🔊 Listen to this

𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐁𝐢𝐛𝐥𝐞 𝐀𝐧𝐝 𝐓𝐚𝐪𝐢𝐲𝐲𝐚 [𝐏𝐚𝐫𝐭 𝟗]=𝐃𝐞𝐜𝐞𝐩𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧

Mohamad Mostafa Nassar
Twitter:@NassarMohamadMR

11 That same night Saul sent some men to watch David’s house and kill him the next morning. Michal, David’s wife, warned him, “If you don’t get away tonight, tomorrow you will be dead.”

12 She let him down from a window, and he ran away and escaped.

13 Then she took the household idol, laid it on the bed, put a pillow made of goats’ hair at its head, and put a cover over it.

14 When Saul’s men came to get David, Michal told them that he was sick.

15 But Saul sent them back to see David for themselves. He ordered them, “Carry him here in his bed, and I will kill him.”

16 They went inside and found the household idol in the bed and the goats’ hair pillow at its head.

17 Saul asked Michal, “Why have you tricked me like this and let my enemy escape?”

She answered, “He said he would kill me if I didn’t help him escape.” – 1 Samuel 19:11-17

Michal deceives Saul so David can escape and avoid getting killed. Reading the verse, it appears as though the purpose was to protect an innocent person from being killed.

Commentary

The Popular Commentary by Paul E. Kretzmann

Michal deceives Saul so David can escape and avoid getting killed. Reading the verse, it appears as though the purpose was to protect an innocent person from being killed.
Commentary

v. 17. And Saul, angry because he had been duped, said unto Michal, Why hast thou deceived me so and sent away mine enemy, the expression implying that the enemy of the father should be the enemy of the daughter as well, that he is escaped?

And Michal answered Saul, her fear of her father and her anxiety to save her own life causing her to tell another falsehood, He said unto me, Let me go; why should I kill thee? There is no wrong in throwing raging, ravening, murderous pursuers off the track, for such murderers are the instruments of Satan, who seeks to destroy the children of God in every possible manner. [1]

Peter Pett’s Commentary on the Bible

Saul then summoned his daughter and asked her why she had deceived him with the effigy in the bed and had let his enemy escape. He no doubt felt that she owed first loyalty to him as her father and king. Michal simply replied that she had had to do what she did otherwise David might have killed her. This would actually tie in with Saul’s own obsessive view of David and he appears to have accepted that it was true.

That Michal lied at least twice is clear, and although the Scripture does not actually specifically approve of it, it does raise the question as to when, if ever, such a lie is justified. Similar examples can be found with Rahab at Jericho (Joshua 2:4 ff), Jael with Sisera (Judges 4:18) and the woman at Bahurim (2 Samuel 17:20).

It is too large a question to be dealt with fully here. However, while Scripture undoubtedly does require us to be truthful (Leviticus 19:11; Matthew 5:37) there must certainly be cases where to tell the truth would be an even greater sin than the alternative, for example in such cases as these where lives were at stake.

I must confess that if I was hiding someone I loved from a criminal gang, and could save his life by denying his presence, I would not hesitate. Nor would I feel guilty afterwards. (I would feel far more guilty if he died because I had given him away). T1sa about the whereabouts of others can only be expected when the questioner does not have murderous intentions. [2]

Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament

Verses 15-17
But when Saul sent the messengers again to see David, and that with thecommand, “Bring him up to me in the bed,” and when they only found theteraphim in the bed, and Saul charged Michal with this act of deceit, shereplied, “He (David) said to me, Let me go; why should I kill thee?” – “Behold, teraphim were (laid) in the bed.”

The verb can be naturallysupplied from 1 Samuel 19:13. In the words “Why should I kill thee?” Michaelintimates that she did not mean to let David escape, but was obliged toyield to his threat that he would kill her if she continued to refuse. Thisprevarication she seems to have considered perfectly justifiable. [3]

The Bible And Taqiyya=Deception

References:

[1] The Popular Commentary by Paul E. Kretzmann
[2] Peter Pett’s Commentary on the Bible
[3] Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament