This week’s sermon will be from the Old Testament in 1 Samuel chapter 20. I wanted to make a few observations here before the sermon on Sunday. 1 Samuel may be a book you are familiar with or it might be a book of the Bible you have never read before. There are challenges that both of those groups face to really being impacted by God’s word here. You may be so familiar with the stories about Saul, David, and Jonathan that you struggle to truly love this part of God’s Word. Oppositely you may be so unfamiliar with these Old Testament stories that you get lost in strange names and places. That person can throw up their hands and say, “Just give me Jesus, please!” My hope in looking at 1 Samuel 20 is that both those groups would hear this and say, “In the way of your testimonies I delight as much as in all riches” (Psalm 119:14).

First, I want to say a word about the Old Testament. Jesus himself quoted the Old Testament often and considered it authoritative. Moreover, for 2,000 years Christians have believed that every part of the Old Testament points to the good news of Jesus Christ. So, both Christ himself and church history tells us that the effort we put into understanding the Old Testament will be rewarded spiritually.

Now let’s look at 1 Samuel specifically. The Jews originally regarded 1 and 2 Samuel as one book. It was later divided into two books because the whole thing would not fit on a single scroll. The Greek Jews actually titled Samuel as “Kingdoms.” 1 and 2 Samuel with 1 and 2 Kings told the story of the rise of King Saul, David, and Solomon together with subsequent kings of Israel and Judah. 1 Samuel gets its name from the judge/prophet/priest named Samuel. His story begins with a miraculous birth foreshadowing the miraculous birth of our savior. God uses Samuel to raise up first King Saul and more importantly his successor King David.

Thematically 1 and 2 Samuel tell the story of the Lord’s commitment to bless Israel as King with his presence. The Lord chooses to fill his anointed ones with his Spirit in order that God might save Israel from their enemies and bless them. In 1 Samuel the anointed ones are the kings that God appoints through Samuel. King David is the figure that best exemplifies this King through which the Lord blesses Israel.

All this brings us to Chapter 20 where the Lord’s faithful love is contrasted with the murderous tyrant King Saul. The Lord’s faithful love is seen both in King David’s love for Jonathan and by Jonathan’s love for King David. Jonathan’s love for David seems to foreshadow the worship of Jesus Christ. Jonathan appears to feel similarly about David’s love as he does the Lord. A believer is someone who loves Jesus Christ with the same feeling as God because Christ is divine. 

Similarly, we see Christ’s love pictured in Jonathan’s love for David. Jonathan risks his life to protect David just like Christ gave his life for the world’s salvation. Jonathan makes a covenant with David just like Christ makes a covenant in his blood with all those who trust in his name. 

Scripture says that a friend was made for adversity. Let’s pray for the Lord to help us see who is going through adversity that we might be a friend to them like Jonathan was to David. Also, let’s pray that the Father would reveal an even better love than Jonathan had for David, namely Christ’s love for us. The Father’s promise, like Jonathan, is that he loves the believer like his one soul (His son). What good news!