2 Samuel 6 & 7 and 1 Chronicles 17: Do Justly, Love Mercy, Walk Humbly

2 Samuel 6:16


As the ark of the LORD was entering the City of David, 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.


I used to have an unfavorable attitude towards Michal thinking that she manifested a  religious response to her husband's wild worship of the Lord.  She may have, but I see deeper into her heart reaction.


Michal was given to David as a wife as a reward for "a hundred foreskins of the Philistines." (1 Samuel 18:25)  But, this treatment as a prize (an object) didn't matter to Michal, because she loved David. (1 Samuel 18:28)  Her love was so great that she risked her own safety by assisting in David's escape when her own father, King Saul, had planned to have him killed. (1 Samuel 19:11 & 12)


Later, Michal was given to Phalti son of Laish by Saul. (1 Samuel 25:44) When David became king, he wanted Michal to be brought back to him; she was his wife, right? 
(2 Samuel 3:13) 


Now imagine the damage that had been inflicted in this woman's heart.  Think about being passed from one man to the next and back again, like a piece of property not a person.  Think about the conflicting loyalty to her father and her husband.  Now imagine how bitterness most probably filled Michal's soul.  


I'm not attempting to justify her behavior; I'm just trying to understand it.



Just having watched Mel Gibson's, "The Passion," I found myself once again feeling sorry for a Biblical "villain," Judas.  His betrayal of Jesus was born of a deceived heart, but I then thought of the times in my life that I had been deceived.  


I found myself realizing, once again, that all of us have the potential to be deceived, that all of us have sinned, and the only possible way to the Father is Jesus.  


Holy Spirit empower me to never judge another, whether that person is living now or is long dead, their life remaining only as a story in the pages of His Word.  Help me "to do justly, To love mercy, And to walk humbly with your [my] God." (Micah 6:8) In the powerful and merciful name of Jesus, AMEN!