What is the story of David and Michal?

The references in 1 Samuel 18:20, 28 are sufficient testimony that Michal, the daughter of Saul, really loved David. Her father, in his enmity towards David, thought to use her as a snare that would cause David's downfall. His efforts failed. Michal loved David and she proved her love for him by saving his life through a stratagem by which David eluded those sent by Saul to kill him. In New Testament language she cared for her husband's interests (1 Cor. 7:34). How sad that her natural love should have blinded her eyes when David danced with all his might before the ark of Jehovah. (2 Sam. 6:12-16). Her cutting and sarcastic remarks offended David. Perhaps she wasn't pleased because he wore a priestly ephod instead of the princely garment he received from Jonathan (1 Sam. 18:4). Whatever the reason for her defamatory remarks David pointed out to her that Jehovah and His people were his prime interest, and she, above all people, should have recognised it. The breach, created by her lack of appreciation of David's enthusiasm for the ark of Jehovah, apparently was never healed. While natural feelings and responsibilities have a place which is honoured by God, they should never take precedence over the spiritual. When God created Eve it was that she should be a helpmate to Adam (Gen. 2:18). Michal was prepared to help David on the natural level but not on the spiritual level. It is a happy situation when husband and wife are united in spirit on both levels, but especially in the things of the Lord. Zacharias and Elizabeth in Luke 1 verse 6 provide an excellent example as do Aquila and Priscilla in Romans 16 verses 3 and 4 and other passages. It is better for a wife to see her husband a humble but efficient servant and lover of Christ, than to encourage him to be a successful business man, or important in politics or the affairs of this doomed world, and yet without power or influence in divine things. Proverbs 31:12 is a good guideline for any Christian wife "She will do him good and not evil all the days of her life".

Younger daughter of Saul, and wife of David. She helped David to escape when her father sought his death. When David was being persecuted she was given as wife to Phaltiel; but when David came into power he demanded of Abner that she should be restored to him. She did not share David's zeal for the Lord, for when he brought up the ark and danced in joy before it, she not only despised him in her heart but reproached him for it. On this account she was barren the rest of her days. 1 Sam. 18:20-28; 1 Sam. 19:11-17; 1 Sam. 25:44; 2 Sam. 3:13-14; 2 Sam. 6:16-23. In 2 Sam. 21:8, for 'Michal,' it should probably be read '[the sister of] Michal,' that is, Merab, as in 1 Sam. 18:19. Michal is an instance of how altogether beyond the natural mind are the leadings of the Spirit of God: cf. 1 Cor. 2:14.

Now he was not safe even in his own house. Michal knew that Saul had sent messengers to watch David's house through the night and she realized that Saul had given them orders to kill David in the morning. She warned him to escape during the night and let him down (perhaps with a rope) through a window. He was able to avoid being seen by Saul's servants and escaped for his life.

Michal, to gain time for David, had put a "teraphim" in David's bed (v.13). This was a image in human form, actually idolatrous yet too often used by Israelites alongside of the worship of God. Poor Michal! She did not know the power of God, nor did she have real faith in His faithfulness. She thought it necessary to at least partly trust in idols! but we all may too easily become adept at practicing deception.

Michal did not gain her desired end by telling Saul's messengers that David was sick. Saul was so determined to kill him quickly that he ordered his servants to bring David to Saul in his bed. Then of course they discovered the deception, and Saul was upset with his daughter because she had been helpful to her own husband! Instead of calling David HER HUSBAND, Saul calls him "my enemy," which was not true, for David had no enmity toward Saul. He demanded of her why she had let David escape.

Why did Michal not tell Saul frankly that she did not want her husband to be killed? Evidently her love for David took second place to her fear of Saul. For she lied to her father, telling him that David had threatened to kill her if she did not let him go. What pathetic weakness was this, in contrast to her brother Jonathan's bold defense of David before Saul (vs.4-5).

David flees away. Saul shows that it was not a passing passion, but the renewal of that relentless hatred which had a definite purpose. He sends to his daughter's house, David's wife, to take David, but Michal lets him down through the window, reminding us of Paul's escape from the plotting of the Jews in Damascus (Acts 9:23-25). What a unity underlies all truth whether it be as to the enmity of the natural heart or the path of faith through the world!

Michal evidently has love for David, but it does not seem to be coupled with genuine faith here, although we would not brand her as being entirely like her father. Her act in its deception, which we do not excuse, has some points of resemblance to that of Rahab, who sent forth the spies in peace; but she does not seem to be as loyal in heart as Jonathan. However, her device shows at least her willingness to aid her husband, and he escapes in safety.

So we find subsequently, not now in Jonathan's case, but through Michal, that there was deliverance yet more for David; and when it was told Saul, he "sent messengers to 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. 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 to Michal, Why hast thou deceived me so, and sent away mine enemy, that he is escaped? And Michal answered Saul, He said to me, Let me go; why should I kill thee?"

The women's song in praise of David raised the jealousy of Saul, who had more sense of his own importance than care for the Lord's people. He gave his daughter Michal to be David's wife, and thought thus to entrap him; but his wife became his deliverer. This called forth Ps. 59. He had faith that God would laugh at his enemies: God was his defence and the God of his mercy. Though the Psalms show the experiences of David's inner man, it must not be forgotten that they are prophetic, and his language is often that of the remnant of Israel in the future, and sometimes that of Christ. Ps. 59: speaks of the heathen who will oppose Christ.

A fresh triumph of David's re-awakens the evil spirit that had taken control of Saul. As long as the believer does not trouble Satan by victories won over his followers his hostility remains asleep, as it were, but his mortal hatred soon awakens. We see this hatred against David at the very moment when the evil spirit seems to be subdued by the gracious relief which David procures for the king. A moment comes, then, when the only thing the believer can do is to flee, to escape like a bird out of the fowler's net. Now David's death is irrevocably decreed. Michal, motivated by her natural affection for David, comes to his help in her own way, God using here the human feelings that animated her (vv. 11-17).

This passage also reveals to us the fact that there was an image (a teraphim) in David's house. Certainly, David did not worship it, but its presence allows us to conclude that he put up with it. The teraphim was not an idol, properly speaking, and the Word is careful to distinguish the one from the other. (See Hosea 3:4; Zech. 10:2; 1 Sam. 15:22-23; 2 Kings 23:24; Ezek. 21:21; Gen. 31:19, 30, 32-35; Judges 17:3-5; Judges 18:17-18, 20) The image (teraphim) is somewhat inferior to the idol; it is a sort of demi-god whose domain is the household; it is clothed with a certain importance, and is even consulted on occasion. Such superstitions quickly lead to true idols; this is exactly how Jacob judged the matter, when he told Laban to take back his gods (Gen. 31:32). Often the believer lacks the energy to banish these occasions of stumbling from his family, and each one of us must be earnestly mindful of this even though, like Jacob et David, we may not personally attribute to them any influence over our life. The image had evidently been introduced into David's household by Michal, Saul's daughter, who was thus a snare to the man of God.

Michal avoids her father's wrath by acting before him as though she were one of David's enemies, constrained by his threats to allow him to escape: “He said to me, Let me go; why should I kill thee?” (v. 17). How different her heart is from Jonathan's who openly, at his own risk and peril, took up the defense of the one whom he tenderly loved.

God is never limited in His resources. Accordingly, He had instruments other than Jonathan for the help of His persecuted servant. Michal by a ruse enabled David to escape when Saul would have murdered him in his bed, and Samuel sheltered him in Naioth when his own home was no longer tenable. When Saul essayed to fetch him thence, the Spirit of God came upon him in a remarkable manner, thus witnessing to the wilful King of the uselessness of waging war with God (1 Sam. 19:11-24).

Michal, Saul's second daughter, loves David. Saul tells himself: “I will give him her, that she may be a snare to him, and that the hand of the Philistines may be upon him” (v. 21). In his thoughts this union is a new means of getting rid of his future son-in-law. He dissimulates and orders his servants to speak to David secretly, saying: “Behold, the king has delight in thee, and all his servants love thee” (v. 22). He pretends to feel affection toward him in order to push the son of Jesse to his destruction all the more surely.

Merab is promised to him to become his wife, but Achiel receives her instead. (See 2 Sam. 21:8 and read "Merab" instead of "Michal.") Then he received Michal, who loved David. We shall meet her again later when she was restored to the King by Abner and later mocked the King of Israel. And Saul, after his scheme failed, became David's enemy continually.