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Have you ever thought of how unusual friendships are? Some men and women make friends when they are very young and keep those same best friends for life. They seem to be inseparable. Others of us have friends that drift in and out of our lives with no special person that is always there.

Some can meet a person for the first time and feel they have been friends for years. Others can go for years without seeing someone and when they have the chance to be together again find the friendship undeminished by their time apart.

Woman tend to have friends that they can speak with for a few minutes on the phone or whom they can go to lunch with, or even spend a whole day shopping with. Just being together and sharing our feelings and thoughts is wonderful.

Men tend to have friends that they can do something with, ie: hunting, fishing, golf, bowling, even working but not just doing lunch or having a quick phone call. Men seldom get together with a friend just to talk for a little while.

In I Samuel we read of David and Jonathan’s friendship. In chapter 14: 8 --- 14 we read of Jonathan going to battle against the Philistines. Jonathan was already a young man making independent decissions. In chapter 16 David plays his harp for King Saul, in chapter 17 the young lad kills Goliath.

Yet if you remember the Bible stories Jonathan and David became such good friends that Jonathan protected David from King Saul. An older friend advising and counselling a younger friend.

Jonathan must have recognized in David a kindred spirit. A young man that God had big plans to use in the future. In I Samuel 18:1 the soul of Jonathan was knit with the soul of David, and Jonathan loved him as his own soul. In I Samuel 19:2 Jonathan, Saul’s son delighted much in David: and Jonathan told David, saying Saul my father seeketh to kill thee:

Years later after the death of King Saul and all of his sons, David the Sheherd was crowned King. In II Samuel 9:1 David said, Is there yet any that is left of the house of Saul, that I may shew him kindness for Jonathan’s sake? When the servants told David of Mephibasheth the crippled son of Jonathan, David had him brought to him and said "Fear thee not: for I will surely shew thee kindness for Jonathan thy father’s sake..."

The other referrence to friends that I recall is: Job 2: 11 Now when Job’s three friends hears of all this evil that was come upon him, they came every one from his own place; Eliphaz the Temanite, and Bildad the Shuhite, and Zophar the Naamathite: for they had made an appointment together to come to mourn with him and comfort him.

Then Job’s friends went on to criticize and berate Job. Sometime friends have good intentions but they aren’t seeing God’s side of the picture.

How important was the friendship between David and Jonathan? Many times we tend to trivialize friendships. Do we become jealous or frustrated by our husband’s friendships? Do we become like Job’s friends critical and berating?

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