Surely this is one of heaven’s greatest blessings: we won’t cross the golden street to avoid anyone!
Foreseeing their paths diverging, but not their devotion to each other, Jonathan had asked David to make a covenant with him (1 Sam 18:3), later ratified and explained (20:14-15), lasting for generations to come. If their hearts were both set on God, even death could not divide them. David said that Saul was determined to kill him. In spite of all the evidence, Jonathan could hardly believe this, and said he would assess his father’s attitude towards David. But when “Saul cast a spear at him to kill him” (20:33) for simply asking, “Why should he be killed? What has he done?” (v 32), he got the point, even if it didn’t get him! He knew that David could not return. Sadly, at an appointed time, Jonathan went to the place where David was hidden, “by the stone Ezel” (v 19). The name Ezel is ominous; it means “departure.” Jonathan said he would send arrows short or long as a code. Sure enough, like his father’s jealous rage, the arrows went beyond the limit, and David knew his days in the palace were over. Now the two men say their last good-bye: “David…fell on his face to the ground, and bowed down three times. And they kissed one another; and they wept together, but David more so. Then Jonathan said to David, ‘Go in peace, since we have both sworn in the name of the Lord, saying, “May the Lord be between you and me, and between your descendants and my descendants, forever”’” (20:41-42). Yet there should have been no need for this. Saul’s jealousy and rebellion against the will of God in establishing David as the next king had driven in the wedge. So let’s not “fall short of the grace of God; lest any root of bitterness springing up cause trouble” (Heb 12:15). Remember, grace is the weed killer to use on this noxious root!