the Third Week after Easter
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Daily Devotionals
Day by Day Devotional - Year 2 of 5
1 Samuel 18:10-30
The love of Jonathan for David was just as deep as the hatred of Saul against him. This latter had begun as wrath (v. 8) coupled with jealousy, then the desire to kill David came into his heart, followed by the act itself: an attempt to assassinate David. There are many other such attempts to assassinate David in the succeeding chapters. These are exactly what the Scripture means by "the way of Cain" (Judges 1:11). He began by being "very wroth" and ended by killing his brother. Anger and jealousy are nothing less than the first two steps on this terrible way.
The king had promised his daughter to the man who would conquer the Philistine, but he does not keep his word. Then he uses her younger sister, Michal, to try to get David killed by the hand of the enemy. He perhaps suspected that the victor over Goliath would triumph yet again over Philistines who are less formidable than he was. Besides, he is not ignorant of the secret of David’s strength and it is surely this which frightens him: "The LORD was with him" (vv. 28, 12, 14). "I will fear no evil: for thou art with me," David says again in Psalms 23:4.
Do we know this secret and have we experienced the courage which He can give us?
