She Loves Me, She Loves Me Not
There’s a less-than-subtle mixing of King David’s public and private life in this text. On the surface, it’s one of the cutest tales in the Bible if you can animate the story in your imagination. Here’s a king so full of the joy of life he’s moved to dance and twirl before the Ark as it’s carried up to his city, the City of David – better than President Bush doing a jig to entertain the White House press corps on the front portico waiting for Republican nominee John McCain to emerge for a press appearance!
David’s first action as king of the merged tribes of Israel was to decree that the Ark of the Covenant be brought up to Jerusalem, the new capital. As it was brought up the road he danced wildly at the head of the parade publicly flashing his privates before all the slave girls who egged him on. This public spectacle shifted from embarrassment of his actions to the marital shame of his wife who watched from the palace window. Marital shame is not a relational strength in any marriage because it’s often a sign of desperation or manipulation.
Much like any high-profile public figure, there are almost no secrets one can maintain, as one’s own private life is never beyond the scrutiny of the public eye. The list of public figures we could list where this is known is long and illustrative. Seems every other day a new inductee is admitted to the Hall of Shame and they come from all public walks of life … Presidents and presidential wanna-be’s, governors, mayors, members of Congress and/or the Senate, preachers, musicians and actors. Actually, the list goes on and on.
The Ark of the Covenant was brought to David’s city, a neutral site yet in safe proximity to the no-man’s-land separating one from the other. As one of his first actions as the unifying king of both Israel and Judah, it was a wise move. Much in the way the colony after the American Revolution, the colonies looked around and New York City was the capital city for a few years but they wanted to choose a place that had not been included in any of the colonies or was not officially a part. So they created the District of Columbia and Washington D.C. as a planned city to serve the new country as its capital. It was not a part of any of the thirteen colonies and not a part of any of the states.
There was something for both kingdoms in this move. The Ark was a unifying symbol even though it was in the hands of northern tribes of Israel – both tribal confederations were attached to it and placing it at the heart of the new capital symbolized the blessing of God’s central role in their unity and God’s presence upon them all.
But attached to this move the veil shielding David’s private life from view was opened for our view and here we are – three thousand years later considering the private relationship David had with his wife Michal. We’re given a glimpse into his private life with Michal, his wife who was a gift from Saul for his military prowess. In those days, “trophy wives” were the spoils of war, or the insurance of political alliances with tribal chiefs who became family members of neighboring tribes as a means of ensuring peace in the region. When reading these stories, consider the list of David’s wives first as a sign of his kingly politics and only in a secondary sense as romantic love between a husband and wife as we understand it today. Consequently, there are very few clues of romantic love in these stories. Behind the shame, the Bible tells us Michal was in love with David. Strangely, we’re never told how David felt about her. But understanding politics will shine a light on how they acted with one another as the Bible tells us obliquely she was barren.
Larger than the shame exchanged in their marriage, larger than the unification of Israel with the guiding presence of the Ark of God in new capital, was their the commentary we’re given about the state of things as David confronted in typical Middle Eastern style how to deal with the remnants of Saul’s years as the titular head of the so-called tribes of Israel – a power never fully realized as it has become under David’s leadership. Behind all these events, David systematically ridded the kingdom of the remnants of Saul’s family so no one from the old kingdom could rise up and challenge David’s new power on the throne.
The stories surrounding this story of David’s dance before the procession bearing the Ark to Jerusalem are bloody stories as one by one, Saul’s descendants are executed in a sequence of events… all but Meribbaal, the crippled son of Jonathan. The Bible depicts David as showing great kindness to Meribbaal because of his pledge of loyalty to his friend Jonathan. But it should be pointed out that David’s mercy also meant Meribbaal’s freedom to live meant he was kept under house arrest in David’s palace – probably meant to ensure he was kept on a short leash and always under David’s ever-vigilant eye. Michal, as Saul’s daughter, was hold as a sexual prisoner unable to give David the one thing in the Middle East a successful wife could give her husband, a male heir.
Thus, the titillation of the dance became a terribly haunting image for Michal, as she understood David was free to cavort among the servant class of women who would gladly make themselves available to the king for pleasure. All the while, Michal was the sexual suspect David could not afford to visit. She loved him and hated him at the same time and out of spite, she attempted to shame him when he arrived all sweaty at their shared palace from his lusty dance before the people who lined the streets for the spectacle of it all. So her love soured and she tried to shame him for his lascivious cavorting before the Ark.
The new king of the unified kingdom brought the Ark home and in doing so, brought the presence of God home too. But as much of a cause for celebration it was, as much of a national victory it was, it only highlighted the internal strife of David’s private life with Michal, his political wife whom he couldn’t quite trust enough to love. And no matter how much she loved him she couldn’t move his heart to love her in return.