The Life of David Series: A Narrow Escape

Michal peered through the upstairs window at the moonlit street below. The two men lounging against the wall were doing their best to appear nonchalant…and failing miserably. Michal turned to her husband who paced back and forth in the middle of the room. Even in the shadows she could tell that he had been running hard. He had slammed the door and run upstairs to meet her. As he started to explain between gasps for breath, Michal and sidled over to the window, and seen the two men arrive. Their casual attitudes fooled no one, she could easily make out the outline of their swords beneath their cloaks.

“So…what did my father do this time?”

The story tumbled out, how David and his men had scored a crushing victory against the Philistines, how at the victory party King Shaul had become increasingly morose, how David had taken up his harp in an effort to cheer up his master and father-in-law – as he had done many times before. And then how Shaul had suddenly hefted his spear and attempted to pin David to the wall.

Now as she watched him she couldn’t refrain from shaking her head in amazement. It wasn’t that she couldn’t believe her father would do such a thing. No, she and her brother had conferred together enough for her to realize that Shaul was perfectly capable, and insanely desirous, of killing his son-in-law. Jonathan was a little slow on the uptake, but she was under no illusions as to her father’s mental state. No, what impressed Michal was that her husband, so brave and cunning on the battlefield, could sometimes be so incredibly stupid.

“Let me see if I get this straight…” Michal began sweetly, summoning all the patience she could muster, “My father tried to kill you, and sent men after you…”

“That’s right!” David exclaimed.

“…and the best place you could think of to flee to was…here? Your house? The first place the kings men would look?”

David opened his mouth, but no sounds came out. Before he could collect his thoughts, Michal was already moving decisively towards their bedchamber.

“Quickly,” she said, spreading a cloth across the bead and placing several garments inside, then tying it neatly with a string. “They’re watching the front door, but with luck they’ve forgotten that our house is against the city wall.” She threw him the bag of supplies, then took several more sheets and began tying them together. “We’re going to do your great-great grandmother Rachab proud.”

By now David was on her wavelength. Almost. “I’ll go to…” She turned and put a finger to his lips. “No,” she hissed. “The less I know, the better.”

“But what will you do? The men who followed me aren’t going to be content to wait outside for long.”

Michal gave a wry smile, and tousled her husband’s unruly hair as a mother would her child. “You leave that to me.”

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After helping him over the wall, Michal peered off into the night, watching David recede into the shadows, until finally she could see him no more. She wondered when she would see him again.

The sound of pounding on her door brought her back to her immediate needs. Quickly she ran back down to her room and opened a wooden chest by the bed. From it, she selected one of the larger of her household idols, a staple in most Israelite homes. She placed it under the sheets, propping a pillow underneath. Then she went downstairs.

Standing briefly before the door as the soldiers banged on it from the other side, she drew a deep breath, fixed her hair, smoothed her robe, then opened the door.

“Good evening, good sirs.” She gave them her most beguiling smile. “Is this the way one normally calls upon the daughter of a king?”

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The above dramatization comes from I Samuel 19:1-17. David is becoming more and more powerful, and Saul is descending more and more into his sin-induced madness. More on that later. First, a couple interesting things we note in this narrative.

First, we see the budding friendship between David and Jonathan. Saul’s son Jonathan is one of the more interesting, and ultimately tragic, characters in David’s story. He was a military hero in his own right. He was in line to become king, and from anything we can tell, a man of faith who was imminently qualified to hold that position. His one great misfortune was that he was Saul’s son.

As we will see in future studies, Jonathan seems to have recognized David’s divinely-appointed ascendancy, and made peace with it.

Second, we notice the presence of idols in David’s household. This is an important factor that gets little-to-no mention in many commentaries, but gives us a window into the spiritual condition of ancient Israel.

As I learned my Sunday School lessons growing up, the impression I got was that the nation of Israel was by-and-large a godly nation that suffered various relapses into paganism. Eventually these relapses became more and more frequent until God simply had enough and turned the nation over to Babylon.

But a careful reading of the Old Testament does not bear this out. In fact, what we see is an essentially pagan nation that had a series of revivals throughout her history, only fall back into paganism shortly thereafter. Not only that, but many times the revivals were localized (many times limited to the city of Jerusalem) while the countryside continued in their pagan ways.

So it should not surprise us to find an idol (this is the meaning of the word translated “image” in the NKJV) in David’s household (probably belonging originally to Michal), which was used as a decoy to fool Saul’s goons. And this should give us a greater appreciation for the grace that God extended to his people for the centuries that they occupied the Promised Land.

So, what can we take a way from this text for our own Christian lives? A couple things.

1. Like Jonathan, we should get with God’s program, even if we are not the main character. Obeying God may not always put us in the spotlight, at the front of the church, or in the Christian history books. Indeed, our role may be to help the person who is in the spotlight, at the front of the church, or in the Christian history books. That should not matter to us. What should matter is the Glory of God and our own obedience.

2. As seen in the life of Saul, un-checked sin grows in the control it exerts over you. Back in chapter 16 we saw that Saul’s descents into darkness were alleviated by David’s harp. But Saul’s brief periods of outward reform (like we see in the beginning of this chapter) have done nothing to care for his heart issue. Thus the power sin over him has grown, to the point where David’s harp enrages him, instead of bringing him peace. This is perhaps the most important lesson we can take away from this text.

James warns us of this progressive nature of sin:

But each one is tempted when he is drawn away by his own desires and enticed. Then, when desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, brings forth death. (James 1:14-15)

So let us heed the warning of Saul, and deal with sin before it deals with us.

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And be sure to read the action-packed adventures of Missionary Max: Missionary Max and the Jungle Princess and Missionary Max and the Lost City.