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Hi, I want to welcome you to week five of our Look Through First and Second
Samuel. This is day one of week five, and we're going to spend the next couple
of days looking at Jonathan. This is our days to focus on Jonathan, one of those
main characters in the book, especially of First Samuel.

And we've talked about David being the man after God's own heart and Samuel the
man with an open heart. Jonathan is the man with a divided heart. If First
Samuel were a Greek tragedy, Jonathan would be the Oedipus.

If it were a circus, he'd be the sad-eyed clown. If it were a mystery book, he'd
be the innocent victim. Jonathan had a difficult life.

He does not see everything happen right in his life. In fact, if you look at
Jonathan, he is one of those people who does everything right but has so much of
it turn out wrong. Saul got what he deserved, but Jonathan also got what Saul
deserved.

There's a lot of unfairness in Jonathan's life. If you've ever faced that in
your life or in the life of somebody you love, his life is a great example to us
of how God can work even in the midst of that kind of life. Why look at
Jonathan?

Unless you like stories that make you cry, why look at him? What can his life
teach us? His life helps to put our lives into perspective.

Maybe you've had a lot thrown at you that you just don't deserve. And maybe
because of that, you're living with a heavy heart right now. Jonathan teaches us
about what the disappointments of life do to us and about what our attitude can
be in the midst of those disappointments of life.

If I had to say the story of Jonathan's life in one word, it would be that word,
"disappointment. " Disappointment, appointments unkept, dreams unfulfilled,
hopes undone, disappointment. Let me just walk through and just today share with
you the three major disappointments in Jonathan's life.

I think a lot of us will relate to him because a lot of us have disappointments
in life. A lot of these disappointments for Jonathan came at the areas of major
opportunity in his life. But at those moments where it seemed like his life was
almost ready to launch into some kind of great opportunity, all of a sudden a
disappointment would happen.

The first disappointment came with him as a warrior. In the midst of Jonathan's
victory, he faced the disappointment of his father's pride, of Saul's pride. In
chapter 13, verses 2 to 4, we read about Jonathan's victory, but I want you to
notice who gets the credit for his victory.

First Samuel 13, 3 to 4, "Jonathan attacked the Philistine outpost at Geba, and
the Philistines heard about it. And then Saul had the trumpet blown throughout
the land and said, 'Let the Hebrews hear. ' So all Israel heard the news, 'Saul
has attacked the Philistine outpost, and now Israel has become a stench to the
Philistines, and the people were summoned to join Saul at Gilgal.

'" It wasn't Saul who attacked them, it was Jonathan, but Saul took the credit.
Now that would be enough when it comes to the victories that Jonathan had, but
there's even more. Chapter 14 is a chapter that makes you hurt for Jonathan.

If you read through 1 Samuel chapter 14, you'll find in verses 6 to 15 that he
single-handedly defeats a whole garrison of Philistines while everybody else is
hiding. He defeats them all. And in verses 16 to 23 of that chapter, his
single-handed action results in encouragement for a national, towards a national
victory.

So there's this cheering, there's this great celebration, you would think, of
Jonathan as a hero, but absolutely not. In the midst of this, Saul makes a
stupid demand upon the Israelites. Nobody should eat any honey, is this stupid
demand.

And Jonathan doesn't hear about this demand, and not having heard he eats,
Saul's demand was, "If anybody does this, I'll put him to death right away. " So
Saul determines to kill his own son, the one who'd just achieved this great
victory because of the stupidity of his words. He was more prideful about
keeping his word than about saving the life of his own son.

And instead of celebrating Jonathan's victory in this, all of Israel is working
to save his life. All of Israel is working to make sure that he is not killed.
His father snatches joy of his greatest victory right away from him.

He was a man who lived with disappointment. He lived with disappointment when it
came to his victories. He lived with disappointment when it came to his
friendships, to his love.

Jonathan's friendship was disappointed by Saul's hatred. His friendship was with
David. In 1 Samuel 18, verses 1 to 5, the Bible says, "After David had finished
talking with Saul, Jonathan became one in spirit with David, and he loved him as
himself.

From that day, Saul kept David with him, and he did not let him return to his
father's house. And Jonathan made a covenant with David because he loved him as
himself. Jonathan took off the robe that he was wearing, and he gave it to
David, along with his tunic, and even his sword, his bow, and his belt.

Whatever Saul sent him to do, David did it so successfully that Saul gave him a
high rank in the army. This pleased all the people and Saul's officers as well.
" So you see in these verses that they come into the same household, and David
and Jonathan begin this deep friendship, this deep love with each other.

They're as close as brothers. They're kindred spirits. They both enjoy a deep
trust in the Lord and a willingness to risk their lives upon that trust.

And Jonathan can immediately sense that in David. It's the kind of friendship
that you only find once in a lifetime. But listen to what happens in chapter 19,
verses 1 to 7.

Remember Saul is living during this time in great jealousy of David. Chapter 19,
verse 1, "Saul told his son Jonathan and all his attendants to kill David. But
Jonathan was very fond of David and warned him, 'My father Saul is looking for a
chance to kill you.

Be on your guard tomorrow morning. Go into hiding and stay there. I will go out
and stand with my father in the field where you are.

I'll speak to him about you and will tell you what I find out. '" Jonathan finds
himself a protector rather than a friend in this moment. And if you want to read
1 Samuel chapter 20, you can read of their painful parting.

The opportunity for their friendship is ruined by Saul's jealous hatred. He
lived with disappointment in his life. A third major disappointment is his
future.

Jonathan's future is disappointed by Saul's failure. And what should have been
Jonathan's future? Well, he's the firstborn son of a king.

He should have been the second king of Israel. But Saul's sinful pride ripped
that opportunity from his son. We've studied this a couple of weeks ago in
chapters 13 to 14, where his sinful pride caused Samuel to have to come to Saul
and say, "The kingdom is being ripped from you.

It will not go on from generation to generation. " Now that would have been
terrible enough for him just not to be king. But that only begins the tragedy of
how Saul tore this future from his son.

In chapter 28 verses 16 to 19, you see that Saul's sin would lead to his defeat
in battle. In chapter 31 verses 1 to 2, you see that Jonathan was caught up in
this defeat. And as a result of his father's failure, he lost his life.

The man who did everything right in life, it all seemed to turn out wrong. In
chapter 31 verse 1, "Now the Philistines fought against Israel. The Israelites
fled before them, and many fell slain on Mount Gilboa.

The Philistines pressed hard after Saul and his sons, and they killed his sons,
Jonathan, Abinadab, and Malchishuah. The fighting grew fierce around Saul, and
when the archers overtook him, they wounded him critically. And eventually
Saul's going to fall on his sword.

He's going to take his own life this day. " Now this is not an inspiring story,
is it? But I tell this story because so many of us, so many of you listening
right now can relate to this story.

I feel that it's your story. Your life has been filled with disappointment. Your
life is more like Jonathan than like David, if you're honest.

Other people's choices have brought deep disappointment into your life. Tomorrow
we're going to talk about how you can have faith even in the midst of those
disappointments. How you can have heroic faith even in the midst of those
disappointments.

But right now, before getting there too fast, I want to invite you to take those
disappointments and give them to God, realizing that this world is not all there
is. This life is filled with disappointments. Even the most beautiful, perfect
seeming of life has many disappointments in it because this world is a fallen
world.

We're headed for a place where there's no more pain, no more disappointment.
That's called heaven. But right now you have disappointments.

And these disappointments, they may affect the rest of your life, but they do
not have to control the rest of your life. They don't have to be the story of
your life. We're going to find out tomorrow that Jonathan in the end, the
disappointments are not the story of his life.

They are occurrences in his life. They're not the story of his life. Make God
the story of your life.

Make your love for him the story of your life, not those disappointments. And
that begins by taking those disappointments and giving them to him. Let's do
that in prayer right now.

Take a moment to say, Jesus, you know, you know the disappointments in
relationships. You know how things didn't work out the way I wanted them to. You
know what was done to me.

You know what I was not allowed to do. One more time, Lord, or maybe for the
first time, I bring these disappointments and I give them to you because I
realize you understand disappointment. I realize you can work in my life even in
the midst of those disappointments.

And I pray that even though these things have happened to me and they're a part
of my life, that they would not control my life. I want my love for you to be
the story of my life. So I ask for this in Jesus' name.

Amen.