"David's Wives" preview

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David had at least 8 wives, plus concubines, but only three do we hear much about. David's wives are a reflection of where he was at the point in time he met them. When David met Michal, he would only have been 17-20 years old and, even having a relationship with, and great trust in, God, would have been about as fatuous and self-involved as most very young men of military age. It is interesting that in those very early years of his career, he never actually did anything for anybody, besides be a faithful and skilled soldier. The Bible says Jonathan's heart was knit to David's and he loved David as his own soul -- not the other way around. David paid a dowry of 200 Philistine foreskins for Michal, but we never see him do anything for her. She, on the other hand helps him to escape and remains to face her father's wrath, which was murderous, as we know. It's the last they see of each other before he is made king, almost ten years later. Why didn't he take her with him? Is it any wonder she became embittered against him?

Abigail, he met and married at the height of his manhood. He was being chased around the countryside by Saul, doing a little dance between him and the Philistines, so he was very sharp mentally because of his constant strategizing and his greatest Psalms (and he wrote 2 whole books of them) were written during this period, indicating that this was the point of his life where he felt closest to the Lord. He was at his most charismatic at this time and really the height of his military career. When he was a soldier under Saul, he was resting on his laurels as the defeater of Goliath and was handed men to lead. Now, men flocked to him from all over and he was considered valuable enough as a military leader for Philistines to hire as a mercenary and their empire was a force to be reckoned with. It was during this time that he married Abigail, described in the Bible as a woman "of good understanding."

By the time he met Bathsheba, he was resting on his reputation. "In the spring of the year, at the time when kings go out to battle," he didn't. He took a vacation while his men went to war. He was neglectful of his relationship with God, otherwise he would never think of committing adultery with the wife of one of his mighty men and then arranging for his death.

So, each of his wives reflected his character at the time he met her: Michal disappointed in her first love, Abigail, the wise, whom he met at his spiritual and physical peak and Bethsheba during his period of corruption and intrigue and who did her fair share of intriguing. . .

We can be bitter at our husbands for everything they haven't been for us. Or, we can connive and use them for our own ends. Or we can be wise and help them look to the future and trust in God, recognizing that their futures are also our futures.