"Where are your loyalties?"

This has been automatically generated, and therefore may contain some unintended inaccuracies.

Reading is 1 Samuel chapter 20. It can be found on page 292 of your church guidance. Then David fled from NIO at Rayna, I went to Jonathan and asked, what have I done? What is my crime? How have I won your father that he is trying to kill me?

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, but David took a note and said, Your father knows very well that I have found Baber 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.

Jonathan said to David, whatever you want me to do, I'll do for you. So David said, look, tomorrow is the new moon feast, and I'm supposed to dine with the king, but let me go and hide in the field until the evening of the day after tomorrow. 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. If he says very well, then your servant is safe. That if he loses his temper, you can be sure that he is determined to harm me.

As for you, shown kindness to your servant that you have brought him into a covenant with you before the before the lord. If I am guilty, then kill me yourself. Why hand me over to your father? Never, Jonathan said. If I had the least inkling that my father was determined to harm you, wouldn't I tell you?

David asked, who will tell me if your father answers you harshly? Come, Johnson said, let's go out into the field so they went there together. Then Jonathan said to David, I swear by the lord, the God of Israel, but I will surely sound out my father by this time the day after tomorrow. If he is favorably disposed towards you, will I not send you word and let you know? But if my father intends to harm you, may the lord deal with me 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, but show me unfely kindness like the lord's kindness as long as I live so that I may not be killed and do not ever cut off your kindness for my family not even when the lord has cut off every 1 of David's enemies from the face of the earth. So Jonathan made a government with a house of David saying, may the lord call David's enemies to account, and Jonathan made David to reaffirm his oath out of love for him because he loved him as he loved himself. Then Jonathan said to David, tomorrow is the new moon feast. You will be missed because your seats will be empty. The day after tomorrow, towards evening, go to the place where you hit when this trouble began and wait by the stone evil.

I will shoot 3 arrows to the side of it as though I was shooting at a target. 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. But if I say to the boy, look, the arrows are beyond you, then you must go because the lord has sent you away. And the matter you and I discussed, remember the lord is witness between you and me forever.

So David hid in the field and when the new moon feast came, the king sat down to eat. He sat in his customary place by the wall opposite Jonathan and Abna sat next to Thor, but David's place was empty. Thor said nothing that day, but he thought something must have happened to David to make him ceremonially unclean. Surely, he is unclean. But the next day, the second day of the month, David's place was empty again.

Then saw said to son, his son, jonathan, Why hasn't the son of Jesse come to the mill either yesterday or today? Jonathan answered. David earnestly asked me for permission to go to Bethlehem. 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 go to see my brothers.

That is why he has not come to the king's table. 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 to your own shame and to the shame of the mother who bore you? 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, but he must die.

Why should he be put to death? What did he done, Jonathan asked his father that saw hold his spirit him to kill him? Then, Jonathan knew that his father intended to kill David. Jonathan got up from a table in fierce anger. On that second day of the feast, he did not eat because he was greed at his father's shameful treatment of David.

In the morning, Jonathan went out to the field for his meeting with David. He had a small boy with him and he said to the boy, run under by the arrows I shoot. As the boy ran, he shot an arrow beyond him. When the boy came to the place where Jonathan's arrow had fallen, Jonathan called out after him. Isn't the arrow beyond you, then he shouted, hurry.

Go quickly. Don't stop. The boy picked up the arrow and returned to his master. The boy knew nothing about all of this. Only Jonathan and David knew.

Then Jonathan gave his weapons to the boy and said, go. Carry them back to town. After the boy had gone, David got up from the south side of the stone and bowed down before Jonathan 3 times with his face to the ground. Then they kissed each other and wept together. But David watched the most.

Jonathan said to David, go in peace that 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. This is Jane. I read in that for us. Please keep the passage open in front of you. 1 Samuel 20, h 2 9 2.

Let me pray for us. Heavenly father, as we come to your word, we pray that you would teach us. Up the to be alert, help us to listen, and as we see this story, this true story from your words, help us to understand it and help us to apply it to our hearts and our lives as well. Oh, man. So you've got in the story.

I hope you picked it up, and if you're new, and this you've sort of just dipped in now with us. I hope you picked up who's who? We've got Saul, who is king of Israel. He's been rejected by God. Saul is king.

You've got Oh, there you go. You've got Saul who's king. You've got his son Jonathan, who, should be the heir to the throne, but we know that Saul has been rejected as king because he's rejected god's word. You've got saul, you've got Jonathan, and then you've got David, who has been chosen by God to be the next king. So the kingship is gonna be taken from saul, and his house on is gonna be given to David.

Those are the 3 main characters that we've got. And 1 of the main features that we've got in this chapter is the friendship that there is between Jonathan and David, and it's a famous friendship. It's a wonderful friendship. They were committed to each other, devoted to each other. As I read it, as I studied it, I thought of the theme chicken from friends.

If maybe you know, I'm not gonna sing it to you. But I'll read the words when you can sing it in your own mind, if you're right. I'll be there for you. When the rain starts to pour, I'll be there for you, like I've been there before. I'll be there for you because you're there for me too.

And that's what they've got. This friendship is 1 where they are so committed to 1 another that they're there for 1 another no matter what. And it is a beautiful friendship, and I think we're gonna be in awe of it as we go through this passage. And yet, it it it's about more than just friendship. I think the writer of 1 Samuel is not writing this just so that we learn about friendship.

There's more to it than that. Would you just dip into the middle of the passage with me? So verse 14, have a look at that. Jonathan speaking to David says, verse 14, but show me unfailing kindness, like the lord's kindness. As long as I live.

Show me unfailing kindness, like the lord's kindness, or other translations make it even tighter than that. The E s v says, Jonathan says show me the steadfast love of the lord, not just love like the lord, but he's saying show me the lord's love. In other words, Jonathan is saying, this friendship, this love that we have for 1 another is based on god's love. It is only a reflection of god's love. It is modeled on god's love.

And therefore as we look at this relationship, this friendship, we're gonna be taken from that friendship to see god's love. We're gonna think about 2 things this morning from this chapter as we go through it. 2 things which are seen in this relationship of Jonathan and David, but that actually we can look through. We can sort of see the reflection of of and look to the real thing, which is god's love. So we're just gonna see 2 things.

You'll see as we go through. The first is steadfast love, and the second is conflict. There you go. You know where we're headed. Steadfast love, and then conflict.

So first off, steadfast love. Let's let's go through the chapter. Let's see the story as we go through. We begin the chapter with David speaking to Jonathan And David is saying to Jonathan, verse 1, what have I done? What's my crime?

How have I wronged your father that he's trying to kill me? And Jonathan basically replies, that's not the case. My dad isn't trying to kill him. Now we know that David is right, that in the previous chapters, Saul has tried to kill David several times. Beginning of chapter 19, Jonathan intervenes.

And pleased on David's behalf. And saul promises him, saul promises his son, I will not kill David. And so Jonathan takes him at his word. But then after that, saul tries to kill David at least 2 more times. Which presumably Jonathan doesn't know anything about.

So here at the beginning of chapter 20, David is saying, your dad's trying to kill me, and Jonathan's saying, no, no, no, no, it's nothing like that. And David persists. He says, verse 3, your father knows very well that I've found favor in your eyes. He said Jonathan must not know this, or he'll be grieved yet as surely as the lord lives, and as you live, there is only a step between me and death. And Jonathan says today that, okay, what it whatever you say I'll do?

And David then comes up with a plan. And you think, well, why does he need a plan? Well, it's not to convince David. David knows that he's in trouble, but it must be to convince Jonathan. So so that he sees Saul's intention and because David needs Jonathan's help.

So David comes up with a plan. And the plan is verse 5 that there's this feast coming up. And David said, well, I won't be there for the feast. Let me just summarize for you. He says, I I won't be there for the feast.

And if your dad notices and asks to where's David, you were to say he's gone to Bethlehem to a family sacrifice. Now that is a lie. It's not true. And you may then be questioning, okay, is Bible encouraging us to lie, and it's not. All you've got here is the report of what happened.

It is not encouraging you to lie. It's not saying it was a good thing. It's not saying it's a bad thing. It's just reporting what happens. Sometimes the Bible just reports what's what's happening.

Doesn't give you a comment. At this point, we're not dealing with is lying good or bad. It's just saying that's what they do. Okay. So we can move on from that.

So we're going to move on from that. So he says, this is what you just said. I've gone to Fethmirhead. And the the important thing is, how Saul's going to respond? If Saul responds with a very well, then we know everything's alright.

But if he loses his temper, then you know that David is in trouble. And then verse 8 is key. Would you have a look at that? Let's look at that together. David says, as for you, show kindness to your servant.

For you have brought him into a covenant with you before the lord. Now here I'd like to suggest is the heart of their friendship, the heart of their relationship. David says, we made a covenant together before the lord. And all that happens in the rest of the chapter flows from this covenant that they have made Now what is a covenant? Covenant is binding a binding commitment with specific promises.

It's a binding commitment that they have made to 1 another with specific promises. Promises solemnly made before the lord. And David is saying to John, and we made this covenant together. Now as we said last week, we do need to be clear this is not a romantic relationship. It's not a romantic love, Jonathan and David, profess for 1 another.

There isn't a hint of that in the text. And they say at the end of the passage, they have sworn friendship to each other in the the name of the lord. It's not romantic. It's not sexual. There's no hint of that.

You've got to read that into the text. To see it. Now, it it's not that. Now clearly, the issue of same sex relationship is important. It's an important 1 to understand, and what the Bible says, which we stick to, is very different from what our culture says, but we're not going to get into that now because that is not the main theme of this text.

But it's an important 1. And if you want to talk about it afterwards, I'm very happy to chat with you about it. No. This isn't sexual. It's not romantic, but it is nevertheless, deep, and a huge commitment that they've made to 1 another.

And it was solidified in this covenant, this promise that they made. And when David says verse 8, that towards the beginning of the verse, he says, as for you, show kindness, the word for kindness there is a Hebrew word, which is used a lot through the bible. You've learned a bit more Hebrew. John taught you a bit before. And now you learn another bit, which is the word Hessid.

The word Hessid. And it means far more than just kindness. It's translated there as kindness, but that is very weak translation of it. It often includes loyalty, reliability, faithfulness. As 1 writer has said, it's not merely love, but loyal love, not merely kindness, but dependable kindness, not merely affection, but affection that has committed it.

Serve. And so David is saying he's saying show me that steadfast loyal love because we've made a covenant. And he calls on Jonathan to show steadfast love. Now why does he call on Jonathan? Why is he why is he appealing to this?

Why is he saying I need you at the moment? I need you to be loyal to that. Well, it's because as we've seen, Jonathan is the 1 in the position of power. You've got to keep remembering that. I mean, we're used to David when he's gonna be king.

So he's gonna be in a position of power, but he's not there yet. He's Jonathan is the 1 in the position of power. He's the crown prince. And his loyalty could be torn at the moment, couldn't it? If his dad is saying is wanting to kill David, then Jonathan has a loyalty to his father, to his king.

And so David is pleading with him to say, would you be loyal to me in the light of our covenant? Well, Jonathan says, let's go outside. He obviously doesn't wanna talk about it where he is. He said, let's go out to the field. And then verse 12, have a look.

Jonathan says to David, I swear by the lord, the God of Israel, that I will surely stand out my father by this time the day after tomorrow. If he's favorable, favorably disposed towards you, will I not send you word and let you know? But if my father intends to harm you, may the lord deal with me 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? In other words, Jonathan is saying yes, I I'm I'm gonna be true to this covenant.

I'm gonna be faithful to it. I'm gonna be loyal to you, and I'm gonna tell you whatever the outcome of this, I will tell you, I will warn you. I'll let you know. And then, Jonathan, what Jonathan says next, I think, is staggering. First 14, he said, but show me I'm failing kindness.

Like the lord's kindness, as long as I live so that I may not be killed and do not ever cut off your kindness from my family, not even when the lord has cut off every 1 of David's enemies from the face of the earth. Jonathan is saying, yeah, I'll show you, pass it, but you show it to me too. Jonathan's saying, I know there's gonna be a time when you, David, are gonna be in a position of power, when you're gonna be king. And I'm gonna need you to show this up to me. And so he says, I need you to show me Hasset, steadfast love.

Now do you see how this relationship, this beautiful friendship which has been solidified in this covenant and how that covenant gives both David and Jonathan security that they're safe in this covenant. The covenant says this friendship is unbreakable. Unshakable. It's solid. It's secure.

It's like the tower of London, you know, tower of London. It's sort of Scott London, Scotland, but the tower of London, which just sits there is a, you know, it's been that disparity almost 1000 years old and you've got all those modern buildings around it, all those big ones in your sits there going. I've been here longer than most of you, I've been here 1000 years. And you go, that's what this covenant is, I'd say this friendship is solid. It's secure.

It's forever. And you can trust it. You can come back to it. And I want you to see. That this covenant friendship, this steadfast love, leads to extreme faithfulness, extreme faithfulness.

What do I mean by that? Over and over again, films and books, when someone demands loyalty, demands love often it's because that's the person in power, who is demanding it from someone who is weaker. I tried to look up films where where this happened, and there are quite a few where it happened. Might look back on historical dramas and, you know, kings who do this kind of thing. It also suggested the godfather as well.

The godfather where Don Corleone, you know, in his powerful sort of position. At 1 point, he says, to someone. I don't even know what it is, but he says to someone. Someday, and that day may never come. I will call upon you to do a service for me.

But you know that that is based on threat. It's based on him being powerful and demanding from someone who is less powerful, that at some point they need to be loyal to him. So it's based on power and it's based on threat. Now, if that was the case with David and Jonathan, if that's what this was like, then Jonathan would, at this point, be saying, well, I'm Crown Prince. So you be loyal to me.

And David would be saying, well, when I'm king, you'll be loyal to me, and that is the exact opposite of what they're doing. Do you see that? At the beginning, when David is the 1 who is weak, Jonathan is powerful, He is able because of this covenant to appeal to Jonathan and to say in my weakness, though I can do nothing for you. Show me loyalty, show me love. And it's not just that Jonathan is more powerful than David is weaker, but actually by showing love to David.

Jonathan is is putting himself in a weaker position. He's doing harm to himself. Do you see that? Because Jonathan is the crown prince. If David lives, He will 1 day take over it from Jonathan.

And so by showing love and loyalty to David, Jonathan is putting himself in a weaker position. And do you see it's same as the other way around. You see, when Jonathan says to David, you show me this essay. When you become king, it's also true because if David becomes king, what's the first thing he should do? You see it elsewhere in the Bible, when someone else becomes king, first thing they do is kill the previous king and all his family.

And that's what everyone would expect that if David becomes king, he should kill Jonathan. But Jonathan's saying when I'm in that weaker position, when you showed this love to me, that you will actually, in a separate yourself in greater harm, you will do something where everyone will say you've gotta kill Jonathan. You've gotta kill the previous king's family. But when you be so loyal to me, that whether you would even put yourself at risk and put yourself at harm, for my sake, and they both say to each other, yes, I will do this, and they swear this to each other. Do you see the beauty of this?

The wonder it's just a glorious friendship, isn't it? It's a beautiful thing. Now how do we apply this to us? We may be moved by it. But what difference does this make to us?

Well, couple of things. First, we do have covenant relationships, and I just want to touch on this though. I don't think it's the main point of the passage, but we do have covenant relationships. We have marriages. Those who are married, you're in a covenant relationship.

And in a sense, this is exactly what married couples have promised to 1 another, husbands and wives, you have said you will love your spouse no matter what. Just a reminder of your covenant. If you made it, this is what you promised. For better, for worse, for richer, for poorer in sickness and in health, to love and to cherish, till Bethusley Park. That is what you promised.

And there are no ifs in there. It did not say I will do this if you do it, or I will do this as much as you do this. No. You promised that you would do it, that you would love your spouse. Even if They can't do anything for you, even if they don't do anything for you, even if they they're not showing love to you at the moment.

You promised that you would love. And even if it causes you harm, even if you say, well, okay, I not gonna take that job because that job would mean I'd have to travel the whole load and I wouldn't be around as much. So I'm not gonna take that to do me harm, but I've made a promise. And therefore I'm gonna be committed to that promise, I'm gonna be committed to you. And even if, as I say, they can't show love to you, either through age or or or ill health, you've promised to show love to them.

Why? Ah, this is where it's better than the friend's song. Friends's song. I'll be there for you. Hang on.

I've gotta get it back because I won't remember it. I misquote it. What was it? I'll be there for you when the rain starts to pour it. I'll be there for you.

Like I've been there before. I'll be there for you because you're there for me too. No. Not because you're there for me too. David didn't say that actually in about that covenant.

He didn't say I'm there for you because you're there for me too. And now you said, I'm let's be there for each other because because we made a covenant because we made a promise. So too with you, if you're married, be there for your spouse because you said you won't because you made a covenant. Now, like I said at the start, that that that is not the main application. I don't think, although that's an important application.

And if there's something you need to take away from that, you need to go and put into practice in your marriage, then please go and do it. But actually, I think the the bigger application, like we've said, is to see that the nice covenant relationship, not a marriage relationship between David and Jonathan is a reflection of god's love. And so we need to think about that. Because incredibly, the Bible tells us that Job has made a covenant with mankind. He's made a promise.

He's made binding promises With us, he did I mean, he didn't have to. He didn't need to, but he did. That he would bind himself to mankind with a covenant. I wonder if you know this covenant, it's an incredible covenant that God has made. Jesus talked about it as being the covenant in his blood.

In Matthew chapter 26, I better get that off the screen, but you go. Matthew 26, it Jesus talks about it. In the last up, he says, this is the blood of the covenant which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins. The covenant that God made with mankind is through the blood of Jesus, through his death, and it means the forgiveness of sins that because Jesus died, because his blood was shed, we can have our sins forgiven. That's the covenant that he made.

And incredibly, we can enter into that covenant. How do we go about doing it? We confess our sins to God. The promise, 1 John chapter 1 says, if we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. Here is the commitment of god, the incredible love of god, the steadfast love of god, that he is so committed to this covenant that he says, if you bring your sin to me, then the blood of Jesus covers that sin.

You can be forgiven and cleansed from all unrighteousness. And that, we can appeal to. John David appealed to it. He said, I appeal to the covenant between us, we appeal to the covenant to God. Whenever we confess our sins, whenever we take communion with the not over there, but whenever we take communion.

It's like we're saying to god, god, look, here are my sins, but I appeal to your covenant. I appeal to you to act with Hess. With steadfast love on the basis of the covenant that you would forgive me. We take the bread, and we take the wine, and we remember that covenant, we appeal to it, and we know that God is full of steadfast love, and we'll be faithful to it. And it is in that covenant love, that steadfast love that we can have security.

George Mathelsen, there he is. He wrote to him. He is he was born 18 42, died 19 o 6. He was at Glasgow University, and he had a fiancee, but he was, he was struck for blindness. He became blind, and his fiancee decided she didn't wanna marry him, didn't wanna be married to a blind person.

And, so his sister looked after him. And his sister looked after him for quite a while, and then she got engaged to be married. And on the day of her wedding, he, sat down because he knew that he had a a life of being on his own ahead of him. And he said, the him just came to him and he wrote it down. Oh, love that will not let me go.

I rest my weary soul in me. So that's where security is. In that love, in that covenant love, their security are contrasting that. Sted past love, we're also gonna think about conflict. Now this is gonna be shorter than the first point.

Conflict. The other aspect of the relationship that we need to think about is conflict, but it's not conflict between David and Jonathan, It's not complete. Okay. Hold on. Here we go.

Okay. Well, it's working for me. Oh, no, it's not. Oh, okay. Right.

I'm gonna need you to leave us on. Thank you there. Perfect. Rob back there. Perfect.

Great. Conflict. Not between David and Jonathan, but because Jonathan sides with David, Jonathan ends up being in conflict with his dad with all. Now let's just see how that plays out. So David and Jonathan, they agreed to do the whole feast thing, you know, where they did not gonna be there, and Jonathan explains why.

And then after the feast, once they found out the results, They work out a way for Jonathan to communicate to that to David in an involuntary practice. So Jonathan's gonna go out. David's gonna hide himself in the field. Jonathan's gonna fire arrows and send the boy to go get the arrows. What a great job.

And he says he's gonna send the boy out and he says, if I say to him, on the arrows this side of you, then that means that David is safe. If he said, no, on the arrows beyond you, that's the signal to say David you're not safe. You've got to flee. So they come up with that system, and they agree to it, and then they decide to put the plan into action. So it starts with the feast.

There's the feast. David is not present, and on the first day, so it doesn't make a comment. Second day, when David isn't there, Saul asks Jonathan what's going on. Why isn't David there? And Jonathan explains, he embellishes a bit, but he uses the lie that he's been told to give.

And Saul then gets angry. First 30, have a look at that. Saul's anger flared up at Jonathan, and he said, dear, 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? 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. Saul's angry outburst here is extreme. It's pretty obscene as well. But he is saying, look, by siding with the son of Jesse, by siding with David, you've brought shame on yourself and on your mother. And more than that, you are never gonna be king while he is alive.

And so he's sort of angry. And he calls for David to be brought and killed. First 31, then Jonathan tries to reason with it. First 32. First 32.

Why should he be put to death? What's he done? Jonathan asked his father that Saul hurled his spear at him to kill him. Then Jonathan knew his father intended to kill David. It's a bit of a giveaway, isn't it?

Now do you notice what Saul did? How have come course, he got cross. But he held his spear at Jonathan. What's he doing? Trying to kill his son?

But of course, if you've been here previous weeks, you know, this is exactly what saw has tried to do to David, on more than 1 occasion, he's held his spear at him. Now do you see Jonathan is getting? What David got? You side with David, you're gonna get what he got. Now we need to see Jesus warns of of something similar.

When someone comes into a covenant relationship with god, because it's about allegiance, it's about loyalty. When you come into the covenant relationship with Jesus with God, you are saying that Jesus is your king. You're no longer gonna live for yourself or for this world. You have changed your colors. You are now under Jesus.

And that inevitably means. There will be conflict with the world around us. You line up with Jesus and you get what he got. Jesus warned us of this. I can't believe I'm sorry for going to the next slide.

Jesus says if the world hates you, keep in mind it hated me first. If you belong to the world, it would love you as its own as it is. You do not belong to the world. That is why the world hates you. Can you see the change that happens?

If someone puts their trust in Jesus, they go from being sort of belonging to the world to now not belonging to the world, but belonging to Jesus. And therefore, the world will hate you just a bit hated Jesus. That's what he's saying, and that's what we see here. Jonathan aligned himself with David and gets what David got from saw. But this isn't just about a king and a subject.

This is about a dad and a son, and the dad is turning against his son. And Jesus warned us about this as well that this would be part of the conflict. Another verse from Luke's gospel. If anyone comes to me and does not hate his father and another wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes, even their own life. Such a person cannot be my disciple.

And almost every common commentary I looked at that goes talks about 1 Samuel 20 then goes to this verse and says, this is an example of that. And it is a difficult verse, isn't it? What does Jesus mean by it? It doesn't mean you've gotta go and attack your family. You're not saying you've gotta go and attack your dad, your mom, you know, all those family members.

Now if this if 1 Samuel 20 is an example of that, Jonathan doesn't go and attack his father, the attack all comes from Saul. The Spears all come from Saul to Jonathan. But it looks like it was just inevitable. If Jonathan sides with David, Saul is going to attack him. He's gonna come after And in that sense, we are to hate family in the sense of being loyal to Jesus.

And if they turn on us, they turn on us. And many who turn to Christ experience exactly that. I don't maybe you know people who where their family has deserted them, have rejected them, because they follow Jesus. So I've met people like that, people in this country who, maybe they come from other countries, particularly if they come from Muslim countries, They've turned to Christ. They can fear going home back to their country because they fear their family will attack them.

But I've seen it in other places as well, not just Muslim countries. I've seen it in Tanzania where you get people when they turn to Christ sometimes family do reject them amongst the Masai even, I met some Christians there, people who turned to Christ, but they'd been thrown out of their village by their families. So they grouped together to support 1 another. And maybe there's some here. Who've experienced this?

Maybe your dad hasn't thrown a spear at? But maybe it's been uncomfortable. Maybe you've experienced it in smaller ways that your family think you're a bit crazy for following Jesus, maybe even for joining Hope Church. Maybe. And maybe they know that being a Christian, you can have views on things like gay marriage and abortion, and that you stand with Jesus and what the Bible says, and maybe you've received had difficult conversations.

That's not easy is it. And that happens, it's hard. It's painful if family members are upset with you. And if you're like me, you wanna be loyal to both. You want you want your family to like you, and you wanna be loyal to Jesus, and you want them both to come together, but you can't do that.

Jesus says it just isn't going to happen. We don't seek out hatred and opposition, but it will come our way. Well, Jonathan has nailed his colors to the mast. Let's just finish off the story, and then we're done. Jonathan has nailed his colors to the mast.

He's chosen David. And so it must have been with a heavy heart coming from the meal. But he goes to do his archery practice, goes to the field with the small boy shoots the arrows, and when the boy goes to find them, he calls out on the arrows beyond you, which is the signal. To say to David flee. And he sends the boy away, and then David and Jonathan meet, and you think, why did they bother with the whole bow and arrow thing if they were gonna meet anyway?

But I take it probably they didn't know they could meet. That's why they did it. And it's a painful goodbye, isn't it? They don't know that they're gonna see each other again, David. Boughs down verse 41, 3 times showing submission to Jonathan, 1 in power.

And they kiss each other again. It's not romantic. Kissies don't have to be romantic, do you ask Italian people though? That's not the way romantic. Actually, I'm new a guy in the biker community.

A Christian guy. I'm not in the bike if you're in probably car. Look looking at him, you could tell he was. And he said, you know, if you come in, the the guys greet each other, the pisses, but we you don't do that to my wife. You know, they you don't do that to the women.

But men, physically. No. Week. Just thought I'd pass that off. I'm not saying their bikers.

Anyway, it could have been a side. They kiss each other, not romantic, but it's friendship. And they reiterate their friendship verse 42. Going peace for we have sworn friendship with each other in the name of the lord saying the lord is witness between you and me, between your descendants and my descendants forever. Then David left, and Jonathan went back to the town.

And from now on, David is on the run. For the rest of 1 Samuel, David is on the run. And we will see that more next week. And I hope you're struck by this chapter by this friendship. It's wonderful, isn't it?

This steadfast love for 1 another, but the conflict that it brings as well. And if there's a verse to take away, I think it's back to verse 14 where we started, but show me unfailing kindness, like the lord's kindness.