I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on 1 Samuel 18-20.

Today we see the same insecurity which led King Saul to disobey God’s commands lead him to attempt to murder David.  Further we see the same loyalty to King Saul as God’s anointed king of Israel which David later displays when he refuses to kill King Saul.  King Saul perceives David as a threat to his own power and position because of David’s popularity with the people.  Saul attempts to use the ambition he perceives David to have to get rid of him.  By offering David his eldest daughter in marriage King Saul offers David an opportunity to have a legitimate claim to the throne as his son-in-law.  Perhaps I am reading too much into this, but it seems to me that David rejected King Saul’s offer because he did not want to increase the pressure on himself to go after the throne.  Later, after King Saul married his eldest daughter off to someone who was not a potential claimant to the throne, David agrees to marry one of Saul’s younger daughters.  Perhaps my theory is mistaken and David did not wish to marry Merab, Saul’s older daughter, because he did not find her attractive while he found the younger daughter, Michal, attractive, but I believe this passage and others indicate that politics played a role.  David did not want to be a rival to Jonathan, his friend and King saul’s heir, for the throne.