1 Samuel 20:28 Meaning and Explanation

Jonathan responds with the explanation he and David had prepared: David earnestly asked permission to go to Bethlehem. He speaks David's name plainly where his father would not, and reports the request as a matter of family duty.

Jonathan stands in the gap, offering a true account of a real custom to shield his friend. He places himself between David and his father's wrath, the position of every faithful advocate. To speak for the absent and the endangered, taking their cause upon oneself, is the work of love and a faint image of the one who ever lives to intercede.