But God took care of David. You never can kill or harm a man if God is taking care of him.
About four years after that, David heard that there had been a great battle over by Mount Gilboa, and that the Philistines had beaten back the Israelites with great slaughter, and that Saul and Jonathan were both dead. So he got his men together, and went out after the enemies of the Lord and of Israel; and it was not a great while before he had turned the tables on them, and set up his kingdom at Hebron.
It must have been pretty near fourteen years after that before David remembered his promise to his old friend, Jonathan. It is a great deal easier to make promises than to keep them. How many broken vows has God written down against you?
But one day King David was walking in his palace at Jerusalem, where he had removed his capital, and all at once he happened to think of that promise. It is a good thing God does not forget His promises that way.
“That’s too bad,” mused David. “I had forgot all about that promise. I have been so busy fighting these Philistines and fixing things up that I have not had time to think of any thing else.”
So he called his servants in great haste, and asked: “Do any of you know whether there is any of Saul’s family living?”
One of them said there was an old servant of Saul’s by the name of Ziba, and maybe he could tell.
“Go and tell him I want him, right away.”
Pretty soon Ziba appeared, and King David asked: “Do you know whether there is anybody of the house of Saul in my kingdom?”
Ziba said there was one he knew of—a son of Jonathan, by the name of Mephibosheth.