STUDY THEME: BECOMING WHAT GOD WANTS ME TO BE. SS06-02-02
"GOD WANTS ME TO BE LOVING."
1 SAMUEL 18: 1-4; 19:1-7; 20: 4, 14-17, 42.
PLEASE OPEN YOUR BIBLE TO 1 SAMUEL 18.
How can I know what God wants me to be? The Word of God is my guide. One of its key passages on God’s will for His people is the list of the manifold fruit of the Spirit in Galatians 5: 22-23; "But the fruit of the Spirit is LOVE, JOY, PEACE, LONGSUFFERING, KINDNESS GOODNESS, FAITHFULNESS, GENTLENESS, SELF-CONTROL. Against such there is not law."
This manifold fruit springs from the new nature as one is actuated by the Holy Spirit of God. We read in Matt. 7:18-20 that Jesus taught that the Fruit of the Spirit is the true test of God’s work in a person’s life. The sure footprints of the Spirit are the Fruit, not the gifts. The qualities Paul listed in Galatians are not qualities we can produce. The Fruit of the Spirit is different from the gifts of the Spirit. We are given gifts, that every Christian should bear the Fruit. During the nine sessions of this study we will look at these one at a time.
The unique aspect about the approach taken in this study theme will be that each fruit of the Spirit will be illustrated through the life of an Old Testament personality: Love-Jonathan; Joy-Ezra; Peace-Isaac; Perseverance-Hannah; Kindness-Elisha; Goodness-Josiah; Faithfulness-Noah; Humility-Moses; and Self-Control-Daniel.
As we study these sessions, keep in mind these four facts about bearing the fruit of the Spirit.
We begin this study with "How to be a loving person." Love is the first of the nine fruit of the Spirit. This shows the priority placed on love in the N.T. The character of God’s love plus the poetic description in 1 Corinthians 13 show Christians love to be self-giving. It is more action than emotion, which enables us to love our enemies as well as our friends. Such love is faithful and loyal. Today’s lesson will explore what can be learned about how Jonathan foreshadowed Christian love by his love for David.
The moment you become a Christian God gives you the gift of the Holy Spirit. God’s Spirit produces in you the fruit of the Spriit, love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. You cannot obtaint hese character traits by trying to get them with your own strength. The Holy Spirit bears this fruit in yoou as you join your life to Christ and follow Him in discipleship. As you grow in your relationship with the Lord, you become increasingly more like Him in your character and actions. God through His Spirit empowers you to love, to be joyful, to live in peace, to persevere, to treat others kindly, to do what is right, to be faithful to Him, to be humble, and to be self-controlled.
This nine-session theme from June2 through July 28, 2002, examines the spiritual qualities of character God produces in believers’ lives. Each lesson will explore in depth one spiritual quality through a character study of a person in the O.T.
The purpose of these lessons is to help you to express the spiritual qualities of character that God produces in all believers as you seek to become who God wants you to be. We begin with the question, "How can I love others as God wants me to love?" 1 John 4:8 says "God is Love." Since God is love, the meaning of Christians love flows out of
God’s love for people
We know David as the great king of Israel, but early in the biblical record David was virtually unknown among his people. After the Lord rejected Saul as king because of his disobedience; the Lord in 1 Sam. 16:1-13 sent Samuel to anoint David as Israel’s next leader. David entered Saul’s service as one of Saul’s armor-bearers and as a musician who played the harp to soothe the troubled king. Many of the Israelites probably first heard about David when he killed the giant Goliath. Following his heroic action, David, in 1 Sam. 17:58 reintroduced himself to Saul.
This meeting between Jonathan and Davie in Ch. 18 took place immediately after David’s victory over Goliath. Jonathan was one of those who witnessed the faith and courage of this young man. Although Jonathan was a brave man, he had not been willing to face the giant. David, however, faced Goliath and defeated him. After David had made an end of speaking unto Saul…the soul of Jonathan was knit with the soul of David. There was a deep rapport between these two young men. In today’s language the words "become one in spirit" means the two men were "soul mates." The lives and hearts of these two men were bound together in a lifetime commitment.
Jonathan and David shared much in common. They both possessed deep faith in the Lord. As warriors, the two showed courage, and skill. Both men had started attacks against the militarily superior Philistines that had resulted in great victories for Israel.
Jonathan loved David as himself. The word used for loved here means more than personal affection. It has political overtones as well. For example in 1 Kings 5:1 the king of Tyre, Hiram, "had always been on friendly terms with David," or literally, "had always loved David."
After the victory over Goliath, Saul decided to keep David with him and did not let him return to his father’s house. Saul made the shepherd a permanent member of the royal household and his staff. Perhaps Jonathan’s close relationship with David encouraged Saul to make this decision.
Jonathan’s love for David inspired him to make a covenant with his new friend. This love-based covenant expressed the commitment Jonathan and David made to each other. God’s kind of love centers in commitment, a commitment that put the needs and interests of the one loved above the one loving. This treaty gave David the support of Saul’s heir apparent. The covenant between the two young men represented one of several such agreements they made until Jonathan’s death in battle.
As an expression of his covenant love and commitment, Jonathan stripped off his garments and gave them to David. In giving David the robe he was wearing, a symbol of the Israelite kingdom, Jonathan in effect was transferring his own status as heir apparent to David. In ancient times a man’s robe symbolized his power and authority. Along with this robe Jonathan also gave David his warrior’s garment and armor: his tunic, and even his sword, his bow and his belt.
The remarkable thing about Jonathan’s love for David is that Jonathan had every reason to treat David as a potential rival---and even as an enemy. Jonathan no doubt knew that God had told Saul that the kingdom would not continue in his family. He may also have known that God already had chosen David to be the next king. He certainly knew this later. Even if he didn’t know at this early time about David’s anointing, Jonathan could have seen this brave man as a rival and developed the kind of jealous fear of David that Saul soon displayed. However, instead of treating David as a rival and enemy, Jonathan embraced him as his closest friend. In fact, Jonathan took the initiative in offering love and friendship to David even though Jonathan was the one in position of power at the time.
Such a commitment is a characteristic of true love in both Testaments. Unlike a human contract, a covenant is an unconditional commitment that outlasts all the pressures and trials of the relationship.
Jonathan gave sacrificially of himself, his valued possession, and his position to David out of his love for him. Gifts are an expression of love. In this case, they also seem to recognize Jonathan’s recognition of David as the next king. As believers, we love others as God wants us to love when we act with commitment toward them as Jonathan did toward his friend. All true love is grounded on esteem. Love gives itself; it is not bought. Walter Scott wrote; "true loves the gift which God has given, to man alone beneath the heaven. The silver link, the silver tie, which heart to heart, and mind to mind, in body and soul can bind." Love is the very essence of the Divine nature.
Much happened between 1 Samuel 18:4 and 19:1. At first, Saul liked David very much. David’s successes as a warrior brought profuse praises from the people, so much so that they gave him greater praises than they gave Saul. This angered Saul, who became suspicious of David from that time on. David sometimes played music to calm the troubled king, and during one of those times, Saul threw his spear at David. Saul saw that the Lord was with David , and this realization struck fear into the heart of the king. David continued to behave wisely and Saul’s fear increased. In spite of Saul’s growing fear of David, the people loved David more and more.
Saul offered David one of his daughters in marriage, but he asked that David first kill 100 Philistines (David in fact killed 200). Saul hoped that David would be killed in such an undertaking. The na=EFve David viewed this instruction as an honor and went forth to do what the king hd asked as a dowry. When David was successful, the king had no choice but to give him his daughter Michal. When Saul failed to kill David in vs. 10 he dispached men to David’s home to kill him. David’s wife, Michal, helped him to flee. Saul confronted her for assisting David.
In 1 Samuel 19:18 David went to see Samuel, the prophet who had anointed him as he next king of Israel. When Saul learned where David was, Saul sent three groups of men to capture David there, but none were successful. Eventually Saul himself went to Naioth at Ramah, where David and Samuel both were. However, in vs. 23, God also thwarted this plan of Saul to capture David.
The saying "talk is cheap" applies to many relationships. Some people make promises about how they will help their friends but they never follow through. Jonathan had made a covenant with David and was faithful to that commitment. When the king learned that Saul intended to kill David, Jonathan served as a mediator between the two men.
Jonathan’s active concern for David’s life is a good example of the kind of concern Christians should have for others. Jonathan could have refused to help David escape from Saul. If David were out of the way, Jonathan might have become the new king. Jonathan, however, unselfishly demonstrated intentional goodwill for David.
Sometimes people we regard as our friends betray us. At times David was betrayed by people he had regarded as loyal, but Jonathan remained faithful to him. Saul’s jealousy and fear turned into deep hatred for David. The hatred became so intense that Saul gave up on indirect ways of killing David. He ordered Jonathan his son and all his servants to kill David. Now there was no doubt of Saul’s murderous intent.
Instead of obeying this evil command from his father, Jonathan took several personal reisks to save the life of his friend in whom he delighted. Disobeying his father’s orders was irsky: even more risky was his warning to David. Jonathan went to David and told him of his father’s order to have him killed. HE told David to hide while he tried to talk his father into changing his mind about David. This was the third risk that Jonathan took in these verses. He disobeyed his father’s orders; he warned David; and he sought to reconcile Saul to David. From this point on and for along period of time, David would be himself a fugitive hunted by King Saul.
Love seeks to reconcile those who are estranged from one another. Jonathan went to Saul and reminded his father of the good that David had done for him and for all Israel. Jonathan focused on the victory over Goliath, the Philistine. Through this act of David’s faith and courage, the Lord wrought a great salvation for all Israel. Jonathan reminded Saul of his own response at the time. In other words, how could Saul kill someone who had done so much good for him and for the nation?
Jonathan also pleaded with his father not to kill David because to slay David without a cause would shed innocent blood, which would be a great sin. Becoming guilty of killing an innocent person was considered a serious sin in Israel.
The king’s hard heart was temporarily softened toward David. He said, "As the Lord liveth, he shall not be slain." Based on Saul’s change of heart, Jonathan told David what had happened and what Saul had said. Thus Jonathan brought David to Saul, and he was in his presence, as in times past.
What lessons about Christian love may be inferred from these verses?
E. Stanley Jones, a missionary to India, told of a conversation with Gandhi. He asked the Indian leader what Christians could do to make Christianity more effective in India. Gandhi replied: "I would suggest, first, that all of you Christians must begin to live more like Jesus Christ. Second, I would suggest that you must practice your religion without adulterating or toning it down. Third, I would suggest that you must put your emphasis on love for love is the center and soul of Christianity.
Much happened between 19:7 and 20:4. In spite of Saul’s seeming change of heart, he soon fell into his evil attitude toward David, who continued to be successful in battle. Saul threw his javelin at David and David fled the house of Saul. David escaped to Ramah, where Samuel was. When Saul’s soldiers came there to get David, the Spirit fell on them and they began to act like prophets. Saul sent other messengers, and the same thing happened to them. Then Saul himself went and he too began to prophesy under the control of the Spirit.
While Saul was in ecstasy, David fled to Gibeah where Jonathan was and asked Jonathan to punish him if he was guilty of some crime. Jonathan, of course knew that David wasnot guilty of a crime. However, Jonathan discounted David’s fear of Saul. He apparently had convinced himself that his father’s earlier change of heart still held. David told his friend that Saul had hidden plans from Jonathan because he knew of his son’s love for David, but David told Jonathan in vs. 3, "There is but a step between me and death."
Faced with this truth by his friend, Jonathan believed David. Thus he was ready to do whatever David asked of him: "Whatever thy soul desireth, I will even do it for thee." Jonathan had enough faith and love for David that he was ready to do anything to protect him. In Vs. 13-17 the pledges of friendship and loyalty are reiterated.
4. PLEASE READ 1 SAMUEL 20: 14-17.
In vs. 5-8 David proposed a test to see if Saul really intended to kill him. A special feast was scheduled for the next two days, and David was expected to be there. David told Jonathan to make some excuse for David’s absence on the first day. Jonathan was to watch Saul’s reaction. If Saul accepted this, it meant that David was safe. If Saul became angry, this would reveal his hatred of David. When David asked Jonathan how he could communicate Saul’s response to him, Jonathan took David into a field. If all was well, Jonathan would warn David so he might escape. If this was necessary, Jonathan asked the Lord’s blessing to be on David.
Vs. 14 is a fervent plea by Jonathan that David would remember their covenant with each other. Jonathan knew that his father’s reign was doomed. He hoped to survive to live and serve under David, who would be the new king. Jonathan asked his friend to use his power and authority to spare his life. In this request Jonathan used one of the most important O.T. words. He said, "Show me the kindness of the Lord." Thus Jonathan asked David to treat him with the Lord’s kindness. If possible, that would involve keeping Jonathan alive. In those days, when a new dynasty took over, it was common for the new king to kill all the male members of the old dynasty. Jonathan was asking David to spare his life.