Women with a Story to Tell: The Merry Wives of David: Michal.

 A disclaimer right up front, maybe two disclaimers. First, I just stole a title from Shakespeare; there is no evidence that David’s wives were merry. Some were downright sad, at least part of the time. 

Second, in the story as told in the Bible, David is the main character; the wives ranged from little voice to no voice. They were in the midst of internal political strife in Israel; and they were often pawns or peripheral to the disputes (no surprise there!). Yet, they had an influence, both for good and for bad, and sometimes that was true in the life of one wive, sometimes true of all of them.

 Third, (did I say there would be a third?); I have no answer for why polygamy was all right for David, whom God claimed at one point was a “man after God’s own heart” (I Samuel 13: 14; Acts 13: 22). Yet, polygamy is not all right for us (not that I’m looking!)

 First wife: Michal. Michal was a daughter of King Saul, sometimes envious of David and thus an enemy. David was promised Saul’s elder daughter, Merab, and through her Saul planned on subverting David and making him vulnerable to being killed by the Philistines (I Samuel 14: 49, 18: 17-19). 

 Then Saul played false with David and gave Merab away to a pagan ruler in order to solidify a political alliance (that is what daughters were for in those days). Nobody asked Merab what she felt. However, the text says that the younger daughter, Michal, “Saul’s daughter Michal loved David” (I Samuel 18: 20). That is the only place in the Bible where a woman’s feelings are noted with the phrase, “She loved him.” Never does it ever say that David loved her, or any of his wives, though he lusted after some. It seems that, in the story of David, lust and power have a role, but marital love does not, except as a metaphor for a relationship with God. 

 Saul was told that Michal loved David, and the gears started to whirl in his brain. Saul was “pleased” with the news, Scripture says. Here is why. David had already professed that he was a poor man from a poor lineage and did not seem able to match up with the royal lineage. Saul knew this, so he proposed that, to provide a bride price, David should give him 100 foreskins of Philistine warriors. 

 Think about the danger that would put David in. Saul thought about it. That is what he hoped for; but David and his men accomplished the task. “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” (I Samuel 18: 27b-28). 

 Michal has been put in an untenable position, and it will not turn out well for her. Saul set a trap for David, but Michal warned him to escape (I Samuel 19: 11-20). Saul, of course, was angry with his daughter and was too proud to rethink what he was doing. Saul’s revenge on both of them was to give his daughter Michal to another pagan ruler, thus depriving Michal of any happiness with David  (I Samuel 25: 44). 

 After Saul’s death in a battle with the Philistines, David acceded to the throne (I Samuel 31, II Samuel 2). David forced Michal to come back to him (II Samuel 3: 13-14) though her husband came weeping behind her. Perhaps he loved her? 

 At any rate, it’s pretty clear that, by this time, Michal had turned sour on David. Later, when David had conquered the city of Jerusalem, he wanted to bring the Ark of the Covenant into the city. On the approaches to the city, David danced before the Lord with only a long flowing undershirt on. Michal was watching from a window in their house. She did not like what she saw.

 “As the ark of the LORD came into the city of David, Michal daughter of Saul looked out the window, and saw King David leaping and dancing before the LORD; and she despised him in her heart” (II Samuel 6: 16). 

 Perhaps her years of being abused by her father and David in their political ploys had made her bitter. “But Michal the daughter of Saul came out to meet David, and said, ‘How the king of Israel honored himself today, uncovering himself today before the eyes of his servants’ maids, as any vulgar fellow might shamelessly uncover himself!” (II Samuel 6: 20). Notice how the text always identifies her as “the daughter of Saul” and never as “the wife of David.” 

 Of course, David tried to defend himself, but the relationship had deteriorated too far. David may not have been on a good path (we will see later), but the abuse of her father and husband destroyed her life as well. The story concludes: “And Michal the daughter of Saul had no child to the day of her death” (II Samuel 6: 23). 

 So here is the story of a princess whose life was not as imagined, the not so merry wife of David. Is it that way with all princesses in a male-dominated society? The story goes on and on.