David’s Flight

‎Sad indeed was the situation thus established in the family of Saul. The young folk were bound together by the tenderest ties. Michal was David’s beloved wife; Jonathan not only his brother-in-law but his very brother, his closest, most loyal friend, another self. Yet these three had either to submit to the savagery of Saul or rebel against him. Saul’s children loved their father. David also gave him affection, honored him to some extent, and held him in reverence as the “Lord’s anointed.” How could David, who had himself been anointed by the prophet Samuel, declare that that solemn ceremony was of no effect, and rebel against Saul, whose title to the kingship was prior and exactly similar to his own?

‎When David fled from the mad king’s presence, the latter sent men to watch his house and seize him. Michal learned of this; and, making hasty choice between duty to her father and to her husband, she warned David. “If thou save not thy life to-night, to-morrow thou shalt be slain.” Perhaps their house stood upon the city wall, even as Rahab’s had stood in Jericho in the days of Joshua; for Michal lowered her husband from a window by some hastily arranged device, perchance of her own garments. So David fled from Jerusalem.