Skip to main content

An Unlikely Friendship



          
Experiencing sound quality issues?  Please Click here An Unlikely Friendship
    

Isolation and social distancing are norm today and they really hurt!  Many are still hunkered down in our houses avoiding contact with those we love due to health reasons of underlying health issues. It is wise to be careful during this pandemic. But it is hurting to stay away from our dear ones. Closeness in relationship and friendship has been affected adversely during the pandemic more than ever. While it is a blessing to have social media, Zoom meetings, and FaceTime, nothing can really take the place of face-to-face physical interaction. You can’t give a big hug to your grandchildren over the airwaves or feel the affirmation of a warm and understanding squeeze through the phone. But for the sake of protection we choose to discontinue family visits, communicate through windows to elderly family members in care facilities, wave from a distance when spying a friend in a local store, and avoid the neighbor when taking a walk. It’s helpful to slow the spread of germs, but it really hurts.


David and Jonathan's love is understood as the intimate camaraderie between two young men.  They cared deeply about each other in a way that one would do anything for the other even at the risk of life. The story of David and Jonathan is introduced in 1 Samuel chapter 18, where it says that "Jonathan became one in spirit with David, and he loved him as himself". The most interesting aspect of this close friendship is that this was an unlikely friendship.  


David was anointed by Samuel to be the successor of King Saul even though Jonathan was the natural successor being the son of the king. David had killed the giant Goliath who threatened Israel in the valley of Elah. He killed the Philistine giant with a stone and a sling. King Saul, had been changing for the worse over the years was afraid of the Philistines. Once a humble, obedient man of faith, Saul had become an arrogant, disobedient king.​—1 Samuel 15:17-​19, 26. The changes in Saul must have troubled Jonathan deeply, for he was close to his father. (1 Samuel 20:2) Jonathan likely wondered what harm Saul could bring on the nation. He knew David had the anointing and the leadership abilities to lead the nation at a time as this.  


Man is made to have relationships. We have families and friends, we have colleagues and coworkers. We have acquaintances and casual friends. We can choose our friends, and to a degree we can even choose our neighbors and coworkers, for we generally end up selecting where we will live and work. What we cannot choose in terms of ordinary human relationships are our family members. We are born into a family without choosing our mother or father, and our parents provide us with siblings that we ourselves did not and could not choose. Moreover, there is all the extended family to whom we are related. Cousins, aunts, uncles, grandparents, nieces, nephews—we do not choose any of them. That we are “stuck” with the family into which we were born can make for unpleasant situations and for “weird” family members whom we would rather not talk about. However, it also means that for the most part, come thick or thin, we stick by our family and our family sticks by us.


What is the foundation of our friendships?  Are we driven by personal gain? Is it WIIIFM - What Is In It For Me? Or is it the love of God that becomes evident in our actions? Do we make fellowship in our church , because you think someone supports your personal agenda? Is it about you or is it about others and about God? A writer says: “Anyone who establishes a friendship for access to power, money, or sexual relations; when these ends are not attainable, the friendship ceases…love that is not dependent on selfish ends is true love of the other person since there is no intended end.”


Many of the Proverbs and examples in the Bible teach us the importance of friendship and being loyal friends (Proverbs 17:17; 27:10; Ruth 1:16). A friend loves at all times, and a brother is born for a time of adversity (17:17). Do not forsake your friend or a friend of your family,  and do not go to your relative’s house when disaster strikes you— better a neighbor nearby than a relative far away.(27:10)  “But Ruth replied, “Don’t urge me to leave you or to turn back from you. Where you go I will go, and where you stay I will stay. Your people will be my people and your God my God. 17 Where you die I will die, and there I will be buried. May the Lord deal with me, be it ever so severely, if even death separates you and me.”(Ruth 1:16).  The Golden Rule also makes the point that “whatever you want men to do to you, do also to them” (Matthew 7:12). These things, and common sense, verify the importance of being friendly if you want to have friends.


Price of True Friendships

Many are “fair-weather fans,” someone who cheers for a team when they are doing well but ignores them when they are doing poorly. Sometimes we acy if we worship and follow a “fair-weather God.” That is, we mistakenly believe that when we are good and obedient, God is near to us and blesses us. But when we stumble and falter, God pulls away and ignores us. But the truth is, we have a loving God who is with us always, during our successes and our failures.Titus 3:4 states, “When the kindness and love of God our Savior appeared, he saved us, not because of righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy.” God’s desire is always to be close to us so that we can live in joyful service in this life and look forward to spending eternity in heaven with God. God never gives up on us.


Jonathan tried again to reconcile Saul with David but he had even less success. David came to Jonathan in secret, revealing that he feared for his own life. “There is only a step between me and death!” he told his older friend. Jonathan tried to speak well of David to Saul, but the king became enraged! He called Jonathan a “son of a rebellious woman” and derided his loyalty to David as shameful to the family. He tried to appeal to Jonathan’s self-interest: “As long as the son of Jesse is alive on the earth, you and your kingship will not be firmly established.” Unmoved, Jonathan again pleaded with his father: “Why should he be put to death? What has he done?” Saul exploded in violence! Though aged, Saul was still a mighty warrior. He hurled a spear at his son! Practiced though he may have been, he missed. Deeply hurt and humiliated, Jonathan left in anger.​—1 Samuel 20:24-​34.


Jonathan agreed to test out his father’s feelings on the matter and to let David know where things stood. While David hid, Jonathan would signal him the news by using signs they agreed on with a bow and arrows. Jonathan asked only that David swear to this promise: “Never withdraw your loyal love from my household, even when Jehovah wipes out all the enemies of David from the face of the earth.” David agreed that he would always look out for those of Jonathan’s household.​—1 Samuel 20:​3, 13-​27.  Saul continues to pursue David, he and Jonathan renew their covenant. Jonathan, however, is killed by Philistines on Mt. Gilboa along with his two brothers Abinadab and Malchi-shua, and there Saul commits suicide. (1 Sam 31)


David learns of Saul and Jonathan's death and chants a lament, which in part says: “Saul and Jonathan, beloved and pleasant in their life, And in their death they were not parted; They were swifter than eagles, They were stronger than lions ... How have the mighty fallen in the midst of the battle! Jonathan is slain on your high places. I am distressed for you, my brother Jonathan; You have been very pleasant to me. Your love to me was more wonderful than the love of women. How have the mighty fallen, And the weapons of war perished!” (2 Samuel 1:23-27)


We have all experienced times of loneliness. In Certain seasons of life we become  disconnected and lack close companionship. These past years of pandemic have been one of those times.  Yet no matter how bad this pandemic gets, we never have to be in complete and total isolation. There is a friend who can override the 6 feet rule. This friend sticks closer than a brother even when you even need to quarantine from other family members. He is never affected by the coronavirus or any pandemic, and He promises to never leave us or forsake us. This friend is Jesus.


In his book 'Quality Friendship', Gary Inrig tells about two friends who enlisted in the military, were sent overseas together, and fought alongside each other.  During an enemy attack, one of the men was critically wounded and was unable to crawl back to the safety of the foxhole.  The friend lay dying in a kind of no-man’s land created by the crossfire of the two opposing sides.  Hearing the cries of his wounded buddy, the soldier decided to try to rescue his friend, but the sergeant in charge yelled, “It’s too late.  Don't go. You can’t do him any good, and you’ll only get yourself killed.”  Thoug it was almost suicidal to try, the man nonetheless started crawling towards his friend.   Then a few minutes later, half-crawling, half-staggering, he made it back with his friend, cradled in his arms, dead.  Rescuing his friend, the soldier himself had taken several hits and now was dying. The sergeant was both angry and moved with emotion as he cried, “What a waste.  He’s dead and you’re dying. It just wasn’t worth it.”  Gasping for breath the soldier cried, “Oh, yes, it was, Sarge.  When I got to him, he was alive, The only thing he said was, ‘I knew you’d come, Jim!'"


What could better illustrate the truth of what Jesus said: “Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends” (John 15:13)? In John 15 Jesus called His obedient disciples His friends and made known to them how much He loved them. He continually keeps His covenant of faithfulness.  He laid down His life for us so we can be sure He will not forsake us in the time of need. The leaders of the time accused Jesus: “Here is a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners”’” (Luke 7:31–34; cf. Matthew 11:16–19).  He left heaven to be born as a helpless human infant in order to grow and experience life among us. He lived among the poor and the marginalized. Though He was sinless, he died for the sake of sinners, to carry the punishment of sin. He rose from the dead, and sits at the right hand of God the Father.  He will come again to judge the living and they dead.  The bible says We “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, but the grace of God is eternal life through Christ Jesus” (Romans 3:23). Despite our sinful condition, God  desires a relationship with us. God has said, “Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you.” - Hebrews 13:5 (NIV). 


What a Friend We have in Jesus!

Joseph Scriven was born in Ireland in 1819. After graduating with a teaching degree from Trinity College in London, he fell in love, and made plans to marry and settle down. It was not to be. The day before the wedding, his fiancée drowned in a terrible accident. Devastated, Joseph left Ireland and moved to Canada, where he became a private tutor. Eventually, he fell in love with another young woman and asked her to marry him. But just weeks before their wedding, she contracted pneumonia and died. 


The shattered man took a vow of poverty, sold all of his worldly possessions, and dedicated the remainder of his life to helping those who were weak, sick, and impoverished.  A few years later, Joseph received word that his mother had fallen ill and was dying. He did not have the money to go back to Scotland to care for her. Heartbroken, he wrote about his only comfort in a poem that was later put to music. Two decades later, the American evangelist Dwight L. Moody came across the song and was so touched by the words that he gave it a national platform. “What A Friend We Have in Jesus” is now regarded as one of the most well-known and loved hymns of the Christian faith. Joseph Scriven did not live to see the impact made by the song born out of his grief. 


Ironically, he drowned in a Canadian lake at the age of 66. Throughout the course of his life, Joseph learned where lasting comfort comes from. It doesn’t come from denying the grief or from self help or church or religion. Peace and comfort that is everlasting comes from God.  Lasting comfort comes from investing in a friendship with God, who promises not that He will keep us from experiencing tragic losses, but that He will sit with us in our grief and sorrow so that we won’t be alone. “What a friend we have in Jesus, all our sins and griefs to bear! Can we find a friend so faithful, who will all our sorrows share? Jesus knows our every weakness; take it to the Lord in prayer."


When the feeling of loneliness overtakes, reach out to Jesus, the best friend you will ever have. Listen to Him,. Talk to Him in prayer while taking your daily walks. Memorize His words as you sit eating your meals. Lift up your hands and praise Him for His constant faithfulness. Soon you will experience His gentle touch as He makes you aware of His very real presence.  “A man of many companions may come to ruin, but there is a friend who sticks closer than a brother.” (Proverbs 18:24).





Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Puzzle pieces or work of art?

Is life a puzzle or work of art? Life can look like a puzzle. Some get the prizes they expected, and some get suprised at what they get. What is the most exciting time in the process of solving a puzzle? the beginning? or as we get each piece? or is it at the end when all pieces are complete? Regardless of what excites you, the potential beauty that it can become is rewarding. When we first open the box, the puzzle looks nothing like the picture on the outside; it is simply jumbled pieces in a bag. If life is compared to a puzzle, it may be a simple puzzle with a hundred different pieces, or it may be a more complicated thousand-piece puzzle with a picture that’s rather tricky to put together. There may be unpleasant and uncomfortable pieces in life that you feel like not fitting in well. You have been able to put together everything well for years, and all of a sudden find yourself confused as to how to fit in the next event. But whatever the size of the challenge, those events can

In Defense of a Disreputable Woman

Buy my book   " Joy in the Journey " on Amazon now 20% goes to missions               Experiencing sound quality issues?  Please Click here   In Defense of a Disreputable Woman      A woman in the Bible who has no name but being portrayed as deplorable and has been a victim of bad reputation. She has seen her life collapse - she has lost ten children, seen the family fortune disappear, and her husband has a rather disgusting disease with bad smells and slimy sores all over his body. There are only three verses in the Book of Job in reference to Job's wife; they are Job 2:9 (curse God and die), Job 19:17 (My breath is offensive to my wife}  and Job 31:10 (may my wife grind another man's grain). She is not looked upon as a good person. I've heard many preachers and theologians who use Job's wife as an example of a lousy wife. She is the one who told Job to deny God and die. Many Bible commentators have demonized her. Augustine labeled her &q

Fathers Day

A father was hiking a mountain with his 3 year old son on his shoulders. After some time the dad said he was tired and asked the son to get down, to which the boy replied, “You can’t be tired. You’re my daddy!” We all have stories to tell about our fathers, or about being fathers. Mark Twain said, "When I was a boy of 14, my father was so ignorant I could hardly stand to have the old man around. But when I got to be 21, I was astonished at how much the old man had learned in 7 years." Our famiies are facing a great crisis today. More and more fathers are disappearing from the scenes. It is now common to meet young people in our big city schools, foster homes and juvenile centers who do not know their dads. Most of those children have come face-to-face with their father at some point; but most have little regular contact with the man, or have any faith that he loves or cares about them. Statistics show 1 in 4 children live without a father figure in the household in t

God of Jacob

Buy my book   " Joy in the Journey " on Amazon now 20% goes to missions  There are several Psalms in the Bible that are attributed to the 'Sons of Korah' as the author. We dont know the writer of specific chapters because there were more than one sons to Korah. The Korahites in the Bible were that portion of the Kohathites that descended from the Sons of Korah. They were an important branch of the singers of the Kohathite division (2 Chronicles 20:19). The Sons of Korah were the sons of Moses' cousin Korah. The story of Korah is found in Numbers 16. Korah led a revolt against Moses; he died, along with all his co-conspirators, when God caused "the earth to open her mouth and swallow him and all that appertained to them" (Numbers 16:31-33). However, "the children of Korah did not die" (Numbers 26:11). Several psalms are described in their opening verses as being by the Sons of Korah: numbers 42, 44–49, 84, 85, 87 and 88. It i

Baptism

Mile markers are stones buried on the sides of highways that help us to determine direction and distance when we travel. In the USA, they generally increase from the South to the North,and from the West towards East. The exit numbers are generally lined up with mile markers so that you can calculate how long you have travelled and how much distance is left to the destination. Without them, we become lost and vulnerable. If you call for emergency help, they will ask your location about your mile marker or exit number to get to you quickly. These exit numbers give us a sense of comfort and peace in knowing where we are and what direction we are heading. The prophet Samuel set up a stone to commemorate the victory over the Philistines at Mizpah (1 Samuel 7:12). He called it Ebenezer which means 'thus far the Lord has helped us.' It is a mile marker in his life and the peoples' lives. We all have mile markers like birthday, firstday of school, sweet 16, graduation, marr

The Ugly child Economics

The Bible is a book that is brutally honest and unsentimentally realistic. We can read about the strengths as well as the weaknesses of the characters. We read about Abraham's strong faith, but also his weakness when lies about Sarah being his sister. We read about David's successes, but we cannot ignore the sins he committed including murder. We read about Jacob who seemed to delight in trickery and deceit to achieve success until he meets Laban. The one who cheated his own father now gets cheated by his father-in-law; not once, not twice, but ten times!!! (Gen 31:7). Jacob and Laban are portrayed as two shrewd business men in the story. Jacob negotiated seven years for Rachel, but ended up working for Laban fourteen years and ended up with two wives which was nowhere in in his business plan. Laban used the 'ugly child hostage' economics here. He thought that chances of Leah getting married was slim, may due to her 'cross or weak' eyes. So he used the princ

Where is God when it hurts?

A man looked agitated during Sunday School. When he got out and and started pacing up and down the hallway, a friend asked him, “What’s the trouble?”. He replied, “The trouble is, I’m in a hurry, but God isn’t.” It is not uncommon to feel like God is taking a long time or not even paying attention. Silence of God can be scary and frustrating for a believer. David wrote a number of Psalms including Psalm 13 when 'God seemed to be distant in his life. We can see Asaph in Psalm 79 and Elihu in the book of Job asking similar questions. Most of us believe that where God is, there is no misery. We think that all is well when we have faith. But Jesus came to this world to turn that around when He said, "Blessed are those who hunger and thirst and mourn". As believers in Christ, we can rest assured that ‘Where there is misery, there is God’. Jesus voluntarily embraced misery in order to share ours. A great author puts it like this, "Where misery is, there is the Messi

Raging Waters

"Faith rests on a firmer basis, and is not to be moved by swelling seas" (Charles Spurgeon). In Psalm 124 David sings “if the Lord had not been on our side the flood would have engulfed us,the torrent would have swept over us, the raging waters would have swept us away.” A mother got paid to nurse and care for her own son. Jochebed, the mother of Moses was the lucky woman to make history (Exodus 2). Her story is a message of a heartbroken woman who turned over her dreams to God. You may have desired a happy marriage, a successful career, developing their talent, or some other worthwhile goal, yet circumstances prevented it. We can only get through that kind of disappointment by turning it over to God. Whenever I passed through raging waters my Redeemer had been with me, sheltering me against the rising tide (Isa. 43:2, Psal 124). When I came out on the other side, which I always did, I was able to say with joy and confidence, “He is a faithful God!” Are you in the middle

Song in the night

"It is easy to sing when we can read the notes by daylight; but the skillful singer is he who can sing when there is not a ray of light to read by" Charles Spurgeon. We all go through difficulties and hardships: illness, broken relationships, loss of loved ones, conflicts, stress, and many other challenges. Sometimes we may feel overwhelmed and discouraged. But as Christians, we can go through these dark times like the saints of old, who sang in the darkness of their lives. Because of Christ’s death and resurrection, we can live with the assurance that the best is yet to come. We can look forward to an eternal life of joy and peace with our Lord and Savior. Asaph, the song writer sings in Psalm 77, "in the time of trouble, I remembered my song in the night".  To brood on sorrow is to be broken and disheartened. We can see the light of God's hope in the songs we sing in the dark. Full sermon: Mathew Philip Blessings Mathew Philip

A touch of faith

A man went to see a psychiatrist because he was extremely depressed. The psychiatrist just could not get him to snap out of it. So he said to the man, “Tonight I want you to go to the circus in town because they have a clown named the Great Rinaldi, he is the funniest clown I have ever seen. Whenever I go to see the Great Rinaldi it always lifts my spirits.” The man responded. “You don’t understand doctor, I am the Great Rinaldi.” Life is made of joys and sorrows. The saying is that misery loves company and, if that’s true, there’s plenty of company. But the Bible teaches that you don’t have to be a victim. God wants you to have victory over them. We read in all the synoptic gospels about Jesus healing a woman with the issue of bleeding (Matthew 9:20–22, Mark 5:25–34, Luke 8:43–48). She had been in pain for a long 12 years, physially, emotionally and spiritually. She must have been under a lot of physical pain with the loss of blood feeling pale and tired. She definitely had a lo