Michal- The Critic 2 Samuel 3:16 Adapted from a Davon Huss sermon http://www.sermoncentral.com/print_friendly.asp?ContributorID=&SermonID=43377

1. Michal- The Critic
2 Samuel 3:16
Adapted from a
Davon Huss sermon
http://www.sermoncentral.com/print_friendly
.asp?ContributorID=&SermonID=43377

2. 2 Samuel 3:12 NIV Then Abner sent
messengers on his behalf to say to David,
“Whose land is it? Make an agreement with
me, and I will help you bring all Israel over
to you.” 13 “Good,” said David. “I will make
an agreement with you. But I demand one
thing of you: Do not come into my presence
unless you bring Michal daughter of Saul
when you come to see me.”

3. 14 Then David sent messengers to Ish-
Bosheth son of Saul, demanding, “Give me
my wife Michal, whom I betrothed to myself
for the price of a hundred Philistine
foreskins.” 15 So Ish-Bosheth gave orders
and had her taken away from her husband
Paltiel son of Laish. 16 Her husband went
along behind her, weeping all the way to
Bahurim. Finally Abner said to him, "Go
back home!" So he went back.

4. A practicing lawyer loved to attack his
opponents through letters printed in
newspapers. In 1842, he ridiculed the
wrong man. James Shields did not take
kindly to the anonymous writer who
lampooned him in the Springfield Journal.
Mr. Shields tracked down the attorney who
had publicly embarrassed him and
challenged him to a duel. The man was a
writer, not a fighter, but he could not get out
of the duel without losing his honor.

5. He was given the choice of weapons and
chose swords in hopes of using his long
arms to his advantage. He trained with a
West Point graduate as he prepared to fight
to the death. On the appointed day he met
Mr. Shields on a sandbar in the Mississippi
River. At the last minute their friends
intervened and convinced the men to stop
the duel. The lawyer returned to his practice
as a changed man.

6. Never again did he openly criticize anyone.
In fact, years later when he heard his wife
criticize the southern people of the Civil
War, President Abraham Lincoln said,
“Don’t criticize them; they are just what we
would be under similar circumstances.”
Do you have a critical spirit?
Lincoln did, but he changed. Make the
change today so you, like Lincoln, can be
known more for your tolerance than your
criticism.

7. A few Sundays back we talked about
Judges. The last judge was Samuel. When
Samuel was starting to get old, the people
began to ask for a king. The Lord answered
the people’s request and the first king was
Saul. Saul started out good but in the end,
he was a jealous maniac. God started over
with little David. After his defeat of Goliath,
David was a great commander in Saul’s
army. Saul became jealous of him.

8. Story of David and Michal
David and Saul’s daughter Michal fell in
love. King Saul agreed to give Michal to
David in marriage, if David would kill 100
Philistines. David kills 200 Philistines and
Saul is forced to give Michal in marriage to
David.
One time Saul sent soldiers to David’s
house to kill him.

9. Michal warned David of her father’s plans.
Michal put an idol in their bed and disguised
it as David. Michal told the men outside that
David could not be disturbed because he
was ill. During the delay, David snuck out
through a window and escaped. Finally,
David was forced to flee into the wilderness
to get away from King Saul.

10. Saul continually hunted him down to kill
him. While David was in the wilderness,
King Saul forced his daughter Michal to
marry another man named Paltiel.
After King Saul dies, David returns to Judah
and the people of Judah declare him their
king.
A son of Saul, Ish-bosheth, reigned in the
north while David reigned in the south.

11. However, the house of Saul grew weaker
and weaker while the house of David grew
stronger and stronger. Abner, the
commander of the army of the north,
decides to ally himself with David. The
verses we read show David demanding,
“Give me my wife Michal, whom I betrothed
to myself for the price of a hundred
Philistine foreskins.”

12. Ish-bosheth agrees and Abner makes sure
it is completed so that he can go with David.
So Michal rejoins David in Jerusalem as his
wife. You’ve got to feel for the husband
having his wife taken from him. 2 Samuel
3:16 NIV Her husband, however, went with
her, weeping behind her all the way to
Bahurim. Then Abner said to him, “Go back
home!” So he went back.

13. Michal was David’s first love and it was a
good political move. Aligning of the house
of David with the house of Saul. It was good
for Michal because now she would be the
First Lady of David’s White House.

14. Good lesson for us.
If any disagreement has separated a
husband and wife, let them be reconciled
through the power of God, and live together
in love. This is the will of God. He hates
divorce and this is the ideal. It should have
turned out well, but it didn’t.

15. 2 Samuel 6:12 NIV Now King David was
told, “The LORD has blessed the household
of Obed-Edom and everything he has,
because of the ark of God.” So David went
down and brought up the ark of God from
the house of Obed-Edom to the City of
David with rejoicing. 13 When those who
were carrying the ark of the LORD had
taken six steps, he sacrificed a bull and a
fattened calf.

16. 14 David, wearing a linen ephod, danced
before the LORD with all his might, 15 while
he and the entire house of Israel brought up
the ark of the LORD with shouts and the
sound of trumpets. 16 As the ark of the
LORD was entering the City of David,
Michal daughter of Saul watched from a
window. And when she saw King David
leaping and dancing before the LORD, she
despised him in her heart.

17. 2 Samuel 6:20 NIV When David returned
home to bless his household, Michal
daughter of Saul came out to meet him and
said, “How the king of Israel has
distinguished himself today, disrobing in the
sight of the slave girls of his servants as
any vulgar fellow would!”

18. 21 David said to Michal, “It was before the
LORD, who chose me rather than your
father or anyone from his house when he
appointed me ruler over the LORD'S people
Israel—I will celebrate before the LORD. 22
I will become even more undignified than
this, and I will be humiliated in my own
eyes. But by these slave girls you spoke of,
I will be held in honor.” 23 And Michal
daughter of Saul had no children to the day
of her death.

19. It has been a long road for David. God had
brought him all the way from the sheep pen
to the palace. Finally the house of Saul was
no more and David was declared King of
the land. Now he was bringing the Ark of
the Covenant into the tabernacle in his
capital city of Jerusalem. What a glorious
day of celebration and of worship.

20. Without his kingly robe and crown, David
danced with all his might before the Lord.
Years of longing and waiting had finally
come to an end. God had blessed his
people, and the king did not contain his joy.
He even commanded others to join with
him. 1 Chronicles 15:16 NIV David told the
leaders of the Levites to appoint their
brothers as singers to sing joyful songs,
accompanied by musical instruments: lyres,
harps and cymbals.

21. David appointed singers and musicians to
accompany the celebration as they entered
Jerusalem. He was determined that
everyone would know of this wonderful
moment. The streets must have been filled
with cheering crowds as the king danced
and praised his way into the city. And he
comes home to this, a bitter, sour, and
embarrassed wife.

22. The same attitudes that kept her from
joining her husband in celebrating God’s
blessings are keeping thousands from that
same enjoyment today. We could just
explain this away and say that David and
Michal came from different school of
worship. People who want things to be
reverent. People who want things to be
joyful. There is tension between these two
types of people, but much more than just
tension here.

23. Let’s examine Michal’s problems so that we
do not repeat them.
She was a critic and
nobody likes a critic.
A critic is a person who tears down other
people’s attempts at something new and
different. They don’t do anything
adventurous but they have many stinging
words for those who try to do something
adventurous or different.

24. David through God had done some
marvelous things.
1. Full possession of the land.
2. Moral order was restored.
3. Material prosperity.
4. Spiritual life was at an all time high.
5. Israel’s worship took center stage.
David had it in his heart to build a
grand temple for God.

25. At the height of his excitement and
achievements, we have Michal who critizes.
No matter how well things are going, there
are always the critics. King David had to
deal with criticism in almost every chapter
of his life, yet he managed every reproach
with coolness beyond compare. No wonder
God made him King.

26. May we be one of those who rejoice in the
good fortunes of others. May we not be one
of those who spread misery. I am miserable
and I want everyone to be miserable with
me.
Philippians 4:8 NET Finally, brothers and
sisters, whatever is true, whatever is worthy
of respect, whatever is just, whatever is
pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is
commendable, if something is excellent or
praiseworthy, think about these things.

27. When you come right down to it, your life
and what you do with it begins and ends
with God. There is no escaping that fact. If
you are not happy about where you are in
life, it is because you are not celebrating the
victories that God has brought into your life.
Everyone who is a Christian has shared a
victory with our awesome God!

28. Being born again is a victory you have
shared with the Lord! We need to be
celebrating the victories that we see in other
people’s lives.
Michal had a hard life.
Her love was torn.
Her father used her.

29. The reality is that criticism and opposition
will drive you somewhere. Let it drive you
closer to God and you will become better.
Let it drive you away from God and you will
become bitter. (Dan Southerland)
This is what happened to Michal. Through
her life she became bitter not better.
Nobody loves the critic, neither did David.
She is even becoming more like her father,
not less like him.

30. She accuses David of associating with low
lifes, because she feels superior to
everyone else.
Michal accuses David of gallivanting with
the commoners, as if somehow there are
some people in this world that are lower life
forms than others are. David stands up for
himself. David has been selected to replace
Saul, and that has added to Michal’s
sorrow.

31. David is saying, “God chose me, so wake
up and smell the coffee. I will celebrate and
humble myself before Him and His people.
I’m going to keep on dancing with
everyone!”
In God’s eyes, are any of us any different
from others? We are all sinners in need of
forgiveness. The ground is level at Calvary.
If you don’t go to Jesus Christ with those
thoughts, Jesus will not meet your need.

32. Who went to Jesus seeking healing? Only
those who were sick and wanted healing.
Same with us.
Most of the Pharisees never went to Jesus.
Why? Because they felt they were better
than other men. They didn’t need Jesus.
Must confess that we are sinners, the
lowest of the low, and then Jesus can help
us. Jesus was called the friend of tax
collectors and sinners. Are you a sinner? If
you think not, then you are not a friend of
Jesus.

33. I will become even more undignified than
this. David will humble himself before God
more and more, because he knows he
needs help. The proud and arrogant believe
they need nothing and so God gives them
nothing. On Judgement Day, they will go
into Hell because they did not need
anything from God. May we see ourselves
as we truly are.

34. Each minute Michal had to wait only added
to her anger as she mulled over just how
she would dress down her already
undressed spouse. Her mind scrolled
through the names of the people who saw
him in the streets- people beneath her
status. If you had tried to remind her that
the return of the Ark of the Covenant was
the real issue, I doubt you would have
made much headway.

35. No, this is about decorum and culture. This
was about pride and position. This was
about having to face the next meeting of the
Jerusalem Ladies Auxiliary after they had
all watched her hubby boogying in his royal
underwear.
This kind of angry judgment has silenced
plenty of believers through the centuries.
Sang too loud, raised hands too high,
amened too often.

36. Michal was just the first in a long line of
"church police" who see it as their mission
in life to insure that praising, if done at all, is
done with refinement and propriety.
However, David was celebrating with and
for the Lord. To David, terms like
"humiliated" and "undignified" were badges
of honor, not shame. He was celebrating
because he had received so much.

37. How much have you received from the
Lord? If nothing, you will have nothing to
celebrate about. However, if you believe
that every good and perfect gift comes from
God, then you cannot help but to get up and
dance every once in a while. Proud and
arrogant people have nothing to celebrate
but themselves. Christian people have
everything to celebrate because we have all
spiritual, material, social blessings in the
Lord.

38. She was looking around instead of looking
up. She kept her eyes on others instead of
on God.
God wants us to be bold in our witness for
Him. If we are looking up, we will be bold. If
we are looking around, we will be worried
what others will think. Those who are
dancing have no time to criticize others. Not
concerned about that, only want to dance.

39. Look up in your course of action. When we
pray and study about a particular issue, and
know this would be good for us, do not look
who is pleased or displeased. Do not look
for man’s applause, only the applause from
heaven.
Look up for your confidence. They may call
you a hair-brained fanatic, a Jesus freak.
Who cares? Let your faith rest in the smile
of God, not in the approval of man.

40. Look up and God will judge your motives.
Look around and people will always give as
bad a reason as they can for a good
person’s actions. We will all appear before
the judgment seat of Christ; do not care
about the judgment seat of man. I think that
sometimes the Christian should have very
much the same bravado against the
judgment of men as David’s response to
Michal.

41. Who cares what you or others think, what
does God think? Look up and no person
can have control over you to lead you. We
are to be lead by Jesus Christ.
If we compared our lives to a computer,
who has the keyboard? Do we have control
of the keyboard and let Jesus type our lives
or do other people have control of the
keyboard.

42. If we don’t have control of the keyboard, we
need to take it back. Do not let anyone have
control over you, but press forward in the
Christian race, looking to Jesus, and
looking to Jesus only for guidance and
direction.

43. Where was Michal when David was in the
wilderness? David may have told her not to
come, but what about when her father was
forcing her to marry this other man. I am
sure that David would have taken her in
then. Perhaps she did not want to go into
the wilderness. That would have meant
humiliation in the eyes of others.
When was the last time people were
embarrassed by you but Your Father in
heaven was smiling?

44. God’s children are some of the most
criticized and most critical people in the
world. Christians just can’t win. We spend
all week being ridiculed by those we are
trying to lead to Christ, then just when we
think we are going to get a break, some well
meaning brother or sister in Christ spend 15
or so minutes admonishing us about
something or another.

45. Everything in life has a critic, and we will
more often be put down, rather than built up
as we live in this world. What makes all the
difference is how we handle our faultfinders.
Will we keep on dancing like David, or will
we take a seat like Michal? David kept on
dancing, may we do the same.