What Does Covenant Mean?
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3 And Jonathan made a covenant with David because he loved him as himself.
David and Jonathan’s friendship was formalized in a covenant—a binding commitment, an agreement, a formal obligation to one another. And that covenant, reaffirmed and extended, is the focus of the chapter as a whole.
The word itself only occurs once (v. 8), but the provisions of he oath, the allusion to the Lord as witness, Saul’s knowledge of his son’s commitment to David, and Jonathan’s parting words at the end of the chapter make this clear:
1 Samuel 20 is about covenant.
1 Then David fled from Naioth at Ramah and went to Jonathan and asked, “What have I done? What is my crime? How have I wronged your father, that he is trying to kill me?”
2 “Never!” Jonathan replied. “You are not going to die! Look, my father doesn’t do anything, great or small, without letting me know. Why would he hide this from me? It isn’t so!”
3 But David took an oath and said, “Your father knows very well that I have found favor in your eyes, and he has said to himself, ‘Jonathan must not know this or he will be grieved.’ Yet as surely as the Lord lives and as you live, there is only a step between me and death.”
4 Jonathan said to David, “Whatever you want me to do, I’ll do for you.”
5 So David said, “Look, tomorrow is the New Moon feast, and I am supposed to dine with the king; but let me go and hide in the field until the evening of the day after tomorrow. 6 If your father misses me at all, tell him, ‘David earnestly asked my permission to hurry to Bethlehem, his hometown, because an annual sacrifice is being made there for his whole clan.’ 7 If he says, ‘Very well,’ then your servant is safe. But if he loses his temper, you can be sure that he is determined to harm me. 8 As for you, show kindness to your servant, for you have brought him into a covenant with you before the Lord. If I am guilty, then kill me yourself! Why hand me over to your father?”
9 “Never!” Jonathan said. “If I had the least inkling that my father was determined to harm you, wouldn’t I tell you?”
David is running from Saul. You remember why: Saul chucked a spear at David and few times, sent David into battle several times, ordered his men to kill David a handful of times.
David finally gets the “what”: Saul wants him dead. David simply doesn’t understand the “why”. Why does Saul want him dead?
David escapes Saul’s clutches and escapes, showing up at Jonathan’s house in Gibeah.
David doesn’t seem to understand why Saul wants him dead, he just knows he does. And so he asks Jonathan, “What’s up with that?”
David turns to Jonathan, the friend who made a covenant (a binding agreement) with him. The covenant they made had the Lord Yahweh has witness. The covenant involved firm promises and solemn commitments.
This—covenant—is why David turns to Jonathan.
David could fall back on the covenant; covenant is a safe haven in a dangerous and crazy time.
What does covenant mean?
Security
Security
Jonathan is not convinced that there is any real danger for David. Saul hasn’t let Jonathan know about any new plot to kill David.
Jonathan assures David, saying: “You are not going to die!”
David replies, “There is only a step between me and death.”
In the verses we just read, David hatches a plan for the New Moon festival. David’s gonna hide in a field and wait and see what Saul has to say.
David knows and tells Jonathan, “I’m supposed to dine with [Saul].”
Really? After all that?!? After all Saul’s attempts to kill David and have David killed?
David tells Jonathan Saul will have one of two reactions to David’s absence: he’ll be fine (“Very well”), or he’ll lose his temper.
This is where David pleads with Jonathan on the basis of covenant:
As for you, show kindness to your servant, for you have brought him into a covenant with you before the Lord. If I am guilty, then kill me yourself! Why hand me over to your father?”
Outwardly, it doesn’t make a lot of sense to turn to the son of Saul for safety when Saul is out to get you. But, Jonathan and David have a covenant, a covenant of which the Lord Yahweh is witness and guardian.
David turns to Jonathan because of the covenant they have. There, with his friend and because of their covenant, David finds safety. Security.
Security is no small thing. The promise of security, the knowledge of security means a great deal.
In 1937, the Golden Gate Bridge was completed. It cost $77 million. It was built in two stages: the first slowly, and the second rapidly.
In the first stage, 23 men fell to their death. And the work ground to a halt because fear paralyzed the workmen as they helplessly watched their companions plummeting from the structure to the water far below.
Finally, an ingenious person thought, “There needs to be a net.” So they put together, for $100,000, the largest net ever built and hung that net beneath for the workmen.
When Phase 2 began, 10 workers were saved who fell into that net. The work proceeded 25% faster until the job was done.
-Walter Knight
Security changes things. The thought of no safety net caused the workforce to slow to a crawl. Add a net, some safety and security, and it affected the productivity of the workmen.
Covenant security is what comforts David and assures him of his safety even in the midst of a madman like Saul.
Jonathan promises that he would never— “Never!” —harm David himself or hand him over to Saul.
In fact, once again, Jonathan speaks of the security their covenant provides: “If I had the least inkling that my father was determined to harm you, wouldn’t I tell you?”
Covenant means security.
10 David asked, “Who will tell me if your father answers you harshly?”
11 “Come,” Jonathan said, “let’s go out into the field.” So they went there together.
12 Then Jonathan said to David, “I swear by the Lord, the God of Israel, that I will surely sound out my father by this time the day after tomorrow! If he is favorably disposed toward you, will I not send you word and let you know? 13 But if my father intends to harm you, may the Lord deal with Jonathan, be it ever so severely, if I do not let you know and send you away in peace. May the Lord be with you as he has been with my father. 14 But show me unfailing kindness like the Lord’s kindness as long as I live, so that I may not be killed, 15 and do not ever cut off your kindness from my family—not even when the Lord has cut off every one of David’s enemies from the face of the earth.”
16 So Jonathan made a covenant with the house of David, saying, “May the Lord call David’s enemies to account.” 17 And Jonathan had David reaffirm his oath out of love for him, because he loved him as he loved himself.
What does covenant mean?
Love
Love
We might skip right past this part of David and Jonathan’s covenant if not for someone pointing it to us.
David expects Jonathan to act with hesed toward him because of their covenant.
Do you remember what hesed is? It’s an extremely important Hebrew word. We’ve practiced saying it before.
English versions of the Bible vary in their translation. The term occurs nearly 250 times in the OT.
The KJV translates hesed most of the time as “mercy.” It’s “steadfast love” in the RSV. It’s “lovingkindness” in the NASB and simply “love” in the NIV.
Lovingkindness is far and away my favorite translation of hesed. Hesed carries the ideas of love, compassion, affection, loyalty, reliability, faithfulness.
Hesed isn’t merely love, but loyal love; not merely kindness, but dependable kindness; not merely affection, but committed affection.
Here in 1 Samuel, David appeals to Jonathan to treat him with hesed—a devoted love.
This is what their covenant assures. The covenant gives him all the reason he needs to look for and depend upon hesed, devoted love.
Covenant and lovingkindness are corollaries. Berit and hesed go together.
Jonathan’s covenant with David is an expression of love, but it’s also initiated by love.
The lesson is this: in confusion and trouble, when you’re fearful and uncertain, take yourself to the one person who has made a covenant with you.
David’s a young man, being hunted by the whackadoodle king of Israel. His world is disintegrating, but there is still one word he can hang onto: hesed.
David’s covenant with Jonathan began with and was based on hesed—that “never-stopping, never giving up, unbreaking, always and forever love.” (Sally Lloyd-Jones)
Because of covenant, for David, there was kindness in a terribly unkind world. Amid all the forces of hate, there was love.
And it goes both ways. Jonathan depends on the covenant love:
14 But show me unfailing kindness like the Lord’s kindness as long as I live, so that I may not be killed, 15 and do not ever cut off your kindness from my family—not even when the Lord has cut off every one of David’s enemies from the face of the earth.”
17 And Jonathan had David reaffirm his oath out of love for him, because he loved him as he loved himself.
Covenant means love.
Jonathan has a plan all worked out for the day of the New Moon Festival:
18 Then Jonathan said to David, “Tomorrow is the New Moon feast. You will be missed, because your seat will be empty. 19 The day after tomorrow, toward evening, go to the place where you hid when this trouble began, and wait by the stone Ezel. 20 I will shoot three arrows to the side of it, as though I were shooting at a target. 21 Then I will send a boy and say, ‘Go, find the arrows.’ If I say to him, ‘Look, the arrows are on this side of you; bring them here,’ then come, because, as surely as the Lord lives, you are safe; there is no danger. 22 But if I say to the boy, ‘Look, the arrows are beyond you,’ then you must go, because the Lord has sent you away. 23 And about the matter you and I discussed—remember, the Lord is witness between you and me forever.”
That’s the plan, and here’s how it all plays out:
24 So David hid in the field, and when the New Moon feast came, the king sat down to eat. 25 He sat in his customary place by the wall, opposite Jonathan, and Abner sat next to Saul, but David’s place was empty. 26 Saul said nothing that day, for he thought, “Something must have happened to David to make him ceremonially unclean—surely he is unclean.” 27 But the next day, the second day of the month, David’s place was empty again. Then Saul said to his son Jonathan, “Why hasn’t the son of Jesse come to the meal, either yesterday or today?”
28 Jonathan answered, “David earnestly asked me for permission to go to Bethlehem. 29 He said, ‘Let me go, because our family is observing a sacrifice in the town and my brother has ordered me to be there. If I have found favor in your eyes, let me get away to see my brothers.’ That is why he has not come to the king’s table.”
There were two possible responses from Saul. Option 1, he’d be fine. Option 2 (and probably more likely), he’d be ticked.
This we know about Saul at this point in his life: he’s an angry, tormented, madman. Dude’s a lunatic:
30 Saul’s anger flared up at Jonathan and he said to him, “You son of a perverse and rebellious woman! Don’t I know that you have sided with the son of Jesse to your own shame and to the shame of the mother who bore you? 31 As long as the son of Jesse lives on this earth, neither you nor your kingdom will be established. Now send someone to bring him to me, for he must die!”
32 “Why should he be put to death? What has he done?” Jonathan asked his father. 33 But Saul hurled his spear at him to kill him. Then Jonathan knew that his father intended to kill David.
Saul shouldn’t be allowed to have a spear. There should have been some level of spear-control in the ANE, but the king would probably be above any such regulation.
Just like Saul chucking his spear at David, now he hurls the thing at his own son.
The plan hatched by Jonathan and David marches on:
34 Jonathan got up from the table in fierce anger; on that second day of the feast he did not eat, because he was grieved at his father’s shameful treatment of David.
35 In the morning Jonathan went out to the field for his meeting with David. He had a small boy with him, 36 and he said to the boy, “Run and find the arrows I shoot.” As the boy ran, he shot an arrow beyond him. 37 When the boy came to the place where Jonathan’s arrow had fallen, Jonathan called out after him, “Isn’t the arrow beyond you?” 38 Then he shouted, “Hurry! Go quickly! Don’t stop!” The boy picked up the arrow and returned to his master. 39 (The boy knew nothing about all this; only Jonathan and David knew.) 40 Then Jonathan gave his weapons to the boy and said, “Go, carry them back to town.”
David has his signal to leave when Jonathan calls out to the arrow-retrieving servant boy: Isn’t the arrow beyond you?
This might not have been the phrase David was hoping to hear, but at least it was clear to him.
David understood from this that Saul was still after him and that his covenant with Jonathan meant he was secure and loved.
When Jonathan shouted “Hurry! Go quickly! Don’t stop!” this was a message to the boy gathering the arrows, and a message to David.
41 After the boy had gone, David got up from the south side of the stone and bowed down before Jonathan three times, with his face to the ground. Then they kissed each other and wept together—but David wept the most.
42 Jonathan said to David, “Go in peace, for we have sworn friendship with each other in the name of the Lord, saying, ‘The Lord is witness between you and me, and between your descendants and my descendants forever.’ ” Then David left, and Jonathan went back to the town.
What does covenant mean?
Peace
Peace
In these fearful circumstances, Jonathan’s words might seem odd. Laughable, even. He tells David: “Go in peace.”
Ha, yeah, right. Peace. Sure. David’s supposed to “go in peace” while he’s being stalked by Saul, the crazy spear-hucking king?
But we know Jonathan is serious. He doesn’t mean all is peaceful or that David won’t encounter danger.
Jonathan is saying that David can go in peace because there is peace between the two of them. There is peace because there’s a covenant between them.
There’s peace in their relationship. There’s an anchor there. A lasting peace between them. When everything is crumbling around David, there’s this one peaceful relationship.
That’s a biblical picture of peace. Shalom.
Biblical peace isn’t a general tranquility. It’s not spa-day with calming muzak playing overhead.
Biblical peace is, rather, rightness in the center of much turmoil.
There is a lasting peace between Jonathan and David, because peace is what covenant means.
In fact, years and years later, one of Jonathan’s descendants, a guy named Mephibosheth will find in David all the security, love, and peace his father’s covenant with David promised.
King David says to Mephibosheth:
7 “Don’t be afraid,” David said to him, “for I will surely show you kindness for the sake of your father Jonathan. I will restore to you all the land that belonged to your grandfather Saul, and you will always eat at my table.”
King David gives Mephibosheth everything Jonathan deserved, and then some. The son of Jonathan has fortunes past restored to him and is granted a seat at David’s table. David adopts Mephibosheth, in essence, because of his covenant with Jonathan.
Covenant means peace, and love, and security.
Far more than being a nice story about two fellas in the OT, this applies to us and the covenant we find ourselves part of, if we belong to Christ.
Jesus ushered in a new covenant in His blood. When He calls His people to repentance and faith in Him, they respond by repenting of their sins and placing their faith in Him. And at that moment they are members and beneficiaries of this new covenant.
The covenant Jesus announces also means security and love and peace.
It must be said, friends:
There is no security apart from the covenant relationship with the Lord.
There is no love—no covenant love, no hesed enjoyed—apart from belonging to Jesus.
There is no peace with God, no lasting peace with any person, apart from a covenant relationship with Jesus.
To be a member of the new covenant, you must be a Christian.
Being a Christian isn’t the result of showing up to church.
Being a Christian doesn’t happen because your parents are Christians.
Being a Christian doesn’t come about because you live in the good ol’ U.S. of A.
Being a Christian means you belong to Jesus. It means you have repented of your sins and have believed in Jesus.
Repent and believe.
Repent of your sins. Believe in Jesus.
Place your faith in Jesus and live.
Our part of the covenant enacted and established by Jesus is to believe: confess our sins and to place all of our faith, all of our hope, every part of us in His hands.
For those who are Christians, we have a dependable refuge to whom we can run. Security.
In times of trouble and doubt, we can run to the One who has bound Himself to us by covenant. In Him, we can expect lovingkindness and mercy and grace.
Exodus 34:6–7 (NIV)
“The Lord, the Lord, the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness, 7 maintaining love to thousands, and forgiving wickedness, rebellion and sin.
Jesus’ people will never perish. The One who is rich in hesed love has come near to His weary people.
Jesus’ people remember what David taught us: in confusion and trouble, we take ourselves to the One who has made a covenant with us.
Security and love. And peace.
Christians enjoy peace with God and at the same time endure afflictions here. Jesus even told us that we’ll experience peace with Him alongside the trouble of this world.:
33 “I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.”
The Christian doesn’t have peace because things are peaceful. The Christian has because because One greater than Jonathan has pledged His friendship to them.
We need to listen when we gather ‘round the table. Jesus said clearly, plainly, directly:
Matthew 26:28 (NIV)
28 This is my blood of the new covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins.
It is the covenant bond of that unforsaking Friend who speaks peace in our disappointments, dangers, and even disasters.
For the Christian, security, love, and peace is the reality.
Not so for everyone:
“Said the robin to the sparrow
I should really like to know
Why those anxious human beings
Rush about and worry so.
Said the sparrow to the robin
Well, I think that it must be
That they have no heavenly Father
Such as cares for you and me.”
-E. Cheney
Apart from a covenant relationship through Jesus Christ, there is no security, no love, no peace.
There is only worry, despair, and trouble.
Repent and believe, friends. Do it today. Do it right now. Entrust yourself to the covenant-making, covenant-keeping Savior.
In Jesus, you will find eternal security, unfailing love, and everlasting peace.
That’s what “covenant” means.