In this block
of verses, Saul wanted to kill David, but Jonathan warns David and promises to
advocate for him to his father the king.
The verses of Jonathan’s advocacy are unusual in that his advocacy makes
him a type of Christ and the things he says about David make David a type of
Christ as well.
1 And
Saul spake to Jonathan his son, and to all his servants, that they should kill
David.
2 But
Jonathan Saul’s son delighted much in David: and Jonathan told David, saying,
Saul my father seeketh to kill thee: now therefore, I pray thee, take heed to
thyself until the morning, and abide in a secret place, and hide thyself:
3 And I
will go out and stand beside my father in the field where thou art, and I will
commune with my father of thee; and what I see, that I will tell thee.
4 ¶And
Jonathan spake good of David unto Saul his father, and said unto him, Let not
the king sin against his servant, against David; because he hath not sinned
against thee, and because his works have been to thee-ward very good:
5 For he
did put his life in his hand, and slew the Philistine, and the Lord wrought a
great salvation for all Israel: thou sawest it, and didst rejoice: wherefore
then wilt thou sin against innocent blood, to slay David without a cause?
6 And
Saul hearkened unto the voice of Jonathan: and Saul sware, As the Lord liveth,
he shall not be slain.
7 And
Jonathan called David, and Jonathan shewed him all those things. And Jonathan
brought David to Saul, and he was in his presence, as in times past. (1 Sam
19:1-7)
Jonathan’s princely status
and advocating to the king for someone makes Jonathan a type of Christ and how
He advocates to the Father for us.
What Jonathan says about
David is interesting:
A) David has not sinned
against the king.
B) David’s works to the king
have been very good.
C) David wrought a great
salvation for Israel, which the king saw and rejoices for.
D) Saul should not shed
innocent blood and slay David.
A, B, C are all
characteristics of Christ’s life as well.
He did not sin against God, His works to God were very good, and He
wrought a great salvation for Israel, which made God rejoice to see. Because of this, it would be wrong for
Heavenly Father to condemn Christ to spiritual death.
So it seems that this is a
case where Jonathan’s advocacy for David, and David’s innocence capture how
Jesus could advocate for Himself to the Father on the grounds of His
sinlessness and be permitted back into the presence of God, the heavenly king
(and then become advocates for us as well.
I also started to see that
the friendship between David and Jonathan was meant to typify the dual nature
of Jesus Christ. Jonathan was a
prince, so he represented the divine part of Jesus, the part that was Jehovah,
the part that was the Only Begotten son of God. David was a commoner, so he represented the human mortal
part of Jesus.
So when 1 Samuel 18:1 tells
us the soul of Jonathan was knit with the soul of David, we are also being
taught about the divine and the mortal human natures united in the person of
Jesus Christ.
It is interesting that when
Jonathan first pleads for David to Saul, Saul says, “As the Lord liveth, he
shall not be slain.” (1 Sam 19:6)
This expresses how Christ would not be killed by others.
Later in 1 Sam. 20:31,
Jonathan pleads again for David, asking what he has done to deserve death, and
Saul is less compassionate, saying, “For as long as the son of Jesse liveth
upon the ground, thou shalt not be established, nor thy kingdom. Wherefore now send and fetch him unto
me, for he shall surely die.” This
expresses that Christ had to die, and we get a veiled reference to how as long
as Jesus lived as a mortal, He could not reign in the heavens and earth as
Jehovah and His supremacy could not be established. He had to die in order to reign.
I love that I’m finding
types of Christ where I never noticed them before! As I’ve been reading and studying the Old Testament, I’m
seeing so many types of Christ!
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