33 But Saul hurled his spear at him to kill him. THEN JONATHAN KNEW that his father intended to kill David. 1 Samuel 20
Sometimes it’s in unguarded moments that people’s true intentions are revealed and so it was between Saul and his son Jonathan. Saul must have hidden his true intentions about David before Jonathan,
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 should he hide this from me? It isn’t so!’ 1 Samuel 20
Jonathan didn’t believe his father actually wanted to kill David, but then in a moment of anger the truth came out. Saul was so angry that he even tried to kill his own son and heir. He was implacably opposed to David, God’s sovereign choice, ever becoming the next king of Israel. It became the very reason for his existence, but God’s will prevailed.
7 But the Lord said to Samuel, ‘Do not consider his appearance or his height, for I have rejected him. The Lord does not look at the things man looks at. Man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.’ 1 Samuel 16
When the Lord sent Samuel to Jesse in Bethlehem to anoint one of his sons as Saul’s successor, he made the statement above – God looks at the heart. Derek Prince said, ‘God chooses His disciples on the basis of character’. God only instructs those who are willing to be taught.
11 My son, do not despise the Lord’s discipline,
and do not resent his rebuke,
12 because the Lord disciplines those he loves,
as a father the son he delights in. (Septuagint ‘loves / and He chastens EVERYONE He accepts as His child) Proverbs 3
EVERY TRUE CHILD OF GOD MUST BE WILLING TO ACCEPT DISCIPLINE. The world today opposes this correction or discipline of children, yet elsewhere in Proverbs it says that discipline
15 A rod and a reprimand impart wisdom,
but a child left undisciplined disgraces its mother. Proverbs 29
Saul was called and anointed by God to be king, but along the way he turned from God to the praise of men and ‘God left him’. We need to make sure today that those we are walking with and following are themselves walking with God. WE CANNOT LET OUR LOYALTY TO MEN OR THE CHURCH OVERRIDE OUR LOYALTY TO GOD! David made mistakes and had moral failures in his life, but he repented deeply to God and as we saw yesterday he was given the plans for the Temple and made provision for its construction. We live in a time of great shaking and many people may be hurt and confused by revelations of hidden wrongs but our first allegiance must be to God alone.
18 If I regard iniquity in my heart,
The Lord will not hear.
19 But certainly God has heard me;
He has attended to the voice of my prayer. Psalm 66
May the Lord bless and keep you today. Immanuel, God is with us.