What is true love? In this passage we see two good examples, don’t we? For even though Saul had irrationally condemned David to death (verse 1), Jonathan nevertheless pleaded with his father on behalf of his friend (verses 4 and 5). He was loyal to David, faithful to the promise he had made to him (18:3). And Jonathan’s calm use of reason was able to calm Saul’s murderous rage – at least for a time.

But David’s wife Michal seems to have had a deeper understanding of her father’s temper, knowing when he would eventually calm down and when he had gotten to the breaking point. So, when Saul once again tried to kill David in a fit of jealous rage over yet another one of his victories over the Philistines, Michal knew that this time there was no turning back. She knew that this time, her dad was out for blood.

So, what did she do? She could have focused exclusively on her feelings as so many people do today. She could have allowed herself to be overcome by her grief over her father’s insanity and her fear of what he might do to her. She could have clung to David like a security blanket, holding her beloved close to her and just hoping for the best.

But instead, like Jonathan, she did what was best for David. She insisted that he escape from Saul, even though that meant she would be left behind. She lowered her husband down through the window and watched him run away, not knowing if he would ever return. Then, in order to give David as big a head start as she could, she tried to deceive her own father, even though she knew he might turn on her and kill her in one of his paranoid fantasies.

Yes, Jonathan and Michal show us what true love, self-sacrificial, promise-keeping love looks like. And isn’t this the same sort of love Jesus showed us on the cross? For in the Garden of Gethsemane, He made it plain that sacrificing Himself for us was something he dreaded, something He wished He didn’t have to do. But he was willing to go through all that pain and all that shame so that we might be saved from our enemies, from sin and death.

No, if we would follow Jesus, our idea of love for one another needs to be a lot more like Jonathan and Michal’s than the self-centered passion the Romantics have taught us. So, no matter what it costs, let’s show that kind of love to one another today.

I Samuel 19:1-17 (NASB)

Now Saul told Jonathan his son and all his servants to put David to death. But Jonathan, Saul’s son, greatly delighted in David.
2 So Jonathan told David saying, “Saul my father is seeking to put you to death. Now therefore, please be on guard in the morning, and stay in a secret place and hide yourself.
3 “And I will go out and stand beside my father in the field where you are, and I will speak with my father about you; if I find out anything, then I shall tell you.”
4 Then Jonathan spoke well of David to Saul his father, and said to him, “Do not let the king sin against his servant David, since he has not sinned against you, and since his deeds have been very beneficial to you.
5 “For he took his life in his hand and struck the Philistine, and the LORD brought about a great deliverance for all Israel; you saw it and rejoiced. Why then will you sin against innocent blood, by putting David to death without a cause?”
6 And Saul listened to the voice of Jonathan, and Saul vowed, “As the LORD lives, he shall not be put to death.”
7 Then Jonathan called David, and Jonathan told him all these words. And Jonathan brought David to Saul, and he was in his presence as formerly.
8 When there was war again, David went out and fought with the Philistines, and defeated them with great slaughter, so that they fled before him.
9 Now there was an evil spirit from the LORD on Saul as he was sitting in his house with his spear in his hand, and David was playing the harp with his hand.
10 And Saul tried to pin David to the wall with the spear, but he slipped away out of Saul’s presence, so that he stuck the spear into the wall. And David fled and escaped that night.
11 Then Saul sent messengers to David’s house to watch him, in order to put him to death in the morning. But Michal, David’s wife, told him, saying, “If you do not save your life tonight, tomorrow you will be put to death.”
12 So Michal let David down through a window, and he went out and fled and escaped.
13 And Michal took the household idol and laid it on the bed, and put a quilt of goats’ hair at its head, and covered it with clothes.
14 When Saul sent messengers to take David, she said, “He is sick.”
15 Then Saul sent messengers to see David, saying, “Bring him up to me on his bed, that I may put him to death.”
16 When the messengers entered, behold, the household idol was on the bed with the quilt of goats’ hair at its head.
17 So Saul said to Michal, “Why have you deceived me like this and let my enemy go, so that he has escaped?” And Michal said to Saul, “He said to me, ‘Let me go! Why should I put you to death?'”