1S20-15: God Or Family – The Ultimate Test Of Allegiance

“At that Sha’ul flew into a rage at Y’honatan and said, ‘You crooked rebel! Don’t I know that you’ve made this son of Yishai your best friend? You don’t care that you’re shaming yourself and dishonoring your mother, do you?'”-1 Samuel 20:30

So the 2nd day of Rosh Chodesh arrived and once again David failed to show up at the king’s table.

Now, I feel compelled to remind you that based on the Torah, there ain’t supposed to be some 2nd-day observance.

Again, this was a manmade tradition that was given a false “holy” aura to it.

Anyway, onward.

This time around Saul notices that David hasn’t shown up and asks Jonathan what’s going on.

Jonathan gives his father the lie he and David had schemed to tell him if asked about David’s whereabouts.

Jonathan says…

“David begged me to let him go to Beit-Lechem.  He said, ‘Please let me go, because our family has a sacrifice in the city, and my brother demanded that I come. So now, if you look on me favorably, please let me get away and see my brothers.’  That’s why he hasn’t come to the king’s table.”

Well, once Saul heard Jonathan’s answer, he completely lost it.

Let’s examine the fabrication Jonathan and David had concocted.

In Hebrew, the so-called feast David was supposed to be attending is ZEVAH MISHPACHAH.

The ZEVAH is the voluntary class of sacrifice where the bulk of the meat can be eaten by the participants.

And MISCHPACHAH is the Hebrew word that translates to “family” in English.

So this could roughly be translated as a “Voluntary Family Sacrifice” or a “Voluntary Tribal Sacrifice”.

The idea is this sacrifice was being observed per Levitical Law…

And since most of the meat can be eaten by everyone, this ZEVAH sacrifice was turned into a big family reunion of sorts.

Now, if you’re wondering where the sacrifice took place, the truth is there were altars all over the freakin’ place in Israel at this time, including in Bethlehem, where David’s family was from.

This went against the Torah which says there can only be one central sanctuary where all of the sacrificing is supposed to take place.

But as I mentioned earlier, Israel had fallen away from proper Torah observance a long time ago, and tragically everyone just went along with the apostasy.

I’m sure some priests tried to speak up, but they were split into different groups, each serving their own altar or shrine.

This shows just how fragmented Israel’s spiritual leadership had become.

Anyway, let’s get back to the scene at the banquet.

So once Saul heard Jonathan’s excuse about why David hadn’t shown up, he exploded into a rage.

What Saul said to Jonathan in Hebrew is much more colorful than what’s written in our English Bibles.

“You son of a perverse and rebellious woman!”

But what’s really being said is much more explicit in the original Hebrew.

Literally, Saul is saying “to the disgrace of your mother’s nakedness”.

“Nakedness” here is referring to a woman’s genitalia.

Now, don’t think Saul was insulting Jonathan’s mother…which by default would mean he was insulting his wife.

What he was saying is that Jonathan’s disloyal actions had shamed his mother’s private parts (where Jonathan came from when he was born).

There is some heavy Middle Eastern rhetoric on display here.

Saul goes on to say…

“Because as long as the son of Yishai lives on this earth, neither you nor your kingdom will be secure. Now send and bring him here to me — he deserves to die.”

Any thoughts Jonathan may have been harboring that Saul wasn’t a danger to David perished in that instant.

From Saul’s perspective, David was a threat to his throne, and by default, also a threat to Jonathan’s throne.

Saul was enraged and confused as to why Jonathan couldn’t see that.