We shouldn't be quick to judge people in the Bible. It's tempting to read the Bible like a novel consisting of good and bad characters; but it's real stories about real people and those people are complicated too. I think about Michal, David's first wife and how she is known for looking down on him when he danced undignified before the Lord. I agree that she was definitely wrong for that, and in no way condone that behavior, but Michal had a story too. If we dig deeper we see the story is more complicated, and perhaps we will have more mercy and compassion for her when we understand her better. Here's an excerpt from my journal about her story:
Journal Excerpt Mon 3/30/09
Anyway I was thinking about King David's wife Michal. I just heard a preacher talking about how she was embarrassed by David's display of praise when he came back with the Ark of the Covenant. He got so happy he came out of his clothes and danced with abandon. Michal rebuked him for that and never had sex with him again after that. [The Bible actually says that she had no children; not that she and David were never intimate again.] The preacher was criticizing Michal for being so condescending. I used to think that too until this last time I read the story. There are always at least 2 sides to every story.
Michal had a crush on David when she was younger. She was promised to David for killing Goliath. In 1 Samuel 18 it says she was in love with David. She was David's first wife and in chapter 19 she was hiding David and lying to her father to spare David's life. Well David was on the run for many years. He married 2 other women and engaged in a plethora of wars. Saul had given Michal to another man. Finally David is coming back and demands that he be given back his wife as part of a military deal.
13 "Good," said David. "I will make an agreement with you. But I demand one thing of you: Do not come into my presence unless you bring Michal daughter of Saul when you come to see me." 14 Then David sent messengers to Ish-Bosheth son of Saul, demanding, "Give me my wife Michal, whom I betrothed to myself for the price of a hundred Philistine foreskins."
15 So Ish-Bosheth gave orders and had her taken away from her husband Paltiel son of Laish. 16 Her husband, however, went with her, weeping behind her all the way to Bahurim. Then Abner said to him, "Go back home!" So he went back
That's from 2 Samuel 3:13-16. When I read that I thought how sad. This man must have really loved Michal to follow after her weeping until he was ordered to go back home. I wonder what Michal's experience was like. Her first love is torn from her and she probably struggled with trying to get over him for years. She probably had hope and fear and finally tried to move on. Perhaps she loved her new husband. Now she's finally got a man who loves her, she's the sole wife of this man and that's ripped from her in a moment. I never read that David loved Michal; there's no proof that she was more than a commodity to him. Perhaps he loved her too, I don't know. I do think it was hard to see your lost love now return with other wives and concubines and you're thrust back into a life of conflict/war after losing a man that adored you. Maybe Michal was disgusted with more than just David's dancing. [Her chief complaint was that he exposed himself to the girls present.] Maybe she blamed David for the death of her father and brother. I think that was the first time she'd seen him in 13 years. Maybe her heart was already shattered and she was looking for excuses. I don't know.
-------
God's Beloved I don't want to get too focused on whether Michal was right or wrong. My point is even people who do seemingly horrible things have reasons we may not know or understand. As I recently heard Joyce Meyer say "Mercy sees the why behind the what."
