Sermon: Undignified Dancing.
2 Samuel 6:6-23
When they came to the threshing floor of Nakon, Uzzah reached out and took hold of the ark of God, because the oxen stumbled. 7 The LORD’s anger burned against Uzzah because of his irreverent act; therefore God struck him down,and he died there beside the ark of God.
8 Then David was angry because the LORD’s wrath had broken out against Uzzah, and to this day that place is called Perez Uzzah.[e]
9 David was afraid of the LORD that day and said, “How can the ark of the LORD ever come to me?” 10 He was not willing to take the ark of the LORD to be with him in the City of David. Instead, he took it to the house of Obed-Edom the Gittite. 11 The ark of the LORD remained in the house of Obed-Edom the Gittite for three months, and the LORD blessed him and his entire household.
12 Now King David was told, “The LORD has blessed the household of Obed-Edom and everything he has, because of the ark of God.” So David went to bring up the ark of God from the house of Obed-Edom to the City of David with rejoicing. 13 When those who were carrying the ark of the LORD had taken six steps, he sacrificed a bull and a fattened calf. 14 Wearing a linen ephod, David was dancing before the LORD with all his might, 15 while he and all Israel were bringing up the ark of the LORD with shouts and the sound of trumpets.
16 As the ark of the LORD was entering the City of David, Michal daughter of Saul watched from a window. And when she saw King David leaping and dancing before the LORD, she despised him in her heart.
17 They brought the ark of the LORD and set it in its place inside the tent that David had pitched for it, and David sacrificed burnt offerings and fellowship offerings before the LORD. 18 After he had finished sacrificing the burnt offerings and fellowship offerings, he blessed the people in the name of the LORD Almighty. 19 Then he gave a loaf of bread, a cake of dates and a cake of raisins to each person in the whole crowd of Israelites, both men and women. And all the people went to their homes.
20 When David returned home to bless his household, Michal daughter of Saul came out to meet him and said, “How the king of Israel has distinguished himself today, going around half-naked in full view of the slave girls of his servants as any vulgar fellow would!”
21 David said to Michal, “It was before the LORD, who chose me rather than your father or anyone from his house when he appointed me ruler over the LORD’s people Israel—I will celebrate before the LORD. 22 I will become even more undignified than this, and I will be humiliated in my own eyes. But by these slave girls you spoke of, I will be held in honour.”
23 And Michal daughter of Saul had no children to the day of her death. (NIV)
Now within this story there is quite a bit going on its got more gripping stuff that an episode of Coro Street, however I will leave some of it for you to look into yourselves. But a bit of background, David remember was a shepherd boy, gets into favour with the King, King Saul a big head taller than the rest bloke. Firstly Saul thought David was a great kid, killed the Philistine giant Goliath, soothed him by playing the harp when he was in a depressed mood, and was a worthy soldier that Saul put in charge of his armies. This was all good until Saul got jealous of David’s abilities as the commander of his army. Eventually David becomes King and Jerusalem becomes his city, The City of David.
Here is a passage describing why in 1 Samuel 18:7, “As they danced, they sang: "Saul has slain his thousands, and David his tens of thousands." The they who danced are Saul’s female subjects. After this Saul decides to allow David to marry Michal his youngest daughter, the price of the dowry being one hundred Philistine foreskins, ick, why because in the gathering, in the fighting the Philistines he believes David will be killed. But David gathers the dowry and marries Michal.
1 Samuel 18:28-29 says “When Saul saw and knew that the LORD was with David, and that Michal, Saul's daughter, loved him, Saul became still more afraid of him, and he remained his enemy the rest of his days.
But wait there’s more; Saul’s jealousy and fear of David continued until we read in 1 Samuel 25:44 that Saul gives his daughter who was married to David to another bloke by the name of Palti. Then after the death of Saul, David decides he’s getting Michal back and sends one of his mates around to reacquire her. This occurs in 2 Samuel 3:14-22. Like sands through the hour glass so where the days of their lives, this is dysfunctional relationship stuff to the max.
The relationship between David and this wife Michal is messy, remember he had a number of wives, seven are mentioned in the two books of Samuel but the number is not really clear.
This messy relationship continues to the point where in the second book of Samuel we get this description of David taking the ark into the city Jerusalem, his City, the city of David.
This depiction talks of how David was wearing an ephod or the priestly garments. That he danced with all his might before the Lord, this was a dance of worship of celebrating before the Lord, David recognising God’s power and that God was to be worshipped.
What follows is this account of how David then got his ear chewed by the Mrs, Michal. Interestingly there are a probably a number of reasons why Michal reacted the way she did and why she slammed David as she did.
A) The scriptures as I’ve already pointed out say that she loved David, she was his first wife, since then through Saul’s actions she had been separated from him, given to another man by her Father the King. We don’t know what had happened while she was married to her new husband, but we do know that he followed her crying as she was carried away.
B) As the Ark of the Lord was taken into the city David had been dancing with all his might before the Lord, it appears by the account we have that the garment, the priestly ephod may have come open and he revealed some skin.
C) That there was certainly tension between the high born wife and the low born husband, remember that she had been the Kings daughter, and David was a shepherd boy before King Saul invited him into his circle, Michal slams David for being undignified
David’s answer is to point out that what he was doing, he was doing for the Lord. “It was before the LORD, who chose me rather than your father or anyone from his house when he appointed me ruler over the LORD’s people Israel—I will celebrate before the LORD. I will become even more undignified than this, and I will be humiliated in my own eyes.
David makes it quite clear to his wife that his dancing is alright, that before god he was celebrating, why because he was God’s chosen king. He even points out that he in his worship will allow his own humiliation.
When we look at this drama taking place, we see a number of things:
• It is okay to dance as a form of worship, Ecclesiastes tells us “there is a time to morn and a time to dance.” (Ecclesiastes 3:4)
• In Michal’s case it was not wise to criticise the one doing the dancing as the outcome was not a good one, it looks like David ignored her after this time, though we can’t be one hundred percent sure
• That Michal for some reason had lost her respect for David she went from loving him in 1 Samuel 18:20, so much so that Saul was pleased when she told him, to despising David in her heart. (2 Samuel 6:16) That word despised is interesting; it has synonyms such as hated, loathed and detested. She had gone off David in a major way. Somehow I don’t think her berating David was all about the dancing.
• That David allowed his position to be small in comparison to the position of the Lord. He was willing to be humiliated for the Lord’s gain. To allow the slave girls to see his respect for his God.
What I want to do today is ask is it all about the dance? It could be, what if we look at this situation as a bit of a metaphor for life.
As a Christian, what matters, is it what God thinks or what others think of your life?
An interesting thing about the time of David was that if the king determined an outcome it was generally accepted by the populous. For instance from the time of Caesar Augustus it was accepted that by his subjects that Roman Emperors were divine. Incidentally this caused a bit of grief for Christians who would not worship Caesar.
Michal would have been an extremely brave or extremely cheesed off woman to confront the king in the way she did. But with her upbringing her own view she saw David because of his dancing as a ‘vulgar fellow’.
In society today we meet others who are opposed to our worship, people who may think of the honour and reverence we have for God as foolishness. Like Michal they have their reasons, people have their own journey going on with God, each and every one of us has our own individual journey with God. Even those who deny God’s existence are in journey with God. Paul States in 1 Corinthians 1:18, “For the word of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.” The shame of it is that by denying him those who do also deny his grace, his mercy, the change The Holy Spirit can bring and the abundant life they could be living in him.
Was David wrong to dance, to celebrate before the Lord? Do we dance before the Lord? This was a King who had seen the power of God in his life. Dancing feeling the joy of the Lord in our lives is an important thing, what matters is not the burdens we feel here and now but the knowledge that we to are like David chosen, that we are part of a royal priesthood, that we too can celebrate before him.
While David allowed his own public humiliation for the sake of God, for God’s kingdom, so that God was honoured above him, Michal missed out on blessing because of her attitude of disgust at the worship of David. Not having children in the day was seen as a curse from God. Are there times when by criticising others in their worship, or their living before the Lord do we possibly deny ourselves of the blessings they are living in, the author of Samuel states that “When David returned home to bless his household” he was meet by Michal who spat the dummy at him (that is slightly paraphrased). It appears to me that she missed out on blessings because of her response to her husband.
Do we do that, I think of times when I have missed out on blessings that I have seen others receive around me, because I would not stand before the Lord, knell before the Lord, raise my hands in worship to him because of my concern for what others might think, through fear of what I might experience. Jesus has set us free.
From the Old Testament in Nehemiah 8:10 it says this, Nehemiah said, “Go and enjoy choice food and sweet drinks, and send some to those who have nothing prepared. This day is holy to our Lord. Do not grieve, for the joy of the Lord is your strength.”
Are you feeling weak and heavy laden, Jesus has an answer for that “come to me all you who are weak and heavy laden and I will give you rest.” (Matthew 9:36)
There is a great deal to celebrate about our relationship with God, beyond the wonder of the creation we are part of, like David his we can celebrate his presence with us, dancing before him, meditating on his word, living in the presence of his Holy Spirit, as we put celebrate before him we will know his power and his blessings. Celebrate before the Lord.
