Scripture Daily

Context No. 854 of 4322 · 1 Samuel

Context · Reflection

1 Samuel 19:1-5: in context

1Saul spoke to Jonathan his son and to all his servants, that they should kill David. But Jonathan, Saul’s son, greatly delighted in David. 2Jonathan told David, saying, “Saul my father seeks to kill you. Now therefore, please take care of yourself in the morning, live in a secret place, and hide yourself. 3I will go out and stand beside my father in the field where you are, and I will talk with my father about you; and if I see anything, I will tell you.” 4Jonathan spoke good of David to Saul his father, and said to him, “Don’t let the king sin against his servant, against David; because he has not sinned against you, and because his works have been very good toward you; 5for he put his life in his hand and struck the Philistine, and the LORD worked a great victory for all Israel. You saw it and rejoiced. Why then will you sin against innocent blood, to kill David without a cause?”

Saul has finally said it out loud, ordering his son Jonathan and all his servants to kill David. And Jonathan, who loves David as his own soul, does two brave things. First he warns David to hide himself. But then he does the harder thing: he goes and stands before his furious father and speaks up for the man his father wants dead. He does not stay safely out of it, and he does not just help David escape and leave it there. He advocates, to the one person with the power to do the killing, on behalf of the one who is not in the room.

And listen to how he makes the case. Let not the king sin against his servant David, he says, for he has not sinned against you; his deeds have been very good toward you. He risked his own life to strike down the Philistine, and the LORD brought a great victory for all Israel; you saw it, and you rejoiced. Why then would you sin against innocent blood, to kill David without cause? Jonathan reminds his father of the truth Saul's jealousy has buried, David's innocence, David's service, Saul's own past gladness, and he names the thing plainly for what it would be: sin against innocent blood. It costs him something to say it; a man capable of ordering David's death could as easily turn on the son defending him. But Jonathan will not let an innocent man be destroyed in his hearing without becoming his voice. Speaking for the one who cannot speak for himself, to the one who could crush him, is exactly what love did here.

Jonathan risked his father's wrath to defend an innocent man who was not there to defend himself. When someone absent is being maligned or threatened in front of me, do I speak up for them, even at a cost, or stay safely quiet?

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