Spiritual Bonds: 1 Samuel 23:15-18
Humans cannot destroy what God binds together. When God connects two people, the bond is unlike any other. My closest relationships are absolutely those relationships where I share a love of God with someone else.
Jonathan’s relationship with David – or David’s relationship with Jonathan – is one of my favorite examples of relationship in the Bible. The only relationships I love more are those portrayed between Jesus and His disciples. Paul and his disciples are great, too, but we don’t experience them the same through Paul’s letters as we do through the stories of David, Jonathan, and Jesus. Jonathan’s and David’s bond is one of the things that draws me to love their contribution to the faith.
Jonathan hears David is hiding in the caves. Jonathan knows David is hiding because his own father’s poor behavior. Consider the very awkward state this puts Jonathan in. Jonathan is bonded to David spiritually; Jonathan is bonded to Saul by blood.
Our world has a popular expression. Blood is thicker than water. It is said to remind people how family is closer than friendships. Friendships come and go. My elementary friends, with whom I played a game of baseball pretty much every day of every summer for five years, are no longer in my life. We grew up. We grew apart. I literally moved away. Even my high school and college friends are gone but not forgotten. If I were to list all the friendships I’ve had in my life, the majority would fall under the extinct category. My family, however, remains my family. I cannot walk away from being connected to my parents and siblings by blood. That’s just life.
In high school, I developed a thought that clung to me throughout my life. The stories of Jesus, David, Jonathan, and Paul taught it to me. Blood is thicker than water, but the Spirit is thicker still. Spiritual relationships are permanent bonds. I have had spiritual relationships that were very close for a time, then very distant for a time, but then suddenly spark back to life and continue like no time was ever spent apart. I’ve also had spiritual friendships that have existed most of my life. For example, the relationship I have with my wife, my mother, and my father.
The reason spiritual relationship stand the test of time is because God binds us together, not ourselves or our interests. During marriage services, we often claim what God has put together nobody can tear apart, but I do not believe for an instant it applies exclusively to a marriage. When the Spirit knits people together, the fabric of spiritual relationship formed can stretch across time and distance.
Jonathan and David show this. Jonathan is blood to Saul, but he is a spiritual brother to David. Spiritual relationship cannot be broken, even by Jonathan's own father’s hatred of Jonathan's spiritual brother. Humans cannot destroy what God binds together.
