The Arrows of Covenant Love Text: 1 Samuel 20:12-23
Introduction: The Sanity of the Oath
We live in an age that despises binding commitments. Our culture treats vows like disposable napkins, promises like political talking points, and marriage covenants like temporary lease agreements with an opt-out clause. The modern man wants all the benefits of loyalty with none of the obligations. He wants friendship without faithfulness, love without law, and relationship without responsibility. But a world without binding oaths is a world without trust, and a world without trust is a world gone mad. It is the world of Saul, a world governed by paranoid suspicion, emotional instability, and murderous envy.
In the midst of Saul's decaying kingdom, we find this remarkable account of Jonathan and David. Their relationship is not a sentimental bromance, as some with a modern, effeminate lens might want to paint it. It is a robust, masculine, and, most importantly, a covenantal bond. It is a relationship defined, secured, and governed by a solemn oath sworn before God. This is the bedrock of their loyalty. It is what gives their love teeth. Without the covenant, their affection would be mere sentiment, liable to be swept away by the political currents and the very real danger posed by Saul. But because their love is a covenant love, a sworn love, it becomes a fortress for David and a profound act of faithful rebellion for Jonathan.
This passage is not just a clever spy story about arrows and secret signals. It is a profound lesson on the nature of true loyalty, the hierarchy of our duties, and the way God's sovereign plan often works itself out through the faithful, risky, and courageous acts of His people. Jonathan, the heir apparent, is siding with the outlawed usurper. Why? Because Jonathan fears God more than he fears his father, and he honors God's anointed more than he desires his own throne. He is a man whose loyalties are rightly ordered. His ultimate allegiance is not to blood, not to the crown, but to Yahweh and Yahweh's covenant promises. And in this, he is a stunning picture of a greater Jonathan, the Lord Jesus, who forsook His own rightful position to make a covenant with us, a house of rebels, and to signal to us our true standing before the wrath of the Father.
The Text
Then Jonathan said to David, “Yahweh, the God of Israel, be witness! When I have examined my father about this time tomorrow, or the third day, behold, if there is good feeling toward David, shall I not then send to you and reveal it in your ear? If it please my father to do you harm, may Yahweh do so to Jonathan and more also, if I do not reveal it in your ear and send you away, that you may go in peace. And may Yahweh be with you as He has been with my father. And if I am still alive, will you not show me the lovingkindness of Yahweh, that I may not die? You shall not cut off your lovingkindness from my house forever, not even when Yahweh cuts off every one of the enemies of David from the face of the earth.” So Jonathan cut a covenant with the house of David, saying, “May Yahweh require it at the hands of David’s enemies.” And Jonathan made David swear again because of his love for him, because he loved him as he loved his own soul.
Then Jonathan said to him, “Tomorrow is the new moon, and you will be missed because your seat will be missing. When you have stayed for three days, you shall go down quickly and come to the place where you hid yourself on that eventful day, and you shall remain by the stone Ezel. And I will shoot three arrows to the side, as though I sent them towards a target. And behold, I will send the young man, saying, ‘Go, find the arrows.’ If I specifically say to the young man, ‘Behold, the arrows are on this side of you, get them,’ then come, for there is peace for you and no harm, as Yahweh lives. But if I say to the youth, ‘Behold, the arrows are beyond you,’ go, for Yahweh has sent you away. As for the agreement of which you and I have spoken, behold, Yahweh is between you and me forever.”
(1 Samuel 20:12-23 LSB)
The Solemnity of the Covenant (vv. 12-17)
We begin with the oath itself, which is the engine driving the entire narrative.
"Then Jonathan said to David, 'Yahweh, the God of Israel, be witness! ... If it please my father to do you harm, may Yahweh do so to Jonathan and more also, if I do not reveal it in your ear and send you away...'" (1 Samuel 20:12-13)
Jonathan does not make a simple promise. He invokes the name of Yahweh, the covenant God of Israel, as the witness and enforcer of his words. This is what makes it an oath. He is not just putting his reputation on the line; he is putting his very soul on the line. The phrase "may Yahweh do so to Jonathan and more also" is a self-maledictory oath. He is calling down God's curse upon himself if he fails to be true to David. This is the absolute opposite of our modern, flimsy, fingers-crossed kind of promise. This is a commitment that has weight, gravity, and eternal consequence. All true covenants do.
Notice the hierarchy of Jonathan's loyalties. He is the king's son, but he calls upon the King of Kings to judge his actions toward David. He recognizes that his duty to God's anointed king supersedes his duty to his own father, who has become a paranoid tyrant. This is not dishonoring his father; it is honoring God above his father. When a lower authority commands what a higher authority forbids, our duty is to obey the higher authority. Jonathan understands this. He knows that Saul, in seeking to murder David, is fighting against God. Jonathan is choosing his side, and he is choosing it with solemn, holy fear.
Jonathan then looks to the future, securing a promise from the man he knows will be king.
"And if I am still alive, will you not show me the lovingkindness of Yahweh, that I may not die? You shall not cut off your lovingkindness from my house forever..." (1 Samuel 20:14-15)
The term here is "lovingkindness," the great Hebrew word hesed. This is not just kindness or affection. Hesed is covenant loyalty. It is a rugged, unbreakable, steadfast love that is faithful to its commitments, even when it is costly. Jonathan is asking David to bind himself with the same kind of loyalty. He knows the political reality. When a new dynasty takes over, the standard procedure is to wipe out the entire family of the previous king to eliminate any rivals. Jonathan is securing a promise from David that he will not follow this pagan custom. He is asking for covenant mercy, not just for himself, but for his entire household, forever.
This is a stunning act of faith. Jonathan sees with perfect clarity that David's house will be established and that Yahweh will cut off all of David's enemies. He is the prince, but he is bowing to the shepherd. He is surrendering his own claim to the throne because he knows it belongs to David. In verse 16, he "cut a covenant with the house of David." This is not just a personal friendship pact; it is a formal treaty, binding his own house in loyal submission to the coming Davidic kingdom. Jonathan is the first true subject of King David.
The Plan of the Arrows (vv. 18-22)
Having established the covenant, Jonathan lays out the practical, ingenious plan to communicate Saul's intent to David.
"Then Jonathan said to him, 'Tomorrow is the new moon, and you will be missed because your seat will be missing... And I will shoot three arrows to the side, as though I sent them towards a target.'" (1 Samuel 20:18, 20)
The plan is simple and clever. David's absence from the new moon festival, a required court function, will force Saul's hand. It will reveal his true disposition. Jonathan will use a seemingly innocent activity, archery practice, to send a coded message. This is wisdom. Faithfulness to God does not mean we are to be naive or foolish. We are to be wise as serpents and innocent as doves. Jonathan uses his wits, his position, and his resources in the service of his covenant with David.
The signal is binary, a clear yes or no. There is no ambiguity. "If I specifically say to the young man, 'Behold, the arrows are on this side of you, get them,' then come, for there is peace for you and no harm, as Yahweh lives. But if I say to the youth, 'Behold, the arrows are beyond you,' go, for Yahweh has sent you away" (vv. 21-22). The message is not Jonathan's opinion. It is a declaration of the state of affairs. Either there is peace, or Yahweh Himself has sent David away into exile for his own protection.
The Unseen Witness (v. 23)
The final verse of our section brings us back to the foundation of it all. It is the anchor that holds everything together.
"As for the agreement of which you and I have spoken, behold, Yahweh is between you and me forever." (1 Samuel 20:23)
This is the heart of the matter. Their covenant is not a private agreement between two men. It is a three-party contract. Yahweh is the third party. He is not just a witness who observes the promise; He is the living reality "between" them, the guarantor who will hold them both accountable. He is the ground of their trust and the substance of their bond.
This is why their friendship is so much more than what the world calls friendship. The world's friendships are based on shared interests, mutual benefit, or emotional affinity. When those things change, the friendship dissolves. But a covenant friendship is based on a shared loyalty to the living God. It is held together by something, or rather Someone, outside of themselves. This is why it can endure betrayal, danger, distance, and even death. Because Yahweh is between them forever.
The Arrows of the Gospel
This entire scene is a rich picture of the gospel. We, like David, are in a dangerous position. We stand under the righteous wrath of a holy God, the great King. We are fugitives, with "but a step between us and death." And in our predicament, we have a greater Jonathan, the Son of the King, the Lord Jesus Christ.
Jesus, like Jonathan, knew His Father's will. He knew that He would not inherit the kingdom in the way the world expected. He knew that the kingdom was to be given to another, to a new humanity represented by a new David. And so, He willingly laid aside His royal rights, not just to make a covenant with us, but to be the covenant for us (Isaiah 42:6).
He came to the field of this world to send a signal. He did not shoot arrows, but rather He was pierced by the arrows of God's justice on the cross. The message He sends is not coded, but clear. He sends the Holy Spirit, the young man, out into the world with a message. And the message is this: the arrows of wrath have gone "beyond you." They have landed on Him. He has absorbed the full volley of God's judgment.
Therefore, because the arrows are beyond you, the message is not "go away," as it was for David. For David, "go away" meant safety and life. For us, because of Christ, the message is the opposite. It is the message of the first set of arrows: "Come, for there is peace for you and no harm, as Yahweh lives." Because Jesus took the curse, we receive the blessing. Because He was sent away into the darkness of the grave, we are invited to come near to the feast. Because He honored the covenant, Yahweh is now forever between us and God, not as a judge to condemn, but as a mediator to save.
And what is our response? It is to do for Him what David did for Jonathan's house. It is to show hesed, covenant loyalty, to His house, the Church. It is to seek out the lost and the lame, the spiritual Mephibosheths, and bring them to the King's table, not for our sake, but for the sake of our greater Jonathan, the Lord Jesus. We do this by binding ourselves to His people in a local church, making solemn vows of membership, and living out that rugged, faithful, covenant love, knowing that Yahweh is between us forever.