Michal
Sermon for 2/10/2002
2 Samuel 3:16
Introduction:
A. A practicing lawyer loved to attack his opponents through letters printed in newspapers. In 1842, he ridiculed the wrong man. James Shields did not take kindly to the anonymous writer who lampooned him in the Springfield Journal. Mr. Shields tracked down the attorney who had publicly embarrassed him and challenged him to a duel. The man was a writer, not a fighter, but he could not get out of the duel without losing his honor. He was given the choice of weapons and chose swords in hopes of using his long arms to his advantage. He trained with a West Point graduate as he prepared to fight to the death. On the appointed day he met Mr. Shields on a sandbar in the Mississippi River. At the last minute their friends intervened and convinced the men to stop the duel. The lawyer returned to his practice as a changed man. Never again did he openly criticize anyone. In fact, years later when he heard his wife criticize the southern people of the Civil War, President Abraham Lincoln said, "Don’t criticize them; they are just what we would be under similar circumstances." Do you have a critical spirit? Lincoln did, but he changed. Make the change today so you, like Lincoln, can be known more for your tolerance than your criticism.
WBTU:
A. Last week we talked about Judges.
1. The last judge was Samuel.
2. When Samuel was starting to get old, the people began to ask for a king.
3. The Lord answered the people’s request and the first king was Saul.
4. Saul started out good but in the end, he was a jealous maniac.
5. God started over with little David.
B. After his defeat of Goliath, David was a great commander in Saul’s army. Saul became jealous of him.
C. Story of David and Michal.
1. David and Saul’s daughter Michal fell in love.
2. King Saul agreed to give Michal to David in marriage, if David would go out and kill 100 Philistines.
3. David goes out and kills 200 Philistines and Saul is forced to give Michal in marriage to David.
4. One time Saul sent soldiers to David’s house to kill him. Michal warned David of her father’s plans and Michal took a statue and put it in their bed and disguised it as David. Michal told them men outside that David could not be disturbed because he was ill. During the delay, David snuck out through a window and escaped.
5. Finally, David was forced to flee into the wilderness to get away from King Saul. Saul continually hunted him down to kill him.
6. While David was in the wilderness, King Saul forced his daughter Michal to marry another man named Paltiel.
7. After King Saul dies, David returns to Judah and the people of Judah declare him their king.
8. A son of Saul, Ishbosheth, reigned in the north while David reigned in the south. However, the house of Saul grew weaker and weaker while the house of David grew stronger and stronger.
9. Abner, the commander of the army of the north, decides to join David and ally himself with David.
10. In the verses that were read we see that David requests that Michal be returned to him as his rightful wife. Ishbosheth agrees and Abner makes sure it is completed so that he can go with David.
11. So Michal rejoins David in Jerusalem as his wife.
12. She was his first love and it was a good political move. Aligning of the house of David with the house of Saul.
13. It was good for Michal because now she would be the First Lady of David’s White House.
14. Good lesson for us. If any disagreement has separated a husband and wife, let them be reconciled through the power of God, and live together in love. This is the will of God. He hates divorce and this is the ideal.
15. Should have turned out well, but it didn’t.
D. Read 2 Samuel 6:13-16, 20-23
E. It has been a long road for David. God had brought him all the way from the sheep pen to the palace.
F. Finally the house of Saul was no more and David was declared King of the land.
G. Now he was bringing the Ark of the Covenant into the tabernacle in his capital city of Jerusalem. What a glorious day of celebration and of worship.
H. Without his kingly robe and crown, David danced with all his might before the Lord. Years of longing and waiting had finally come to an end. God had blessed his people, and the king did not contain his joy. He even commanded others to join with him. 1 Chronicles 15:16 says he appointed singers and musicians to accompany the celebration as they entered Jerusalem. He was determined that everyone would know of this wonderful moment. The streets must have been filled with cheering crowds as the king danced and praised his way into the city.
I. And he comes home to this, a bitter, sour, and embarrassed wife.
J. The same attitudes that kept her from joining her husband in celebrating God’s blessings are keeping thousands from that same enjoyment today.
K. We could just explain this away and say that David and Michal came from different school of worship. People who want things to be reverent. People who want things to be joyful. Tension between the two.
L. Much more here than that.
Thesis: Let’s examine Michal’s problems so that we do not repeat them.
For instances:
I. She was a critic and nobody likes a critic.
A. A critic is a person who tears down other people’s attempts at something new and different. They don’t do anything adventurous but they have many stinging words for those who try to do something adventurous or different.
B. David through God had done some marvelous things.
1. Full possession of the land.
2. Moral order was restored.
3. Material prosperity.
4. Spiritual life was at an all time high.
5. Israel’s worship took center stage. David had it in his heart to build a grand temple for God.
C. At the height of his excitement and achievements, we have Michal who critizes.
D. No matter how well things are going, there are always the critics.
E. King David had to deal with criticism in almost every chapter of his life, yet he managed every reproach with coolness beyond compare. No wonder God made him King.
F. May we be one of those who rejoice in the good fortunes of others. May we not be one of those who spread misery. I am miserable and I want everyone to be miserable with me.
G. (Phil 4:8 NIV) Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable--if anything is excellent or praiseworthy--think about such things.
H. When you come right down to it, your life and what you do with it begins and ends with God. There is no escaping that fact. If you are not happy about where you are in life, it is because you are not celebrating the victories that God has brought into your life.
I. Everyone who is a Christian has shared a victory with our awesome God! Being born again is a victory you have shared with the Lord!
J. We need to be celebrating the victories that we see in other people’s lives.
K. Michal had a hard life. Her love was torn. Her father used her.
L. Dan Southerland- The reality is that criticism and opposition will drive you somewhere. Let it drive you closer to God and you will become better. Let it drive you away from God and you will become bitter.
M. This is what happened to Michal. Through her life she became bitter not better.
N. Nobody loves the critic, neither did David.
O. She is even becoming more like her father, not less like him.
II. She accuses David of associating with low lives, because she feels superior to everyone else.
A. Michal accuses David of gallivanting with the commoners, as if somehow there are some people in this world that are lower life forms than others are.
B. David stands up for himself. David has been selected to replace Saul, and that has added to Michal’s sorrow. David is saying, "God chose me, so wake up and smell the coffee. I will celebrate and humble myself before Him and His people. I’m going to keep on dancing with everyone!"
C. In God’s eyes, are any of us any different from others? We are all sinners in need of forgiveness.
D. The ground is level at Calvary. If you don’t go to Jesus Christ with those thoughts, Jesus will not meet your need.
E. Who went to Jesus seeking healing? Only those who were sick and wanted healing. Same with us.
F. Most of the Pharisees never went to Jesus. Why? Because they felt they were better than other men were. They didn’t need Jesus.
G. Must confess that we are sinners, the lowest of the low, and then Jesus can help us.
H. Jesus was called the friend of tax collectors and sinners. Are you a sinner? If you think not, then you are not a friend of Jesus.
I. I will be even more undignified than this. David will humble himself before God more and more, because he knows he needs help.
J. The proud and arrogant need nothing and so God gives them nothing. On Judgement Day, they will go into Hell because they did not need anything from God. May we see ourselves as we truly are.
K. Each minute Michal had to wait only added to her anger as she mulled over just how she would dress down her already undressed spouse. Her mind scrolled through the names of the people who saw him in the streets- people beneath her status. If you had tried to remind her that the return of the Ark of the Covenant was the real issue, I doubt you would have made much headway. No, this is about decorum and culture. This was about pride and position. This was about having to face the next meeting of the Jerusalem Ladies Auxiliary after they had all watched her hubby boogying in his royal underwear.
L. This kind of angry judgment has silenced plenty of believers through the centuries. Sang too loud, raised hands too high, amened too often. Michal was just the first in a long line of "church police" who see it as their mission in life to insure that praising, if done at all, is done with refinement and propriety.
M. However, David was celebrating with and for the Lord. To David, terms like "humiliated" and "undignified" were badges of honor, not shame.
N. He was celebrating because he had received so much. How much have you received from the Lord? If nothing, you will have nothing to celebrate about. However, if you believe that every good and perfect gift comes from God, then you cannot help but to get up and dance every once in a while.
O. Proud and arrogant people have nothing to celebrate but themselves. Christian people have everything to celebrate because we have all spiritual, material, social blessings in the Lord.
III. She was looking around instead of looking up. She kept her eyes on others instead of on God.
A. God wants us to be bold in our witness for Him. If we are looking up, we will be bold. If we are looking around, we will be worried what others will think.
B. Those who are dancing have no time to criticize others. Not concerned about that, only want to dance.
C. Look up in your course of action. When we pray and study about a particular issue, and know this would be good for us, do not look who is pleased or displeased. Do not look for man’s applause, only the applause from heaven.
D. Look up for your confidence. They may call you a hair-brained fanatic, a Jesus freak. Who cares? Let your faith rest in the smile of God, not in the approval of man.
E. Look up and God will judge your motives. Look around and men will always give as bad a reason as they can for a good man’s actions. We will all appear before the judgement seat of Christ; do not care about the judgement seat of man. I think that sometimes the Christian should have very much the same bravado against the judgement of men as David’s response to Michal.
F. Who cares what you or others think, what does God think?
G. Look up and no person can have control over you to lead you. We are to be lead by Jesus Christ.
H. If we compared our lives to a computer, who has the keyboard? Do we have control of the keyboard and let Jesus type our lives or do other people have control of the keyboard. If we don’t have control of the keyboard, we need to take it back.
I. Do not let anyone have control over you, but press forward in the Christian race, looking unto Jesus, and looking unto Jesus only for guidance and direction.
J. Where was Michal when David was in the wilderness? David may have told her not to come, but what about when her father was forcing her to marry this other man. I am sure that David would have taken her in then. She did not want to go into the wilderness. That would have meant humiliation in the eyes of others.
K. When was the last time people were embarrassed at you but Your Father in heaven was smiling?
Conclusion:
A. God’s children are some of the most criticized and most critical people in the world. Christians just can’t win.
B. We spend all week being ridiculed by those we are trying to lead to Christ, then just when we think we are going to get a break, some well meaning brother or sister in Christ spend 15 or so minutes admonishing us about something or another.
C. Everything in life has a critic, and we will more often be put down, rather than built up as we live in this world. What makes all the difference is how we handle our faultfinders.
D. Will we keep on dancing like David, or will we take a seat like Michal?
E. David kept on dancing, may we do the same.
F. Plan of salvation.
