1 Samuel 20

1 Samuel 20

Morgan - For he loved him as he loved his own soul.—1 Sam. 20.17 The story of David and Jonathan is one of the most beautiful idylls in the Bible, and so also in all literature. Its beauty is enhanced in the sacred Scriptures because it is set in relation to an exceedingly dark background. Love is always beautiful, but the full richness of its colours is only discovered in the presence of suffering and of adversity. From the account of the beginnings of this friendship (chapter t8) it would seem that Jonathan's love for David was earlier than (and the inspiring cause of) David's love for Jonathan. Indeed, the whole story seems to warrant us in saying that love had an even finer expression in Jonathan than in David. There was less, perhaps, of selfishness in it. He was heir-apparent to the throne, but he knew that God had chosen David for that position, and without any pang of regret he acquiesced in the Divine will, and remained the friend of David, loving him more rather than less because he was the anointed of Jehovah. Jonathan loved David as he loved his own soul. That is the basis of real friendship. It is the love of complete selflessness, which substitutes the interests of the loved one for those of self. Such love is not common. It is, how-ever, often manifested, and it shines with all beauty. Experience does not find, in all life's course, many such friends. Happy is the man or woman who has found one such. And yet, perhaps, there is a higher happiness, that, namely, of being such a friend to someone else. David was blessed in Jonathan, but in the deep experience of his own soul Jonathan was supremely blessed in such love for David. (Borrow Life applications from every chapter of the Bible) Dictionary of Biblical Imagery - go to page 1064 - FRIENDSHIP A number of features of biblical friendship are conventional if compared to ancient cultures in general. In the classical tradition, for example, conventions prescribed that friends (1) are equals and are similar in class, interests and character, (2) share meals and spend time together and (3) follow virtue. While not explicitly stated, these motifs are present in biblical pictures of friendship as well. One of the psalmists, for example, speaks of “my bosom friend in whom I trusted, who ate of my bread” (Ps 41:9 RSV), and another psalmist addresses his friend as “you, my equal, my companion, my familiar friend. We used to hold sweet converse together; within God’s house we walked in fellowship” (Ps 55:13–14 RSV). In both classical and biblical traditions, a friend was a support and a counselor. For example, “a friend loves at all times” (Prov 17:17 RSV); that is, even in bad times. Again, “faithful are the wounds [criticisms] of a friend” (Prov 27:6 RSV); and “the pleasantness of one’s friend springs from his earnest counsel” (Prov 27:9 NIV). But as in classical culture, biblical writers also think in terms of the category of false friends who give bad counsel or betray, such as Job’s “comforters” or Judas, whom Jesus calls “friend” (Mt 26:50; see also 2 Sam 13:3; Ps 41:9; 55:12–14; Jer 38:22; Lam 1:2; Mic 7:5). The disciples in their abandonment of Jesus and Peter in his denial likewise enact the familiar category of friends who prove faithless in the time of crisis. The classical tradition held a special place for friendship between males, and we catch hints of this exaltation of male friendship in the Bible too. In his elegy for Jonathan, David asserts that his friendship with Jonathan meant more to him than his relations with any of the women in his life: “Your love to me was wonderful, passing the love of women” (2 Sam 1:26 RSV). Similarly, the most famous NT example of friendship, that between Jesus and his disciples, involves a masculine group. Even so supreme a precept as one’s willingness to die for a friend, extolled in various classical sources referring to Damon and Pythias or Pylades and Orestes, is paralleled by Christ’s teaching, “Greater love has no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends” (Jn 15:13 RSV; see also 2 Sam 16:16–17 and 1 Chron 27:33). Friendship with God. What, then, is distinctive about the biblical image of friendship? Aristotle thought there could be no friendship between a god and a man, any more than a man could be a friend to his slave or his tools, because they were too dissimilar in nature. But the Bible radically rejects secular thought on this point. Few things could be more unnatural and incomprehensible to the pagan imagination than the willingness of the God who created the universe out of nothing to become a friend of mortals whose lives are a mere breath. The whole plan of salvation is an act of friendship whereby God took on human likeness so that people might take on his likeness, transforming enemies into friends (Phil 2:5–8; Heb 2:17; 1 Jn 3:2). The high point of this motif is Jesus’ statement to his disciples, “No longer do I call you servants … but I have called you friends” (Jn 15:15 RSV). Friendship with God goes beyond simply the personal loyalty implied by any friendship; it includes faith and obedience as well. The psalmist states forthrightly that “the friendship of the LORD is for those who fear him” (Ps 25:14 RSV). In three scripture references Abraham is identified as the friend of God (2 Chron 20:7; Is 41:8; Jas 2:23). The last of these links God’s friendship toward Abraham with Abraham’s faith and actions of obedience; indeed, Abraham is a byword for obedient faith. In the very conversation in which Jesus announced to his disciples that he considered them his friends, he added, “You are my friends if you do what I command you” (Jn 15:14). Friendship with God is thus not a friendship between equals, and the loyalty God expects has an exclusive quality that does not characterize human friendships. On the issue of allegiance, James wrote, “Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God” (Jas 4:4 RSV). In other ways the friendship of God has the qualities of human friendship. Friendship implies favor toward one’s friend, and the friendship of God entails just such favor, as witnessed by Job’s statement late in his time of suffering that God’s earlier favor toward him was the era when “the friendship of God was upon my tent” (Job 29:4 RSV). Friendship implies the sharing of information about oneself. Psalm 25:14 links the friendship of God with the fact that God makes his covenant known to his friends. The Imagery of Friendship. The Bible uses two consistent images in its representation of friendship. The first is the knitting of souls. Deuteronomy provides the earliest mention of this category of a “friend who is as your own soul” (Deut 13:6 RSV), a companion of one’s inmost thoughts and feelings, resulting in an intense emotional attachment. It is well illustrated by Jonathan and David’s friendship: “The soul of Jonathan was knit to the soul of David, and Jonathan loved him as his own soul” (1 Sam 18:1 RSV; cf. 20:17). Characteristic expressions of this union of hearts are an affectionate embrace or kiss, weeping, gift-giving and vows of loyalty. After the slaying of Goliath, Jonathan made a covenant with David, and the gestures of friendship were Jonathan’s giving David the gifts of his robe, armor and weapons (1 Sam 18:3–4). David and Jonathan also pledged to protect each other’s families after either one’s death (1 Sam 20:11–16), a promise David subsequently kept by giving sanctuary to Jonathan’s son Mephibosheth (2 Sam 9). Later, when Saul’s wrath required David to flee, there was a moving departure scene between the soul-mates: “They kissed one another, and wept with one another,” departing in peace because they had sworn in the name of the Lord that God would bind them and their descendants forever (1 Sam 20:41–42). Examples of this kind of friendship in the NT are chiefly identified by use of the word philia, the Greek term for friendship, and its cognates. Characteristics similar to the friendship of Jonathan and David’s are evident in such friendship. Jesus wept for the death of Lazarus, whom he called “our friend Lazarus” (Jn 11:11). In the same account, the Greek word for friend is used to describe Jesus’ love for his friend Lazarus (Jn 11:3, 35–36). Jesus and John “the disciple whom Jesus loved” (Jn 20:2) embraced freely (Jn 13:23), and Jesus made a covenant with him to look after his mother after his death (Jn 19:26–27). One sign of the “soul-knit” relationship between believers in the NT is the greeting with a “holy kiss” (Rom 16:16; 1 Cor 16:20; 2 Cor 13:12; 1 Thess 5:26; 1 Pet 5:14). Given such familiarity, “friend” naturally became another name for believers or brothers in the Lord: “The friends greet you. Greet the friends, every one of them” (3 Jn 15 RSV). The privileges and roles of a biblical soul mate, then, involve intimacy, loyalty and a strong emotional attachment. The second image that the Bible uses to represent friendship is the face-to-face encounter, an “interface.” This is literally the image used for Moses’ relationship to God: in the tabernacle God spoke to Moses “face to face, as a man speaks to his friend” (Ex. 33:11; see also Num. 12:8). The face-to-face image implies a conversation, a sharing of confidences and consequently a meeting of minds, goals and direction. In three scripture verses Abraham is identified as “the friend of God” (2 Chron 20:7; Is 41:8; Jas 2:23). Behind the epithet may lie the event of Abraham’s hosting of three angelic visitors, one of whom was God (Gen 18). Following the meal, after the two angels had proceeded to Sodom to warn Lot, God takes Abraham into his confidence, asking himself, “Shall I hide from Abraham what I am about to do?” (Gen 18:20). God and Abraham then engage in a dialogue based on the intimacy of friends, with the imagery of Abraham’s drawing near to God (Gen 18:23; see Near, Drawing Near) and the give-and-take dialogue in which Abraham and God deliberate over the fate of Sodom. A form of friendship is implied, surely, by the NT image of the believer’s one day seeing God “face to face” (1 Cor 13:12). One of the benefits of face-to-face encounters between friends is the heightened insight and stimulation that such encounters produce. A proverb that highlights this mutual sense of well-being is the famous one in Proverbs 27:17: “Iron sharpens iron, and one friend sharpens another” (KJV). This is similar to the statement of English Renaissance essayist Francis Bacon that conversation makes a “ready” person-ready for the world, ready for practical action. Summary. Friendship entails responsibilities and benefits. The proverb that “a friend loves at all times” (Prov 17:17) expresses both an obligation and a benefit. In a similar vein is the proverb that “there are friends who pretend to be friends, but there is a friend who sticks closer than a brother” (Prov 18:24 RSV). In the Bible friendship is a mutual improvement activity, honing one for godly use. Biblical friendship is a face-to-face encounter, signifying proximity, intimate revelation and honesty. It is also a bonding of affections and trust, knitting one’s very soul to another. In its ultimate reaches, it is union with God. The Value Of Friends Jonathan . . . loved [David] as he loved his own soul. — 1 Samuel 20:17 Today's Scripture: 1 Samuel 20:12-17 John Chrysostom (347–407) was one of the great preachers in the early church. He was given the name Chrysostom, which means “golden-mouthed,” because of his eloquent sermons. Here is one of his insights on the value of friends: “Such is friendship, that through it we love places and seasons; for as . . . flowers drop their sweet leaves on the ground around them, so friends impart favor even to the places where they dwell. With friends even poverty is pleasant. . . . It would be better for us that the sun were exhausted than that we should be without friends.” The story of Jonathan and David illustrates the value of friendship. Though David was hunted by the demented King Saul, he drew encouragement from his friendship with Saul’s son. “Jonathan . . . loved [David] as he loved his own soul” (1 Sam. 20:17). Their relationship was characterized by trust, understanding, and encouragement. How difficult it would have been for David to endure this unjust persecution without the nourishment of friendship based in the Lord (v.42). The ancient voice of Chrysostom and the witness of David and Jonathan are reminders of the need to nurture the friendships God has given us. By: Dennis Fisher Since I have no gold to give, And love alone must make amends, " My daily prayer is while I live— “God, make me worthy of my friends.” —Sherman A friend is the first person who comes in when the whole world has gone out. (See Michael Smith's song below) 1 Samuel 20:18 Then Jonathan said to him, "Tomorrow is the new moon, and you will be missed because your seat will be empty. BGT 1 Samuel 20:18 καὶ εἶπεν Ιωναθαν αὔριον νουμηνία καὶ ἐπισκεπήσῃ ὅτι ἐπισκεπήσεται καθέδρα σου LXE 1 Samuel 20:18 And Jonathan said, To-morrow is the new moon, and thou wilt be enquired for, because thy seat will be observed as vacant. KJV 1 Samuel 20:18 Then Jonathan said to David, To morrow is the new moon: and thou shalt be missed, because thy seat will be empty. NET 1 Samuel 20:18 Jonathan said to him, "Tomorrow is the new moon, and you will be missed, for your seat will be empty. CSB 1 Samuel 20:18 Then Jonathan said to him, "Tomorrow is the New Moon; you'll be missed because your seat will be empty. ESV 1 Samuel 20:18 Then Jonathan said to him, "Tomorrow is the new moon, and you will be missed, because your seat will be empty. NIV 1 Samuel 20:18 Then Jonathan said to David: "Tomorrow is the New Moon festival. You will be missed, because your seat will be empty. NLT 1 Samuel 20:18 Then Jonathan said, "Tomorrow we celebrate the new moon festival. You will be missed when your place at the table is empty. NRS 1 Samuel 20:18 Jonathan said to him, "Tomorrow is the new moon; you will be missed, because your place will be empty. NJB 1 Samuel 20:18 Jonathan then said to David, 'Tomorrow is New Moon; your absence will be noticed, since your place will be empty. NAB 1 Samuel 20:18 Jonathan then said to him: "Tomorrow is the new moon; and you will be missed, since your place will be vacant. YLT 1 Samuel 20:18 And Jonathan saith to him, 'To-morrow is new moon, and thou hast been looked after, for thy seat is looked after; new moon: 1Sa 20:5 and thou shalt: Among the forms of salutation and compliment used in Persia, one was, "according to my mode of notation in italics, {Ja i shama khali bud pish yaran,} signifying, Thy place or seat was empty among thy friends. This phrase, or the greater part of it, was frequently addressed to myself when coming into a circle of Persian acquaintances, after an absence of several days or weeks. It reminded me of a passage in the First book of Samuel, (ch. 20:18.) And thou shalt be missed, because thy seat will be empty. And again, David's place was empty." Sir W. Ouseley's Travels, vol i. preface, p.16. empty: Heb. missed 1 Samuel 20 Resources - Multiple Sermons and Commentaries DAVID WILL BE MISSED ON NEW MOON Then - Marks progression in the narrative. Jonathan said to him, "Tomorrow is the new moon, and you will be missed because your seat will be empty - Saul is not stupid and will notice his adversary is absent from the feast!