Saul’s mind and heart were so possessed by hatred for David that he openly admitted to Jonathan and the court attendants that he intended to have his son-inlaw killed. Saul was now through with behind-the-scenes plots and was out to destroy David in the quickest way possible, and he ordered Jonathan and the royal attendants to join him in his endeavor. The hope of Israel lay in the heart and ministry of David, and yet Saul wanted to kill him! David would conquer Israel’s enemies and consolidate the kingdom. He would gather much of the wealth used to build the temple. He would write psalms for the Levites to sing in praising God, and he would even design the musical instruments they played. God’s covenant with David would keep the light shining in Jerusalem during the dark days of the nation’s decline, and the fulfillment of that covenant would bring Jesus Christ the Messiah into the world. No wonder Satan was so determined to kill David!
Jonathan’s intervention (1 Sam. 19:1–10). Surely Saul knew that Jonathan would pass the word along to his beloved friend David, but perhaps that’s what the king desired. If he couldn’t kill David, perhaps he could so frighten him that he would leave the land and never be seen again. Jonathan did report the king’s words to David and suggested that his friend hide in the field the next morning when Jonathan would speak with his father on behalf of David. It’s remarkable that such a magnificent son could belong to such a wicked father! Had Jonathan been a selfish man, he could have helped to eliminate David and secure the crown for himself, but he submitted to the will of God and assisted David.
Jonathan presented his father with two arguments: (1) David was an innocent man who was not deserving of death, and (2) David had served Saul faithfully by winning great victories against Israel’s enemies. David was a valuable man to have around and he had never sinned against the king. Jonathan didn’t mention that David was also very popular with the soldiers and the common people, because making such a statement would only have aroused the king’s anger and envy. Saul was enjoying a sane moment and agreed with his son, and even took an oath not to kill David. Saul was a liar and his oaths were meaningless (14:24, 44), but this did open the way for David to return to court.
When the Philistines attacked Israel again, David went out with his men and soundly defeated them. This only aroused Saul’s envy and anger and once again he tried to pin David to the wall (18:10–11). Satan is a liar and a murderer (John 8:44), and because Saul was controlled by the evil one, he broke his oath and he threw his spear. David knew that the time had come for him to leave Saul’s presence and hide, but first he went home to see his wife Michal. David would now begin about ten years of exile during which God would make a leader out of him.
Michal’s deception (vv. 11–17). Saul surmised that David would go home, so he sent men that night to watch David’s house and kill him when he came out the next morning. Knowing her father’s thought processes, Michal urged David to get out that night and flee to a place of safety. She let him down through a window and arranged a dummy in the bed by using an idol and some goats’ hair. What Michal was doing with an pagan idol (teraphim) is a mystery, especially one as large as a man. (Rachel hid two teraphim under a saddle—Gen. 31:33–35.) It’s possible that the idol was only a bust and that she used it and the goats’ hair for the head and used pillows to simulate the body. Michal was still depending on idols while married to a man after God’s own heart, and like her father, she was a schemer.
While Michal was scheming, David was praying and trusting the Lord, and Psalm 59 came out of this experience. As you read this psalm, you see Saul’s spies running here and there and waiting for David to emerge from his house, and you hear David comparing them to snarling dogs lurking in the city streets. But David’s faith was in the Lord, for only the Lord could be his defense and his refuge. This doesn’t mean that David rejected any plans for escape, because the Lord uses human means to accomplish His divine ends, but it does mean that David’s faith was not in himself or in Michal’s schemes, but in the Lord of the armies of Israel.
In the morning, when the agents demanded that Michal surrender her husband, she told them he was sick, and when they reported this to Saul, he told the men to bring him David, bed and all! But when they picked up the bed, the truth was revealed, and Michal was reproved by her father for being so deceptive, but she was only following his example! Like her father, she lied and claimed that David had threatened to kill her if she didn’t cooperate.