David slips back to Jonathan one more time: “there is but a step between me and death.” They devise a test at the new moon feast — if Saul rages at David’s empty seat, David must run. Saul does rage, and throws a spear at his own son for defending David. Jonathan carries the warning out to a field, and the two friends weep and part, bound by an oath: the LORD be between thee and me for ever.
A study in 1 Samuel 20 · Arthur Baldwin · StandUp4Jesus.Org · 8 min read
There Is But A Step Between Me And Death
“But truly as the LORD liveth, and as thy soul liveth, there is but a step between me and death. Then said Jonathan unto David, Whatsoever thy soul desireth, I will even do it for thee.”
1 Samuel 20:3-4
David is not exaggerating — a spear has already come at him twice. He says it soberly: one step. Jonathan does not argue him out of the danger or minimise it; he simply puts himself at David’s disposal: “whatsoever thy soul desireth.” Real friendship in a crisis does not offer advice first. It offers itself.
Shew Me The Kindness Of The LORD
“And thou shalt not only while yet I live shew me the kindness of the LORD, that I die not: but also thou shalt not cut off thy kindness from my house for ever… when the LORD hath cut off the enemies of David every one from the face of the earth.”
1 Samuel 20:14-15
Look at what Jonathan takes for granted: that David will be king, that David’s enemies (which now includes Jonathan’s own father and house) will be cut off. He does not fight it — he blesses it, and asks only that David be kind to his family afterward. This is the son of the throne handing the future to the shepherd and asking nothing back but mercy. David keeps the promise decades later, to Jonathan’s crippled son Mephibosheth (2 Samuel 9).
Thou Son Of The Perverse Rebellious Woman
“Thou son of the perverse rebellious woman… For as long as the son of Jesse liveth upon the ground, thou shalt not be established, nor thy kingdom… And Saul cast a javelin at him to smite him: whereby Jonathan knew that it was determined of his father to slay David.”
1 Samuel 20:30-33
Saul’s fury at David’s empty chair turns on Jonathan: keep defending him and “thou shalt not be established.” Saul frames it as fatherly concern for his son’s inheritance — and then throws a spear at that same son. He would kill his own heir to keep the crown out of God’s chosen hands. A man fighting God’s will ends up fighting his own family.
“He declared that as long as David lived, Jonathan could not come to the throne of Israel… This appeal to the king only made him more satanic in his fury, and the spear which he had intended for David he now hurled at his own son.”
Ellen G. White · Patriarchs and Prophets, p. 655
The LORD Be Between Thee And Me For Ever
“They kissed one another, and wept one with another, until David exceeded. And Jonathan said to David, Go in peace… The LORD be between me and thee, and between my seed and thy seed for ever.”
1 Samuel 20:41-42
The arrows are shot as the coded signal, the servant boy sent home, and the two men allow themselves one open moment in the field — weeping “until David exceeded.” Then Jonathan sends him off with the oath they have sworn: the LORD Himself standing between them, and between their descendants, for ever. They will meet only once more. But the covenant holds — through Saul’s hunt, through Jonathan’s death, into David’s reign. A friendship anchored in God outlasts the people who made it.
