Saturday 29th January 2022 Devotion
Scripture:- 2 Samuel 6:16-23
Topic:- Michal Despises David
David is the great Praise Leader of Israel. But sadly, that very praise is misunderstood by one of the people closest to him, Michel, David’s wife.
“And when she saw King David leaping and dancing before the LORD, she despised him in her heart.” See 2 Samuel 6:16.
“Despised” is bāzâ, “to despise, disdain, hold in contempt … to accord little worth to something.
When David comes home, happy in the Lord, ready to share his joy with his family, he is met by a rebuke from his wife.
“When David returned home to bless his household, Michal daughter of Saul came out to meet him and said, ‘How the king of Israel has distinguished himself today, uncovering in the sight of the slave girls of his servants as any vulgar fellow would!'” See 2 Samuel 6:20.
See David’s response in 2 Samuel 6:21-23. David’s answer indicates that there is no longer any great love between the two.
His Response Involves Three Elements:
1. God’s choice of David over Saul’s dynasty. It sounds like Michal resents David. She had loved him once when he was the young warrior honored by her father the king. See 1 Samuel 18:20.
However, for years she had been the wife of Paltiel, one of Saul’s supporters and a fellow Benjamite. Paltiel obviously loved her deeply, for when she was to be returned to her legitimate husband, David, Paltiel “went with her, weeping behind her all the way to Bahurim.” See 2 Samuel 3:16.
Though she had been David’s first wife, by the time Michal was returned, she seems to have been David’s seventh wife in terms of status — and all the rest bore him children! See 2 Samuel 3:2-5.
Her once high status as a king’s daughter is but a memory — and she resents it! David understands this, and that is why he reminds her that God had made him king in the place of her father Saul. 2 Samuel 6:21.
2. Humility Versus Pride. David isn’t afraid to humble himself before the Lord. He knows Yahweh’s character. See Psalm 18:27.
Some commentators believe that David’s short ephod exposed his genitals to the eyes of the low-class slave girls when he leaped in dance.
That’s possible, of course, but I think it’s more likely that Michal is objecting to the fact that David takes off his royal robe to wear the simple ephod of a priest, and thus “uncovers” himself as if he were a commoner, rather than wearing the royal robes of a king.
The word rêq doesn’t suggest sexual vulgarity, only the idea of being common (“empty, vain, worthless”), rather than dignified as a king might be expected to be.
Assuming that David is wearing the priestly ephod specified in the Torah, he will also be wearing a linen undergarment prescribed for this very reason — to prevent a priest from exposing himself. See Exodus 20:26.
David had spent years in desert camps fleeing Michal’s father Saul. He knows homelessness and hunger. He knows fear and faith. However, all her life, Michal has been pampered as a king’s daughter, and later as the wife of an important person the king chose to favor.
She knows only luxury and has developed a sense of class superiority that sometimes accompanies wealth and position.
It is significant that David doesn’t defend himself against a charge of exposing his sexual organs, as some believe happened. Rather, his answer justifies humbling himself before the Lord.
The word translated “undignified” has the idea of being of little account, that is abased, or seen as humble.
3. The Priority Of Worship. David defends his act of worship as not for anyone’s benefit but for God’s.
Michal sees only the exterior — because she isn’t a co-worshipper, only an observer. God sees David’s heart. See 2 Samuel 6:21.
Prayer Point:- I command all that despise me and want me to be shamed, carry your shame, and fall therein now by fire, in the name of Jesus Christ.
Have A Fulfilled Saturday!
