August 2, 2008
Out of Step
From Bold Heroine to Bitter Has-Been: Michal
Only one person (on record) loved Michal, bless her heart. Everybody loved David, except King Saul who feared the young man’s popularity. Saul offered David the hand of his older daughter Merab with the understanding David would continue to fight on his behalf (and hopefully fall to his death at the hand of a Philistine). David’s humility wouldn’t allow him to marry the daughter of a king.
David was a looker. David had a heart for God, and that alone make him attractive, not only to his Creator but to earthly types as well. He also had talent. He was a shepherd, tanned and muscular, young and innocent. The word soon traveled to Saul that his other daughter Michal had a thing for David. “I will give her to him,” he thought, ” so that she may be a snare to him and so that the hand of the Philistines may be against him,” (I Samuel 18:21)
“The king wants no other price for the bride than a hundred Philistine foreskins, to take revenge on his enemies. Saul’s plan was to have David fall by the hands of the Philistines.” (I Samuel 18:25) To David’s way of thinking, the price for his bride was a bargain. “He was pleased to become the king’s son-in-law.” (I Samuel 18:26) It does not say David was pleased to become Michal’s husband. We’re told that Michal loved David but never that David loved Michal.
“When Saul realized that the Lord was with David and that his daughter Michal loved David, Saul became more afraid of him, and he remained his enemy the rest of his days.” (I Samuel 18:28-29)
“Saul sent men to David’s house to watch it and to kill him in the morning. But Michal, David’s wife, warned him, ‘If you don’t run for your life tonight, tomorrow you’ll be killed.’ ” (I Samuel 19:1)
How courageous she was, not only warning her husband but sending him away, knowing she might never see him again. Putting his needs above her own, Michal helped hubby make his getaway in the dark of night. “Then Michal took an idol and laid it on the bed, covering it with a garment and putting some goat’s hair at the head. When Saul sent the men to capture David, Michal said, ‘He is ill.’ ” (I Samuel 19:13-14)
Saul is angry when he finds out he was deceived. Desperate to avoid her father’s unpredictable temper, Michal lied again – this time not to protect David but to save her own pretty neck. Michal suggested her own life was a stake. “But Saul had given his daughter Michal, David’s wife, to Paltiel …” (I Samuel 25:44). Notice how Saul got around the fact that Michal’s marriage to another husband was illegal.
After the death of Saul, David is anointed king of Judah. Abner, the commander of Saul’s army sent a messenger to David saying, “let’s make a deal.” David like the idea but countered with … “Give me my wife Michal.” (II Samuel 3:14)
But what David wanted more than anything was to bring the ark of the covenant into the City of David. When they did so, it was a serious party. “David, wearing a linen ephod, danced before the Lord with all his might … 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. (II Samuel 6:15-16)
His leaping was the last straw. David had deserted her, ignored her, married other waives, fathered other children, and neglected to include her in his life until it was politically expedient. “When David returned home to bless his household, Michal daughter of Saul came out to meet him. How the king of Israel haws distinguished himself today disrobing in the sight of the slave girls of his servants as any vulgar fellow would. (II Samuel 6:20) Michal had three problems with David’s dance: (1) He removed most of his clothes. (2) the lowest women in the kingdom saw portions of David that were supposed to be the queen’s territory alone, (3) he looked like a common jerk. The truth is, she didn’t comprehend the purpose of David’s dancing. She saw it as passion of the flesh, when David knew it was spiritual passion for God.
We are never told that David divorced Michal. Nor is she spoken of again, except one sad closing verse.
“And Michal daughter of Saul had no children to the day of her death.” (II Samuel 6:23) David never brougth her to his bed again. She never knew him as a wife knows her husband. She is still called the “daughter of Saul.” Michal never left her father and mother and cleaved to her husband. She was Daddy’s girl. In the same way, she never reached out to her heavenly Father, never gave her heart to God. Though her caustic words to David made Michal Bad for a Moment, in truth she never depended on the goodness of God to make her while.
