“When David had finished speaking to Saul, the soul of Jonathan was knit with the soul of David, and Jonathan love him as his own life. Then Jonathan made a covenant with David, because he loved him as his own life. And Jonathan stripped himself of the robe that was on him, and gave it to David, and his armor, even to his sword, his bow and his girdle” (I Samuel 18:1,3-4 AMP).
I’ve heard some people try to pervert the relationship between Saul’s son, Jonathan, and David by saying that they were lovers. But people pervert what they don’t understand.
The bond between Jonathan and David was not unlike the bond of men who have fought side by side in a war, or people who have been through a traumatic event together. It is not a physical connection but a spiritual one. Jonathan and David were brothers not by DNA but by covenant.
What is a covenant? It is the strongest form of a promise you can make. When you make a covenant, you are literally saying what’s mine is yours and what’s yours is mine.
Jonathan and David weren’t just making a covenant with each other but with each other’s families for generations to come.
Years after Jonathan and Saul were killed, David remembered the covenant he had made with Jonathan and wondered if any of Saul’s family was living. When he found out that Jonathan had a son who was alive, David sent for him.
Jonathan’s son, Mephibosheth, was a cripple and didn’t think very much of himself because of his disability.
But David, remembering the covenant, gave Mephibosheth back his grandfather Saul’s land and invited Mephibosheth to take all his meals at the king’s table. And David’s kindness extended down to Mephibosheth’s young son, Mica. Because of Jonathan’s covenant with David, Jonathan’s son, who was in need of a helping hand, got it.
God had orchestrated the covenant between Jonathan and David, knowing that someday that covenant would help Mephibosheth.
If you don’t realize it, God has a similar covenant with us, His children. In this covenant, He promises to redeem us, to heal us, to protect us, to love us. To seal the covenant, He sent His blameless Son to die on the cross for our sins. The blood Jesus shed on that cross put us in right standing with God, if we accept it. Now, that Jesus has risen and is seated at the right hand of the Father, He is constantly interceding on our behalf.
David’s covenant with Jonathan stood even though Jonathan had died. Even when David summoned Mephibosheth and offered to make good on the covenant, if Mephibosheth hadn’t accepted, he would have spent his life poor in Lodebar instead of eating at the king’s table.
A lot of us are like that. Instead of finding out what is in our covenant with God, we’d rather stay in Lodebar, in our sickness, poverty and torment, never realizing that God has a wonderful spread of health, wealth and peace laid out for us in His Word. All we have to do is step up to the King’s table and eat.
