Day 1173: A plan is made - 1 Samuel 20 vs 18 - 30
18-20 Then Jonathan said to him, “Tomorrow is the new moon, and you will be missed, because your seat will be empty. On the third day go down quickly to the place where you hid yourself when the matter was in hand, and remain beside the stone heap (the stone Ezel). And I will shoot three arrows to the side of it, as though I shot at a mark. 21-23 And behold, I will send the boy, saying, ‘Go, find the arrows.’ If I say to the boy, ‘Look, the arrows are on this side of you, take them,’ then you are to come, for, as the Lord lives, it is safe for you and there is no danger. But if I say to the youth, ‘Look, the arrows are beyond you,’ then go, for the Lord has sent you away. And as for the matter of which you and I have spoken, behold, the Lord is between you and me forever.”
24-27 So David hid himself in the field. And when the new moon came, the king sat down to eat food. The king sat on his seat, as at other times, on the seat by the wall. Jonathan sat opposite, and Abner sat by Saul’s side, but David’s place was empty. Yet Saul did not say anything that day, for he thought, “Something has happened to him. He is not clean; surely he is not clean.” But on the second day, the day after the new moon, David’s place was empty. And Saul said to Jonathan his son, “Why has not the son of Jesse come to the meal, either yesterday or today?”
28-29 Jonathan answered Saul, “David earnestly asked leave of me to go to Bethlehem. He said, ‘Let me go, for our clan holds a sacrifice in the city, and my brother has commanded me to be there. So now, if I have found favour in your eyes, let me get away and see my brothers.’ For this reason he has not come to the king’s table.” Then Saul’s anger was kindled against Jonathan! 1 Samuel 20:18-30 English Standard Version
In my last post from 1 Samuel we saw that David said to Jonathan, “Who will tell me if your father answers you roughly?” And Jonathan said to David, “Come, let us go out into the field.” So they both went into the field and Jonathan told David how he would get the news of Saul's intentions towards him. The spot David was to hide at was evidently familiar to both Jonathan and himself. 'Ezel' means 'place of departure', and may've been a stone feature that was a signpost for travellers. But vs 40 will tell us that “David rose from 'beside the stone heap'”, so it may have been a stone formation that provided a cavern in which David hid. But Jonathan certainly meant to show David which way he should travel!
Jonathan mentions again the covenant relationship he'd made with David, and says “as for the matter of which you and I have spoken, behold, the Lord is between you and me forever.” How true the words of Proverbs 17:17 are which say that “a friend loves at all times, and a brother is born for a time of adversity.” Proverbs 22:11 also comes to mind where we read that “he who loves purity of heart, and whose speech is gracious, will have the king as his friend.” Jonathan realized that David was destined to be king of Israel for he'd previously asked that David would not cut off his steadfast love from Jonathan's house when the Lord 'cut off every one of the enemies of David from the face of the earth.'
Verses 24-27 tell of what happened when the new moon came, and Saul sat down to eat with Abner and Jonathan. And on the second day he asked the whereabouts of the son of Jesse. How did Saul react to what Jonathan told him? (vs 28-29)
Once again the book of Proverbs gives wisdom for such a situation. In the ISV translation Proverbs 22:24 says: “Don’t make friends with a hot-tempered man - and do not associate with someone who is easily angered.” We'll see the reason for Saul's flare up, and what it led to, in our next reading. But for today, let's take James 1:19-20 to heart. He says there: “Know this, my beloved brothers: let every person be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger; for the anger of man does not produce the righteousness of God.”