But the men said to Saul, “Should Jonathan die – he who has brought about this great deliverance in Israel? Never! As surely as the Lord lives, not a hair of his head will fall to the ground, for he did this today with God’s help.” So the men rescued Jonathan, and he was not put to death. (1 Samuel 14:45)
While Saul was reigning king of Israel, his son Jonathan was reigning champ of demolishing Philistines. This made Saul sort of insecure, so when he found out that Jon had eaten some honey after Saul made an oath saying, “Cursed be anyone who eats food before evening comes, before I have avenged myself of my enemies,” (14:24) he declared that Jon must die.
Obviously, this is ridiculous for a lot of reasons. For one, he’s your kid, dude. Chill. For another thing, he ate honey. That’s hardly an offense worthy of capital punishment. Third, you’re already at war with the Philistines, you don’t need infighting to complicate that. Fourth, just, why are you even killing people, Saul?
But none of these are the reasons given by Jon’s fellow soldiers who come to his defense. No, they say, “He’s too great an asset to the army to dispose of.”
When skill and social privilege coalesce into potential, we become weirdly defensive of that potential. I love Jonathan and am glad his dad didn’t unjustly and irrationally kill him. But the reason for this restraint is terrible. The logic of the argument is that if a person is valuable to society for the role they play (e.g., as a soldier), they should not be subject to any punishment that could deprive the public of that value.
This calls to mind the 2016 trial of Brock Turner, who faced a lenient sentence for a charge of rape of an unconscious woman called Emily Doe. Many accused the judge of giving the Stanford Swimming champion special considerations. Think of what we would all be missing out on if this sex offender were to be jailed! That would be one less potential Michael Phelps in the world! God forbid!
Again, I’m glad Jonathan was not killed by his own father. But if he had done something legitimately criminal, I hope he would have been held accountable and not ignored just so that he could continue slaying Philistines unencumbered.
Neglected Word 