Daily Devotional for Monday 13th November
Succession
We join the story of David at his moment of maximum success – just back from slaying Goliath and saving the day for the people of Israel (chapter 17). He is already a favourite with king Saul because his expert lyre-playing soothes Saul’s dark thoughts (as we heard in chapter 16). And he now has a life-long friend in high places – the king’s eldest son and potential successor, Jonathan. Along with Saul, and sometimes leading the way himself, Jonathan was already a war-hero in the unending struggle with the Philistines. But today we read how Jonathan recognised something extra-special in David – and pledges loyalty to him by symbolically handing him the symbols of power (verse 4). We shall see that this wasn’t an empty gesture – Jonathan stays loyal to David even as his father Saul descends into a sort of madness and seeks David’s death. What a dilemma for Jonathan. To support his own father or support his best friend ? To effectively give up any aspirations to the throne himself. This is worthy of any Netflix series or Shakespeare play ! We’ll see how it works out over the next few weeks, but the scene is set. Have you ever faced major clashes of loyalties in your life ? How did you deal with them ? The book of James (3 v17) shows an approach which sounds good to me:
"But the wisdom that comes from heaven is first of all pure; then peace-loving, considerate, submissive, full of mercy and good fruit, impartial and sincere."
Jonathan walks this difficult tight-rope with great grace, as we shall see. He was a war-hero, an action-man, but he didn’t put himself and his ambitions first.
James 3 v18 follows up with:
“Peacemakers who sow in peace reap a harvest of righteousness”
I pray that in all difficult situations I would be seen as a peacemaker rather than a peacebreaker.
