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I like to read books about the Bible, to dig deeper, to learn things that are beyond my personal expertise or knowledge. In that pursuit, I ran across something that has bothered me for months and months. I was reading The Return of the Kosher Pig by Rabbi Itzhak Shapira. In the introduction, (seriously, I did not even get to the meat of the book before I was floored!), Rabbi Shapira says, “In this text, the name of Jonathan appears as “Yonatan” and then is changed to “Yehonatan” after he stands up to his father, King Saul, in favor of David. To the English reader, the change in the verse might not make too much sense nor be apparent, but the addition of the letter hey, which represents the name of God, took place when he decided to stand up for the future king of Israel.”
While God adding the hey to Jonathan’s name from 1 Samuel 19:2 onward makes perfect sense to me because Jonathan stood up for God’s anointed which is powerful, it is the loss of the hey in 1 Samuel 19:1 that perplexed me since, in spite of the transliterations saying Yonatan up until chapter 19, the Hebrew clearly has the hey in Jonathan’s name through chapter 18. Why did Jonathan lose the hey? This was the bigger question for me than why he gained it back.
1 Samuel 19:1
Now Saul spoke to Jonathan (Yonatan) his son and to all his servants, that they should kill David; but Jonathan (Yehonatan), Saul’s son, delighted greatly in David.
That scripture right there kept me up at night and kept me pondering. The Virgin Mary “kept these things and pondered them in her heart” according to Luke 2:19. I kept this scripture in my heart and pondered it over and over… until last night.
As I was falling to sleep, I began to ponder this scripture which has become a habit of mine. As I pondered, I felt like the Lord said to me, “Jonathan lost the hey because I held my breath in anticipation.” The Hebrew letter hey is very similar to the English letter H. They make the same sound which is the sound of breath. At first, I was surprised by the answer, but that led me to another question. How can God be surprised by anything when He knows all things? Here is the revelation that I found in Jonathan’s lost hey:
God saw everything and everyone from the beginning of time. He knows all. He saw every decision we would ever make. Nothing catches Him off guard. Nothing surprises Him. He knew exactly what Jonathan would do, but it is a lot like watching our favorite movie over and over. We know the best scenes, but we still can’t wait to see them. In some ways, knowing what is about to happen helps us to savor every detail in the scene unfolding before us. Just because God knows what is about to happen, doesn’t make the moment any less powerful in His eyes. Maybe it even makes it MORE powerful as Almighty God calls the angelic hosts to watch as God Himself holds his breath in anticipation taking in every detail as his servant Jonathan defends God’s anointed one, David.
When was the last time I caused God to watch in excited anticipation knowing that I was about to choose obedience over disobedience, faith over doubt, peace over fear, love over hate, forgiveness over unforgiveness, grace over offense…? When was the last time my decisions, my actions, or my words moved the very heart of God? More importantly, when will be the next time that my decisions, my actions, and my words will move the very heart of God? I commit this day that it will not be long.
