David learns that King Saul and his sons have died in battle, and his emotions mirror the deep and complex methods he beloved his king and his religious brother. He doesn’t ignore Saul’s sins or failures, however he does honor the dignity of the Lord’s anointed. David recollects Saul’s energy, his provision, and the wonder he dropped at Israel. He even curses the mountains the place Saul’s protect was defiled and the mighty had fallen. But essentially the most piercing phrases within the lament are reserved for Jonathan, David’s covenant brother:
“I’m distressed for you, my brother Jonathan;
drastically beloved have been you to me;
your like to me was fantastic,
passing the love of girls.”
Verse 26 typically unsettles trendy readers. Is David implying one thing sexual? However the actual shock shouldn’t be his language of grief and love. What’s stunning is how few of us at the moment expertise friendship that would maintain such phrases.
Within the historic world and throughout a lot of church historical past, religious friendships like that of David and Jonathan have been each regular and obligatory: Ruth and Naomi, Jesus and John, and Paul and Timothy. Married or single, these saints embraced chosen household marked by loyalty, kinship, and sacrificial care. These friendships didn’t compete with marriage or devotion to God. They strengthened each.
Jonathan made a covenant with David, gave him his gown and sword, and defended him even to dying. Jonathan was the brother David wanted to remain trustworthy. And after Jonathan’s dying, David’s life finally started to unravel, maybe as a result of the good friend who knew him finest, who helped him keep in mind who he was, was not there.
Right this moment, many Christians dwell with out that form of brotherhood or sisterhood. We anticipate friendship to be informal and optionally available. However what if we didn’t? What if we recovered religious friendship in ways in which drew us nearer to Jesus?
Pieter Valk is a licensed skilled counselor, the director of EQUIP, and cofounder of the Nashville Household of Brothers, an ecumenically Christian brotherhood for males known as to vocational singleness.
