but thou shalt not cut off thy kindness from my house for ever, no, not when Jehovah cuts off the enemies of David, every one from the face of the earth.
Jonathan is heir to Saul's throne, and his father wants David dead. Instead of guarding his own future, he asks the hunted man to spare his family once the kingdom is his.
His words are a plea, but underneath is a confession. He asks David to protect his descendants, and in asking he hands over the crown before David wears it:
He acknowledges David as the king of Israel. He had before stripped himself of the emblems of royalty and given them to David. Now he acknowledges that his life is in the hand of David. It is complete and perfect submission. No confession of David's rights as king of Israel could be fuller. He pleads not only for himself, but also for continued kindness to his house forever.
Read in its moment, the request sounds impossible. The man being asked for mercy is running for his life, and the family asking for mercy is the royal house currently hunting him.
To outward eyes it hardly looked possible. David had now become a fugitive, yet he was going to sit on a throne — and the house of Saul would owe its escape from death to his mercy! Jonathan expected to see David begin his reign, but he did not expect to outlive him.
Commentators do not treat Jonathan as flawless here. One writer weighs what he misses against what he still gets right:
Jonathan has still not understood that God has rejected Saul, even though all his confidence is in David... He forgets himself again here, declaring that the kingdom belongs to his friend. And when is it that Jonathan chooses to commend himself to David's protection? At the moment when David is fleeing, his life exposed at every instant! Is it not the same for us? Have we not found our protector, our refuge, and all our hope in a rejected Christ?
Jonathan does not ask for ordinary goodwill. He names it the kindness of the Lord — a kindness that later reached a man who had no claim on it at all:
When David said, "Is there still anyone left of the house of Saul, that I may show him kindness for Jonathan's sake?" (2 Sam. 9:1, 3), he was illustrating the kindness that God shows to those who are, by nature, at enmity with Him. The covenant that David had made with Jonathan (1 Sam. 20:14-15) was the reason for his words and action: but guilty sinners had no claim on the kindness of God.
Years later David looked for anyone left of Saul's house, and found Jonathan's son Mephibosheth. What secured his place was nothing in himself; it was the promise Jonathan had asked for here:
He remembers his covenant with Jonathan. He had bound himself by promises he would never take back (1 Sam. 20:14-17). He could not and would not break them. Mephibosheth had nothing to fear, for his judge tells him, "I will show you kindness."
The word "forever" carries the weight of Jonathan's plea. One writer follows it into Mephibosheth's place at the table, and then into ours:
No one can take Mephibosheth's portion away from him: he will "eat at my table always" (vv. 7, 10); "he ate always at the king's table" (v. 13). "Do not cut off your steadfast love from my house forever" (1 Sam. 20:15)... We have these same privileges. The whole line of favors that were Mephibosheth's is our portion now and in the future.
Jonathan speaks of a day when every enemy of David is cut off. One writer sees his words reaching past his own family, and finds the promise behind them sealed with an oath:
Jonathan entreats, but his entreaty is in accord with the counsels of God, and therefore his prayer has a prophetic aspect. We see in this the covenanted blessings of the saved remnant in the age to come... The promise is given, repeated, and confirmed with an oath — two immutable things.
- Plea — Jonathan asks mercy for his descendants. In asking, he concedes David's right to the throne.
- Timing — He commits his house to a man who is at that moment running for his life; faith rests on a king not yet crowned.
- Kindness — The kindness he asks for is the kind God shows to people who are His enemies by nature and have no claim on it.
- Kept — David kept the covenant and seated Jonathan's son at his own table.
- Forever — The kindness has no end date: a permanent seat at the king's table, and that same portion is ours now and in the future.
And Jonathan made [a covenant] with the house of David, [saying,] Let Jehovah even require [it] at the hand of David's enemies!
Jonathan has just tested his father and knows the truth: Saul means to kill David. Here he goes further than friendship. He binds his whole family to David, a hunted man he believes will be king. Then he asks God to deal with David's enemies.
Jonathan and David had already pledged themselves to each other once. David's warning about how near death was moved Jonathan to go further.
The love in him was still ready to serve and to help. "Whatever your soul desires, I will do it for you." But words like these had to stir that love: "Truly, as the LORD lives and as your soul lives, there is but a step between me and death." And now Jonathan's love was roused. He would even risk his life for David. A new covenant comes in here. It is not only between them personally, as it was at the first, but on behalf of their houses. This held good with David after Jonathan's death.
David is a hunted man with no throne. Jonathan still speaks to him as the king of Israel, and leaves David's enemies to God.
In Jonathan we see the godly in Israel owning their king. They confess Him before they see His glory; and they are themselves weak and in fear... He acknowledges David as the king of Israel. Earlier he had stripped off the signs of royalty and given them to David. Now he acknowledges that his life is in the hand of David. It is complete and perfect submission. No one could confess David's rights as king of Israel more fully. He pleads not only for himself, but also for continued kindness to his house forever... Jonathan entreats, but his entreaty agrees with God's own purposes, and so his prayer has a prophetic aspect.
The timing is what stands out. Jonathan asks for protection from a man who cannot protect himself:
Here he forgets himself again, and declares that the kingdom belongs to his friend. And when is it that Jonathan chooses to put himself under David's protection? At the moment when David is fleeing, his life exposed at every instant! Is it not the same for us? Have we not found our protector, our refuge, and all our hope in a rejected Christ?
Jonathan asked for a promise David could only keep long afterwards, when he was the one in power.
To outward eyes it hardly looked as if David, now a fugitive, would sit on a throne. Still less did it look as if the house of Saul would owe their lives to his mercy!... The covenant then made, David kept. At the height of his glory and greatness he remembered it, and his kindness to Mephibosheth was a proof of it (2 Sam. 9). And later on, near the close of his reign, he acted on it, sparing Jonathan's son from being hanged by the Gibeonites.
Mephibosheth was Jonathan's son, and he was lame. The Gibeonites were a people Saul had attacked, and they later demanded lives from Saul's family.
The covenant covered a house, not just one man. So the son who later received the kindness had done nothing to earn it. The reason lay in his dead father.
He might think of his lameness. He might call himself a dead dog. But in his own mind, no sense of being unable to serve the king was to block the flow of the king's favour... "For Jonathan your father's sake" — that was the ground, and it could never change, for Jonathan was dead. If he had still been alive, he might by some act have forfeited the king's favour. Being dead, that was impossible.
Writers are warm about Jonathan, and also honest. His heart went with David, but that was all he shared.
Jonathan's lovable and caring character endears him to us. Yet he lacked one thing, and one thing only. He did not have enough faith to follow the rejected king. His position, it is true, made such a step very difficult, but for faith difficulties ought not to count. Jonathan should have shared David's sufferings with more than his heart alone. Because he did not, he later had to share his father's defeat and ruin.
- Covenant widens. What began as love between two men now binds two households, and it stays in force after one party dies.
- Covenant confesses. Jonathan owns David as king while David is still hunted. Faith confesses the king before it sees the glory.
- Covenant protects. He seeks refuge in a man with no throne, the same way a believer's whole hope rests on a rejected Christ.
- Covenant is kept. At the height of his power David remembers the oath, and Saul's house survives by the mercy of the man it hunted.
- Covenant must be followed. Jonathan bound his house to David but did not follow him. He shared his father's ruin instead.
And Jonathan caused David to swear again, by the love he had for him, for he loved him as he loved his own soul.
Jonathan has just asked David to spare his family when the kingdom is his. Now he binds the oath a second time, and he binds it by love. The verse gives the reason for everything Jonathan does in this chapter: he loved David as he loved his own life.
This love costs Jonathan the throne he was born to.
It is beautiful to see this absence of self-interest in Jonathan. He stands before the very man who would inherit all the rights that birth seemed to have given to Saul's son. Ah, this is because he loved David as his own soul. From the beginning he had given power, authority, the kingdom — in a word, everything — to the son of Jesse.
This attachment is more than warm feeling between two young men. Kelly traces it to something deeper in Jonathan:
Some suppose that this was only personal affection. They are greatly mistaken. That affection was there. But Jonathan was a man of faith, and no love matches the character, power and permanence of a love that faith drives. The more Jonathan's soul took in his friend's qualities, and also the destiny God had assigned him, the more David grew day by day in the love of Jonathan's heart.
David and Jonathan had already made a covenant once. This second oath reaches further than the first.
The love in him was still ready to serve and to help. He said, "Whatever you say, I will do for you." But it took words like these to stir him: "As the Lord lives and as your soul lives, there is but a step between me and death." Now Jonathan's love was stirred. He would even risk his life for David. A new covenant comes in here. It is not only between the two of them, as the first one was, but for their houses as well.
Jonathan is Saul's son and the natural heir. In asking mercy for his household, he admits who will reign.
He acknowledges David as the king of Israel. He had already stripped himself of the signs of royalty and given them to David. Now he acknowledges that his life is in David's hand. It is complete and perfect submission. No one could confess David's rights as king of Israel more fully. He pleads not only for himself, but for lasting kindness to his house forever. Jonathan asks, and what he asks agrees with the purpose of God. So his prayer has a prophetic character.
Notice the timing. Jonathan is the king's son, yet he asks safety from a man on the run.
When does Jonathan choose to commit himself to David's protection? At the moment when David is fleeing, his life in danger every instant! Is it not the same for us? Have we not found our protector, our refuge, and all our hope in a rejected Christ?
Years later Jonathan was dead and Saul's house was in ruins. The oath still stood.
Long before, Jonathan had asked David to show him the kindness of the Lord while he still lived, and never to cut off that kindness from his house — and he made David swear again (1 Sam. 20:14–17). Keeping his oath, David shows Mephibosheth the kindness of God. It is a faint picture of the kindness God now shows in grace to poor repentant sinners who trust Him.
Jonathan bound himself to David by oath, but he did not go with him. Rossier names what was missing:
Jonathan's lovable and sympathetic character endears him to us. Yet he lacked one thing, one thing only. He did not have enough faith to follow the rejected king. His position, it is true, made such a step very difficult, but for faith difficulties should not count.
Commentators differ on how far to press that charge. Ridout points to what matters most in the story:
The whole question is a delicate one. But one thing must stay untouched all through the discussion. Jonathan's devotion to David is a lovely example of the devotion of heart to our Lord that should mark us all.
- Love is the cause. Jonathan does not swear out of policy or fear. He swears out of love. He loved David as his own soul, and handed him power, rank and kingdom.
- Love widens the covenant. A bond between two men now covers two families. David swears kindness to Jonathan's house forever.
- Love confesses the king. Saul's own heir admits David's right to the throne. He puts his life in David's hand before the crown ever arrives.
- Love takes refuge in the rejected. Jonathan seeks his security from a fugitive, as faith today rests all its hope in a rejected Christ.
- Love keeps its word. David remembers the oath. He shows Mephibosheth the kindness of God — a picture of the kindness God shows repentant sinners who trust Him.