Last Monday the
Lord used a rather unfamiliar and infamous woman of the Old Testament to teach
me a lesson on my own femininity. As I wrote in my devotional
journal (as so often happens) my mind went to ‘blog-post mode’, and ever since
it’s been in the back of my mind, on my ‘to-do list’, to rewrite and post on
here. By God’s grace, here it goes!!! J Let’s do our devotions together! :-)
(Please begin by
asking the Lord to speak to your heart and make you ‘speak-to-able’! :-) ♥)
1 Samuel 19:11-17
“Saul also sent
messengers unto David's house, to watch him, and to slay him in the morning:
and Michal David's wife told him, saying, If thou save not thy life to night,
to morrow thou shalt be slain. So Michal let David down through a window: and
he went, and fled, and escaped. And Michal took an image, and laid it in
the bed, and put a pillow of goats' hair for his bolster, and covered it with a
cloth. And when Saul sent messengers to
take David, she said, He is sick. And Saul sent the messengers again to see
David, saying, Bring him up to me in the bed, that I may slay him. And when the
messengers were come in, behold, there was an image in the bed, with a pillow
of goats' hair for his bolster. And Saul said unto Michal, Why hast thou
deceived me so, and sent away mine enemy, that he is escaped?”
As David’s wife, Michal now had a perfect opportunity to
shine the truthful and very best possible light on her husband, flesh of her
flesh.
Yet to the person
with whom it would actually cause the very most damage (her father Saul,
David’s self-proclaimed enemy—(1 Samuel 19:17)) she told a lie
and said that David had threatened to kill her had she not aided him in
escaping from her father.
“And Michal answered Saul,
He said unto me, Let me go; why should I kill thee?”
First of all,
we know enough of David’s character at this point to be able to safely assume
that he would do no such thing as to threaten to kill his very wife!
But secondly,
we know that this is a lie because the Bible tells us what went on before Saul
and his men came on the scene, and no threats were involved. So,
clearly—and sadly—Michal lied. :-(
Michal had the perfect
opportunity to soften her father’s heart toward her
innocent husband (as her own brother Jonathan did early on in this very same
chapter!!!) by reminding her father of all the good and right things
David had done by God’s grace and how the Lord had clearly used David time and
time again to aid Saul’s kingdom! But instead, Michal drops the ball and
tells a lie—one that instead of building up her husband in
the eyes of her father tore him down—one that no doubt
only cemented in Saul’s mind the self-consuming mantra “David must die!”
Most of us probably know what
it’s like to hear someone close to us tear down another person who is dear to
our hearts. Perhaps you have heard parents disagree with each other in front of
you and your siblings, or had one parent disagree with the other in his or her
absence. And surely we’ve all had friends (or should we say “acquaintances”!? J) tear down our other
friends (AKA GOSSIP) when they are conveniently not aroundL. We know what it’s
like to hear people tear each other down with unkind words.
We know
what that’s like. I know what it’s like to hear someone gossip about another
(out of pure or selfish spite) and I know how it’s done—I’ve done
it before, and sadly because I am a fleshly human shall surely do it again :-(
But this is so
wrong.
(I’m not
telling you anything you don’t know! :-( )
And what about
the way I tear down others at church in front of my younger siblings??? :-( Or (worse yet! :( ) how about how
I tear down one sibling (‘s behavior) to another?!? :-( :-( :-( OUCH!
Now, of course,
we need to be extremely careful because, even though the world
likes to misquote Scripture to make it sound otherwise, we are, as
Christians, to exercise righteous judgment, (as opposed to
biased, or ‘judgmental’ judgment :D). The judgment we pass may be righteous, just, and
even necessary judgment! (See Matthew 7:1-6, James 2:12-13
(and Psalms 37:30?), for more in-depth study on Godly judgment!)
So before we open our mouths ‘against’ another sibling or church member or
friend, I need to pray for wisdom and righteous, Godly judgment
and think ‘is this TRUE, NECESSARY, and/or KIND?’! And if
it passes those three tests and is backed up by a prayer for God’s guidance, we
may safely proceed.
We don’t
normally think of Michal as someone we can learn anything from, because she
doesn’t set a positive example; but we can learn from her mistakes and
use her not-so-good example to help us make good decisions! :D
What we can learn
from Michal in the passage is, in a BROAD SENSE, to speak of others in
the BEST POSSIBLE LIGHT. I would say especially fellow
believers to non- and other fellow believers alike. But, even more personally,
and as Daughters at home (if
that happens to be how the Lord has led you! :D) and definitely as Future Wives, we, as young
ladies, need to learn to speak of our husbands (to everyone—our friends,
our children, our parents…) in the best possible light. How can we learn to
speak well of our husbands while we are still unmarried, one may
ask? While we are still
unmarried and in our father’s house, we need to practice this by speaking
of our fathers (and our mothers) in the best possible light! To
speak to your friends, extended family, and your younger brothers and sisters
with respect to your parents and their decisions, whether or not
you agree with them. Not to speak derogative things about them to others
(complain that you can’t go over to so-and-so’s house; gripe over the fact that
dad doesn't like how low the neckline is, or how mom wouldn't let you buy that
tight skirt…etc…) , but to promote their attributes—the
good things they do—when given the chance! (Which means we need
to be on the look out for those attributes!
We need to
see the good in others! Don’t just always see and focus on the bad!!!)
Also, we can
learn to speak to (and of) our siblings (as if they
were our future children!!!) about other family members and church family in
the best possible light and/or with Godly, righteous judgment!
May we, by God’s grace,
seek to see and praise the good in others—not to zero in on and publicize the
bad!