In an instant, Jonathan’s life had drastically changed. As he handed his armor, his robe, and his weaponry to the young shepherd from Bethlehem, he effectively pledged him his support. He had heard Samuel’s words about the end of Saul’s kingdom, and he had believed them, but now he was living them!
Thus, in a beautiful show of humility, Jonathan willingly gave to David the symbols of his royalty — knowing that he was submitting to a man whose heart was filled with a love for God and His ways. All throughout the battle between David and Goliath, Jonathan had seen this. David spoke of the miracles which Yahweh had performed when he sought to rescue the sheep from the paw of the lion and the bear. David had gone out to fight against the uncircumcised and he didn’t fight for his own glory, but for the glory of God’s nation. Truly, he was the man of whom Samuel spoke — the man after God’s own heart — and the man to whom Jonathan would ungrudgingly give the right to the kingdom. He was God’s choice, and thus he was Jonathan’s choice.
For Jonathan, it would appear as though his recognition of David’s future role was almost immediate. Just after David spoke to Saul about the battle and about his family, Jonathan took him aside and gave him his symbols of royalty. However, this recognition took slightly longer for Jonathan’s vain-glorious father — and the reaction to it was extremely different. Nevertheless, when Saul didn’t realize that David was the one who would take his throne, Saul, just like Jonathan, exalted him:
“And David went out whither so ever Saul sent him, and behaved himself wisely: and Saul set him over the men of war, and he was accepted in the sight of all the people, and also in the sight of Saul’s servants” (1 Sam 18:5).
At first, Saul was in awe of David’s military prowess — so much so, that he made him one of the major commanders in his army! David wasn’t simply given a group of men who followed him, he was “set over the men of war.” As it would sound, he became one of the commanders. Saul, immediately recognizing his abilities, promoted him to one of the highest ranks.
Thus, for a time, David’s presence within the court of Saul was quite positive. However, that would soon change. As the time passed, it quickly became clear to Saul that it wasn’t his firstborn son who would take the throne from him. Instead, he began to hear the young maidens sing songs about the accomplishments of the shepherd boy from Bethlehem:
“And Saul was very wroth, and the saying displeased him; and he said, They have ascribed unto David ten thousands, and to me they have ascribed but thousands: and what can he have more but the kingdom? And Saul eyed David from that day and forward” (1 Sam 18:8-9).
While Saul had once felt his murderous envy towards his son, he soon began to realize that there was one in his courts who was more likely than Jonathan to be the chosen successor. In the eyes of the nation, Saul had slain a great number of people — but David had slain even more! Yet to add to Saul’s fears, all throughout the country the people were beginning to find themselves attracted to David — even Saul’s servants were happy to have him in their midst (1 Sam 18:5).
Suddenly, while he had once loved David, Saul wanted him dead. Every moment, he was suspicious of what David might do. Eventually, his paranoia became so overwhelming that he unexpectedly tried to kill David twice while David played music for him (1 Sam 18:10-11) . However, it would seem likely that this attempted murder was dismissed because of Saul’s known affection for David, and instead attributed to the mental illness that was plaguing him. Thus, while David was almost slain by the king, no one seemed to do anything. Instead, he continued to interact with Saul and serve him faithfully.
Hidden hatred
As time went on, Saul’s evil intent toward David remained concealed. The adverse circumstances began to stack up, but they were never out rightly against David:
- Soon Saul removed David from his exalted position in the army and made him a captain over a thousand (1 Sam 18:13).
- When, according to Saul’s word at the battle against Goliath, David was supposed to marry Merab, Saul’s daughter, she was given to another man (1 Sam 18:19).
- Instead, David was made to marry Saul’s younger daughter Michal — a woman of whom Saul said “I will give him her, that she may be a snare to him” (1 Sam 18:21).
- In pledging Michal to David, Saul purposefully sent him and his men into battle against one hundred Philistines — a task which was meant to destroy David (1 Sam 18:25).
All of Saul’s attacks upon David were behind the scenes and entirely hidden from the eyes of the people — including David himself. When the message of Saul’s required dowry for Michal came to David, the future king didn’t see the request as a threat but instead gladly took up the challenge (1 Sam 18:26). The same can be said for the general populace in Israel; as Saul’s jealousy and hatred towards David began to subtly manifest itself, no one really noticed. On the outside, it would have seemed to them that Saul and David worked together. Instead of seeing Saul’s envy, they likely saw that David was still given a high position in the army, he went out and fought battles on the king’s behalf, and he had just married into the king’s family — upon Saul’s prompting (1Sam 18:18,23). If they had known Saul’s true feelings towards David, they would have been shocked! In fact, this was the result a few chapters later when Ahimelech, the high priest, faced Saul’s wrath for helping David:
“And Saul said unto him, Why have ye conspired against me, thou and the son of Jesse, in that thou hast given him bread, and a sword, and hast enquired of God for him, that he should rise against me, to lie in wait, as at this day? Then Ahimelech answered the king, and said, And who is so faithful among all thy servants as David, which is the king’s son in law, and goeth at thy bidding, and is honorable in thine house?” (1 Sam 22:13-14).
Saul was furious with Ahimelech — the priest had given David both bread and Goliath’s sword! Nevertheless, when Saul castigated Ahimelech for his aid to David, Ahimelech was entirely confused! He answered Saul by saying that he had merely helped the king’s most loyal and faithful servant! How had he done anything wrong? In his mind, there was no one more dedicated to Saul than David, and Saul loved David for that trustworthy service. He couldn’t understand why Saul was so upset.
Such was the situation in Israel at the time. David’s circumstances were quickly, but subtly, declining, and no one in the nation had any idea. Saul kept his feelings to himself, but he continued to do whatever he could behind the scenes so that he might somehow innocently effect David’s death.
It, again, is a scary picture of what happens when we are overcome by envy. Silently, Saul wished ill upon this man who had been chosen by God. Constantly he plotted how he might bring about David’s death. And sadly, while we might not go to such extremes as Saul, we sometimes do the same thing. How often do we find ourselves being frustrated by a brother or sister, and wishing that somehow things just wouldn’t work out for them? How often do we find ourselves wanting to see a brother or sister fail — even just a little bit — because then, perhaps, they would learn to be as “righteous” as we are?
Perhaps it isn’t an attitude that plagues you — but at least for me, envy (or pride!) can be a powerful emotion. And, oftentimes it brings about feelings towards brothers or sisters that we never should have had. Even more, sometimes, if we allow it to continue, it begins to manifest itself in the exact way that it appeared in Saul’s life — at first it starts out small and we can hide it, but as time passes, we start talking to other people about how bothered we are by these certain brethren. We try to create sides and we want to bring our friends on our “side.”
Going public
Such was exactly what happened to Saul.
As the days went by, it became harder and harder for Saul to hold his feelings inside. David continued to become more and more respected amongst the people — and Saul simply couldn’t deal with that. Perhaps as a result of Michal’s dowry (one hundred Philistine foreskins), the Philistines mustered their men for battle (1Sam 18:27-30) — and as a result of the battle, David was once again exalted in the eyes of Israel. Finally, after this last battle, it would seem as though Saul could no longer merely try to destroy David behind the scenes.
For some of those who were close to him or who were Saul’s servants, his hatred of David started to become fairly clear. Whereas his first openly murderous act against David — the throwing of the javelins — was probably attributed to his temporarily inhibited judgment, his second openly murderous act was of an altogether different nature than that of the first. The original attempt at pinning David to the wall had been a relatively simple affair: Saul had picked up the javelin, thrown it, missed, picked it up again, thrown it, and missed again. After the second miss, the event was over; Saul didn’t chase David, didn’t tell the palace guards to seize him, and didn’t really pursue the issue or involve anyone else. It was over as quickly as it started, and would have seemed to simply be a quick flare of the temper. Yet the second act was quite different, and would have likely been a shock to many — especially Jonathan:
“And Saul spake to Jonathan his son, and to all his servants that they should kill David” (1Sam 19:1).
The hatred which Saul had sought to hide again became visible — and this act was much less excusable than the one previous. This time, Saul’s thoughts were clearly premeditated. It wasn’t simply a quick flare of the temper. Saul had plainly thought about ways in which he could kill David and settled upon the involvement of his son and others in his courts. Thus, he presented his plan to Jonathan and all of his servants — they needed to kill David. Clearly Saul had no idea about the covenant which the two men had made, otherwise he wouldn’t have asked for Jonathan’s help in David’s execution.
How this must have stunned so many in Saul’s palace, especially Jonathan! Just as the rest of Israel, Jonathan had essentially been unaware of his father’s loathing of David. The relationship between Saul and David had been so good — Saul loved David and David was even part of Saul’s family. Jonathan had likely been filled with excitement when David joined their family — here was another man who could try to influence his father for good! But now the king wanted him dead. What a sad statement this would have been for Jonathan to hear from the lips of his father! Constantly Jonathan hoped that he would be able to help effect some type of repentance and change within Saul — he had stayed back from the battle against the Amalekites and had refrained from charging against Goliath, but clearly, despite Jonathan’s efforts to help, the envious king had not changed. When he suspected his son of being the future king, he had no qualms about spilling his blood; the same was true when he realized that David was the one who had been prophesied by Samuel — Saul would do whatever he could to keep the throne and annihilate any challengers. Sadly, Jonathan’s faithful presence and influence hadn’t helped his father to change or repent. In fact, he had actually gotten worse — no longer was he trying to disguise his violent intent, but he was freely sharing it with his son and his servants!
Yet the faithful prince wouldn’t lose hope. As we will see, Lord willing, in the next few articles, his faith would dictate his actions — and in all of this, he would still seek to effect some sort of change within his arrogant father.
The Origin of the Organic World – Part One