1 Samuel 18

1 Samuel 18:1

D. Marrying Michal (Chap. 18)18:1-5 A deep and lasting friendship sprang up between Jonathan and David. They were kindred souls, each possessing that rare quality of true courage. Jonathan was the legitimate successor to his father’s throne, but in giving his robe . . . to David he indicated that he was willing to forgo his right in order to see David crowned instead. 18:6-16 As David continued to win battle after battle, Saul became extremely jealous. When he heard the songs of the women ascribing to David greater exploits than to himself, he became livid with rage. God sometimes uses evil to chastise evil; that is why he allowed Saul to be tormented by a distressing spirit (v. 10). Twice the king tried to personally kill David, but both times David escaped. Then Saul made him . . . captain over a thousand soldiers, perhaps hoping that David would be killed while fighting the Philistines. (It appears that he had formerly held a larger command.) But the LORD was with David, and his exploits attracted the attention of all Israel. 18:17-30 The king’s daughter had been promised to the man who would kill the Philistine giant, so Merab, Saul’s older daughter, was offered to David. However, more victories would have to be won first. Saul hoped David would be killed in the process. When David expressed his social unworthiness to be a son-in-law to the king, Merab . . . was given to another man, which was perhaps Saul’s way of trying to humiliate David. But Saul’s younger daughter, Michal, loved David, and Saul agreed to give her to him, provided he produced a dowry of one hundred Philistine foreskins. Again Saul hoped to kill David by the hand of the Philistines.

But David was not to be eliminated so easily. He returned with the bizarre dowry in double measure and won Michal as his bride. As continual military success made it clear that the LORD was with David, Saul’s hatred and fear of him continued to grow.