Continual Burnt Offering: Daily Meditations, February 17 (18:1,3)
“And it came to pass, when he had made an end of speaking unto Saul, that the soul of Jonathan was knit with the soul of David, and Jonathan loved him as his own soul... Then Jonathan and David made a covenant, because he loved him as his own soul” —1 Samuel 18:1, 3.
THE beautiful record of the friendship between Jonathan, the heir to the throne of Israel, and David, the outlawed hero whom the people revered, is one of the most interesting and affecting stories in all literature. The Greek tale of Damon and Pythias is perhaps its nearest counterpart in secular literature.
It illustrates in a remarkable way that heart devotion to Christ, “great David’s greater Son,” which should characterize every truly converted soul. David’s victory over Goliath typifies Christ’s triumph over “him that had the power of death, that is, the devil” (Heb. 2:14, 15). It was this that won Jonathan’s heart and caused him to love David as his own soul. He should have challenged the giant, but David took his place. Henceforth the youthful victor had the preeminence in the mind of the prince-royal, who “stripped himself” to honor the deliverer of Israel (1 Sam. 18:1-4).
―Ray Palmer, D.D.