Continued Divergence: 1 Samuel 20:24-34
Diverging from God’s will is a recipe for leadership disaster. Nobody is perfect; we all make poor choices. Being a good leader is about trying to make good decisions and having the humility to make course corrections when a prior decision turns bad.
The festival of the new moon commences. This was a common festival; kings and families would have feasts. The law forbid work to encourage people to be in community.
When David is absent for the first day, Saul assumes David is ritually impure. The feast served meat offered to God as a sacrifice, therefore ritual purity was mandatory. A married warrior could easily encounter any type of body fluid through combat, training, or even sex, making him ritually impure and unable to participate. The warrior would simply bathe and keep himself clean to participate the second day. It was an easy fix.
When David isn’t present on the second day, Saul’s anger is aroused. He can no longer give David a pass. He asks Jonathan about David’s presence, and Jonathan inserts a lie. While it is likely for David’s family to participate in their own festival, David’s brother had not commanded David to return home.
Jonathan tells the lie because he is caught between David and his father. Jonathan may be open to the idea that his father has murderous intentions towards David, but that doesn’t mean it sits well with him. Jonathan sugar coats David’s absence, trying to make it feel natural and not David’s decision. Jonathan wants his father to be okay with David.
Instead of accepting the explanation, Saul rages. He insults his wife, calling her a perverse and rebellious woman. When Jonathan chooses David over him, Saul questions Jonathan’s lineage and essentially claims Jonathan to be the product of an extra-marital affair. Saul believes no son would truly go against his father.
The truth finally comes out. Saul suspects David is God’s replacement for him as king. Jonathan will not be king because of David. Saul wants David killed because it is the only way to make room for Jonathan to be king. Saul ceased being humble before God and actively plots against God’s will.
In the end, Saul’s wrath almost results in Jonathan’s death. Unable to control his fury, Saul throws a spear at Jonathan. While children are not always obedient and can be quite skilled at pushing their parents’ buttons, there are few excuses for wanting to kill your own child. God calls us to protect those around us, not harm them. We can disagree with our children. We can get angry if their choices are particularly short-sighted. But harming our children is normally beyond the scope of God’s calling.
Saul is angered by Jonathan because God is not aligning His will with Saul’s will. Once more Saul demonstrates how his disobedience makes him unable to properly lead. Diverging from God’s will is a recipe for leadership disaster.
