Seize the Moment – Day 758
Keeping Your Promises Can Be Costly!
Good morning! This is Pastor Jerry Ingalls from New Castle First Baptist Church and today is Thursday, April 14. Today is Maundy Thursday, which means “Commandment Thursday” from when Jesus gave us the new commandment at His Last Supper from John 13:34, “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another, even as I have loved you, that you also love one another.” This was the night Jesus instituted the Lord’s Supper.
Keeping your promises can be costly! Saul struck out at his own son, Jonathan, because he kept his covenant with David, as recorded in 1 Samuel 20:30-33:
Then Saul’s anger burned against Jonathan and he said to him, “You son of a perverse, rebellious woman! Do I not know that you are choosing the son of Jesse to your own shame and to the shame of your mother’s nakedness? For as long as the son of Jesse lives on the earth, neither you nor your kingdom will be established. Therefore now, send and bring him to me, for he must surely die.” But Jonathan answered Saul his father and said to him, “Why should he be put to death? What has he done?” Then Saul hurled his spear at him to strike him down; so Jonathan knew that his father had decided to put David to death.
Saul had lost his mind with jealousy for David. By this point, word must have gotten back to him that David had been anointed the next king and he was actively trying to kill him. This led to his verbal assault on Jonathan, and Jonathan’s poor mother, and then, in a moment of absolute rage, Saul tried to kill his own son. At great cost to himself, Jonathan remained faithful to his covenant with David and protected him.
Seize the moment and keep your promises, even when they are costly! Thank you, Jesus, that on this night, you decided in the Garden of Gethsemane to keep Your word to the Father, “Abba! Father! All things are possible for You; remove this cup from Me; yet not what I will, but what You will” (Mark 14:36). You were willing to pay the price and I am eternally grateful.