The Life and Times of

David Is at the End of His Rope or David’s Big Let Down (19:11-17)

(1 Sam 19:11-17) "Saul sent men to David's house to watch it and to kill him in the morning. But Michal, David's wife, warned him, "If you don't run for your life tonight, tomorrow you'll be killed." {12} So Michal let David down through a window, and he fled and escaped. {13} Then Michal took an idol and laid it on the bed, covering it with a garment and putting some goats' hair at the head. {14} When Saul sent the men to capture David, Michal said, "He is ill." {15} Then Saul sent the men back to see David and told them, "Bring him up to me in his bed so that I may kill him." {16} But when the men entered, there was the idol in the bed, and at the head was some goats' hair. {17} Saul said to Michal, "Why did you deceive me like this and send my enemy away so that he escaped?" Michal told him, "He said to me, 'Let me get away. Why should I kill you?'""

David may have escaped into the night, but Saul is in no mood to give up his plan to capture and kill him. Saul puts some of his men on a stakeout outside David’s house. Their orders are to wait until morning and then put David to death. David seems to feel safe once he reaches his own home. Michal knows her father better. She emphatically informs David that unless he escapes during darkness, he will not live another day. Now is the time for David to make his escape. I can almost visualize Michal standing there confronting David, with her hands on her hips, telling her more naïve husband how things are with daddy.

David’s reticence may be related to the only way he is able escape. It will not be a very dignified retreat for David. If he is to live, he must leave his dignity behind.¹¹ Their house must have been located along the wall of the city. Michal has to lower her husband down through a window so that he reaches the ground below, outside the city walls, and disappears into the darkness of night.

The other side of his escape is not so glorious either. It is one thing to get David out of the house and into the night unnoticed. But Michal also knows that she must buy David some time to enable him to make his escape good. When the servants of Saul arrive at the door, Michal is ready for them. She has all of her props in place. On the bed, Michal has positioned an idol so that it gives the appearance of David’s form under some of David’s clothes, with a goats’ hair quilt at the head. From a distance, without being able to look too closely, one would assume it is David lying very still in bed, perhaps quite ill.

The messengers Saul sent return and report what Michal has told them. Saul is more suspicious, so he sends messengers back to Michal’s house to bring David to him so he can personally put him to death. This must have been quite a scene when these fellows ripped off the covers, only to find a household idol cleverly placed to deceive them. With red faces, perhaps, Saul’s messengers return to tell him they have been fooled. Saul is angry with his daughter for deceiving him and for letting David escape. Michal again attempts to deceive her father by telling him David threatened to kill her if she did not cooperate. This fits very nicely into Saul’s distorted estimation of David, though it is far from the truth.¹²

There certainly is a touch of humor in this rescue. It shows how futile Saul’s plans to kill David are. We should pause for a moment to remember how David got his wife. Earlier when Goliath made fun of Saul and the army of Israel, the king offered his daughter to the man who would stand up against Goliath and kill him (17:25). By all rights, David should have had one of Saul’s daughters for a wife back then. After David becomes famous in the land and Saul becomes jealous of him, Saul makes David another offer of a wife:

17 Then Saul said to David, “Here is my older daughter Merab; I will give her to you as a wife, only be a valiant man for me and fight the LORD'S battles.” For Saul thought, “My hand shall not be against him, but let the hand of the Philistines be against him” (1 Samuel 18:17).

David declines that offer, sincerely believing he is unworthy to have one of Saul’s daughters as his wife, and also well aware that he cannot pay the dowry she should require (18:18; see also verse 23).

The next time Saul offers one of his daughters to David, he is much more shrewd about the way in which he goes about it:

20 Now Michal, Saul's daughter, loved David. When they told Saul, the thing was agreeable to him. 21 And Saul thought, “I will give her to him that she may become a snare to him, and that the hand of the Philistines may be against him.” Therefore Saul said to David, “For a second time you may be my son-in-law today.” 22 Then Saul commanded his servants, “Speak to David secretly, saying, 'Behold, the king delights in you, and all his servants love you; now therefore, become the king's son-in-law.'“ 23 So Saul's servants spoke these words to David. But David said, “Is it trivial in your sight to become the king's son-in-law, since I am a poor man and lightly esteemed?” 24 And the servants of Saul reported to him according to these words which David spoke. 25 Saul then said, “Thus you shall say to David, 'The king does not desire any dowry except a hundred foreskins of the Philistines, to take vengeance on the king's enemies.'“ Now Saul planned to make David fall by the hand of the Philistines. 26 When his servants told David these words, it pleased David to become the king's son-in-law. Before the days had expired 27 David rose up and went, he and his men, and struck down two hundred men among the Philistines. Then David brought their foreskins, and they gave them in full number to the king, that he might become the king's son-in-law. So Saul gave him Michal his daughter for a wife (1 Samuel 18:20-27).

When it becomes clear that David wants to marry Michal, and that he will gladly obtain the required number (actually, twice the required number = 200) of Philistine foreskins, Saul is ecstatic. He is certain that Michal’s love for David (and his for her) will be the death of David, as he tries to kill this many Philistines. Once again, Saul’s plan backfires. David obtains the Philistine foreskins (times two), and now he has one of Saul’s own daughters for his wife. She loves her husband and will not willingly be a part of any plot to kill him. More than this, she is the one who saves David from his father. Once again, Saul has just shot (or should I say speared) himself in the foot, trying to kill the Lord’s anointed. I don’t hear Saul laughing, but there must have been much more than a snicker in the courts of heaven.

As we leave this rescue by Michal, we should not overlook Psalm 59, which is David’s reflection on his deliverance here. While we dare not attempt to deal with this psalm in detail, a couple of observations can be made. First, you will notice that Michal is never mentioned in the psalm. It is not that she is somehow being snubbed by David, as though she did not take part in the rescue. David is not looking at the immediate cause of his deliverance in this psalm, but the ultimate cause – God. Thus, David praises God for saving his life. Second, the description of David’s pursuers makes it sound as though they are Gentiles, rather than Jews (see Psalm 59:5-8). I would not be surprised if the men Saul sent to capture David were Gentiles. We know that Saul hired mercenaries (see 1 Samuel 14:52). Such men have no reservations in helping put David to death, where Israelites might. How fitting too that Saul (a Jew) would utilize such mercenaries (Gentiles) to oppose God’s king, just as the Jewish religious leaders later do in opposing Christ. Finally, David speaks of these men who seek his capture as liars (Psalm 59:12). Were these men some of those who falsely accuse David before Saul (see 1 Samuel 24:9; 26:19)?