Brothers in the Bible (6): David and Jonathan?

Not brothers by birth but in love.

There is a question hiding right there in the title.

David and Jonathan?

But David and Jonathan were not brothers. They had different fathers, different families, and different places in Israel's story.

So why have they appeared in a series called Brothers in the Bible?

Because sometimes a relationship can become so deep, so faithful, and so costly that the people involved speak of one another as brothers.

The story of David and Jonathan is one of the most remarkable friendships in Scripture. It begins when David returns from killing Goliath.

“The soul of Jonathan was knit with the soul of David, and Jonathan loved him as his own soul.”1 Samuel 18:1

Jonathan was the son of King Saul. David was the young shepherd who had just become a national hero. By every ordinary calculation, they might have been rivals. Jonathan was the king's son. David was the man whom God had chosen to become Israel's next king.

And yet Jonathan loved David.

Not because David could give him anything, but because he recognized something in David that was greater than his own ambitions.

Jonathan even gave David his robe, his garments, his sword, his bow, and his belt.

“Then Jonathan and David made a covenant, because he loved him as his own soul.”1 Samuel 18:3

Their friendship would soon be tested.

Saul became increasingly jealous of David. He saw David's success and popularity as a threat to his throne and eventually determined to kill him.

Jonathan could have protected his own position.

After all, if David became king, Jonathan would not.

But Jonathan did something extraordinary. He stood between his father and his friend.

He warned David when Saul intended to kill him. He spoke to Saul on David's behalf. And when Saul's hatred became unmistakable, Jonathan helped David escape.

Jonathan understood something that Saul could not accept: David was not his enemy.

At one point Jonathan said to David:

“Thou shalt be king over Israel, and I shall be next unto thee.”1 Samuel 23:17

Jonathan knew what David's future meant for his own. Yet he did not cling to what might have been his.

That is one of the reasons this story belongs here.

The brothers we have encountered in this series have not all had perfect relationships. Some have been divided by jealousy, deception, ambition, or fear. David and Jonathan show us something different.

They were not brothers by birth.

They became brothers in the way they loved one another.

And their friendship was not merely sentimental. It had a cost.

Jonathan risked his father's anger.

David lived under the constant threat of Saul's violence.

Both men had something to lose.

Yet neither abandoned the other.

Their story also reminds us that biblical friendship is not simply about enjoying someone's company. Jonathan was willing to tell David the truth, defend him when he was absent, warn him when danger was coming, and rejoice in what God was doing in David's life—even when that meant less for Jonathan himself.

Then came the day when David learned that Jonathan had been killed in battle.

David's grief is one of the most moving passages in the Old Testament.

“I am distressed for thee, my brother Jonathan: very pleasant hast thou been unto me.”2 Samuel 1:26

Notice David's words.

My brother Jonathan.

That is why the question mark belongs in our title.

David and Jonathan?

Yes.

Not because Scripture tells us they were brothers by blood.

It doesn't.

But because their relationship shows us something about brotherhood that goes beyond the family into which we are born.

Jonathan gave himself for David. David never forgot Jonathan. Their lives became bound together by a loyalty that survived danger, separation, political rivalry, and finally death.

The Bible does not tell us that every friendship becomes brotherhood.

But David and Jonathan show us that sometimes a friend can become as close as a brother.

And perhaps that is one reason their story has endured.

We all know that family relationships are given to us.

Friendships are different.

A true friend chooses to stand beside us.

Jonathan chose David.

And David never forgot him.

**********************************Ecc 4:9  Two are better than one; because they have a good reward for their labour. 

Ecc 4:10  For if they fall, the one will lift up his fellow: but woe to him that is alone when he falleth; for he hath not another to help him up.

*********************************

O LOVE THAT WILT NOT LET ME GO

O Love that wilt not let me go,

I rest my weary soul in thee;

I give thee back the life I owe,

That in thine ocean depths its flow

May richer, fuller be.

O light that followest all my way,

I yield my flickering torch to thee;

My heart restores its borrowed ray,

That in thy sunshine’s blaze its day

May brighter, fairer be.

O Joy that seekest me through pain,

I cannot close my heart to thee;

I trace the rainbow through the rain,

And feel the promise is not vain,

That morn shall tearless be.

O Cross that liftest up my head,

I dare not ask to fly from thee;

I lay in dust life’s glory dead,

And from the ground there blossoms red

Life that shall endless be.

George Matheson, in the Church of Scotland magazine 1882.