God's People: Michal

Now Saul’s daughter Michal loved David. Saul was told, and the thing pleased him. Saul thought, “Let me give her to him that she may be a snare for him and that the hand of the Philistines may be against him.” Therefore Saul said to David a second time, “You shall now be my son-in-law.” Saul commanded his servants, “Speak to David in private and say, ‘See, the king is delighted with you, and all his servants love you; now then, become the king’s son-in-law.’” So Saul’s servants reported these words to David in private. And David said, “Does it seem to you a little thing to become the king’s son-in-law, seeing that I am a poor man and of no repute?” The servants of Saul told him, “This is what David said.” Then Saul said, “Thus shall you say to David, ‘The king desires no marriage present except a hundred foreskins of the Philistines, that he may be avenged on the king’s enemies.’” Now Saul planned to make David fall by the hand of the Philistines. When his servants told David these words, David was well pleased to be the king’s son-in-law. Before the time had expired, David rose and went, along with his men, and killed one hundred of the Philistines; and David brought their foreskins, which were given in full number to the king, that he might become the king’s son-in-law. Saul gave him his daughter Michal as a wife. But when Saul realized that the Lord was with David, and that Saul’s daughter Michal loved him, Saul was still more afraid of David. So Saul was David’s enemy from that time forward.

Again there was war, and David went out to fight the Philistines. He launched a heavy attack on them, so that they fled before him. Then an evil spirit from the Lord came upon Saul, as he sat in his house with his spear in his hand, while David was playing music. Saul sought to pin David to the wall with the spear; but he eluded Saul, so that he struck the spear into the wall. David fled and escaped that night.

Saul sent messengers to David’s house to keep watch over him, planning to kill him in the morning. David’s wife Michal told him, “If you do not save your life tonight, tomorrow you will be killed.” So Michal let David down through the window; he fled away and escaped. Michal took an idol and laid it on the bed; she put a net of goats’ hair on its head, and covered it with the clothes. When Saul sent messengers to take David, she said, “He is sick.” Then Saul sent the messengers to see David for themselves. He said, “Bring him up to me in the bed, that I may kill him.” When the messengers came in, the idol was in the bed, with the covering of goats’ hair on its head. Saul said to Michal, “Why have you deceived me like this, and let my enemy go, so that he has escaped?” Michal answered Saul, “He said to me, ‘Let me go; why should I kill you?’” ~ I Samuel 19:20-29; 19:8-17

Michal is undoubtedly one of the characters in scripture that I find most interesting, and one for whom I feel a lot of compassion. She doesn't get a lot of notice in terms of David's story, but hers is one of what happens when the fairy tale doesn't have a happily ever after to it. In many ways, she isn't much different from her father, Saul, in terms of starting with a life of promise that ends in bitterness and isolation.

At this point, Saul has completely turned on David. No longer is David the soothing harp player. He is now the enemy, and Saul is out to get him.

Michal becomes part of his plot against David. Like her brother, Jonathan, Michal also loved David from the moment she met him.

But unlike Jonathan, the feelings weren't quite as reciprocated. He first was to marry her older sister, but when that didn't happen, he took Michal as his wife.

As in a fairy tale, the princess meets the handsome commoner, falls in love, and marries below her station for what seems to be true love. She even rescues him from the clutches of the villainous king!

And then everything falls apart.

The last happy moment David and Michal have together is this last night here in chapter 19. From there, Michal's life will take an unhappy turn.

After David escapes he'll fall in love with and marry someone else, and Saul will force Michal to marry another as well.

And in what may be the most poignant, sad moment of her life, after David returns from exile - with his new wife in tow! - he'll demand Michal's return to him - as his property - taking her from the husband she has formed a life with.

And that doesn't end well for either of them.

Michal intrigues me because she is so wonderfully human. She is flawed - having pride and vanity from being the daughter of a king. 

And yet she is also brave and, for a time anyway, loyal. She is a victim of the men in her life, being used by them for political ends.

But in the end, what makes her story so sad is her inability to turn to God when David mistreats her. In pride, she relies on herself, just as her father, Saul, did. She becomes mocking and scornful.

The story of the marriage of David and Michal is one that has continued to play out over the millennia.  Marriages and relationships end when pride wins out over acceptance of each other as is; when we aren't paying attention and putting time into the relationship; when expectations aren't voiced or met.

Jesus will call us into a community that challenges us to do better in relationships - to love even our enemies.

But many of us, at least at some point in our lives, may feel like Michal, wondering what on earth happened to make the fairly tale fall apart.

How then can God help mend us up and heal the broken relationships we might have?

Prayer: Merciful God, help me to heal all those relationships that are broken with those who are closest to me. Amen.