I‘m blessed to “walk” my life with sisters. I do not have a “real daughter of my mother” sister. I am blessed with a brother. The sisters I walk my dirt road with are sisters in the faith. We go to Bible Study together…pray together…encourage one another…correct one another…live a real nitty-gritty life together.

Some of my sisters come from a family of six girls…their bond it’s woven with blood, sweat, and tears of living and a fierce love for one another. I thank my Father for the same sister relationship He has given me with my faith family. The Jesus sisters I’m blessed with pray with me…support me…correct me…I can’t imagine walking this road without them.

Family can be tough. They are the ones we love most…the ones who can wound us the deepest. The relationships that can be most complex. The Bible is full of families as dysfunctional as any today. I’ve had two sisters on my mind …..Merab and Michal…two daughters of Saul. Bless their hearts..what a family to be born into.

I wonder if they were close as little girls…if they had the same mother…lived close to one another in the palace. What relationship existed between them?

When David had proven himself a valiant warrior, Saul offers Merab to David as a wife. David replies that his family is of no reputation in Israel…and when Merab should have been given to David..instead she is given to Adriel, a Meholathite, to be his wife.

Saul learns that his daughter Michal loves David so she is offered to David for a bride price of 100 Philistine foreskins. David pays the price and Michal becomes his wife. Their marriage is not filled with a “happily ever after”. It has separation…Michal is given to another man to be his wife…David takes multiple wives…then when David becomes king, Michal is taken from the second husband and brought back to David. (1 Samuel 18, )

But the really hard subject I want to talk about is Merab’s sons. (2 Samuel 21:1-9). We find the nation of Israel in the middle of a famine…3 years of famine. David inquires of the Lord and learns the famine is the result of bloodguilt on Saul and his house. Saul had put to death some Gibeonites. Now there was a covenant between the Gibeonites and Israel. Saul violated this covenant. David asks the Gibeonites what can be done for them that would make atonement for this violation. They ask for 7 sons of Saul to be hung at Gibeah.

The 7 sons chosen are 2 sons of Rizpah, a concubine of Saul’s and 5 sons of…..Merab. Merab, his wife’s sister…Merab who was offered to him in marriage….These 5 were his nephews by marriage…stop and ponder….

I’m no therapist but I’m not sure one could ever sort this out. Two sisters, their lives impacted and directed by politics… heartbreak…brokenness …. bitterness… division… loss of the greatest magnitude….

Broken relationship. Broken hearts. Broken family.

Their father Saul had broken covenant with the Gibeonites….maybe we need to be more aware as we walk that the choices we make impact our children and those around us. That sometimes our choices are perfect…sometimes ok…sometimes poor…and sometimes sinful. That our responsibility to one another as the family of God is more important than we realize.

Father….
Speak truth into my heart…
Make me to hear Your voice…
Direct my steps…
Protect those I love
Save relationships…save families