THE KING’S BUSINESS
425
Must a. man have some master? Matt 6 - 24. Will all who live godly suffer persecu tion? 2 Tim. 3:12. PRACTICAL POINTS. (1) Saul seeks to make his son and his servant sharers in his sin, v. 1. (2) Saul is fixed in his purpose to slay; Jonathan is settled in his purpose to save, v. 1.
(3) The sincerity of friendship is man ifested in adversity, v. 2. (4) David’s living jeopardized Jona than’s reigning, vs. 2, 3. (5) Words fitly spoken are apples of gold in pictures of silver, vs.'4, 5. (6) Jonathan as a friend at court is a type of the Lord as intercessor, v. 7. (7) Envy and jealousy are angels from the bottomless pit, v. 9.
----------- 0 ----------- Friendship of David and Jonathan MAY 9, 1915. LESSON VI. 1 Sam. 20:32-42. (Commit v. 42.) G olden T e x t : “A friend loveth at all times.T—Prov. 17:17.
DAILY BIBLE READINGS Mon., May 3 1 Sam. 20:1-10. (The Lesson). Tues.,May 4—1 Sam. 20:11-23. (The Lesson). Wed:, May 5—1 Sam. 20:24-34. (The Lesson). Thurs., May 6 -1 Sam. 20:35-42. (The Lesson). Fri., May 7 1 Sam. 18 :l-9. The friendship made. Sat., May 8—2 Sam. 9:1-7. Friendship remembered. Sun., May 9 John 15:9-17. The friendship of Christ.
EXPOSITION AND PRACTICAL APPLICATIONS
vs. 32, 33. " And Jonathan answered Saul his father, and said unto him, it’herefi)re should he be slain? What haith he done? And Saul cast a javelin at him to smite him." Again the singularly beautiful, mu tual love of David and Jonathan qomes out. The worldly interests' of the two were di rectly opposed to each other. Jonathan was heir apparent to the throne, but David was the one whom God Himself had chosen for the throne; whichever one got the throne, the other could not have it. Yet each of them utterly lost sight of selfish ambition in his love for the other. Jon athan loved David as his own soul (v. 17) ch. 18:3), and at the peril of his own life protected him from the anger of Saul. In doing this, he voluntarily renounced his own aspirations to the throne. David, On his part, openly lamented the death of Jon athan, though that death cleared his way to the throne (2 Sam. 1.-17-27). David had
been in security in Naioth. Saul had sent three companies to take him, but the Spirit of God had come upon them and hindered them from carrying out Saul’s awful de signs. Then Saul himself had gone to cap ture him but had been humbled (ch. 19: 20-24). There seems to have been very little need for David’s fleeing to such a place of security as that (see v. 1 cf. Ps. 91.1). Jonathan, it is true, was a true and mighty friend ’but it would have been bet ter for David to lean upon the arm of God than upon any arm of flesh, even that of the king s son. Jonathan had covenanted to find out for David just what his father’s attitude toward him might be (vs. 4-10). He was to tell him the exact facts whether they were good or evil (v. 9). How often we see moral or spiritual peril confronting those for whom we profess to be friends and yet do not warn them. Jonathan’s friendship was not of that unworthy sort.
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