“The Lord Be Between Thee
and Me For Ever”
Lesson 23 –
1 Samuel 18-20; 23-24
What are some of the qualities you look for in a
friend? Loyalty, integrity, unselfishness, kindness, and charity? Part of this lesson teaches us to be true to
our friends, as Jonathan and David were, and to avoid being consumed by
jealousy and hatred, as Saul was.
Jonathan and David made a covenant of friendship. Saul
became jealous of David and tried to kill him. (1 Samuel 18:1-16)
David quickly became a hero after he killed
Goliath. King Saul and the entire kingdom honored him. However, none was as
true to David as was Jonathan, Saul’s son.
1 Samuel 18:1, 3 - Jonathan
loved David as much as he loved himself in spite of the fact that it would have
been easy for Jonathan to feel jealous of David for these reasons:
·
1 Samuel 16:6-13 - As
Saul’s son, Jonathan was next in line to be king. However, the prophet Samuel
had anointed David to become the next king.
·
1 Samuel 14:1-16 - While
David was greatly honored by the people for his success in battle, Jonathan
received little attention for his own success on the battlefield.
1 Samuel 18:1, 3 - Jonathan
was not jealous of David or threatened by him because they were true friends
who would not let jealousy arise between them.
1 Samuel 18:4 - Jonathan
demonstrated his support for David by giving him his royal robe and weapons.
1 Samuel 18:2, 5 - King
Saul was grateful to and proud of David after the slaying of Goliath, so Saul
took David into his home and set him over his armies.
1 Samuel 18:5 - David
demonstrated his loyalty to King Saul by serving him wisely and faithfully.
1 Samuel 18:6-9 - Saul
was prompted to turn against David when the people gave David greater praise
than they gave to Saul. Saul found it
impossible to be happy about the success of David. That jealousy and pride he felt affected his spiritual well
being.
President Ezra Taft Benson said: “Saul became an
enemy to David through pride. He was jealous because the crowds of Israelite
women were singing that ‘Saul hath slain his thousands, and David his ten
thousands’ (1
Samuel 18:7, see also 1 Samuel 18:6,8). The proud stand more in fear of men’s judgment than of
God’s judgment. … ‘What will men think of me?’ weighs heavier than ‘What will
God think of me?’ … Fear of men’s
judgment manifests itself in competition for men’s approval. The proud love
‘the praise of men more than the praise of God’ (John
12:42-43). Our motives for the
things we do are where the sin is manifest. Jesus said He did ‘always those
things’ that pleased God (John 8:29). Would we not
do well to have the pleasing of God as our motive rather than to try to elevate
ourselves above our brother and outdo another? “Some prideful people are not so
concerned as to whether their wages meet their needs as they are that their
wages are more than someone else’s. Their reward is being a cut above the rest.
… When pride has a hold on our hearts,
we lose our independence of the world and deliver our freedoms to the bondage
of men’s judgment. The world shouts louder than the whisperings of the Holy
Ghost. The reasoning of men overrides the revelations of God, and the proud let
go of the iron rod” (Ensign, May
1989, 5).
1 Samuel 18:5, 14-16 - David
continued to act wisely in all his ways in Saul’s behalf after the Lord blessed
him with success on the battlefield. By being wise and having integrity, he
maintained favor in the sight of the Lord.
From his example, we should remember to “behave
[ourselves] wisely” when we are successful in our undertakings, whether
temporal or spiritual.
Saul failed in three more attempts to take David’s life. (1 Samuel 18:17-30; 19:1-18)
Saul offered to let David marry one of his
daughters if David would fight the Philistines.
1 Samuel 18:20-25 - Saul’s
real motive in offering him one of his daughters as a wife was to ensnare
him. He hoped that the Philistines
would kill David. Saul wanted a hundred
Philistines killed as a dowry for his daughter’s hand in marriage.
1 Samuel 19:1-7 – As Saul’s jealousy and anger grew,
he tried to get Jonathan, among others, to kill
David. Jonathan resisted and persuaded Saul to abandon his plan to slay
David. Because of Jonathan’s efforts,
Saul agreed to accept David back into his house.
We see from this incident what it means to be a
true friend. Think about your friends
and how they are true to you. Consider
also how you are a true friend unto them.
1 Samuel 19:9-10 - Despite
Jonathan’s efforts to change Saul’s feelings toward David, Saul continued to
seek David’s life after an evil spirit came upon him. Saul’s javelin missed its
mark and David escaped.
1 Samuel 19:11-18 - Michal,
David’s wife, showed that she was true to her husband by helping him escape and
delaying Saul’s messengers overnight to give David ample time to escape.
David and Jonathan renewed their covenant of friendship.
Jonathan saved David’s life.
1 Samuel 20:1 – David
was bewildered by Saul’s hatred and efforts to kill him because he knew there
was no justification for such hatred.
1 Samuel 20:2-4, 13-17, 23, 24-42 - Jonathan continued to show his friendship while Saul sought
David’s life by trying to change Saul’s mind and keeping David informed of
Saul’s doings.
1 Samuel 20:23 - Faith
in God influenced the friendship of Jonathan and David. Their covenant of friendship was based on
gospel principles. Our love of God affects our love of others. If we place loyalty to God first in our
lives, if our friends do things that are wrong we will lovingly try to help our
friends change. If our friends ask us
to do things that are wrong, we will not do unrighteous things at their
request, regardless of the social consequences, and we will try to influence
our friends to make righteous choices.
1 Samuel 20:24-33* (cited above) - King Saul responded to David’s absence and Jonathan’s
defense of his friend with anger.
1 Samuel 20:35-42* (cited above) - Jonathan warned David to flee from Saul by meeting him in
a field where he practiced his archery skills.
Saul was consumed by hatred for David. David spared Saul’s
life. (1 Samuel 23-24)
1 Samuel 23:1-5 - David
was blessed with continued success on the battlefield against the Philistines
as he followed the direction of the Lord.
1 Samuel 23:7-13 - David
had to leave the city of Keilah after he had saved its people from the
Philistines because he was told that Saul was coming to slay him and his men.
1 Samuel 23:10 - When Saul
learned that David was in Keilah; he prepared his armies to destroy the entire
city. Saul had changed from a righteous
king to someone who was willing to destroy an entire city in order to kill one
person. His jealousy and hatred was so
consuming that he had been completely overwhelmed by them. We need to rid ourselves of jealousy or
hatred before those conditions overwhelm us and cause us to sin.
1 Samuel 23:16 - When
David was hiding from Saul, Jonathan visited David and “strengthened
his hand in God”.
Think about what that might mean and consider how you might strengthen
your friends in God. (Do you encourage
your friends to continue in righteous living during their trials and
tribulations?)
1 Samuel 24:1-3 - During another
attempt to find and kill David, Saul stopped to rest in a cave.
1 Samuel 24:4 - David’s
men, when they found Saul, counseled David that the Lord had delivered Saul
into his hands, so he could do with him whatever he wished.
1 Samuel 24:4-5 – Rather than harm his master, David cut off the hem of Saul’s robe—the portion of the
robe that symbolized authority.
1 Samuel 24:6-12 - David
refused to harm Saul because Saul was “the Lord’s anointed”.
1 Samuel 24:12-15; Mormon 8:20 - David’s example teaches us about controlling the desire
for revenge and about responding to those who do evil to us. We should let the Lord protect us and He
will judge those who seek to harm us.
1 Samuel 24:16-19 - When
David spared his life, Saul wept and confessed that David was far more
righteous than he. He confessed that he
had sought David’s life while David had let him go when it would have been easy
for David to slay him.
The story of Jonathan and David reminds us that
true friendship and love bring us closer to our friends and to God. The story
of Saul reminds us that jealousy and hatred can consume us and lead us away
from our friends and from God. Be true
to your friends so you can say to them, “The Lord be between thee and me for
ever” (1 Samuel 20:23).
These lessons are available on the Internet at http://www.neumanninstitute.org/