A covenant relationship
Jane Denniston
June 22, 2021
Add to Favourites
Listen to this daily worship
1 Samuel 17:57- 18:5 (NIVUK)
57 As soon as David returned from killing the Philistine, Abner took him and brought him before Saul, with David still holding the Philistine’s head.
58 ‘Whose son are you, young man?’ Saul asked him.
David said, ‘I am the son of your servant Jesse of Bethlehem.’
(18) 1 After David had finished talking with Saul, Jonathan became one in spirit with David, and he loved him as himself. 2 From that day Saul kept David with him and did not let him return home to his family. 3 And Jonathan made a covenant with David because he loved him as himself. 4 Jonathan took off the robe he was wearing and gave it to David, along with his tunic, and even his sword, his bow and his belt.
5 Whatever mission Saul sent him on, David was so successful that Saul gave him a high rank in the army. This pleased all the troops, and Saul’s officers as well.
Leadership can be a lonely task. Even popular leaders have to make unpopular decisions. Over the last year we have witnessed the popularity of our political leaders rise and wane, rise and wane, depending on whether the decisions they made were welcome, regardless of how necessary they might be. We all need to vent our feelings of disappointment and hurt, and often leaders are in the firing line. However, while we may not all be leaders, we all have responsibilities and that too can be lonely. We all need people to sustain us in the work that God has given us to do.
God gave Jonathan to David to support and sustain him. It is interesting that the word used of the relationship between them is covenant. This was no ordinary friendship. It was a committed relationship, and so the love between Jonathan and David gave David strength. The best love is not uncritical but is unqualified in its support. In fact, the best love is prepared to tell us when we get things wrong, while still loving us unconditionally. In the story of Jonathan and David, Jonathan ‘had David’s back’, enabling him to go forth with courage knowing that whatever happened there was someone to whom he could return whose love would be balm to his soul. Who is your Jonathan? What person or persons in your life create that oasis to which you can return to recover from the slings and arrows of life?
PRAYER:
Loving heavenly Father,
thank you for those you give us
who, ‘have our backs’.
Thank you for friends and family
whose love sustains us
in the difficulties of life;
when we get it wrong,
when our responsibilities weigh heavily,
or just when we feel tired, beleaguered, and overwhelmed.
We ask for your blessing on them
as we name them before you now…
We thank you for the gift of love they bring to us,
an echo of your love for us, Amen
Login to comment.