I'm not sure exactly how long after Michal and David were married that the chaos started, but it seems like it wasn't long after they wed. By I Samuel 19:11, Michal would have really been able to see how much her father hated David. Who knows if she understood why he hated him, but she knew he hated him enough to kill him. In this passage, Michal found out about a plot to kill David and tells him to run. She came up with this whole plan after he left to try to cover for him, but there's something I can't get over. David left, but he didn't take her with him. I wonder if she planned it that way or if he did. Maybe she just didn't realize he would never be the same man after he jumped out of that window. I bet, however, if she could change things, she would have jumped out of that window with him.
After it was found out that she lied to her father and helped David escape, it would never be the same for her in that palace. Everyone loyal to Saul would look at her like a traitor. It's only a miracle her own father didn't kill her. Her father would change before her eyes from a good man to a man taken over by hatred. She was just left there to watch her world change. She had to have started changing here too. Her heart would ache for David and for her father's love. Maybe she even started to hate God for her circumstances or hate her family.
At some point we know Saul married her off to another man when David didn't return. What a mess. The Bible says she "loved" David. I don't see how she could have had those same feelings towards this other guy. Even if she was just happy to have a husband that adored her, she would always wonder about David. She would hear the rumors of him in battle. She would worry about him day in and day out. One day, she would even get a message that he married someone else.
Part of me wants to think she never was able to get over David; and, when he called for her back, she ran with open arms. However, I don't think that was the case. I think during this marriage would be the time her anger would start growing toward David. Maybe she saw how much this new husband loved her (we know he cared for her because he wept for her after she was taken back to David) and hated herself because she couldn't love him back. Maybe she started caring for this man. Maybe by the time David wanted her back, she had already become content with her life and didn't want David anymore.
We don't hear about Michal again until II Samuel 6:16. Here she sees David walk through the gates of the city dancing like a mad man because the Ark of the Lord was brought back to Jerusalem. Then she yells at David because he was being an embarrassment to her. This is where I see the change most evident. This is in no way the same Michal that we saw in I Samuel 18. She is a bitter woman now. Her husband is king. Her father and brothers are dead. She has had to learn to share her husband with several women. We see her hatred here. The old Michal would have been out there dancing with him. She would have had a huge smile on her face just to see him so happy.
They got into an argument. David told her that God had chosen him over her family. He told her that those women she spoke of had more respect that she did for him. He was completely blind to the pain he had caused her. I do believe Michal was wrong by saying David shouldn't have been dancing, however, she didn't speak out of anger because of dancing. She spoke out of the anger that had been boiling inside her for several years. Their marriage was not a good one. This argument seems like neither David or Michal could have a decent conversation. There was no love there at all.
After this argument, it reads "therefore Michal the daughter of Saul had no children to the day of her death." It's so sad to see where this marriage went. She was never loved again. David would just put her aside and move on to his other women; but Michal would be alone the rest of her life, just sitting and wishing something was different. Maybe she died an angry old woman. Maybe she died a woman changed and her heart in love with God. I'd love to say it was the latter, but I just don't know. I do know that God would have taken care of her.
That's Michal's story or at least the story I see when I read it. It's mostly opinion unless specified. Hope you learned something from it :)
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