David and Michal
Is it time to denigrate Michal again? There have been numberless messages and even some songs written about how Michal was so critical of the great King David when he worshipped God. She was just a cantankerous old woman who was filled with bitterness and it cost her the opportunity of having children.
No, I think not.
Michal was a daughter of a king and grew up with certain preconceptions which were never fulfilled. She may have expected to be in an arranged, politically expedient marriage, but she would not have expected to be treated as one king’s afterthought and another king’s convenience. This poor woman was mistreated by the two most important men in her life and it is little surprise that she became so bitter and critical of a husband who had no time for her.
We need to start at the beginning. Michal was not David’s first choice as wife. Saul promised him the hand of Merab his eldest daughter. However, Saul gave her to Adriel the Meholathite. But we know one thing about Michal: she loved David. "And Michal Saul’s daughter loved David:" (1 Samuel 18:20a) David was young and dashing a national hero and destined for great things. Michal was enraptured. Her father used his daughter for his own ends and she lived to regret it throughout her life: "..and they told Saul, and the thing pleased him. And Saul said, I will give him her, that she may be a snare to him, and that the hand of the Philistines may be against him. Wherefore Saul said to David, Thou shalt this day be my son in law in the one of the twain." (1 Samuel 18:20b-21)
Saul was not a man of honour, nor a man of his word. David had already "earned" the hand of the king’s daughter by slaying Goliath, but the king hoped that David would die in his efforts to win her hand a second time. "The king desireth not any dowry, but an hundred foreskins of the Philistines, to be avenged of the king’s enemies. But Saul thought to make David fall by the hand of the Philistines." (1 Samuel 18:25) David was pleased and took up the challenge: "And when his servants told David these words, it pleased David well to be the king’s son in law:.. Wherefore David arose and went, he and his men, and slew of the Philistines two hundred men; and David brought their foreskins, and they gave them in full tale to the king, that he might be the king’s son in law. And Saul gave him Michal his daughter to wife.
And Saul saw and knew that the LORD was with David, and that Michal Saul’s daughter loved him." (1 Samuel 18:26-28)
Saul’s hatred of David knew no bounds. He tried to kill him, personally, with a javelin. He sent teams of assassins after him, and Michal’s love for David helped him to escape. "Saul also sent messengers unto David’s house, to watch him, and to slay him in the morning: and Michal David’s wife told him, saying, If thou save not thy life to night, to morrow thou shalt be slain. So Michal let David down through a window: and he went, and fled, and escaped." (1 Samuel 19:11-12) Her protection of her husband went further as she bought him time by lying to her father. "And Michal took an image, and laid it in the bed, and put a pillow of goats’ hair for his bolster, and covered it with a cloth. And when Saul sent messengers to take David, she said, He is sick. And Saul sent the messengers again to see David, saying, Bring him up to me in the bed, that I may slay him. And when the messengers were come in, behold, there was an image in the bed, with a pillow of goats’ hair for his bolster. And Saul said unto Michal, Why hast thou deceived me so, and sent away mine enemy, that he is escaped?" (1 Samuel 18:13-17a)
This princess was potentially a great woman of God. She had protected the Lord’s anointed and risked her own life in doing so. David owed her a debt which if we search throughout the whole Bible we find he never paid. In fact, although David was on the run and Michal had nowhere to go by her own volition, we would think that he would make some effort to contact her. Instead we find nothing. David was a great warrior and a great worshipper but when it came to being a husband he was a walking disaster area. He found time to build an army of mighty men. He found time to relate to his covenant partner, Jonathan, but when it came to his relationship with his wife it was non-existent.
David was away from Michal for between ten and fourteen years. During that time he built himself a family. He married Abigail the widow of Nabal. He also married Ahinoam of Jezreel. But Saul was at home doing a despicable thing: "Saul had given Michal his daughter, David’s wife, to Phalti the son of Laish, which was of Gallim." (1 Samuel 25:44)
We know nothing of their lives together, but one thing is certain. They loved each other. Michal must have been confident that all would be well with this man who treated her properly. But David had other ideas. Even after Saul and three of his sons were slain at the battle of Gilboa she probably rejoiced in the fact that her brother Ishbosheth reigned in Mahanaim. His reign however, was to be short-lived and he also was the catalyst for Michal’s greatest sorrow.
David was King of Judah in Hebron. Ishbosheth was King of Israel. Abner who represented Ishbosheth and was his greatest general began to plot against him: "And Abner sent messengers to David on his behalf, saying, Whose is the land? saying also, Make thy league with me, and, behold, my hand shall be with thee, to bring about all Israel unto thee." (2 Samuel 3:12) In many ways this was to be expected. Ishbosheth was a weak man. He was not a born leader. David would probably have pensioned him off into some obscure retirement and faced no threat from him. But David also wanted to strengthen his hand politically. If he was to become King over all Israel he would need to unite his family with the family of King Saul. What better way than to reclaim his wife the daughter of the late King. "And he said, Well; I will make a league with thee: but one thing I require of thee, that is, Thou shalt not see my face, except thou first bring Michal Saul’s daughter, when thou comest to see my face." (2 Samuel 3:13) Poor, weak, Ishbosheth under the spell of the much stronger Abner was easily persuaded, "And David sent messengers to Ishbosheth Saul’s son, saying, Deliver me my wife Michal, which I espoused to me for an hundred foreskins of the Philistines. And Ishbosheth sent, and took her from her husband, even from Phaltiel the son of Laish." (2 Samuel 14-15) Michal was sold out for the cause of political expediency. Any woman without the Spirit of God would be overwhelmed by bitterness and grief. We may not and should not condone bitterness we can easily understand this woman’s predicament. She is tied to a man who does not love her and has used her for his own ends. And she knows there is another man somewhere nearby who loved her as a man should love a wife. "And her husband went with her along weeping behind her to Bahurim. Then said Abner unto him, Go, return. And he returned." (2 Samuel 3:16)
As the war between Saul’s house and David’s house continued so did David’s family grow. He married wife after wife: Maacah the daughter of Talmai king of Geshur; Haggith; Abital; Eglah. At this point he had six children by seven wives. It was Michal who remained childless. But she was a good mother to 5 children: "the five sons of Michal the daughter of Saul, whom she brought up for Adriel the son of Barzillai the Meholathite".
Eventually David prevailed and began to reign over all Israel from Jerusalem. Israel spent much of his reign at war with Philistia. During one of these battles the ark of the Lord was captured. After one aborted attempt to bring it back David sanctified himself and his people properly and began to bring it home:
"And David was clothed with a robe of fine linen, and all the Levites that bare the ark, and the singers, and Chenaniah the master of the song with the singers: David also had upon him an ephod of linen. Thus all Israel brought up the ark of the covenant of the LORD with shouting, and with sound of the cornet, and with trumpets, and with cymbals, making a noise with psalteries and harps. And it came to pass, as the ark of the covenant of the LORD came to the city of David, that Michal the daughter of Saul looking out at a window saw king David dancing and playing: and she despised him in her heart." And so her bitterness implodes. I am not surprised. Her father was supposed to be a spiritual man who was numbered among the prophets. He had used her and misused her. Her brother whom David described as a righteous man had betrayed her for short term gain. And now this husband whom she had once loved is dancing before the Lord in spite of his selfishness, his boorishness, his continued sexual sin and his failure to be a husband or father. Well, we all need to be worshippers because as we do so we acknowledge that in ourselves we are complete failures. There are those of us who know just how bad we can be. And in spite of it all we say to the Lord, "You deserve the glory." David knew he was a failure. He would say such things as, "My sin is ever before me." His extravagant worship was no more than the Lord deserved; it was probably far less. The conversation which David and Michal had is just about the only one recorded in scripture and shows how much they misunderstood each other.
"Then David returned to bless his household. And Michal the daughter of Saul came out to meet David, and said, How glorious was the king of Israel to day, who uncovered himself to day in the eyes of the handmaids of his servants, as one of the vain fellows shamelessly uncovereth himself!" (2 Samuel 6:20)
Michal was guilty of one thing so many of us are. We mock another’s worship of God. David was not naked for we know what he was wearing, but he made himself vulnerable. He was showing the people that he was totally reliant on God.
"And David said unto Michal, It was before the LORD, which chose me before thy father, and before all his house, to appoint me ruler over the people of the LORD, over Israel: therefore will I play before the LORD." (2 Samuel 6:21)
David is no psychologist. He let’s her have it with both barrels. And his true feelings come out as well. This is no Word of Knowledge. This is sheer one-upmanship and almost totally unfair. Michal had risked her life with her father for David. She was not hankering for a return to rulership under the house of Saul She was angry because David had not returned her love. He had shown no loyalty to her. David continued:
"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)
Who were these five sons of Michal. Stepsons? Or birthsons? We don’t have a full answer. However, whatever they were Michal’s sons. David takes no account of how she feels. He was heartbroken when his own infant son died. He was utterly devastated when his adult son, Absalom died as a result of his own rebellion. But he takes Michal’s FIVE sons and delivers them up for the sake of his oath. I only have one hope concerning this situation and it is that Michal had already died by this time. If not, then the sorrow of this unfortunate woman would be almost too much to bear.
The next time you lustily sing about Michal’s failure to glorify God when her husband did so have a little feeling of how this woman must have felt. And although there is nothing you can do for her there are people around who you can help. Some women have been bitterly treated by their spouse. Some men are in a marriage which is almost unbearable. Others have been abused by parents and guardians. We can pray. And we can help them to learn what it is to have a new life in Christ where old things are passed away and all things become new.
