Useful Bible Studies > 1 Samuel Commentary > chapter 19
Michal acted in a very desperate manner as she tried to save the life of David, her husband. During that night and the day after, she said and did various things that were clearly untrue.
(1) Firstly, she prepared carefully so that she could tell a lie to Saul’s men. She made a model of a man in a bed; it would seem as if David was sleeping there.
(2) Then, when the men entered the house, she lied to them. She pretended that David was ill.
(3) Afterwards, when Saul became very angry with her, she told another lie. David had not said that he would kill her. In fact, it was Michal herself who urged David to escape (19:11). So Michal was lying to Saul in order to protect herself.
We know that God does not need anyone’s lies in order to save his people. God loves the truth; only evil people love lies (Deuteronomy 5:20; Psalm 120:2). However, God has great sympathy when his people are weak. False words and actions will not save them in their weakness; only God, in his kindness, can save them.
However, it is Saul’s terrible cruelty that we see most strongly in this passage. For the first time, Saul expresses the intention that he himself will murder David. Saul proposes to kill a man who is too ill even to get out of bed. That was an awful thing to do. David would later express great shock that Saul’s son Ish-Bosheth had died in that manner (2 Samuel chapter 4).
Next part: David goes to Samuel (1 Samuel 19:18)
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© 2014, Keith Simons.