The Bride Price

At Calvary Chapel Sydney, we've been moving through 1 and 2 Samuel on Sunday mornings.  In the passage this week, Abner, the general of the Israelite army, offered to help unite the kingdom under David's rule.  David was pleased with the arrangement, but made one stipulation:  Abner would not see his face until David's estranged wife Michal was restored to him.  About ten years earlier, David fled from his father-in-law King Saul.  Saul then took David's wife and gave him to a man named Phaltiel.  2 Samuel 3:14 reads, "So David sent messengers to Ishbosheth, Saul's son, saying, "Give me my wife Michal, whom I betrothed to myself for a hundred foreskins of the Philistines."  David placed a higher priority on his wife being restored to him than uniting the kingdom under his rule.

When David demanded his wife back, he cited the bride price that he had paid to betroth her to himself.  Saul, hoping that the Philistines would kill David, told David he could marry his daughter if he paid the cost of 100 foreskins of the Philistines - a gruesome price at great risk.  So pleased was David to marry Michal and be the king's son-in-law that he provided double the asking price.  1 Samuel 18:27 says, "...Therefore David arose and went, he and his men, and killed two hundred men of the Philistines. And David brought their foreskins, and they gave them in full count to the king, that he might become the king's son-in-law. Then Saul gave him Michal his daughter as a wife."  Because David had paid the bride price, Michal was rightly betrothed to him.  His payment was the basis of his demand.

I wonder how Michal felt, knowing how her prospective husband literally risked his life in fighting for her hand in marriage.  If his love was ever in doubt in her mind, she could always say:  "I know he loves me.  He fought for me.  He risked his own life just to be with me."  This picture of David demanding his wife being reconciled to him is a beautiful picture of how Jesus Christ will restore the nation of Israel to Himself before He establishes His throne on earth.  God chose the descendents of Israel as His special people and made a covenant with them.  Yet they played the harlot, worshiping idols and the creature rather than the Creator.  Concerning His people it is written in Hosea 2:14:  "Therefore, behold, I will allure her, will bring her into the wilderness, and speak comfort to her."  Also in Hosea 2:18-20:  "In that day I will make a covenant for them with the beasts of the field, with the birds of the air, and with the creeping things of the ground. Bow and sword of battle I will shatter from the earth, to make them lie down safely. ¹⁹ "I will betroth you to Me forever; yes, I will betroth you to Me in righteousness and justice, in lovingkindness and mercy; ²⁰ I will betroth you to Me in faithfulness, and you shall know the LORD."

Yet God's love is not limited to the Jews.  Through Jesus Christ the love of God has been displayed openly and offered to all people.  Romans 5:8 says, "But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us."  Jesus paid the bride price of His church not through the risk of His life, but through His death and resurrection.  Colossians 1:19-20 states, "For it pleased the Father that in Him all the fullness should dwell, ²⁰ and by Him to reconcile all things to Himself, by Him, whether things on earth or things in heaven, having made peace through the blood of His cross."  It is amazing that Jesus would pay such a price to redeem us.  We are not royalty, nor do we bring any rich dowry to the relationship.  All we bring is an everlasting debt of sin - a debt that Christ rejoiced to pay through His own sacrifice.

When we are born again by grace through faith, we become intimately acquainted with the Creator and Lover of our souls.  Ours is a God who fights for us.  As we lean on Him in faith, we realise it is He who is supporting us.  It is He who keeps our feet from stumbling, and Jesus is the lifter of our heads.  Let us praise Him for paying our bride price - a debt we could never pay - and for restoring us unto Himself.  Our relationship to God is a priority for Him, even a greater priority than establishing His eternal throne on earth!  How humbling, how amazing is such love!  May we ever abide this this love.