THE ERROR OF JONATHAN
Pastor Alex Adegboye
TEXTS: 1 Sam 18:1-5; 20:11-17
Learning from others is wisdom, but learning by yourself is called experience. Experience is a good teacher, but not the best. If you learn from other people, you are a wise man. That is why we learn from the Bible. The Bible has stories and principles we can learn from.
My emphasis is on generating spiritual power to overcome adversity. Miracles come through the operation of spiritual power. We need to learn to live the life of faith in this day. There are alternatives to the life of faith and many people will rather go for the alternative, but whatever is not of faith is sin. Some people perished for living a life outside of faith in the Bible.
There is no one that cannot buckle under pressure, and this will make us turn to the flesh for help. That is why the Bible says in Ephe 6:10, “be strong in the Lord.” When God says you should ‘be’ something, it means it is possible for you to be that thing and it is also possible for you not to be that thing. How are you going to be strong in the Lord? It is only by faith. You must have faith in God. It is not an advice, it is a command.
Heb 11:6 says, “But without faith it is impossible to please God for those that come to God must believe that He is and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.”
You are either in faith or outside of faith ‘positionally.’ The apostle said that if you are not living in faith, you cannot please God. If you are outside of faith, you are displeasing to God. Let not that man think that he shall receive anything from the Lord.
Having said that, let us consider how Jonathan was destroyed because of his error. Many people commit the same error in our day. David and Jonathan made a covenant together. Covenants are put in place to dissolve weaknesses. The strength of one becomes available for the weakness of the other partner while the weakness of the former is taken care by the strength of the latter. That is why people enter into covenants. It is a sad story because at the end, Jonathan perished while David survived.
When you swear an oath of allegiance, your resources are at each other’s disposal. Covenants are forever and cannot be broken. By virtue of a covenant, blessings and curses are put into operation. It is all or none. That is why God does not relate with us without a covenant. God made a covenant with us so that all the riches and all the blessings of God can become ours and God expects us to recognise that there is a covenant involved so much so that everything that is yours also belongs to God and it is sealed with blood.
Jonathan wanted to sit on the fence like many Christians today. In 2 Sam 3:1, the Bible says there was a long war between the house of Saul and the house of David. The house of David waxed stronger and stronger while the house of Saul waxed weaker and weaker. Jonathan had a covenant with the house of David, but he perished with the house of Saul.
What was the error of Jonathan? The error of Jonathan was sitting on the fence. He was unstable, double-minded. Family ties were very important to Jonathan. At the point where he needed to show commitment to his friend David, he chose to show commitment to his father’s house. Some of us have religious and village ties even when it runs contrary to God. You cannot serve two masters. There is no middle ground. You cannot enter into a covenant with God and be a friend to the world. Friendship with the world is enmity against God. Nobody can live in two worlds.
In covenant relationships, they swear standing in their blood. God also willing to show to the heir of promise the immutability of His counsel stood in the blood of His Son Jesus and He swore that He will bless us. He did this because He could swear by no greater, so He swore by Himself.
There was a battle to fight and Jonathan joined with his father, but he perished with his father even though he had a covenant with the house of David. Christians talk and behave as if they have no covenant with God. Jonathan forgot that he had a covenant with David and he perished. Everybody that forgets the covenant will perish. You must always remember that you are a covenant child.
There are ‘5’ steps to take to attract the supernatural help from God. They are:
- Take the communion.
- Thank God for the challenge.
- Keep the Word of God before you always.
- Take the communion again. Don’t wait until the end of the month.
- Remember Jesus.
If you do all these, your problem will dissipate. Nnb`
