"Choose Wisely, My Friend. Choose Wisely."

Scripture Passage

1 Samuel 20:1-21:15; Psalm 34

Scripture Focus

Then Saul hurled his spear at Jonathan, intending to kill him. So at last Jonathan realized that his father was really determined to kill David. Jonathan left the table in fierce anger and refused to eat on that second day of the festival, for he was crushed by his father’s shameful behavior toward David.
                                               (1 Samuel 20:33-34 NLT)

Observation

Until today, I don’t ever recall thinking so deeply about what it must have been like for Jonathan to choose loyalty to David over loyalty to his own father, Saul.

The whole story is thick with emotion. There seems to have been an immediate kinship between Jonathan and David—probably because they both shared the kind of adventurous, God-honoring faith we’ve been reading about over the past few days. Clearly that kinship grew into a deep and abiding brotherly love. And today’s reading identifies Saul’s behavior as “shameful” and Jonathan’s anger towards his father as “fierce”. Still, what kind of heart for God must it take to choose to honor God’s next anointed king over your father’s reign as king, and ultimately, over your own!

I don’t care if your dad has even tried to kill you because of your identification with his successor (1 Sam 20:33)—he’s still your dad. My experience is that children often defend even the most despicable of fathers! Yet Jonathan’s heart is steadfast—he will honor the one God has chosen as king.

None of that says he had to despise his own father in any way (though that would have been a challenge, too). It only says that Jonathan embraced David’s coming kingdom over Saul’s now-rejected kingdom. Please note, however, that he did at risk of his life!

Truth be known, “choosing sides” is no small matter. Rather, it is often powerfully and significantly intense. Indeed, one of the “hard sayings” of Jesus is this one:

"If anyone comes to me and does not hate his father and mother, his wife and children, his brothers and sisters--yes, even his own life--he cannot be my disciple." (Luke 14:26 NIV)

Like many, I’m inclined to thin down the intensity of Jesus’ words here, and suggest that He’s “only” saying we must love Him more than anything. But even if that’s “all” He’s saying—take it for “only” that—it remains as all-encompassing a command as you’ll ever encounter. Every day we choose a coming kingdom over a kingdom destined to fail. And in that sense, our choice is no less intense or demanding than was Jonathan’s. Choose wisely, my friend. Choose wisely.