Michal's Irrational Jealousy

One of the many stories of the Old Testament that the evangelical world overlooks can be found in 2 Samuel 6:12-23, focusing on a celebration of God's power and of the Ark of the Covenant.  During this celebration, King David dances in a way that exposes his body in front of servant girls.  Saul's daughter Michal, a wife of King David, finds herself enraged over the fact that her husband would dance in such a way.  His intentions were to celebrate Yahweh's presence, but his wife objected, thinking his self-exposure inappropriate.

Michal's indignant response is very similar to the legalistic words of modern evangelicals to women who wear bikinis or other clothing that is arbitrarily deemed "immodest."  She does not analyze the situation through a rationalistic comprehension of Yahweh's moral commands, but instead reacts out of petty emotionalism.  She despises David for his imagined offense (6:16), suggests that he is vulgar for exposing his body to members of the opposite gender (6:20), and is subsequently afflicted with barrenness (6:23).

In other words, Michal expresses outrage over her husband allowing other women to see his body and then is unable to give birth for the remainder of her life.  This is an outcome that conservative evangelicals would not almost certainly never expect!  After all, they tend to think that sexual jealousy is healthy even when there is no hint of infidelity on the level of a person's physical actions or motivations, not to mention the standard evangelical misconception that sensual displays of the human body are sexual by default (which prompts the mistaken belief that exposing one's body to the opposite gender at large is adulterous if one is already married).

Ironically, a jealous spouse often thinks being irritated when their partner's body is seen by other members of the opposite gender is a positive trait that strengthens the relationship, but it is a destructive attitude at best.  The body of a given husband or wife is not for only their spouse to see and admire, and the exposure of the human body is only situationally sexual to begin with.  Michal seemingly failed to grasp the fact that David's body was not a private possession of hers, as the very fact that she disliked that David's body was seen by other women establishes.

The personal consequences of Michal's anger at David serve as an obvious example of the fact that God is opposed to displays of jealousy that are prompted by nonsinful behaviors.  The ferocity of a person's feelings are of no relevance to the morality of another person's actions, even when the other person is a spouse and his or her actions contradict conservative sexual norms.  This aspect of 2 Samuel 6 might be commonly ignored precisely because it denies the legalism that has become entrenched in the church during its history.