This passage is a description of the contrast between love and hate. The author wants us to see the difference between Jonathan’s love for David, Israel’s love for David, and Saul’s hatred of David. Love and hate are two very powerful emotions.

1As soon as he had finished speaking to Saul, the soul of Jonathan was knit to the soul of David, and Jonathan loved him as his own soul. 2And Saul took him that day and would not let him return to his father’s house. 3Then Jonathan made a covenant with David, because he loved him as his own soul. 4And Jonathan stripped himself of the robe that was on him and gave it to David, and his armor, and even his sword and his bow and his belt. 5And David went out and was successful wherever Saul sent him, so that Saul set him over the men of war. And this was good in the sight of all the people and also in the sight of Saul’s servants.

6As they were coming home, when David returned from striking down the Philistine, the women came out of all the cities of Israel, singing and dancing, to meet King Saul, with tambourines, with songs of joy, and with musical instruments. 7And the women sang to one another as they celebrated, “Saul has struck down his thousands, and David his ten thousands.” 8And Saul was very angry, and this saying displeased him. He said, “They have ascribed to David ten thousands, and to me they have ascribed thousands, and what more can he have but the kingdom?” 9And Saul eyed David from that day on.

10The next day a harmful spirit from God rushed upon Saul, and he raved within his house while David played the lyre, as he did day by day. Saul had his spear in his hand. 11And Saul hurled the spear, for he thought, “I will pin David to the wall.” But David evaded him twice. 12Saul was afraid of David because the Lord was with him but had departed from Saul. 13So Saul removed him from his presence and made him a commander of a thousand. And he went out and came in among the people. 14And David had success in all his undertakings, for the Lord was with him. 15And when Saul saw that he had great success, he stood in fearful awe of him. 16But all Israel and Judah loved David, for he went out and came in before them.

Love and hate are not merely emotions; they are a mindset – a position of the heart and the mind – that bear identifiable fruit. In other words, you can tell if someone loves you or hates you by the way they treat you. A friend or a coworker or a family member or a spouse may say they love you but if they consistently lie about you, use their words and actions to abuse you, or constantly degrade you, then you would be right to question the authenticity of their love for you.

Bottom line, love and hate are more than mere emotions. Deuteronomy 6:5 instructs us to “love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might”. Jesus builds on this Old Testament command in Matthew 22:37 when he says, “You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind”. Did you catch the subtle nuance between the two passages? Deuteronomysays, “with all your might” and Jesus says, “with all your mind”. What is the point? To love God means that we love him with our entire being and to love him with all our might (Deuteronomy) means that we must love God with all our mind (Matthew).

Love is a mindset that is based on the truth of the gospel, and we must fight to possess it when our emotions fail us. When we do not feel the emotion of love, if we do not have a gospel centered mindset, we will easily begin to hate God. Once again, Jesus’ words in John 15:18 – 19 help to clarify the contrast between a mind that is set on gospel centered love and a mind that is set on worldly hate.

In John 15:18 – 19, Jesus says, “If the world hates you, know that it has hated me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love you as its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you.” Can you see the contrast between the two mindsets?

Let us consider one more shocking example of the love/hate contrast from the apostle Paul in Ephesians 5:28 – 30 where he says, “husbands should love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. For no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes it, just as Christ does the church, because we are members of his body.” Bottom line, God expects husbands to love their wives just as Jesus loves the church.

Regardless of how sinful and rebellious the church behaves; Jesus loved her to the point of giving his own life as a ransom – much like a modern-day Hosea purchasing his wife off the sex-slavery auction block – so that he could cleanse and nourish her. You and I are Hosea’s whore of a wife and Hosea is Jesus.

Let that sink in. Paul says, husbands are to love their wives in the same way that Jesus loves us. Men, we are not to hate our wives – no matter how sinful they behave – because we have been united to them in marriage just as we have been united to Christ in the death he died in our place.

Once again, I say, love and hate are more than mere emotions; they are mindsets. One is a mindset that is founded on the gospel of God’s redeeming love. The other is a mindset that is founded on human wisdom and worldly thinking. One mindset loves the King who redeems. The other mindset hates the things of God and rejects his Kingship. One mindset loves God with its entire being. The other mindset hates God because it loves the dark and perverse things of the world we live in.

With that basic biblical understanding of the contrast between love and hate, we should study the passage before us with hearts that long to learn how to love the King rather than hating him. Remember, as we make our way through this passage, that King David is a type of Christ who deserves our fully devoted love because he first loved us (1 John 4:19). Notice Jonathan’s love for David in verses 1 – 4 of our text.

#1: JONATHAN’S LOVE FOR DAVID (VV. 1 – 4)

We should remember that immediately following David’s victory over Israel’s biggest bully – Goliath – Saul questioned David inquiring as to whom he was and of course, David explains exactly who and whose he was (1 Sam. 17:58). Immediately following David’s conversation with Saul, we learn that Saul’s son Jonathan, “the crown prince of Israel”,2“loved him [David] as his own soul” (vv. 1, 3).

The love that Jonathan had for David was far more than some kind of human emotion. Our passage tells us that Jonathan’s soul was “knit to the soul of David” (v. 1), that he “made a covenant with David” (v. 3), and that he gave David his royal robe and his weapons of war (v. 4). Jonathan’s love for David was a mindset that can be identified through his behavior as he united himself with David, entered into a covenant relationship with him, and ultimately surrendered his rights to the throne of Israel.

You could argue that Jonathan’s love for David was proven by the way he submitted to David, became united to David, and ultimately bound himself in relationship with David. Jonathan could have easily rejected David instead of submitting to him; he could have created division in the kingdom instead of unity between the two of them and he could have attempted to tear David apart instead of binding himself to him.

Any normal ungodly human would have done the opposite of what Jonathan did – out of fear of losing face, losing power, and losing fame – when David showed up.3 This, of course, is what Saul will do here shortly. But before we look at Saul, let us look at Israel’s love for David in verses 5 – 16.

#2: ISRAEL’S LOVE FOR DAVID (VV. 5 – 16)

It is one thing to be loved by one person, but it is an entirely different thing to be loved by an entire community. We know that all of Heaven celebrates when one sinner turns away from their hatred of God to loving him because he first loved them (Luke 15:7 – 10; 1 John 4:19). Individual love for God is absolutely essential to the establishment of the Kingdom of Heaven here on earth.

But we also know that Jesus died because of God’s love for the world despite the world’s hatred of him, that he desires that all men would turn to him in loving repentance, and that he is forming for himself, a community, a global church, a spotless bride, a cloud of witnesses that receive his love and in return, they love him through their devoted obedience (John 3:16 – 21; 2 Peter 3:9; 1 Peter 2; Ephesians 1 – 3; Hebrews 12:1 – 2).

Corporate love or a community that is full of individuals who love God, is absolutely essential to the establishment of God’s kingdom here on earth. In verses 5 – 16, we see an entire nation/community who loves the king. David’s accomplishments were not done in a back ally. His victories were very public and very successful (v. 5) and because he was so successful, all Israel proclaimed the goodness of David (v. 5), they celebrated his victories with “singing and dancing” (vv. 6 – 7), and because “the Lord was with him [David]” in all his success, “all Israel and Judah loved David” as he spent time with them (vv. 13 – 16).

The bottom line here is that Israel loved David because he was a good, redeeming, king-to-be, and they celebrated him as they spent time in his presence. Someone has said that you can tell what or who someone really loves by examining what they think is good, what they celebrate, and how they spend their resources (time, talent, treasure). Israel loved David so much that they proclaimed him as good, they celebrated him, and they spent their resources on him. But not everyone loved David! Saul hated him!

#3: SAUL’S HATRED OF DAVID (VV. 2 – 15)

All throughout the passage, there are little sprinklings of Saul’s hatred and jealousy towards David. It is as though, the author does not want us to forget that in this world, where there is love for God there will also be hate for him. Jonathan and all of Israel loved David but Saul hated him, intensely.

It is helpful for us to remember that the author told us back in 1 Samuel 16:21 – 23, that because David relieved Saul’s torment from the demonic presence sent from God, that Saul “loved him [David] greatly and he [David] became his [Saul’s] armor bearer” (v. 21) and that Saul asked David’s dad, Jesse, to leave David in his service. So, at one point, Saul’s words express love for David. But his actions quickly prove his words to be outright lies because Saul actually hates David.

Saul’s hatred of David is all over the passage in front of us. The first thing we see is that Saul basically kidnaps David when we read in verse 2 that “Saul took him that day and would not let him return to his father’s house”. Is this Saul’s way of attaching himself to powerful men so he could ride their coat tails since he himself was such a coward?4 Saul was treating David like many professing believers treat Jesus, as a healthy side dish to an already corrupted diet or as a little spirituality sprinkled into their already spiritually bankrupt lifestyle.

Then in verses 8 – 9, Saul is “very angry” and “displeased” and appears to be jealous because of the people’s celebration song that attributes “ten-thousands” to David’s victories and “thousands” to Saul’s victories even though the literal reading of the song would sound more like “Saul and David have killed thousands to ten-thousands”attributing the victories to both men with Saul listed first.5 Despite that, we also know that Saul lived with a suspicious mindset towards David as he “eyed David from that day on” (v. 9).

So, how could someone like Saul, who professes to love David, live out their days in anger, displeasure, and suspicious mistrust of the very person who had just redeemed the nation? The answer is: Saul did not truly love David; he hated David.

The very next day, it seems, according to verses 10 – 11, that the demonic spirit from God begins to torment Saul again, and while David is trying to serve Saul and bring him some relief, Saul tries to pin David to the wall with his spear; not once but twice! One commentator pointed out that David had a harp in his hand, designed to bring peace through service, but Saul had a spear in his hand, designed to destroy the very one who offered him lasting peace.6 This reminds me that when we sin against God, it is an act of demonic warfare against the One who offers us true and lasting peace (James 4:4; Colossians 1:21).

Once Saul realized that his spear was worthless against David – who evaded death twice – he began to fear him “because the Lord was with him but had departed from Saul” (v. 12), so Saul “removed him from his presence” and sent him out to war (maybe hoping that David would die on the battlefield) but the plan back fired as David became more and more successful under the guidance and protection of the Spirit of God (vv. 13 – 15). Because of Saul’s hatred of David, he began to fear him and ultimately isolated himself from him. Those who hate God, ultimately begin to fear him and then push him away as they isolate themselves from his presence.

So to recap the evidence of Saul’s hatred of David: First – Saul kidnaps David and makes him into his own spiritual sprinkling over his spiritually bankrupt diet; Second – Saul becomes angry, displeased, suspicious, and mistrusting of David when David begins to get more attention than Saul does – heaven forbid if someone gets more attention than Saul!!; Third – Saul tries to murder David as David attempts to bring him true peace; Fourth – Saul sends David away because he does not want to be in his presence any longer. This is what hatred looks like as it progresses from infancy to full grown adulthood. Saul’s hatred for David is fully formed!

APPLICATION: DO YOU LOVE OR HATE GOD?

If we are to apply this text to our lives, we need to apply it within the grand context of the message of the gospel. Far too many believers today will merely attempt to apply this passage to the context of relational love and hate between humans. Although that is not necessarily wrong, it falls terribly short of the biblical message of the gospel. We cannot attempt to apply the Bible to our human relationships without first applying it to relationship with Jesus.

As a pastor, I am far more concerned with you getting your relationship with Jesus fully aligned so that your relationships with other people can flow out of that deep well of spiritual vitality. This is to say that I believe that when your vertical relationship with Jesus is healthy and vibrant, then what follows is that your earthly relationships will become increasingly more healthy and vibrant as you seek to honor Christ in those relationships.

As I have said, this passage is about so much more than Jonathan, and Israel’s, and Saul’s relationship with David. It is fundamentally about their relationship with God. Jonthan is known to be obedient to and trusting of God. Israel oftentimes is swayed to and fro by the winds and waves of hardship and sin but in this passage, they begin to turn towards God and his redeemer – namely David. Saul on the other hand, has consistently exhibited patterns of hatred, rebellion, and doing what is evil in the sight of God. Saul’s hatred towards David and ultimately God is just like our hatred of God.

  1. Just as Saul kidnapped David, we too can hijack Jesus and fashion him however our little hearts desire. We love having a homeboy named Jesus when things are going well but we do not like submitting to his authority over our lives. Where have you been resisting his authority in your life lately?
  2. Just as Saul got angry, displeased, and suspicious of David, we too fall into the trap of becoming angry, displeased, and mistrusting of Jesus when things do not go our way, or when we pay more attention to ourselves than to him. In what ways have you been angry, displeased, and mistrusting of Jesus lately?
  3. Just as Saul became demonically murderous towards David, we too give into the power of Satan, Sin, and Death and effectively commit attempted murder or at least warfare against Jesus. Sin and rebellion are an act of war against the One who came to bring us peace through a bloody cross. Where have you been denying the authority of the rightful King of your heart?
  4. Just as Saul became fearful and isolated from David, we too give into the lure of sin and the voice of Satan as they make false promises and claims against us to turn us away and isolate us from Jesus. We live in our guilt and shame, and we fear God’s presence because we think he is disappointed in us or cannot help us because we are too far gone. We fail to remember that Jesus died to save us, he rose to empower us, and he is seated on a throne in Heaven with all authority to direct our lives – if we would submit to him and receive his help. In what ways do you find yourself becoming more and more isolated from Jesus?

We need to be reminded that like David, Jesus is our Redeeming King! He came to this earth to go to war with Satan, Sin, and Death on our behalf. He faced Satan’s lies. He resisted Sin’s temptation. He stared Death in the face with his own face set like a rock on his purpose to bring redemption through the cross and the empty tomb.

Jesus loved us before we loved him; He literally loved us as he went to that cross when we were still living as his enemies so that by his grace and through the faith he would author in our hearts, we could be transformed from enemies into royal family members. This is the love of God for us in Christ Jesus! The love of God in Christ Jesus is what is meant to motivate our love towards him. 

If love is more than mere emotion – as I have already argued – then you need to look no further than the bloody cross of Jesus to see how his actions proved his words. Therefore, our love towards Jesus must be more than mere verbal proclamation – it has to be backed by faithful obedience and openhearted affection for the One who loved us first. Here are a few brief thoughts on how to love Jesus more in the days ahead…

  1. Just as Jonathan knit his soul to the soul of David, we too should knit our entire beings to Jesus. To be united to Jesus – to be one with him – as he is united to us, means that we actively seek to become more and more like him (Romans 6; Colossians 3).
  2. Just as Jonathan was in a covenant relationship with David, we too should covenant or commit our lives in full surrender to Jesus and his Lordship over our lives. To be in a relationship with Jesus is far more than merely trusting him for salvation; it includes surrendering to him in obedience as our King. This is why Jesus said, “If you love me then you will obey me” (John 14:15).
  3. Just as Jonathan gave gifts to David and surrendered the throne to him, we too must give our lives to Jesus as an act of holy worship of him. Jesus gave everything so that you and I could become his; it should be no problem for us to love Jesus by giving all of ourselves to him (Romans 12).
  4. Just as the people saw and adored the goodness of David, we too should stand in awe of the goodness of God in Christ Jesus. Loving Jesus means that we consistently come before him in reverent awe of his goodness in not only saving us at that bloody cross, but also in awe of his victory at that empty tomb, and also in awe of his promise to return for us soon (Psalm 33:8).
  5. Just as the people celebrated and loved being in the presence of David, we too should celebrate God’s redemptive work in Christ Jesus as we seek to spend time with him by studying His Word, meditating in his presence, and lifting our voices in praise with other believers (Hebrews 10:24 – 25).

CONCLUSION…

In conclusion, the bottom line in all of this is that love is a mindset; it is more than mere emotion, Jesus showed us the extent of his love as he laid his life down at the cross of Calvary for us even though we were living in outright hatred towards him.

Today, if you hear his voice, calling out to you, in the midst of your hatred towards him, please know that he loves you deeply; more deeply than you could ever imagine. The only question is: Will you love him or hate him from this day forward? – Amen.

1 Unless otherwise specified, all Bible references are to the English Standard Version Bible, The New Classic Reference Edition (ESV) (Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers, 2001).

2 John, Woodhouse, 1 Samuel: Looking for a Leader, Preaching the Word Commentary, (Wheaton, Illinois: Crossway, 2008), 347.

3 Ibid., 348 – 350.

4 Ibid., 350 – 351.

5 Ibid., 351 – 353.

6 Ibid., 353.