1 Samuel 20 and the Tapestry of Christ’s Death and Resurrection

Tell me if you’ve ever heard this story before:

An evil political authority wants to put an innocent king to death. This king knows that he will die, even though a close friend does not believe him. This king descends to a place marked by a stone, remains there, and on the morning of the third day he rises—to the weeping of one of his friends. After engaging with a disciple, the king rises further and departs from those he loves.

This may sound like something straight out of the Gospels, but in fact it comes from the left field of 1 Samuel 20, a chapter that recounts the historical events David’s life, while also pointing past David to describe the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus, David’s greater son (Matt. 1:1). In this article, I’ll seek to demonstrate how 1 Samuel 20 is full of character types that find their ultimate fulfillment in Jesus’s life, death, and resurrection. But first a word about typology itself.

Typology

Tapestries are remarkable works of art. Oftentimes they depict pictures sewn with hundreds of individual threads. A particular thread can prominently protrude into the forefront of the tapestry, dive under the surface into obscurity, and then weave back into the forefront where the same color, texture, or pattern is repeated elsewhere in the canvas. Individual threads can crisscross the entire tapestry, providing a unity and cohesion to the final picture.

Typology is a lot like a tapestry. Typology weaves the Old and New Testaments together like so many colorful threads that connect the massive canvas of redemptive history. Properly defined, typology is “The study of analogical correspondences among revealed truths about persons, events, institutions, and other things within the historical framework of God’s special revelation, which, from a retrospective view, are of a prophetic nature and are escalated in their meaning.”^[1]

1. G. K. Beale, Handbook on the New Testament Use of the Old Testament: Exegesis and Interpretation (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker, 2012), 14.

Thus, as we read our Old Testament, it’s right for us to discern that a thread we find in one book re-appears to find its terminus in the cross. In the grand tapestry of cosmic history, God is the weaver. And what we find in 1 Samuel is the entwine of a master artisan.

As others have shown,^[2] so many experiences in David’s life parallel Jesus’s life. Why would God weave a web like this? He did this in part so that when Jesus came, we would recognize that this Messiah is the one to whom all the threads connect. But how does Jesus fit in 1 Samuel 20? We turn our attention to this question now.

2. James M. Hamilton Jr., “The Typology of David’s Rise to Power: Messianic Patterns in the Book of Samuel,” SBTJ, no. 2 (2012): 4–25.

1 Samuel 20

By this point in the book of Samuel, King Saul is on the decline, and David is on the rise. David has defeated Goliath (1 Samuel 17), he has been anointed the future king by the prophet Samuel (1 Sam. 16:13), and Saul has already made two attempts on David’s life (1 Sam. 18:10–11; 19:9–10). It’s with this backdrop that David meets with his friend Jonathan, the heir to Saul’s throne. And it’s with this background in mind that we see so many parallels with persons and events from this chapter and persons and events surrounding Jesus’s ministry.

Jonathan and Peter

David knows that Saul wants to kill him, and so he communicates to Jonathan “there is but a step between me and death” (1 Sam. 20:3). Jonathan does not believe David, and he proclaims to him, “Far from it [Hebrew: ḥālı̂l]! You shall not die” (1 Sam. 20:2, emphasis added). In the New Testament, immediately after Jesus announces his imminent death, we read, “And Peter took [Jesus] aside and began to rebuke him, saying, ‘Far be it from you, Lord! This [=suffering and being killed] shall never happen to you’” (Matt. 16:22, emphasis added). The phrase “far be it from you” is one word in Greek (hileōs), it’s rare in the New Testament (only here and Heb. 8:12), and it’s used in this setting because it sounds similar to the Hebrew word ḥālı̂l—the very word that Jonathan used.^[3] Matthew’s record of Peter’s rare use of this word recalls 1 Samuel 20:3, and we see in both instances that friends of the Davidic king disbelieve his impending death.^[4]

Saul and the Pharisees

David concocts a plan: David will skip the new moon festival he is expected to attend, and he will instead hide beside “a stone heap” (1 Sam. 20:19). David instructs Jonathan to tell Saul, “David earnestly asked leave of me to run to Bethlehem his city, for there is a yearly sacrifice there for all the clan’” (1 Sam. 20:6). Jonathan would discern from Saul’s reaction whether or not his father intended to kill David, and then Jonathan would bring word to David.

So David hides himself, and three times the text lingers on how David’s place/seat at the festival is “empty” (1 Sam. 20:18, 25, 27). But Saul “sat on his seat” (1 Sam. 20:25)—an unusual phrase that draws attention because of how unnecessary it is.^[5] Amazingly, the Greek words that the Septuagint translator used to describe Saul sitting (kathizō) on his seat (kathedra) are only found together in one verse in the entire New Testament: Matthew 23:2. In this passage, Jesus describes how the scribes and Pharisees—who are planning to kill Jesus (Matt. 21:38, 42, 45)—sit in Moses’ seat. Like the Israelite king Saul who does not obey God (1 Sam. 15:22), these Jewish leaders sit in a place of authority even though they do not practice the obedience to God that they preach.

5. In Hebrew, the words for “sat” (yāšāḇ) and “seat” (môšoḇ) only occurs in seven verses together (Exod. 12:40; Lev. 13:46; 1 Sam. 20:25; Psa. 1:1; 107:36; Ezek. 28:2), and in only three of those verses does it describe someone sitting down (1 Sam. 20:25; Ps. 1:1; Ezek. 28:2). In every case, the person who takes a seat is evil (Saul in 1 Sam. 20:25; scoffers in Ps. 1:1; and the king of Tyre in Ezek. 28:2).

As Nicholas Piotrowski has ably demonstrated, 1 Samuel presents Saul as a seed of the serpent—a character thread that begins in Genesis 3 and reappears with the murderous Cain and Esau and then Saul.^[6] Like Cain, Saul disobeys God’s word and has murderous intentions towards those who obey God, and he is likewise described doing actions that are only elsewhere used of Esau (cf. 1 Sam. 28:25 and Gen. 25:34). The Pharisees are also part of this family tree; Jesus exclaims to them in the same chapter in Matthew 23:33, “You snakes, you offspring of vipers! How will you escape being condemned to hell?” (NET, emphasis added). Clearly, there is a typological connection between the murderous and serpentine Saul and the murderous and serpentine Pharisees; both are looking to kill the Davidic king.^[7]

Jonathan’s Defense of David’s Innocence and Nicodemus’s Defense of Jesus’s Innocence

At the new moon feast, David is missed by Saul on the first day, and the reader hears the strange thoughts of Saul in 1 Samuel 20:26, “Something has happened to him. He is not clean; surely he is not clean.” What’s notable is that uncleanliness is associated with bones, dead bodies, and graves (e. g. Num. 19:18), which suggests that David’s literary condition is associated with death. On the second day, Saul asks Jonathan about David, and Jonathan tells his father what David instructed him to say, but he adds an additional phrase in David’s imaginary speech to him, “So now, if I have found favor in your eyes, let me get away and see my brothers” (1 Sam. 20:29). David had not told Jonathan to say this, but Jonathan added this clause likely to signal his affection for David. Upon hearing Jonathan’s answer, Saul flies into a rage and curses his son for choosing David over and against his own kingdom (1 Sam. 20:31). To this, Jonathan responds in 1 Samuel 20:32, ““Why should he be put to death? What has he done?” Jim Hamilton rightly draws the connection to the New Testament:

Just as Saul’s son Jonathan, an establishment insider, had interceded on David’s behalf—asking what David had done that he should be put to death (1 Sam 20:32), so also Nicodemus, an establishment insider “who was one of them” (John 7:50), asked, “Does our law judge a man without first giving him a hearing and learning what he does?” (John 7:51). Just as Jonathan’s intercession had drawn Saul’s wrath, so Nicodemus met with the curt reply, “Are you from Galilee too?” (John 7:52).^[8]

8. Hamilton, “The Typology of David’s Rise to Power”: 12n66.

In both instances, the innocence of the Davidic king is maintained by one of his followers, and this is met with persecution. In Nicodemus’s case this was derision, and in Jonathan’s case it was a hurled spear.

David’s Third Day ‘Resurrection’ and Jesus’s Third Day Resurrection

At this point the temporal references become highly significant, because the previous activity took place on the second day (1 Sam. 20:34). On the morning of the third day, David “rose from beside the stone heap” (1 Sam. 20:41) for his rendezvous with Jonathan. In the Old Testament, the third day is often a day of resolution or deliverance (Gen. 22:4; 42:18; Exod. 19:11; Hos. 6:2; Jon. 1:17), which is why Paul could write in 1 Corinthians 15:4 that Jesus rose on the third day “in accordance with the scriptures.”^[9] Resolution is found for both kings on the third day.

9. Stephen G. Dempster, “From Slight Peg to Cornerstone to Capstone: The Resurrection of Christ on ‘The Third Day’ According to the Scriptures,” Westminster Theological Journal 76 (2014): 371–409.

Here is where it’s worth remembering that Jonathan instructed David to “go down” (yarad) and remain beside the stone heap (1 Samuel 20:19), and then on the third day David “rose” (qwm) from the same.^[10] By itself, this would be unremarkable. But when one considers the tapestry of redemptive history, we see that going down is associated with death (Gen 37:25, 35; 44:29; Exod. 15:5) and coming up with deliverance (Gen. 19:14–15; 21:18; 27:43; 31:21; Exod. 2:17; 12:31; Num. 24:17).^[11] This going down and up of David prefigures the descent to Hades and resurrection that Jesus experiences between Good Friday and Easter Sunday.^[12]

13. See Piotrowski, “Saul Is Esau,” 216–225.

Conclusion

There are other possible pointers to Christ in this passage beyond what is shown above in Figure A.^[14] But suffice it to say, the strands that appear in 1 Samuel 20 seem to re-appear and cluster around Jesus’s life, death, and resurrection. But what significance do these typological connections have for the believer? Two final thoughts:

14. For example, the covenant of steadfast love between David and Jonathan (1 Sam. 20:8, 15–16, 23, 42) and the new covenant between Jesus and his disciples (Luke 22:20); the weeping of Jonathan (1 Sam. 20:41) and the weeping of Mary (John 20:13), the stone heap (20:19, 41) and the stone rolled away (Matt. 27:60; Mark 16:3; Luke 24:2), and the additional rising and departing of David (1 Sam. 20:42) that may correlate to Jesus’s ascension (Acts 1:9).

1. These typological connections help us see Jesus as the center of the entire biblical narrative (Luke 24:44). If we do not read our Bibles seeing the hundreds of foreshadows of Christ, we will not be reading them correctly. The Scriptures bear witness about Jesus (John 5:39–40)! The myriad of biblical types pointing forward to the person and work of Christ are meant to enrich and deepen our understanding of our Lord, and to propel us to greater appreciation for his person and wonder at his work.
2. These typological connections help us understand aspects of Jesus and ourselves. By comparing and contrasting the type and its antitypical fulfillment, we understand more about both. So, for example, Jonathan is a type of one of Jesus’s disciples. As disciples of Jesus today, we can look to Jonathan’s willingness to give up his weapons (1 Sam. 20:39; 18:4) and his choice of David’s kingship over his own (1 Sam 20:30–31) as an example for us to follow. While not always the case, many of the Old Testament characters are real-life examples for God’s people to imitate by faith (Jas. 5:10–11, 17–18) or to avoid imitating (1 Cor. 10:11; Jude 7).

God has woven this grand tapestry of types, shadows, and fulfillments in his word. He is a brilliant author, and he has written the greatest story right into the pages of history. This story climaxes with the death and resurrection of his son, and will crescendo with his final return. And when Jesus returns and “the LORD cuts off every one of the enemies of [the greater] David from the face of the earth,” just as Jonathan affirms in 1 Samuel 20:15, we will look back with awesome wonder on the grand fabric of history that centered on King Jesus.