David And Michal

"And I will yet be more vile than thus, and will be base in mine own sight: and of the maidservants which thou hast spoken of, of them shall I be had in honour." (2Samuel 6:22)

He would continue to worship God who had chosen him in spite of his own unworthiness and he would continue to remind the people of the fact. That is good. We must always remain small in our own eyes.

"Therefore Michal the daughter of Saul had no child unto the day of her death." (2 Samuel 6:23)

This is not because she was cursed. It was because the love between them died there and then. David could hardly look her in the eye let alone do what is needed for child-bearing.

And then there is one, final postscript to this tragic story. Saul had wanted to wipe out the Gibeonites in spite of the covenant made between them and Israel.

"Then there was a famine in the days of David three years, year after year; and David enquired of the LORD. And the LORD answered, It is for Saul, and for his bloody house, because he slew the Gibeonites.

And the king called the Gibeonites, and said unto them; (now the Gibeonites were not of the children of Israel, but of the remnant of the Amorites; and the children of Israel had sworn unto them: and Saul sought to slay them in his zeal to the children of Israel and Judah.) Wherefore David said unto the Gibeonites, What shall I do for you? and wherewith shall I make the atonement, that ye may bless the inheritance of the LORD?" (2 Samuel 21:1-3)

We may not understand this. Certainly God did not cause the famine. It was the result of Saul’s sin. Famine is the sign of God’s judgement. His judgement is really His lifting of His hand of protection.

"And the Gibeonites said unto him, We will have no silver nor gold of Saul, nor of his house; neither for us shalt thou kill any man in Israel. And he said, What ye shall say, that will I do for you. And they answered the king, The man that consumed us, and that devised against us that we should be destroyed from remaining in any of the coasts of Israel, Let seven men of his sons be delivered unto us, and we will hang them up unto the LORD in Gibeah of Saul, whom the LORD did choose. And the king said, I will give them." (2 Samuel 21:4-6)

David is in a very difficult position now. He had promised Saul that he would not destroy his house. But in one way Saul had been the author of the destruction of his own dynasty by his continued rebellion against God and His ways.

"But the king spared Mephibosheth, the son of Jonathan the son of Saul, because of the LORD’s oath that was between them, between David and Jonathan the son of Saul." (2 Samuel 21:7)

David’s covenant with Jonathan was strong. However, his covenant with his own wife seems to be void!

"But the king took the two sons of Rizpah the daughter of Aiah, whom she bare unto Saul, Armoni and Mephibosheth; and the five sons of Michal the daughter of Saul, whom she brought up for Adriel the son of Barzillai the Meholathite: And he delivered them into the hands of the Gibeonites, and they hanged them in the hill before the LORD: and they fell all seven together, and were put to death in the days of harvest, in the first days, in the beginning of barley harvest." (2 Samuel 21:8-9)