1. What is a covenant? Why does Jonathan make a covenant with David?

A covenant is a binding promise to someone or something to be faithful to the promise no matter what. Jonathan most likely understands that David is going to be the new king of Israel and so, Jonathan responds and asks David to always show him and his family kindness and faithfulness.

2. Why did Saul become jealous of David?

Saul became jealous because David kept winning battles for him. He should have been thankful, but he became envious of David because the people were praising David more than him.

3. How many times did Saul try to kill David? How did he try to kill him? Did God protect David?

Saul tried to kill David at least 4 different times. Saul tried to kill him with his spear twice, with his servants, and by hoping David would fall at the hands of the Philistines for Saul’s daughter. God protected David and kept him safe because, no matter what, God’s promises cannot be thwarted by anything Saul or God’s enemies do.

4. How did Jonathan keep his covenant promise to David? How did David keep his promise to Jonathan’s family later?

Jonathan went out and shot arrows into the field. Through his instructions to the servant boy, Jonathan let David know that it was not safe to come back to king Saul. Saul would always keep trying to kill David. Jonathan was faithful to his promise to David. David was faithful to his promise to Jonathan because yearsafter Jonathan’s death, David showed kindness to one of Jonathan’s sons and brought him to eat at his table and welcomed him into his family (2 Sam 9).

5. Will David’s Son, Jesus keep his covenant with us? How can we respond to Jesus like Jonathan did to David?

Jesus will always be faithful to his promises to us. What he has promised, he will keep. We need to respond like Jonathan and submit to the true king. We need to give up control of our lives and submit to Jesus as the true Lord and King. If Jesus is already our king, we can know that he will always keep his covenant to us and will come again to bring us home and to his table.