The Sad Story of David and Michal

Michal Loves David: Now Michal, Saul’s daughter, loved David; and they told Saul, and the thing pleased him. Thus Saul saw and knew that the Lord was with David, and that Michal, Saul’s daughter, loved him. David behaved more wisely than all the servants of Saul, so that his name became highly esteemed. (1 Samuel 18:20-30)

Michal saves David’s Life: Saul also sent messengers to David’s house to watch him and to kill him in the morning. And Michal, David’s wife, told him, saying, “If you do not save your life tonight, tomorrow you will be killed.” So Michal let David down through a window; and he went and fled and escaped. And Michal took an image and laid it in the bed, put a cover of goats’ hair for his head, and covered it with clothes. So when Saul sent messengers to take David, she said, “He is sick.” (1 Samuel 19:11-24)
But Saul had given Michal his daughter, David’s wife, to Palti the son of Laish, who was from Gallim. (1 Samuel 25:44) [JHK Note: Almost everything Saul does is perverse.]

David Wants His Wife Back: Abner sent messengers on his behalf to David, saying ... “Make your covenant with me, and indeed my hand shall be with you to bring all Israel to you.” And David said, “Good! I will make a covenant with you, but ... first bring Michal, Saul’s daughter, when you come to see my face. ... Ishbosheth sent and took her from her husband, from Palti the son of Laish. Then her husband went along
with her ..., weeping behind her. So Abner said to him, “Go home!” And he returned. (2 Samuel 12-16)

Michal Does Not See David from God’s Point of View: All Israel brought up the Ark of the Covenant of the Lord with shouting and with the sound of the horn, with trumpets and with cymbals, making music with stringed instruments and with harps. And it happened, as the Ark of the Covenant of the Lord came to the City of David, that Michal, Saul’s daughter, looked through a window and saw King David whirling and playing music; and she despised him in her heart. (1 Chronicles 15:28-29)

David Puts God First, But Michal Is Punished: King David ... brought up the Ark of God ... to the City of David with gladness and ... he danced before the Lord with all his might ... wearing a linen ephod. ... Now as the Ark of the Lord came into the City of David, Michal, Saul’s daughter, looked through a window and saw King David leaping and whirling before the Lord; and she despised him in her heart. ... When David returned to bless his household, Michal ... came out to meet him and said, “How glorious was the King of Israel today, uncovering himself in the eyes of the maids of his servants, as one of the base fellows shamelessly uncovers himself!” So David said to Michal, “It was before the Lord! ... Therefore, I will play music before the Lord, and I will be even more undignified than this and will be humble in my own sight. ... Therefore, Michal ... had no children to the day of her death.” (2 Samuel 6:12-23)

What is God trying to do here? What is God’s “deep heart” here? Despite the failure and insanity of King Saul, God wanted to unite Saul’s lineage with that of King David; but Michal failed to fulfill her portion of responsibility, so the plan failed ... and the “mission” of producing an heir to the throne fell to Bathsheba. As daughter of an anointed king, Michal was the wife on the good side, God’s side, whereas Bathsheba came from the other side, a foreigner, a Hittite. A similar dynamic happens with Ruth, a Moabite woman, who unites totally with her mother-in-law Naomi, and then with Boaz, and thus becomes the great grandmother of King David. The Moabites descended from Lot, who was the nephew of Abraham. Again, the deep heart of God was to unite the lineages.