After doing my Bible reading for the past few days, I started wondering why we don’t have more quality dramatizations of Bible stories. The drama surrounding King Saul, Jonathan, and David could make a whole series.
So in 1 Samuel 15, King Saul is getting a little too big for his britches, as some would say, and starts disobeying God. Samuel the prophet calls him out on it, and tells him God is going to take the kingdom away from him and give it to someone better. Saul isn’t quite the same after this, and starts feeling so bad that his servants suggest music therapy (1 Samuel 16:14-16). He accepts, and one of the servants suggest David as the musician to play, since he’s quite talented. Interestingly, earlier in 1 Samuel 16 David is the lad that God had just sent Samuel to anoint as the next king (1 Samuel 16:4-13). I’m sure David didn’t mention that to Saul, since Samuel had wanted to keep it a secret so as not to incur Saul’s anger (1 Samuel 16:1-3). Saul ends up enjoying David’s music, and is comforted by it (1 Samuel 16:18-23).
Later on, the Israelites are doing battle with their enemies the Philistines. The Philistines have a trick up their sleeves, and surprise the Israelites with a giant named Goliath! Everyone is too afraid to fight this giant, so afraid that even the reward of riches, getting to marry the princess, and having your family be free of taxation wasn’t enough to encourage anyone (1 Samuel 17:1-30). David is angered by Goliath’s audacity to talk about God and God’s people the way he has, so David states he’ll take him on. Cutting out a few details between (1 Samuel 17:31-39), David ends up victorious and everyone is ecstatic (1 Samuel 17:40-58)!
Not long after this, Saul’s son Jonathan becomes such close friends with David that the two might as well be brothers. Saul takes David as part of the army, and David does well wherever he goes (1 Samuel 18:1-5). But Saul begins to be jealous of David, starting when they get home from the defeat of Goliath. The ladies who come out to dance and sing of the victories praise David more than Saul, and Saul doesn’t like that one bit (1 Samuel 18:6-9). One day in the middle of David playing a song to soothe Saul, Saul throws a whole javelin at him (1 Samuel 18:10-11)! Failing that attempt, Saul starts sending David out on dangerous missions with the army, hoping he’ll get killed (1 Samuel 18:12-17). This doesn’t work either, not even after Saul offers two of his daughters in marriage, one of whom is actually in love with David (1 Samuel 18:18-28). In fact, this all had the exact effect Saul didn’t want (1 Samuel 18:29-30).
Saul then resorts to telling his servants and his son Jonathan to kill David. Jonathan is not about to let that happen to his best friend, so he alerts David about his father’s intentions so he can hide. Jonathan comes up with a plan: David would hide while Jonathan walks with Saul in the field nearby, then Jonathan would speak well of David and convince his father not to kill him. Saul listens to Jonathan and decides not to kill David (1 Samuel 19:1-7).
But the decision is short-lived. Soon Saul begins having fits of rage again, and again tries to kill David in the middle of music therapy (1 Samuel 19:8-10). David escapes and runs home to Michal his wife. Saul sends some people to go wait at David’s house and kill him in the morning. Michal knows David isn’t safe at home, and tells him he needs to leave. She helps him escape through a window out of sight, then makes his bed look like he is sleeping in it. When the men Saul sent come to “visit” David in the morning, Michal tells them David is sick and sends them away. The men tell Saul, who tells them to just go ahead and bring the whole bed so he can kill David himself. The men quickly find out that David isn’t even in his bed, and Saul berates his own daughter for “betraying” him (1 Samuel 19:11-18). Saul sends men after David and then goes off to find him himself, having a strange encounter on the way (1 Samuel 19:19-24).
Surprisingly, Jonathan has no idea that all of this is happening. David finds his way to Jonathan and tells him what’s going on. Jonathan is surprised, since Saul usually tells him everything. David lets Jonathan know that because Saul knows they’re friends, he didn’t want Jonathan to help him. David comes up with a plan to show Jonathan what’s going on, involving a dinner conversation Jonathan will have with Saul. The two then come up with a plan about how Jonathan will bring news to David about how the conversation goes (1 Samuel 20:1-24). In the process, the two make a covenant between each other. Jonathan knows David is going to take the throne after Saul and not him, but he accepts this and makes sure that they and their families will still be on good terms.
The dinner conversation goes about as well as you’d expect, with Jonathan defending David’s stellar character and Saul calling Jonathan something insulting while berating him for being friends with the man who is taking the throne away from the family. Jonathan leaves dinner enraged (1 Samuel 20:25-34). The next morning Jonathan goes to bring David the news in the prearranged code. Once the unwitting helper for the code heads back home, David and Jonathan tell each other goodbye, hugging and crying (1 Samuel 20:35-42). It’s not easy when one friend is being hunted to the death by the other friend’s practically insane father.
I’ll leave the rest of the adventures for you to read in the rest of 1 Samuel and 2 Samuel. It gets pretty intense, and while it ends up okay, there are many times when you think things will be fine, but then they aren’t. There are even some unexpected interactions and reactions, especially when David has a chance at vengeance and stopping the problem where it lies (1 Samuel 24).
Related:
Encouraging Yourself in the Lord
God’s Forgiveness – David the King
Jonathan’s Character