Saul said to David, “Here is my older daughter Merab. I will give her to you as your wife on condition that you serve me as a brave and loyal soldier, and fight the Lord’s battles.” (Saul was thinking that in this way the Philistines would kill David, and he would not have to do it himself.)
Saul is to David here as Satan was to Job 1:9-12! May I cling to you, Father, fully confident that despite the evil intent of others, nothing can thwart your will for me and my life (Job 42:1-6).
David answered, “Who am I and what is my family that I should become the king’s son-in-law?”
David’s humble response is exactly like Saul’s (1 Samuel 9:21): only fire – the circumstances of life – will expose the true metal of each. May what is exposed in me be found to be gold, Lord (Malachi 3:1-3).
…when the time came for Merab to be given to David, she was given instead to a man named Adriel from Meholah. …for the second time Saul said to David, “You will be my son-in-law.” He ordered his officials to speak privately with David and tell him, “The king is pleased with you and all his officials like you; now is a good time for you to marry his daughter.”
Saul’s use of the tongue is a case study in perversity. As already seen in 1 Samuel 14:44-45, he has no respect his word and here he’s using back door communication. Later, he’ll be peppering his words with “religiosity” (1 Samuel 23:21). May I always keep ever present in my mind to analyze how the person in front of me is using words: it’s too easy (and a fallacy) to assume that he or she is using words in the same way I do.
Saul’s daughter Michal, however, fell in love with David, and when Saul heard of this, he was pleased. He said to himself, “I’ll give Michal to David; I will use her to trap him, and he will be killed by the Philistines.”
God had something better in mind for David, just like he did with Job 42:12-17. Father, may I not hold tightly on to what my heart was set on (in David’s case here, Merab). While others may wish me harm, God can and will turn it into good like Joseph vis-à-vis his brothers (Genesis 50:19-20). May I go forward armed with that confidence, Lord. You never take away to leave us poor.
The officials told Saul what David had said, and Saul ordered them to tell David: “All the king wants from you as payment for the bride are the foreskins of a hundred dead Philistines, as revenge on his enemies.” (This was how Saul planned to have David killed by the Philistines.) Saul’s officials reported to David what Saul had said, and David was delighted with the thought of becoming the king’s son-in-law. Before the day set for the wedding, David and his men went and killed two hundred Philistines. He took their foreskins to the king and counted them all out to him, so that he might become his son-in-law.
Saul sold his daughter to David in much the same way that Laban sold his two sisters to Jacob – and both paid double (Genesis 29:15-30)!
So Saul had to give his daughter Michal in marriage to David.
So why did Saul respect his word here? Actually, he didn’t. What he’s respecting is appearances, as he made his commitment before others. Such people are truly bottomless pits (John 8:44)…