1 Samuel 20-22

Jonathan and Michal, the son and daughter of King Saul, shared a love for David son of Jesse. They both expressed their devotion with a covenant; Jonathan in friendship and Michal in marriage. Both of them sought to protect David from king Saul’s jealous wrath. Michal urged him to escape and put an idol in his bed to delay the guard’s discovery of the ruse (1 Samuel 19:11-14). Jonathan directed David into hiding (1 Samuel 20:19) while he sought out his father’s plans. Each child was confronted by their father in his anger, and their response to his threats to them, or Saul’s accusations against David, were completely different. When Saul confronted Michal she changed her story. For whatever reason she didn’t tell how she had urged David to flee but instead put words of threats into David’s mouth (19:17). Jonathan was also confronted with violent words from his father (20:30-31). Jonathan would not budge on his covenant with David (20:32). His faithfulness nearly cost him his life, but God spared him (20:33). In response to his father’s violence outbreak Jonathan abandoned the feast and fasted in his sorrow (20:34). He would not live to see the day with David reigned as king, but he lived in hope of the covenant between the two men.

The contrast of these two children also show a difference in their faith. Jonathan trusted in God’s provisions. He sought nothing for himself. He was willing to relinquish any claim to the throne so that God’s anointed would reign. Michal, however, sought the protection and favor of her father, no matter how irrational his reasons and actions and despised her covenant with David. We later learn the Michal abandoned her marriage covenant by marrying another man, Paltiel, who was surely in her father’s favor (2 Samuel 3:14-16). Michal’s youthful loving attitude corroded to where she despised the sight of David worshiping without restraint (2 Samuel 6:16). She rebuffed his homecoming with a sarcastic retort to his blessing (6:20). The last we are told of Michal is that she was barren the rest of her life (6:23). Her physical life was a reflection of her faithfulness to her covenant with David. Though she saw her brother’s hope fulfilled she rejected any part in the glory of David’s rule.

 

Stuart