I said, David is just trying to do what's right. He's trying to be a good soldier, a good servant, a good employee, just trying to do his best, doing his best job, which is commendable. And because of that, he's being hated more and more by King Saul. And there's two emotions, really, that are involved here. First of all, there's fear. In 1 Samuel 18.12, and saw was afraid of david because the lord was with him and was departed from saul so saul realized he knew he'd been told and he realized it from experience that god had departed uh... from him as far as putting a blessing on his kingdom helping him in his rule and all that uh... he had departed from saul but the lord was with david and then in verse 15 of the same chapter. Wherefore, when Saul saw that David behaved himself very wisely, he was afraid of him. So Saul lived in fear. He was afraid of David. He was afraid of losing his kingdom, and rightfully so. Like I said, it did not come to pass right then. 10 or 12 years would go by, but it was nevertheless inevitable that it was going to come. But not only was there the emotion of fear, but there was the emotion of jealousy as well. And we're gonna see that as we go through our text verses in a minute. Usually, when someone has an irrational hatred for another individual, it's a product of these two things, fear and jealousy. but against the backdrop of the somewhat tawdry story of Saul's hatred for David, that's not the focus of our lesson today. The focus is the much sweeter narrative of an enduring friendship. And so that brings us to where we're searching the text. First of all, we see David's friend. David's friend in verses one through four. Let's read verse one. I can get my, I'm covered here. It says, And it came to pass, when he had made an end of speaking unto Saul, that the soul of Jonathan was knit with the soul of David, and Jonathan loved him as his own soul. Now, Jonathan was Saul's son, and he became a true friend. It says their souls were knit. We have a lot of friendships that don't really go that deep on the level. And there's nothing wrong with that. I'm glad for the friends that I have that are passing acquaintances. We know each other to see each other. We say hi and might wish each other happy birthday on Facebook. But that's about as far as it goes. But there are some friendships that go deeper. And I don't know if you've ever had that kind of friendship. I believe that I have, but it's rare. It doesn't happen very often that you have a friend that your soul is just knit together. I like that word knit. You know what knitting is, where you take those two needles and click it and clack it and I don't know how to do it, but it puts those strings together and when you get it all together, you know, it's strong and it won't come apart. Well, their souls were knit together. Now there are some, of course, And it's a shame I even have to mention this. They try to twist the story and suggest that there was a homosexual relationship between the two. And that just goes to show the mentality of perversion that exists today. Even among those that know something about the Bible, there was nothing Illicit nothing sensual sexual about this relationship It was simply a friendship that the souls were knit together when verse 2 It says and Saul took him that day. See this is the the soon aftermath of the killing of Goliath And Saul took him that day, it says, and would let him go no more home to his father's house. Before this, David would come to Saul, and Saul would send him on various expeditions, military fights and so on. But then he would go home to his father after that, and then he would come back and whatever. Well, after this event, It says, on that day, Saul would not let him go anymore back to his father's house. Saul decided he needed David close by. He was a promising young soldier. He was a giant killer. And Saul said, man, that's the kind of guy I need to have around. And notice, I'm emphasizing the words, that day. This was not just a came to pass in the passage of time. No, it was that day, very specific. See, this is before Saul realizes how popular David has become and is going to become with the people. It's before he realizes how much his own influence is being overshadowed by David's success. Now, Saul could have been the hero here. Think about it. Here's Goliath over on the hill, taunting God's people, and send out your best warrior, and we'll just have a one-on-one, and if you win, then the Philistines will serve you. If I win, then you will serve the Philistines. There's no need to have an all-out war. We'll just settle this like two men, one-on-one. Saul was the obvious candidate. to go out and fight Goliath. He was, you know, Goliath was nine feet tall in some. He was a big guy. But Saul was a big guy too. Saul was head and shoulders above everybody else in Israel. And so he was probably seven feet or so. And frankly, it should have been him who went out to face Goliath. But no, he is sitting in his house and he's trembling and, oh, what are we going to do? And that's exactly what all of David's brothers that were in the army there said, oh, what are we going to do? And David said, hey, is there not a cause? And he goes to Saul. Saul, is there not a cause? And Saul says, well, you know, we don't have anybody that can face up to Goliath. And so David said, well, I'll go. And Saul put up a motion of a fight against that. Oh, no, you can't go. You're just a lad. And David said, well, look, I've slain the lion and I slew the bear. And I didn't have any weapons with me at that time. So I can go out against this uncircumcised Philistines. And Saul says, well, OK, OK, go get them. And I'm paraphrasing a little bit there, I hope. But he allowed David to go out and fight the Goliath. I mean, David, as far as we know, was still a teenage boy, scrawny. and all that. And he went out to fight the nine-foot giant. And so Saul had the chance to be the hero. If Saul had walked with God and Saul had had the faith that David had, and if Saul had been willing to go out in the name of the Lord and in the power of the Lord and fight the giant, then He could have been the hero, but he sent David out. And so David became the hero. One of the good things that came out of David living at Saul's house was becoming friends with Jonathan. And they had a very, very strong friendship. Look at verses three and four. Then Jonathan and David made a covenant. Because he loved him as his own soul. I think that the based on the antecedents That means that Jonathan loved David as his own soul and probably the same could be said in reverse verse 4 and Jonathan stripped himself of the robe that was upon him and Gave it to David and his garments even to his sword and to his bow and to his girdle I Now, in general, I just want to say that this kind of friendship doesn't come along every day. Their deep commitment to each other was made possible by their mutual commitment to God. See, Jonathan was a great man of God in his own right. We meet him in chapter 13. We're not going to turn back and read. but he won a great victory against the Philistines. In chapter 14, we see Jonathan's dependence upon God. I believe I've got the, no, this is it right here. And Jonathan said to the young man that bare his armor, come and let us go over under the garrison of these uncircumcised, that means the Philistines. It may be that the Lord will work for us, for there is no restraint to the Lord to save by many or by few. He said, we may not have as big an army as we've got the Philistines. It doesn't matter because the Lord can deliver and win battles with many or with a few. Remember the 300 of Gideon's time. So Jonathan had a great faith in God. Well, now in chapter 18, Jonathan's actions show us just what he knew and what a godly man he was. Here's the thing. Jonathan would have been heir. to his father's throne if it had not been for Saul's disobedience. Had God allowed the house of Saul to continue, Jonathan would have been next in line for the kingdom. And from what we know about Jonathan, he would have made a great king. He was a godly man. He was a strong man. He was a diligent soldier. And so he would have been a great king and it would have been easy. Let me back up and say that as Jonathan and David became such close friends, I'm sure that David confided in Jonathan that he had been anointed to be the next king. And so Jonathan knew that the kingdom was not going to continue in Saul's house, that it would end with, if not before, it would end with Saul's death. It would have been easy for Jonathan to be bitter at David, knowing that David, and not he, would be the next king. Can you imagine that here? Jonathan has done a great job doing what he did. knowing that he was in line to be king. And God says, no, the kingdom is not going to continue in Saul's house. And he had anointed David. Jonathan could have been bitter. But Jonathan was a man of faith, as I said. And Jonathan knew the score. He knew that his father had not been a good king. He knew that Saul had been rejected by God. And Jonathan accepted that, and he did so graciously. He acknowledged David as God's choice. Look what it said there in verse four. It says he stripped himself of the robe. No doubt he wore a robe of a prince that announced to everybody that saw him, he's in line to be king. And Jonathan takes that robe off and gives it to David and the rest of his garments and his sword and his bow and his girdle. And so you see that Jonathan is acknowledging that David is going to be the next king of Israel. What a, what humility that is. What a gracious attitude Jonathan showed in all of that. And the friendship that Jonathan and David developed, it impacted David even beyond the death of Jonathan. It was, that friendship was still influencing him after the death of Jonathan. In 2 Samuel 9, verse 1, David said, is there yet any, this is after David becomes king, is there yet any that is left of the house of Saul that I may show him kindness for Jonathan's sake? And what follows is that great story about David sending for Mephibosheth. Remember the man that was lame on his feet? His nurse had been carrying him, evacuating actually, when he was just a baby, and she fell, dropped him, and I guess made a spinal injury. And so he was lame upon his feet. And David showed him kindness, brought him to his own house. And he did that for Jonathan's sake, because of the friendship that he had had with Jonathan. Well, we need to move on. Not only do we see David's friend, but now we want to focus a little bit on David's foe. And verse 5 says, And David went out with us, whoever Saul sent him. He was a good soldier, a good servant, and behaved himself wisely. And Saul sent him over the men of war, and he was accepted in the sight of all the people and also in the sight of Saul's servants. So we see here that Saul's hatred of David wasn't based on anything wrong that David had done to Saul or to anyone else. It says here that he impressed Saul. Because Saul set him over the men of war. In 1 Samuel 16, 21, it says that one time Saul loved David. David came to Saul, stood before him, and he loved him greatly. And he became his armor bearer. So he impressed Saul. It says that he impressed the people. He was accepted in the sight of all the people. And also he impressed the servants. of Saul. And believe me, servants can be very, very harsh critics. But they could not find any flaw in David's demeanor or in his actions. And so Saul's hatred of David was not based on anything that David had done wrong. But look what happens here in verses 6 and 7. And it came to pass, as they came, when David was returned from the slaughter of the Philistine, that the women came out of all cities in Israel, singing and dancing, to meet King Saul with tabrets, with joy, and with instruments of music. And the women answered one another as they played. It was sort of a sing-song thing. It was like a round. Who's the greatest? We are. They had that thing going on. I lost my place here. And they answered one another as they played and said, now get this, Saul had slain his thousands. Oh, that sounds good. And David is 10,000. Uh-oh. Uh-oh. You know Saul's going to hear about this. If he didn't hear it directly from the women, he would have had a report about this. The women were celebrating the victory over Goliath and the subsequent pursuit of the Philistines. And we don't have time to run into that. But Saul has slain his thousands and David his 10,000. And that's hyperbole, of course, which is we use that in music and songs. It's doubtful that Saul had personally slain thousands. And it's unlikely that David had personally slain 10,000. But they were making a comparison. I've got this quote, and I ran across this in Jameson Fawcett and Brown. The women came out of all cities of Israel in the homeward march from the pursuit of listings. This is a characteristic trait of Oriental manners. On the return of friends long absent, and particularly on the return of a victorious army, bands of women and children issued from the towns and villages to form a triumphal procession to celebrate the victory, and as they go along, to gratify the soldiers with dancing, instrumental music, and extempore songs in honor of the generals who have earned the highest distinction by feats of gallantry. The Hebrew women, therefore, were merely paying the customary congratulations to David as the deliverer of their country. But they committed a great indiscretion by praising a subject at the expense of their sovereign. I don't know if they were mean-spirited about it. I don't know if they even realized how this was going to play when Saul found out about it. But they were keeping basically 10 times more praise upon David than upon King Saul. And I think this is another example of the lack of favor that Saul now had with David. God Himself, and God had removed His blessing from the ministry. And we might point to this as being the beginning of Saul's jealousy. It could have been that it had been brewing before this, we don't know. Well, in verse 8, we see Saul's reaction. And Saul was very wroth, and the saying displeased him, and he said, and I can just about imagine him saying this very petulantly, They have ascribed unto David ten thousands, and to me they have ascribed but thousands. Poor, poor, pitiful me. And honestly, I guess I can't really blame him for feeling that way. But instead of saying, well, that's the price you pay for disobeying God, it's the price you pay for God withdrawing his hand of blessing upon you. No, he said that's not fair, it's not right. And he said this at the end of the verse, and what can he, David, what can David have more but the kingdom? You see, he's already got the wheels turning. He knows that God has slated David to be the next king. So again, we see both jealousy and fear. Jealousy about what the women said and fear about the kingdom. As I said, it may be that Saul did not know of David's anointing, but it's starting to become clear to him that God is preparing David to be the next king. Verse 9, and Saul eyed David from that day and forward. A jealous, hateful eye. Maybe, and I think this is very likely, maybe Saul thought that if he could destroy David, his heir apparent, then maybe somehow he could do an end run around God's will. God's decree and remain as king. Well, that's foolish thinking. Number one, God had already said he had rejected Saul. That's on the books. Saul couldn't deny that. He knew that Samuel told him, in fact Samuel told him more than once that God was no longer going to be in his kingdom. And so there was that. And then further, If God decreed that David would be king, then God in His sovereignty was going to see to it that Saul would not be successful in his attempts to destroy David. I've had people question me about my beliefs on the sovereignty of God. And they said, well, what if God has elected this person over here, you know, in Borneo somewhere, But then that person never has the opportunity to hear the gospel. And my response to that is, well, that shows an incredible lack of forethought on God's part. If God has chosen someone to salvation, God will choose the means and provide the means for that person to be brought to salvation. And if God had said David is going to be king, then there's no thwarting that. I mean, David is going to be king. But Saul, perhaps going insane, he thinks, if I can kill David, then maybe I can go on being king. And Saul tried everything he could, everything he could think of to bring David down. He promised him one of his daughters, Merab, as his wife, and then gave her to another man. verse chapter 18, verse 19, but it came to pass at the time when Mirab, Saul's daughter, she had been given to David and had already been promised, that she was given under Adriel, a holothite, to wife. Wow, thanks Saul, you know, thanks for the promise anyway. Well, that's one thing that he did to bring David down. Another thing, eventually he did give him another daughter. His name was Michael. But he had a devious motive in doing that. In verse 21, Saul said, this is Saul speaking to himself now. I will give him her, that's talking about Michael, that she may be a snare to him and that the hand of the Philistines may be against him. Wherefore, Saul said to David, this thou shalt this day be my son-in-law in the one of the twain." Oh, I messed up. I should have never given Mirab to somebody else. You can have Michael and you'll still be one of my sons-in-law. Now Michael, it says, apparently unlike Mirab, she loved David. And I think that Saul's thinking here is that if David becomes a family man with a devoted wife and so on, that that would make him Saul, and it would rob him of his military edge. Well, that wasn't working out so well. And so in a fit of rage, Saul threw a spear at David in chapter 19, verse 10. And Saul sought to smite David even to the wall with the javelin. But he slipped away out of Saul's presence and he smote the javelin into the wall and David fled and escaped. So, you know, it's getting worse and worse all the time. And then he sent messengers to David's house at night to kill him. Saul also sent messengers into David's house to watch him and to slay him in the morning. And Michael, David's wife, told him, saying, If thou save not thy life tonight, tomorrow thou shalt be slain. So as each of these attended, he did escape, by the way. As each of these attempts failed, Saul's hatred continued growing in intensity. Chapter 18, verse 29, And Saul was yet the more afraid of David, and Saul became David's enemy continually. And that brings up the third point, and this one will be shorter, and that is David's fleeing. We get over to chapter 20 and look at a couple of verses. before we read those David came to fully realize it took him a while I think he didn't want to believe that Saul was really a monster that he was but eventually he came to realize just how much Saul hated him and he couldn't figure out why Saul hated him so much chapter 20 verse 1 And David fled from Naoth in Ramah, and came and said before Jonathan, what have I done? What is mine iniquity? And what is my sin before thy father that he seeketh my life? You know, it's like, what have I done? It's like getting a spanking as a kid that you didn't deserve. What did I do to deserve this? And, but you know, I came to realize later on that if I ever did get one that I didn't deserve, I probably missed one that I should have got earlier on. So it all worked out in the end. But he's just, he's asking rhetorical questions. What did I do? What's my sin? What is my iniquity? What have I done to your father? that he seeketh my life." Well, Jonathan interceded on David's behalf. He was able to talk his father out of killing David. He talked to him and said, look, you know, David's a good guy and he's done nothing but right for you. And in verse six of chapter 19, it says that Saul said, yeah, you're right. And it says, he swears, saying, as the Lord liveth, David shall not be slain. Well, that's in verse six. In verse 10, he's throwing a javelin at him again. So it didn't last long. And finally, Jonathan said, Look, I'll try one last time. I'll talk to my father. I'm sure that Jonathan loved his father. And Jonathan held on to that this last thread of hope that Saul was deep down a good person. And that he could talk some sense into him and he could convince him that you don't want to kill David. So they set up a signal. Saul liked to go to a certain field to eat his lunch. And so Jonathan knew this and he said to David, look, you hide yourself over by this field. Hide in some trees. I'm going to talk to my father. And I'm going to do my best to talk him out of this vendetta that he has against you. But here's what we're going to do. He said, if I'm successful, I have one signal, and if I'm not successful, I have another. I'm going to shoot three arrows. It's like target practice. I'm going to shoot three arrows out in the field, and I'm going to send my servant after them. If the news is good, If I have been able to get through to Saul, my father, and he's willing to back off and not seek your life, he said, then what I'll do is I'll tell my servants, hey, you've gone too far. The arrows are back this way, he said, if the news is bad. And if you need to flee, if you need to get out of here for your life, then I'll say to my servant, the arrows are farther on. You're not looking in the right place. They're farther beyond you. And so the exchange between Saul and Jonathan did not go well. In fact, Saul cursed David, Jonathan was defending him, Saul turned against Jonathan and he cursed him and he tried to kill Jonathan with his spear. And at that point, Jonathan, I think, realized, and he resigned himself to the fact that Saul was committed to killing David. So Jonathan shot the arrows and he gave the signal to David, and David was in hiding, that he needed to flee. And let's look at verses 41 and 42 here of chapter 20, and this is where we end. It says in verse 41, and as soon as the land was gone, David arose out of a place toward the south. Apparently Saul had left as well, and fell on his face to the ground and bowed himself three times. And they kissed one another and wept one with another until David acceded. They had a crying contest and David won. And Jonathan said to David, go in peace. There was not much peace in David's life and there wouldn't be for another 10 years as Saul was trying to kill him. But you could go in peace. In other words, knowing that I tried my best. This is what this is the way things are going to be. Just be in peace about that. Do what you got to do. Go in peace for as much as we have sworn both of us in the name of the Lord, saying the Lord be between me and thee and between my seed and I see forever. And he arose and departed. And Jonathan went into the city. So David would be on the run from Saul in fear of his life for the next 10 years. It's unfortunate. When David and Jonathan parted, they did not know if they would ever meet again. And in fact, only once after that were they able to see each other briefly. But that did not dampen their feelings of love for one another. And like I said, I read to you, later on as he's king, David said, isn't there somebody left from Saul's household? Most of it had been wiped out. Is there anybody left that I can show kindness? Yes, there's Mephibosheth. And that's a wonderful, wonderful story. So we get here now to setting the application. One thing really stood out to me in this story. And that's this, the fact that being a godly person, doing what's right, being an exemplary servant, being a gracious individual, none of those things guarantees that you're going to be treated right in return. The golden rule. We it's not this is not a the Bible quote. It says what the Bible means Do unto others as you would have them do unto you That is not a contract With someone else that I'll do right to you and you do right to me. It's not a contract. It's a command Do unto others as you would have them do unto you they may not They may treat you terrible, terribly. That's an adverb, not an adjective. I do know grammar a little bit. But it's not a contract. It's simply a command. You do to others. You do the right thing to others, even if they don't return the fake. Now, a lot of times they will, I think. But it's not a guarantee. Remember Joseph? Why was Joseph hated by his brothers? Because he did the right thing. He was a good son, and even his parents sort of turned against Joseph as well. They didn't like his attitude. So here's the last thing I want to say here. should not be contingent upon how we are treated in return. In other words, do the right thing because it's the right thing to do. That's what David did. God bless you. Father bless. I pray your word to our hearts today. And I pray that we might find something here that would Encourage us, help us, that would correct any attitudes in our lives that cause us to react to how others would treat us. Help us just to do the right thing, because it's the right thing to do. Blessing the service now to follow, the baptismal service. We thank you for your goodness and your blessings. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.