Living as One

 DEVOTION

1^ST SAMUEL

LIVING AS ONE

1 Samuel 19:1-7

19:1 Saul told his son Jonathan and all the attendants to kill David. But Jonathan was very fond of David 2 and warned him, "My father Saul is looking for a chance to kill you. Be on your guard tomorrow morning; go into hiding and stay there. 3 I will go out and stand with my father in the field where you are. I'll speak to him about you and will tell you what I find out." 4 Jonathan spoke well of David to Saul his father and said to him, "Let not the king do wrong to his servant David; he has not wronged you, and what he has done has benefited you greatly. 5 He took his life in his hands when he killed the Philistine. The LORD won a great victory for all Israel, and you saw it and were glad. Why then would you do wrong to an innocent man like David by killing him for no reason?" 6 Saul listened to Jonathan and took this oath: "As surely as the LORD lives, David will not be put to death." 7 So Jonathan called David and told him the whole conversation. He brought him to Saul, and David was with Saul as before.

NIV

Evil is always at the door waiting to pounce upon the innocent. In the case of Saul, evil has won the victory and not only pounced but has taken up residence within his heart. It can only be an evil or wicked heart that would desire to kill an innocent one. However, David had a friend, a brother named Jonathan, with whom he made a covenant. He tried to persuade his father, Saul, not to do such a wrong thing. Saul made that oath that as surely as the LORD lives, David will not be put to death, but we will see that an oath spoken from an evil heart means nothing. Interestingly, Jonathan spoke of David as an innocent man, and at some time later, David would sit on the throne, fulfilling the prophecy that Jesus would be the King who would sit on the throne of David. Jesus came through the line of this innocent man, David. Jesus is the innocent man who, through evil, that invaded and persuaded the hearts of hypocritical religious men, wanted to kill him, just as it wanted to kill David. In this sense, David was a forerunner of Jesus. We should be able to identify with Jonathan in that he could serve as our forerunner. Jonathan was a covenant brother with David, and we are covenant brothers and sisters with Jesus. Jonathan’s heart was right with David, and he made every effort to defend him from the evil of Saul. Our hearts are, or should be, right with Jesus, and we should be making every effort to defend him, although he is the Almighty God who created all that is created and has all the power over all things and defends us against evil. We will see that Saul lied about not wanting to kill David, and he even invoked the LORD in his oath. We do not take any oath but simply make our yes mean yes and our no mean no. We say “Yes” to Jesus, making our heart one with He who gives us life, and “No” to evil, which wants to take our life. As Jonathan and David were friends, Jesus does not call us servants, but friends. That is why we can say we have a friend in Jesus. He loves us more than we can even imagine. Let our hearts not only be bent toward Jesus, but let our hearts be blended, melted together with the heart of Jesus. He has told us just as He and the Father are one, that we are one with Him. Let us live as one with Jesus.