Judges 14

Chapter 14. Jonathan, or the Friend That Sticks Closer Than a BrotherThere is a friend who sticks closer than a brother. (Proverbs 18:24)God has made the human heart to be an alphabet of higher things. The material world was made to be a type of the higher spiritual realm, and all the objects of nature are but living characters by which God has written His name upon His works. God has given us the filial heart that we might understand the love we ought to feel for our Father in heaven. He has made the love of father, mother and brother that we might in some measure realize God’s divine paternity—the Holy Spirit’s motherhood and the heart of that “friend who sticks closer than a brother.” The best of human friendships is but a bit of broken glass reflecting something higher in the heavens above us. As in the little fragment of a shattered mirror you can see the sun reflected from above, so in our poor, imperfect hearts and our broken earthly ties we have a revelation of the heart of God. The story of Jonathan stands out in vivid relief against the dark background of his father’s life, and is one of the finest examples of human character and holy friendship. Beautiful in itself and reflecting the highest nobility in the subject himself, it is a still higher object lesson of divine love, and unfolds, as no other sacred picture, the friendship of Christ, the “friend who sticks closer than a brother.” There are several aspects in which we may look at this beautiful picture. Heroic Faith It is an example of high character and heroic faith. True love must rest on a basis deeper and stronger than mere sentiment or passion. The pretty face, the charm of manner, the thousand little things which become like fetishes to attract the fancy or even the idolatry of the superficial and the selfish world, will soon be forgotten, and instead of the rose will be the thorn of bitter disappointment and hopeless heartbreak. The only true foundation of a lasting friendship is high and noble character. Love is the magnetic attraction of two kindred lives to each other, meeting like two drops of water because they are akin. Respect and esteem must ever lie back of affection, and the more intimately we know each other the more perfectly ought we to be able to respect each other’s character, or else our love must become one-sided and transient. Jonathan and David were both lofty natures, who recognized in each other the nobility of highest manhood. Their souls were knit together by an esteem that was as perfect as their affection was intense. Jonathan well deserved the regard of his friend. He was a born hero and his heroism was not a romantic sentiment, but a deep and settled principle of faith in God. One startling example shines out, and stands no doubt for many an unrecorded act behind (1 Samuel 13:1 to 1 Samuel 14:14). The Philistines had gathered in overwhelming force, and the little army of Saul was wearing away until only about 600 remained around the royal standard. In the Philistine host there were 6,000 cavalry, 3,000 chariots of iron and hundreds of thousands of infantry—a mighty and apparently irresistible foe. Saul had waited for Samuel to come and inaugurate the campaign by the sacrificial rites, and then despairing of his arrival had rashly presumed to assume the priestly functions and offer the sacrifice himself. The result was the divine displeasure, the rebuke of Samuel and the withdrawal of divine favor. It was the darkest hour that could possibly have come to the nation and the cause. But dark hours are always the hours when character reveals its sterling qualities. The stars shine out at night as they cannot in the day, and this was the hour when Jonathan’s true character was made plain. Accompanied by his solitary armorbearer, he looked across the valley to the Philistines’ stronghold in the clefts of the naked rocks, and he suggested to his armorbearer that they should go up against them. “Perhaps,” he added, in the language of true faith, “the Lord will act in our behalf. Nothing can hinder the Lord from saving, whether by many or by few” (1 Samuel 14:6). He was not looking at numbers, but at God. Happily, he had in his armorbearer a kindred spirit. There were two heroes that day, and it is just as noble to help a noble nature and to stand out of sight but in full accord as it is to lead the front-line troops in some glorious advance. Noble natures find out noble natures, and it is a glorious thing to have on our side in the hour of trial and in the hour of lofty daring some kindred heart to, like the armorbearer, say to us, “Do all that you have in mind,… I am with you heart and soul” (1 Samuel 14:7). Wise Leadership We see in Jonathan not only a daring adventurer, but also a wise and prudent leader who has learned not only to initiate a great movement but to carry it through in wise caution and unceasing dependence upon the strong arm of God. Many a movement is well begun but disastrously ended because we let human impulse take the place of humble faith and, holding the bit in our own teeth, we dash ahead of God and sometimes are hurled headlong over the precipice of presumption. Jonathan waited for God to make every step plain, and so they agreed that God should give them a further sign whether they were to make the advance as proposed. The sign was that the Philistine garrison was to invite them up for a parley on that rocky height. That was all he wanted; and now bold impulse and humble dependence upon God were changed into instant and effectual action, and they quickly scaled the height and threw themselves upon their unsuspecting enemies until 20 had fallen at their feet. Suddenly a panic seized the host, and God seconded the bold attack by a startling earthquake, which shook the ground. A dreadful fear fell upon the foe, so that, thinking there was some mighty host behind them, they turned and fled, pressing one another down as they were swept away before the avalanche, until Saul’s watchmen saw from the distant heights of Gibeah that host of myriad men in full retreat. Then Saul and his soldiers took up the pursuit and, once again, his presumption, folly and willfulness almost ruined the victory that God had wrought. If it had not been for the intervention of the people, who rescued Jonathan out of his hands, the noble hero, who had been the instrument of all the blessing of that day, would have been the victim of his father’s willfulness and haste. This illustration is sufficient to show us the background of strength in the character of Jonathan and the qualities which, had he lived and reigned, would have made him, doubtless, as illustrious as the friend for whose sake he gave up his opportunities and honors and even sacrificed his life at last. It should be your aim and mine, not so much to win the love of others as to be worthy of it; not so much to be esteemed as to be deserving of esteem; not so much to bind to ourselves the hearts of men as to stand so high and glorious that we will draw them to us as the magnet draws the steel. It is better to be than to seem; and true character, like precious gems, cannot remain always undiscovered, but will find its place and reach its full appreciation and glorious coronation. You, who are setting your affections on all the capricious fancies of your mind and becoming attached to those you lightly meet, are weaving for yourselves a future of intolerable bondage and a shroud of agony and death. You are letting your hearts become bound by a spell that even you cannot break, to persons and things that will drag you down and make your life a disappointment if not a disaster. Remember that it is a sign of a noble character to love the noble. Do not link your lives with the unholy and the earthly, but let your associations be regulated by holy principle and your friendships fastened to the skies. Holy Friendship We see the picture of a holy friendship. The attachment of David and Jonathan is spoken of in the highest terms. “Jonathan became one in spirit with David, and he loved him as himself (1 Samuel 18:1). In the pledge of his affection he made a covenant with his friend and stripped himself of his princely robe and tunic, bearing, no doubt, the monogram of his royal name. He gave even the very sword, which was to a warrior the badge of his highest honor, and his bow and his very belt, which was the most sacred article of personal apparel in an Oriental wardrobe, for it was his purse and the repository of all his secrets and sacred treasures. All these Jonathan gave to David as the expression of his unreserved oneness with the friend of his inmost heart. Speaking of his affection afterwards, David uses in his exquisite dirge over his fallen friend this extreme and almost extravagant language, “I grieve for you, Jonathan my brother; you were very dear to me. Your love for me was wonderful, more wonderful than that of women” (2 Samuel 1:26). Perhaps there is no human affection so intense as a pure woman’s wholehearted love when she yields her whole being to the one she utterly trusts. But even this was surpassed by the noble and wonderful devotion of this lofty heart. Jonathan proved it well. Not only did he give these pledges of his confidence to his friend in the first emotion of his early love, but he stood true to him through all the perils of the succeeding years. There is no higher proof of love than loyalty to a friend in the midst of foes. A noble nature cannot be disloyal. A double-faced friend is worse than an enemy. You may always distrust a traitor. The man that can receive the confidence and kindness of another and then go and speak against him or let others speak against him, is not only a false friend but a worthless character in every other relation of life. You may safely distrust the man or woman who comes to you with evil tales of a former friend. Some day they will be the bearer of worse tales respecting you. Such people deserve to be rebuked wherever we find them, and taught the lesson of their ignominy and meanness. Jonathan was no such friend. When he found his father’s jealousy against David becoming dangerous he tried to check it, and for a while succeeded in overcoming it and bringing about a reconciliation. But as time wore on, and his father’s bitterness grew more malignant, and Jonathan knew that nothing would satisfy it but David’s life, he even risked his life to vindicate his friend. And, then, when he found it was hopeless to make a further attempt, he was true enough to sacrifice his own pleasure in David’s companionship and warn him that he must flee. And so at last the two friends parted, probably to meet no more, parted with many an embrace and many a tear, one to wait for his kingdom and the other to lay down his life and know that he was yielding his kingly prospects, his very crown, to the friend he loved. It was to Jonathan’s interest even more than Saul’s that David should die, because David’s survival meant that he should succeed to the throne of Saul. Jonathan knew this and, knowing it, accepted it, acquiesced in it, rejoiced in it, and gladly gave place to the one he loved, and at last laid down his very life, glad, perhaps, to know that the way was made clear for David’s future throne. Unselfish Love The deepest principle of true friendship and, indeed, the greatest thing in the universe, is unselfish love. Satan delights to pervert the best things, and the way he perverts love is by inverting it and turning it into selfishness. The saddest thing in the world is that which ought to be the noblest but is the meanest, when even love itself becomes corrupted into its own opposite by terminating on itself. Whenever we love because of the pleasure it ministers to us we cease to love and it becomes self-love. True love always looks outward to the object and finds its pleasure in the pleasure it communicates and the blessing it gives. Love inverted and perverted becomes lust, which is the vilest blot and curse of human character and human history. Do you know the secret of a holy friendship and a happy love? Learn to forget yourself, and live for others and to let your fondest affections and friendships minister blessing to those you love. The reflex action, without your seeking it, will be your own highest happiness. God is love in this sublime sense. His constant occupation is to bless and, therefore, God is blessed, too, and His bosom is the source and the sum of all true joy. The Heavenly Friend Jonathan was a type of the Friend who sticks closer than a brother. The friendship of David and Jonathan leads us up to the higher love of the Lord Jesus Christ for us, and the divine friendship which He permits us to claim with Him. If Jonathan’s love was wonderful, passing the love of women, Christ’s love is more wonderful, surpassing all human friendship and transcending all examples and tests of love. Jonathan’s heart was knit unto David and he loved him as his own soul, but Christ is not only knit unto us, but He is one with us. He has partaken of our very nature, our blood flows through His veins and He has loved us better than His own soul, for He poured out His soul unto death and laid down his life without a reservation, because He loved us and gave Himself for us. Jonathan gave David his outer robe, and even his tunic, but Christ has given to us the robes of His glory and His kingly dignity, and the very raiment of His righteousness and His personal character and life. Jonathan gave to David his sword, the very symbol of his power, and Christ has armed us with His own strength and given to us His own victory. Jonathan gave David his bow as well as his sword, and Christ has not only armed us for the foes that are immediately around us, but He has given to us the weapons by which we can reach the very heights of heaven and the uttermost parts of the earth. By the bow of faith and the arrows of prayer, we can reach the omnipotence of God, and our influence can extend to the farthest reaches and the lowest depths of human sin and sorrow. And Jonathan gave to David his belt. In one sense the belt binds all the raiment together, and might well represent the whole person and apparel. Christ gives us everything He has and is. The belt was especially the symbol of strength for service. The girded soldier was ready for battle, the girded servant ready for work. Christ girds us with His own power and enables us for the service which He claims from us. And if the belt contains the more sacred treasures, containing his wallet, papers, money, jewels and the things he most prized, so Christ has given to us also the very treasures of His love and the very secrets of His confidence. He has held nothing back from us, but He takes us into His inmost heart and says to us, “I no longer call you servants,… I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you” (John 15:15). Most touching of all, however, is the fact that Christ, like Jonathan, has died for us that we might inherit His very throne and enjoy the rich bequests of His will. He has given us the New Testament as His last will, bequeathing to us our glorious inheritance, and He has risen again to secure it to us from every adversary or failure. Oh, what a wonderful place Jesus has given to me! Saved by His glorious grace, I may be even as He. All that He has shall be mine; All that He is I shall be. Robed in his glory divine I shall be even as He.