Join Pastor Jack Hibbs as he delves into the intricate dynamics of friendship and rivalry in the biblical narrative of David and Jonathan. This episode explores the profound bond between King Saul’s son Jonathan and David, who would later become king. Despite the growing tension and jealousy from King Saul, Jonathan’s loyalty exemplifies the depth of true friendship grounded in faith and sacrifice.
Can you believe that? It’s going to turn out to be the better. That difficult situation, and we react in a certain way, good or bad. God will cause good to come out of it, even if we fail in it.
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This is Real Life. Welcome to Real Life Radio with Pastor Jack Hibbs. I’m David Jay, thanking you for joining us today as we listen, learn, and are challenged by God’s Word, the Bible. Looking for real answers in real time? JackHibbs.com is your go-to destination for resources on faith, world events, and everything in between. Explore Happening Now, where Pastor Jack Hibbs takes a timely, no-nonsense look at today’s biggest issues, blending biblical insight with the latest headlines. Now, whether you’re curious about the world around you or you want guidance on a personal level, Pastor Jack has you covered. And, by the way, don’t miss the Real Life Network. It’s packed with relatable, family-friendly content that really speaks to everyday challenges and triumphs, offering something really valuable for every member of your family. Now, if you’re new to the faith, you want to refresh your perspective, start with that tab that says Know God, an accessible, welcoming space to learn and reflect and find your footing. Now, whatever your path, jackhibbs.com has the tools and the insights and the encouragement that you need. Tune in, log on, find something real. Once again, the website jackhibbs.com. on today’s edition of Real Life Radio. Pastor Jack continues his series now called First Samuel and his message titled Friends and Foes in the Faith Part One. Samuel of the Old Testament was the last judge of Israel and the first of her prophets. So here in Chapter 18, we’re going to consider the highs and the lows of friends and relationships. You see, when David arrives at the palace after defeating Goliath, King Saul’s son Jonathan makes a covenant with David as a symbol of their friendship. And that was all while Saul was jealous and fearful of David. A godly friendship is both self-sacrifice and true loyalty, even in adversity. So today, Pastor Jack teaches that relationships are not just a matter of the soul, but they’re an issue of the heart. Jonathan pledges loyalty to David, even though his father, Saul, is becoming increasingly hostile towards David. Now, with a message called Friends and Foes in the Faith, Part One, here’s pastor and Bible teacher Jack Hibbs.
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Verse four, we learn this. There will be a willing sacrifice when there’s a friendship. Man, if you’ve got a friend, there’ll be a willing sacrifice. A foe will never do that, but a friend will. A willing sacrifice. Look what it says in verse four, and Jonathan took off the robe. Can you circle the robe? It is the robe. You notice how it says in your Bible, or it doesn’t say in your Bible, a robe? It’s the robe. The sons and daughters of Israel or Israeli kings wore robes that announced who they were. They could not go out in public without the adornment of being a king’s child. Jonathan takes the robe, his robe, that was on him and gave it to David with, what’s it say? His armor. His armor was unlike anyone else’s armor in the whole world. even to, what’s the next word? His sword. Very, very ornate. Very, very much signifying the fact that he was Jonathan’s son of the king. And his bow and his belt. And what did he do? He gave them to David. He’s not saying, well, here’s half a sword. Here’s a belt loop. Here’s a little bit of a bow. He gives it all to him. True friendship. Sacrificing willingly. If you’re wondering if somebody’s a friend of yours, are they willingly sacrificing for you and being blessed by it? What a tremendous relationship we see. And such a magnitude of act on Jonathan’s part. Being heir to the throne and all. We look at our second point tonight, and it’s this, it’s verses five to 16, and it’s an issue of the heart. It’s an issue of the heart. It’s not only a matter of the soul, verses one through four, but it’s an issue of the heart, verses five through 16. And we see it this way. Verses five through seven, we see that a godly heart is an attractive thing. Oh, guys and gals, listen up. Husbands and wives, listen carefully. A godly heart is an attractive thing. So David went out, verse 5, wherever Saul sent him and behaved wisely. And Saul sent him over the men of war. And he was accepted in the sight of all the people. They were drawn to him. And also in the sight of Saul’s servants. Now it happened as they were coming home when David was returning from the slaughter of the Philistine that the women had come out of all the cities of Israel, all the cities of Israel, singing and dancing to meet King Saul with tambourines, with joy, and with musical instruments. So the women sang as they danced and they said, Saul has slain his thousands. And it’s too bad the record didn’t skip right there. When they’re, woohoo, all right, praise the Lord. Here comes Saul. Saul has laid his thousand. Saul’s going, yes. Remember the kind of loony Saul is? He’s a real nut. He’s an emotional wacko. And besides everybody’s talking, there’s this teenager running around town with a giant head. And this kid killed the giant, ended 40-day standoff, you know, did it with a stone even. And then on top of it, insult to injury, cuts the guy’s head off with his own sword while Saul, king, is hiding out in his tent. So they’re all singing the tambourine. Saul has killed a thousand. And everyone’s like, all right. And Saul’s going, yeah. Yeah. And this song’s being sung throughout all Israel. Not a city or two. This is the top song of the month in Israel. Everybody’s singing. Now, it says, verse 7, and David has tens of thousands. Oh, can you see Saul? Yes, I’ve killed thousands. Yeah, second chorus. Ladies, hit it. And David killed tens of thousands. And you can see Saul go, ah! Instantly, someone else is being acknowledged. Someone’s getting promoted in the eyes of the people. God had done a work. God was doing a good thing. And Saul couldn’t handle it. And he freaked. And you can hear his teeth starting to grind. And absolutely wigs him out. But look what it says. In verse 5, it says, David behaved wisely. That’s a tremendous statement. It means that he did all that was needed to be right before God and the people. He wasn’t taking that head that I’ve been joking around about. He wasn’t taking that head and going, whoo-hoo, look what I got, yoo-hoo. I’m getting ahead in life. What about you guys? He’s not bragging. He’s not boasting. He’s giving God all the glory. Nobody could point a finger and say, you know what? You’re kind of out of hand there, David. They couldn’t say anything about him. He was a man of integrity. He conducted himself wisely. He’s just right on. And that’s just going to add much more injury to Saul because he’s so carnal. He behaved wisely in thought and in deed. The decisions, by the way, that you and I make, they reveal what kind of people we are. David really could have took advantage of this moment. He did not. He chose and decided rightly. Boy, I tell you, in situations of maybe being extolled, maybe you’re being promoted at work, you say, well, thank you very much. Thank you. Or do you say, you know what? I shouldn’t even be standing up here today. It should be the staff that made me look so good. They should be standing up here today. Or when someone’s promoted at work, do you sit there and grind your teeth like Saul? Oh man, that guy made salesman of the year. I should have had it. Very insecure, very jealous. of a man Saul is. It’s terrible. Verses 8 to 13. Look at this. A godly heart will have its enemies. Guaranteed. Christian, listen, don’t need to raise your hand. Do you out there want to be a man or a woman having a godly heart? I would assume that’s why you’re here tonight. Yeah, you want to be godly. You want to have all that God has for you. Well, know this. You ready? You’re going to have enemies. If you make a stand for righteousness, people are going to come against you. Hey, we don’t even need people to come against us. If we make a stand for righteousness, don’t we come against ourselves? Have you noticed that? Or am I just nuts? I’ll make a stand for something, and then I start thinking. I’ll start rethinking. Well, you know, maybe I should back off. Is this a hill worth dying on? Maybe I should hold my energies and strength for something else. When God prompted me to make a stand, to take a stand. I don’t need the enemy and I don’t need Satan. I tell you, I’m bad enough to me. You ever have that? You launch out on something and then you start doubting. Oh man, I can’t stand that. Well, the enemy. A godly character, a godly heart will be attacked. It says in verse 8, then Saul was very angry. Oh, the word implies that he was heating up. He was starting to, you know, the water before it percolates. Remember those old, what are they called? We don’t even use them anymore. Oh, is that the word? Percolator? Percolator? The glass? And you could see how the water begins to get agitated and just get ready to go up, whatever that glass tube in the middle is. And you start to, that’s the word that describes Saul. He’s starting to bubble. He’s so angry. And the saying displeased him. And he said, they have ascribed to David ten thousands. And to me, they have ascribed only thousands. Now what more can he have but the kingdom? Do you see this guy? He’s a king. He’s got his helmet on. He throws himself down in his room. He’s like kicking his feet. This is amazing. I tell you, this is an amazing thing. Saul’s hidden nature is coming out. This is who he is in secret. This is who he is when the pressure’s on. Look, we hate pressure, but people, when the trials come, it’s who we are. Look, I don’t like it any more than you do. I don’t like it. But you know what? I know this. When the pressure’s on and I cave in, I know exactly what I’m supposed to do. I gotta go, we, let’s do it together, church. When it happens, we gotta get up and turn to God and say, Lord, I just cannot stand what I just saw in me. And that’s me. Lord, take it away. Change that in my life. When those difficult times come, it raises who we are to the surface that we might know who we are. And listen, class, cheer up. It’s not like God’s saying, ha, ha, ha. See, I turned up the heat, you saw who you are. Chewing that for a while. He does it to cause us to grow deeper. It’s actually gonna turn out for the good. Can you believe that? It’s gonna turn out to be the better. that difficult situation, and we react in a certain way, good or bad. God will cause good to come out of it even if we fail in it. He’ll sit us down and he’ll say, now look, this is where you blew it. Now we’re going to try this again in a couple of months and we’ll see how you do. No, really, do it again. You know we’ll do it again until we, you know, get the word of God applied to that thing and we make it through and like James talks about, when we’ve had, when we’ve allowed that trial, that tribulation of our faith to have its perfect work, it brings forth patience. You say, well, I don’t want to have any patience. It’s important to God that we have patience. It may not be important to us, it’s important to Him. I tell you, patience is something that tells us when we’re patient, I can’t think of a greater manifestation in the life of the believer that they’re trusting in the Lord when they’re patient. When we’re patient, it declares to the world we’re resting in the Lord. That’s a good thing. He knows what’s going on.
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You’re listening to Real Life with Pastor Jack Hibbs. To learn more about this ministry or to catch up on some previous episodes, go to jackhibbs.com. That’s jackhibbs.com. And now, let’s get back to today’s message. Once again, here’s Pastor Jack.
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Saul is beside himself. It says in verse 9 here, so Saul eyed David from that day forward. The word eyed means he’s fixed on him with jealousy. When your eyes are off of the Lord like Saul’s eyes are off of the Lord, this is what happens. When your eyes are off of Jesus, listen, things happen and you start to eye that neighbor or you eye that worker or you eye that family member or you eye that church person with jealousy and anger and you get bitter. Why? Your eyes are off of the Lord. Put your eyes on Jesus and let your friends and let your enemies be blessed. What is it your business? You put your eye on Jesus and live and walk with him and it doesn’t matter what goes on around you. The greatest friendships of all, the greatest marriages of all, the greatest corporate ventures of all. If in the Lord, both people have their eyes on Jesus, you know what? If you keep your eyes on Jesus, you’re going to constantly be together and in the end, you’re going to bump into each other up there. Amos 3, verse 3 says, how can two walk together unless they’re in agreement? Fixed eye upon the Lord. Saul’s eye had departed from the Lord a long time ago, and so his eye was wandering to other places. And in this case, David’s promotion’s making him sick, and he can’t take it. Verse 10, and it happened on the next day that the distressing spirit from God, that’s a demonic spirit that God allowed to come upon Saul. Look, you don’t walk with God, you’re going to get in trouble. You walk out from underneath his umbrella, you’re going to get wet. And he prophesied. You need to mark that word because the word is a negative. It means that he babbled, enraged, insane. He raged, he babbled. inside the house. So David played music with his hand as at other times, but there was a spear in Saul’s hand. Do you hear that? Do you see it? Saul’s going nuts because of jealousy, insecurity, and he’s panicking that someone else is getting blessed. So what’s he doing? He’s just talking to himself and he’s going into tirades and he’s in a rage and he’s got a spear in his hand. Bad combination. David, David’s following the Lord. David, instead of having his sling, David’s got a harp. He’s going to worship. Saul’s got war on the mind. In one hand is a spear, in the other hand is a harp. What an amazing thing. David obviously sees this insanity of Saul. He reaches, as times in the past, to play music to calm the evil spirit from him, to drive it from him. And you can just see Saul. He’s got a sword, a spear. And he’s crazy. And he’s in a rage. Verse 11 says, And Saul cast the spear. For he said, listen to this stupid statement. I will pin David to the wall. What do you think about that? The guy, he won’t even fight a giant. You think he’s got the skill to pin David to the wall? What, you’re going to catch a little piece of his jacket and pin him to the wall? He’s going to kill him. Oh, David, I was just trying to pin you to the wall. Just joking around. Sorry I hit you in the head. What’s he going to say? He said, I’m going to pin David to the wall. He’s going to kill him. He hates him. But David escaped his presence twice, it says. Verse 12, now Saul was afraid of David. You need to mark that word afraid. He was afraid of David because the Lord was with him. but had departed from Saul. The Lord had departed from Saul, but the Lord was with David, and Saul was afraid of him. Insecurity will do this to a man or a woman every time. It’ll cause them to be erratic. It will cause them to be crazy in their decision-making. It will cause them to be bizarre in their conduct before people. They’ll pick up spears and throw them at people, or chairs, or whatever they can find. They’re crazy. You say, Jack, how can you say that? He’s Israel’s king. He’s crazy. He started out sort of with God. God promised him great things. But Saul repeatedly would not follow the direction of the Lord. Got in trouble quite a few times with Samuel. And then finally, God says, Samuel, just stop crying over Saul. I’m done with him. He doesn’t want me in his life. He doesn’t want anything to do with me. And instead of Saul humbling himself to follow the Lord… Saul strengthened himself against the Lord. Well, how do you know that? Because he’s resisting David. David was an emblem of God’s will. David was living out the will of God and Saul knew it, but he would not repent of it. He dug his stubborn heels in, in his pride, and he actually began to fight against God. You cannot fight against God and win. Never. Never. You can come to church. You can be king of Israel. You can prophesy. You can have all the wealth of the world. You can have a throne. But you can harden your heart against God and resist him. The Bible says, he who is often rebuked and hardens his heart shall be taken away and that without remedy. I’m not quite sure I know the meaning of that, but I know it’s horrible. That at some point in time, a man resists, a woman resists the word and the will of God and the ways of God until God says, that’s it. I’m done talking to them. I’m done with them. I’m going to put my spirit on another man and I’m going to do a work with that man and that’s the way I’m going to go. And the Bible says that that person who has hardened their heart against God will be taken away. Tragic. It’s interesting that It’s a frightening thought to consider that David was a man on the way up. God was with him. And God was moving in his life. David had a hunger for the word of God. He was a worshiper. He was a warrior. He was a servant. And he had an instrument of praise in his hand. Saul is a man on the way down. He has a weapon of war in his hand. His heart is against God. He’s bitter. He’s jealous and insecure. People, insecurity causes others to go nuts. If in your life you’re battling that, you’ve got to find your place with the Lord. You’ve got to find your strength in Jesus. Don’t let that bitter path consume you. It kills so many people. It’s terrible. It’s true in ministry. My day will come when it’s time for me to slowly step aside, hand things over, and just go away. Those times will come. That’s the work of God. Thank God that works are not founded, at least godly works are not founded on a man. Because when the man dies, it’s over. They have to build a statue. Oh, remember him? Yeah, well, there he is. He’s right out there in the courtyard. That’s pathetic. But if you’re a servant of the Lord Jesus here tonight, there will always be a new kid on the block. And before you kick against him, you need to back off and talk to God because you could kick against the work of the Lord. Paul told Timothy, hey, young Timothy, don’t let anybody despise your youth. Paul was saying, God’s on you, Timothy. Don’t let anybody tell you you’re too young to do the work of God. Watch out, those of you who are in Christian service. Don’t look to some other man or some other task or some other… Maybe there’s a church… that’s growing bigger or faster or deeper or wider or whatever, or there’s a, you know, I’ve got this kind of ministry in the church, but there’s one across town, and that guy, boy, you know that one, and we’ve got, what do they do? Oh, we’ve got to do that. Oh, what’s, oh, we’ve got to do, don’t do that. You’re following man. Punch out, take a drive, go down to the beach, go up to the mountains, sit down and talk to God. He’ll fill your cup again. He’ll overflow you again with fresh wine and new vision. He’s not done with you yet. Just don’t do a song. Humble your heart.
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pastor and Bible teacher, Jack Hibbs, here on Real Life Radio, and his message called Friends and Foes in the Faith, Part One. You know, this message is part of Pastor Jack’s series called First Samuel, a series highlighting the prophet Samuel who was called by God during one of Israel’s darkest times to bring the people back to a heart of true worship. And we’ll continue on the next edition of Real Life Radio. What if 2026 wasn’t about doing more, but about knowing God more? This January, we’re featuring one of the most powerful and timeless books on Christian faith, Knowing God, written by J.I. Packer. Now, this classic has helped millions of believers move from knowing about God to actually knowing God personally. With deep biblical insight and heart-centered focus, Packer invites you to explore God’s character, his love, and what it really means to walk with him. It’s not a quick read. It’s a life-changing one. Start your year with truth that will reshape your mind, strengthen your heart, and deepen your faith.
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That’s Knowing God by J.I. Packer. Get your copy for a gift of any amount at jackhibbs.com. This program is made possible by the generous contributions of you, our listeners. Visit us at jackhibbs.com. That’s jackhibbs.com. Until next time, Pastor Jack Hibbs and all of us here at Real Life Radio wish for you solid and steady growth in Christ and in His Word. We’ll see you next time here on Real Life Radio.
