Strengthened His Hand in God
15 David saw that Saul had come out to seek his life. David was in the wilderness of Ziph in the woods. 16 Jonathan, Saul’s son, arose and went to David into the woods, and strengthened his hand in God. 17 He said to him, “Don’t be afraid, for the hand of Saul my father won’t find you; and you will be king over Israel, and I will be next to you; and Saul my father knows that also.” 18 They both made a covenant before Yahweh. Then David stayed in the woods and Jonathan went to his house. 19 Then the Ziphites came up to Saul to Gibeah, saying, “Doesn’t David hide himself with us in the strongholds in the woods, in the hill of Hachilah, which is on the south of the desert? 20 Now therefore, O king, come down. According to all the desire of your soul to come down; and our part will be to deliver him up into the king’s hand.” 21 Saul said, “You are blessed by Yahweh, for you have had compassion on me. 22 Please go make yet more sure, and know and see his place where his haunt is, and who has seen him there; for I have been told that he is very cunning. 23 See therefore, and take knowledge of all the lurking places where he hides himself; and come again to me with certainty, and I will go with you. It shall happen, if he is in the land, that I will search him out among all the thousands of Judah.” 24 They arose, and went to Ziph before Saul; but David and his men were in the wilderness of Maon, in the Arabah on the south of the desert. 25 Saul and his men went to seek him. When David was told, he went down to the rock, and stayed in the wilderness of Maon. When Saul heard that, he pursued David in the wilderness of Maon. 26 Saul went on this side of the mountain, and David and his men on that side of the mountain; and David hurried to get away for fear of Saul, for Saul and his men surrounded David and his men to take them. 27 But a messenger came to Saul, saying, “Hurry and come, for the Philistines have made a raid on the land!” 28 So Saul returned from pursuing David, and went against the Philistines. Therefore they called that place Sela Hammahlekoth. 29 David went up from there and lived in the strongholds of En Gedi.
A friend walks into the woods to hearten a hunted man; informers walk to the king to sell him — and a Philistine raid saves David by the width of a hill.
Jonathan, Saul’s son, arose and went to David into the woods, and strengthened his hand in God.
Five words define a ministry. Jonathan crosses hostile country, at real risk, for no tactical purpose whatever — he brings no troops, no supplies, no plan — and does the one thing David cannot do for himself. To strengthen a man's hand in God is not encouragement in general; it is turning a discouraged person back toward what is true about God when he can no longer see it from where he stands.
He said to him, “Don’t be afraid, for the hand of Saul my father won’t find you; and you will be king over Israel, and I will be next to you; and Saul my father knows that also.”
And this is the last recorded conversation between them. Jonathan states the succession plainly, accepts second place in a kingdom that should have been his, and adds the detail that explains everything about his father: Saul my father knows that also. The hunt is not ignorance. It is a man who knows the verdict and has organized his life around resisting it — while his son, who knows the same verdict, has organized his around serving it. Two men with identical information; the difference is surrender.
Jonathan never gets the promised second place. He dies on Gilboa beside the father he could not save 1 Samuel 31:2, and the reader is left with a promise made in good faith that history did not keep — one of Scripture's honest griefs, and the reason David's lament for him carries what it carries 2 Samuel 1:26.
Then the Ziphites came up to Saul to Gibeah, saying, “Doesn’t David hide himself with us in the strongholds in the woods, in the hill of Hachilah, which is on the south of the desert?
Then the Ziphites, volunteering their neighbor to the king for nothing but favor — you are blessed by Yahweh, for you have had compassion on me 1 Samuel 23:21 is Saul's grotesque reply, a blessing pronounced on informers. Psalm 54 is headed with this episode and answers it with a sentence that refuses to make the enemy the subject: Behold, God is my helper Psalms 54:4.
Saul went on this side of the mountain, and David and his men on that side of the mountain; and David hurried to get away for fear of Saul, for Saul and his men surrounded David and his men to take them.
The closest call in the book. The encirclement is closing, David is hurrying to get away, and a messenger reaches Saul with news of a Philistine raid 1 Samuel 23:27. The king turns, the net opens, and the place keeps a name meaning the rock of divisions. God's rescue arrives as somebody else's emergency and looks, from the ground, exactly like luck.
settled What this mark means