Tag Archives: Ishbosheth

Michal: The Assassination of a King

I seriously don’t know how Michal found the will to live. She was a woman who took action though.  Her husband had multiple wives and children. Yet they might have made good allies. Still, at least one came from a family that was anti-Saul. There were conspiracies. There were those against her. If I had been Michal, I  would have been so terrified at the death of Abner.

Had she gotten physically sick after Abner’s death like her brother, Ishbosheth?

Ishbosheth’s “hands were feeble”  when he heard about Abner’s death.  Could a war start again? Could he be next? The text implies that Ishbosheth was physically sick from worry. He laid down in the hot afternoon when Saul’s former captains, Rechab and Baanah, stabbed and then beheaded him. They took his head and raced through the night to meet David in Hebron. The two assassins thought that David would be pleased to see the son of a man who tried to kill him. Did Michal see her brother’s decapitated head? Perhaps David was temporally in his wife’s favor when he put Rechab and Baanah to death. She was most likely in a state of shock. David was ensuring her protection and put Ishbosheth’s head in Abner’s sepulchre.

It still didn’t change the fact, though, that yet another family member was brutally murdered. Had she felt justice was served with the executions of Rechab and Baanah? Their betrayal was shameful because it broke the code of loyalty the tribe of Benjamin valued.

Really–who could Michal trust?

Sources
2 Samuel 4

Michal: Relationship Rumors and Allegiances

Okay, the ever popular question surrounding Jonathan and David:Was Jonathan gay?

I don’t know the answer to that. But I wonder how Michal felt about the close relationship of her husband and brother.

I see the Princess Caroline of England (1713-1757) relating somewhat to Michal in this case. Caroline was childless and unmarried which caused grief—especially when it came for her love toward a certain Lord Hervey. He was married, bisexual, had affairs with the ladies at court and possibly with Caroline’s brother.

Now I think David was a noble man who followed God’s commands—including polygamy. It’s a known fact that many people in the Bible struggled with it. Though David was lawfully married to his other wives (before the real craziness), it would be difficult to know of his other wives with children. I also don’t believe David was gay, but he recognized Jonathan’s love publicly: “thy love to me was wonderful, passing the love of women” (2 Samuel 1:26). That may have also had a crushing effect on her heart has well.

Princess Caroline died suddenly but her goodness and sadness was well-known.

As for Michal, she still lived long after Saul and her brothers died. It’s hard to imagine how she managed. She wasn’t returned to David after Saul’s death. Rather, war went on between the houses of Saul and David—started by her cousin Abner and David’s nephew, Joab.

Abner put her surviving brother Ishbosheth on the throne. It wasn’t until Ishbosheth accused Abner of taking Saul’s concubine, Rizpah, for himself that Abner decided to switch allegiances to David, the stronger house.

David sent messengers to Abner to bring him “Michal, Saul’s daughter,” and Ishbosheth that said, “Deliver me my wife Michal” to seal the deal with Abner.

And, oh, what went on when Michal found out she had to go also sparks debate…