As Saul was seeking to kill David, Jonathan and Michal helped him flee (1 Sam. 20:1-42; 19:11-18). In everything related to David, God was sovereign. As the sovereign One, God is above everything, behind everything, and in everything. In His sovereignty God prepared David to be a man according to His heart for His kingdom. He also prepared Saul to perfect David by testing him and putting him on trial, and He prepared Jonathan, the son of Saul, and Michal, the daughter of Saul who became David’s wife, to help David to flee from Saul. Apart from the help rendered by Jonathan and Michal, David could not have endured being persecuted and tried by Saul. Both Jonathan and Michal typify Christ as God’s provision for us to suffer God’s trial and God’s testing.

When David was persecuted by Saul, he did not react in a negative way, nor did he complain, condemn, criticize, or oppose. Using the New Testament term, he was always under the cross. He bore the cross every day under any kind of situation (Luke 9:23). The strength for us to bear the cross is the power of Christ’s resurrection (Phil. 3:10), which is Christ Himself as the resurrection (John 11:25). Christ as the resurrection lives in us to bear the cross within us (Gal. 2:20).

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