1 Samuel 18:1-4 | Biblical Friendship Part 1

The immediate context is a battle between David and Goliath. In chapter 17, we see the Philistines at war with Israel. A Philistine named Goliath asks for a challenger to fight with to decide the battle. Goliath is described as a most formidable and frightening enemy. King Saul and all Israel were greatly afraid of him. And for 40 days, this continued, where Goliath would ask for a challenger, but no one would come.

David was not at the battle. He was a shepherd taking care of his father's sheep. But his father sent him to bring food to his brothers who were at war. And as David arrived, he heard Goliath shouting. Still, all Israel flees from him in fear. But David responds differently.

He says,

who is this uncircumcised Philistine that he should defy the armies of the living God?

David is brought before King Saul. And again, his faith in God is revealed. He says,

Let no man's heart fail because of him. Your servant will go and fight with this Philistine, for he has defied the armies of the living God, and the Lord will deliver me from the hand of this Philistine.

" So David in faith approaches Goliath. He goes without armor, with nothing but a sling and a stone. Goliath, this behemoth, then comes near to David, and with a loud voice, he curses David. He taunts David.

Come to me and I will give your flesh to the birds of the air.

Would we not all be afraid? But David responds,

you come to me with a sword and with a spear and with a javelin. But I come to you in the name of the Lord of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied. This day the Lord will deliver you into my hand, and I will strike you down and cut off your head. And I will give the dead bodies of the host of the Philistines this day to the birds of the air and to the wild beasts of the earth, that all the earth may know that there is a God in Israel, and that all this assembly may know that the Lord saves, not with the sword and spear. for the battle is the Lord's, and he will give you into our hand.

"

So Goliath now draws near to fight with David. And this is supposed to be frightening. King Saul and all Israel dreaded this man. But what we see in the next verse, it's

David ran quickly toward the battle line to meet the Philistine.

Look at his faith.

Of course, David slays Goliath, and he brings his severed head to King Saul. And Saul asks David,

Whose son are you, young man?

And David answered,

I am the son of your servant Jesse.

And this is where our text begins. So looking at the first verse again, we see that David is responding to King Saul's question. at the battlefield immediately after David has killed Goliath.

King Saul wants to know whose David father is, that he might enlist David into his army. And in response to hearing all of this, the soul of Jonathan was knit to the soul of David. Here we see the birth of the exemplary friendship that we see of David and Jonathan. So where did this friendship come from? It came in response to David's faith in his God. But notice that this is a unique response.

In chapter 17, we see that David's brother reacts very differently. He despises David. Also, we see no one else befriend David, though many may have admired him, but we do not see anyone befriend David in the same manner Jonathan did. So why did Jonathan befriend David? We know the answer to this question by looking at who Jonathan is. We are introduced to Jonathan in chapter 13. He is the son of King Saul, heir to the throne, and commander of a thousand soldiers. In the 14th chapter, we see Jonathan in action.

The setting is that there's an impressive Philistine garrison of 30,000 chariots, 6,000 horses, and troops like the sands of the seashore in multitude. The armies of Israel scatter and flee. King Saul and Jonathan are left hiding in caves with only 600 of them in total who have remained. But we read, Jonathan and his armor-bearer sneak out and run to that formidable Philistine garrison. And why does he go? He tells his armor-bearer,

come, let's go over to the garrison of these uncircumcised.

It may be that the Lord will work for us, for nothing can hinder the Lord from saving, by many or by few.

And then he charges in, saying,

come up after me, for the Lord has given them into the hand of Israel.

From his faith and courage, Israel regained confidence and they fought victoriously.

Our common love for Christ

So we see that this biblical example of friendship was based on spiritual affections. In the same way that Jonathan believed God and was victorious over the Philistines, so too we see that David believed God and defeated Goliath. Jonathan saw David's faith, was excited by it, and was induced to befriend him. From this, we learn that true biblical friendships are based on our common love for Christ. And from this, we also see what lesser or diminished Christian friendships are. Jonathan and David's friendship was no vain or shallow friendship. This was a friendship built on their trust in God. But yet, Christians can still have vain and shallow friendships. Don't accept something lesser as a foundation for your friendships.

Christian, are you forfeiting sincere spiritual fellowship that you can have with your friends for an excessive appreciation of worldly things? Do you delight more in your friends because of the activities and interests you share with them than you delight in that they are bought with Christ's blood and have the same faith and love for God that you have?

You are a Christian. You have by nature of your union with Christ unspeakably amazing things to encourage your friends with and delight in. You have eternal glory set before you. Christian friends should help one another to press on. As Christians, you have more meaningful, purposeful, and deep reasons for friendship. Don't make less important parts become the basis of your friendships. Now know this.

The question that David is answering just before our text is, who is his father? Saul wants to know who his father is, who the father of David is. He doesn't know David. But curiously, in chapter 16, Saul and Jonathan are already introduced to David. We read that Saul began to be tormented by a harmful spirit. And King Saul is advised to hire someone to play the liar for him so that the harmful spirit will depart from him. Saul brought David to play for him. David was often in Saul's courts, but now we see that David was forgotten. Saul had to ask his name again.

He was not recognized. And during that whole time, Jonathan never befriended David. But when God honored David and revealed the heart he had formed in him, then Saul and Jonathan noticed. And then Jonathan loved him. Before Jonathan could see David's faith, he did not desire to befriend him. Only after he saw God's gracious work in David, does he befriend him.

So, do you do things that will excite others to befriend you? Are you open? Do you rejoice to talk about and show the work that God has done in your life? Christian, would someone look at you and be excited by your faith? Is your faith evident? Is your walk admirable and commendable? So, we have seen Jonathan's response, his turn of heart towards David, and now let's give attention to the description of their love. The love is described,

the soul of Jonathan was knit to the soul of David, and Jonathan loved him as his own soul.

The closest of friends

We will see here what this does not mean and what this does mean. Some interpreters have wickedly suggested that these two men had a homosexual relationship. There is no evidence of that at all in the text. But much more, such a view reflects a horribly impoverished view of human relationships. How small one's view of friendship must be when love between two male friends can only be seen as evidence of homosexuality.

Now, this text does mean that Jonathan and David became the closest of friends. The idea is developed through the use of two different phrases. The first,

the soul of Jonathan was knit to the soul of David.

It means they have a close and inseparable friendship. To say it differently, we may say, the soul of Jonathan bound itself or chained itself to David's soul. The same phrase occurs in Genesis 44 to express Jacob's love for Benjamin, that Jacob's life was bound up in Benjamin's life. The idea being communicated is similar to what we read of the early church, that

they were of one heart and of one soul.

The second phrase is,

Jonathan loved him as his own soul.

What is the second greatest commandment that Jesus teaches?

You shall love your neighbor as yourself.

So if Jonathan loved him as his own soul, then he loved David according to the law. His love for David was pleasing to God. Now, following the description of their love in our text, we see their love's beginning fruit or outgrowth.

The covenant, the robe, and the armor

We see this in three things, the covenant, the robe, and the armor. First, a covenant is made between David and Jonathan. It is not only Jonathan who loved David, for they make a mutual agreement. They cut a covenant. And why would they make a covenant? True love desires to be constant. So they cut a covenant that is an agreement of sincere and perpetual friendship between them. It might even be that they cut an animal in half and passed between it, showing that they desired to be cut in pieces if ever they broke the covenant.

Second, the robe. Consider that Jonathan would not have his beloved David to be clothed in anything less than his princely robe. This is humility. He would prefer David to be clothed in the robe, right? He considers David more important than himself. Jonathan says, you have a right to all I have. It is for your benefit.

Consider also that biblical love is opposed to prejudice. God shows no partiality. How then should we? The true grounds of biblical friendship is shared spiritual affection, regardless of rank, position, status, and so forth. All that was necessary for this poor shepherd boy and this prince to have an exemplary biblical friendship was their fear of the Lord.

Lastly, Jonathan gives David his armor, even his sword, bow, and belt. From this, we see that love is generous and can part with anything. Notice the word even. All these things Jonathan was willing to part with and give to David. Nothing was too much for him to give up for David, even his right to be king as Saul's son. So, so far we have seen Jonathan and David's love displayed, but our text reveals still more about friendship in comparing Saul's response with Jonathan's response. We read in the second verse that Saul takes David into his service and will not have him return to his father's house. At first, David is received with a warm welcome from Saul. But we know that does not last long. Six verses later, we see that Saul has already turned and now despises David. He even seeks to kill him. The reason is that Saul's throne was threatened.

He envied David's success and he feared that David would take his throne. But now, looking at Jonathan, he was heir to Saul's throne. David also threatens Jonathan's right to become king. None had so much reason to dislike David as Jonathan had, and yet no one regards him more. Jonathan is content, even joyful, that David should take his place as heir.

So, do we love the work of the Lord when it is not in us? Are we like Saul or Jonathan? Does the goodness and progress of others cause us to love them or despise and envy them? Our friendships are so often selfish. We love them only so far as we can get something from them. Once David was more than a good soldier for Saul. He hated him. We are all too much like Saul. And what keeps us from godly friendships? Our sinfulness prevents us from loving each other as we ought to. God commands us to promote each other's life and spiritual benefit, but instead, like Saul, we seek each other's harm and death.

Christ is our friend

We can only have friends and love our friends because Christ first loved us. We can have true friends because Christ is our friend. Jesus calls us his friend. Jonathan is a great example of a friend, but see how infinitely greater Christ is. Jonathan was induced to love David because of his shared spiritual affections with him. He saw David's faith and was moved to be his friend. But there was nothing in us to move Christ to love us. He could never have been induced by anything other than he could have been induced to condemn us. Further, Jonathan gave David his robe that he might be able to appear in the court of King Saul. But our Lord Jesus did more than Jonathan because he clothed himself with our rags, whereas Jonathan did not put on David's.

Jesus gave us his robe, allowing us to stand blameless and with full acceptance in the heavenly courts of God. We have full permission to enter God's presence. We are even welcomed in. Now, Does this give you joy? We ought to view the friendship we have with Jesus as infinitely glorious. And finally, stepping back, what is the most significant thing we see?

God knows what they need

We see God's providential dealing with David. God has brought Jonathan and David together. As this series goes on, we will see what great hardships and difficulties David will go through. David will go on to face great trials on his pilgrimage. David will struggle with temptations. All the people will rise up against him. He will face heavy burdens.

But we don't have to look far into the future. In this very chapter, King Saul harshly persecutes David. And in God's providence, David has the consolation of Jonathan as his dear friend. Neither Jonathan nor David see this. Neither of them know what will come. They're unaware of the path ahead. But God sees it.

God knows what they need. God knows that they need a faithful friend who could comfort them, each other, and encourage them. Do you believe that you need friends? That you need others to live the Christian life? Friends are a great blessing from God.

Jonathan was a sweet mercy of God to David, who would be there for him and provide counsel to him. God provided all that David needed to endure. God will give you all that you need. Ask of God for friends, and God will not withhold from you anything that he knows you need.

Please pray with me. Heavenly Father, I pray that we would know how to rightly value friends. Father, I pray that our friendships would be grounded in our love for you and not any other thing. We thank you that you give us all that we need, that you will supply us the comfort of friends if it be good for us. Thank you. In Jesus' name, amen.