II Samuel 21:1-14
“Then there was a famine in the days of David three years, year after year; and David inquired of the LORD. And the LORD answered, It is for Saul, and for his bloody house, because he slew the Gibeonites.” (II Samuel 21:1)
In Deuteronomy 28, God promised Israel that if they would serve him he would bless everything they did, but that if the began to go against him. He would gradually remove their blessings like a loving father until they began to pay attention, one of the things he would do was to allow their crops to fail as a warning that they were getting too far away from what was right.
When the famine first started they didn’t think much about it, but after three years, it began to register that this was more than just a temporary drought. Finally David took the trouble to ask why God was allowing it. God’s response was that it was because Saul had slain a lot of the Gibbeonites, and that there had been no effort to make it right.
“And the king called the Gibeonites, and said unto them; (now the Gibeonites were not of the children of Israel, but of the remnant of the Amorites; and the children of Israel had sworn unto them: and Saul sought to slay them in his zeal to the children of Israel and Judah.) Wherefore David said unto the Gibeonites, What shall I do for you? and wherewith shall I make the atonement, that ye may bless the inheritance of the LORD?” (II Samuel 21:2-3)
Believing that God was going to give the land of Canaan to the Jews as he promised, The people of Gibbeon had deceived the people of Israel in order to make a treaty with them, In Joshua 9. Because they believed what the Gibbeonites told, them, Israel signed the treaty, even though God had forbidden them to make treaties with the local peoples. When they realized what had happened, most of the Israelites wanted to break the treaty and kill the Gibbeonites.
Joshua and the other leaders admitted they had broken God’s command in making the treaty. They pointed out that if they broke the treaty, they would then have broken another of God’s commands, compounding the problem. Committing another sin would not alleviate the problem of the first.
About five hundred seventy five years after Israel signed the treaty, Saul decided that he needed to get rid of the non Jews to purge the Jewish culture of outside influences. He simply ignored the treaty and had many of the Gibbeonites slaughtered. Israel had done nothing about making theirs right for about fifty years, so God brought judgment on them for it.
Numbers 35:33 warns of the danger of letting murderers go unpunished, and Saul’s killing the Gibeonites was murder. “So ye shall not pollute the land wherein ye are: for blood it defileth the land: and the land cannot be cleansed of the blood that is shed therein, but by the blood of him that shed it.” By not executing the murderer, any nation tacitly approves murder, bringing God’s judgment on the entire nation. By doing nothing about it, Israel had accepted responsibility for the murder of the Gibbeonites. Since Saul and most of his family were dead, David asked the Gibbeonites what they thought was fair. Only by executing the murder could the judgment be lifted. Numbers 35:31 says that no alternative punishment can be substituted. “Moreover ye shall take no satisfaction for the life of a murderer, which is guilty of death: but he shall be surely put to death.”
With this in mind, it is easy to understand why David would later instruct Solomon not to allow Joab to die of natural causes. Please note that the defilement is for any nation, not just for Israel. Think of the judgment America deserves because they approve murder by not administering the death penalty in most cases.
Similar statements are made about homosexuality and other sexual sin. Leviticus 18 stresses that these types of sins were why God took the land from the Canaanites, and warns that it will happen for any nation.
“And the Gibeonites said unto him, We will have no silver nor gold of Saul, nor of his house; neither for us shalt thou kill any man in Israel.
And he said, What ye shall say, that will I do for you.
And they answered the king, The man that consumed us, and that devised against us that we should be destroyed from remaining in any of the coasts of Israel, Let seven men of his sons be delivered unto us, and we will hang them up unto the LORD in Gibeah of Saul, whom the LORD did choose.” (II Samuel 21:4-6a”
The Gibbeonites did not ask for a monetary judgment against Saul’s family, or that somebody be executed, but that they be allowed to execute judgment on seven of his descendants for Saul’s crime while he was king.
“And the king said, I will give them.
But the king spared Mephibosheth, the son of Jonathan the son of Saul, because of the LORD'S oath that was between them, between David and Jonathan the son of Saul.
But the king took the two sons of Rizpah the daughter of Aiah, whom she bare unto Saul, Armoni and Mephibosheth; and the five sons of Michal the daughter of Saul, whom she brought up for Adriel the son of Barzillai the Meholathite: And he delivered them into the hands of the Gibeonites, and they hanged them in the hill before the LORD: and they fell all seven together, and were put to death in the days of harvest, in the first days, in the beginning of barley harvest.” (II Samuel 21:6b-9)
David acquiesced to their request but remembered his agreement with Jonathan and refused to allow Mephibosheth to be killed. The only remaining members of Saul’s family were two illegitimate sons of Saul by Rizpah, and five sons of Adriel that Saul’s daughter Michal had adopted and raised since she had no children of her own.
The Gibeonites executed them in first few days of barley harvest, and hanged the bodies for all to see as a reproach on Saul’s family.
“And Rizpah the daughter of Aiah took sackcloth, and spread it for her upon the rock, from the beginning of harvest until water dropped upon them out of heaven, and suffered neither the birds of the air to rest on them by day, nor the beasts of the field by night.
And it was told David what Rizpah the daughter of Aiah, the concubine of Saul, had done.
And David went and took the bones of Saul and the bones of Jonathan his son from the men of Jabeshgilead, which had stolen them from the street of Bethshan, where the Philistines had hanged them, when the Philistines had slain Saul in Gilboa: And he brought up from thence the bones of Saul and the bones of Jonathan his son; and they gathered the bones of them that were hanged. And the bones of Saul and Jonathan his son buried they in the country of Benjamin in Zelah, in the sepulchre of Kish his father: and they performed all that the king commanded. And after that God was entreated for the land. ” (II Samuel 21:11-14)
Though they had been executed for their father’s crimes, Rizpah was hurt by th etreatment of her sons, and protected the hanging bodies from the weather and scavengers. David heard about her efforts and recognized her pain. He had Saul and jonathan’s remains exhumed in Jabeshgilead and all the bodies were moved to Saul’s family plot Benjamin, at Zelah, to provide relief to the family.
God accepted the efforts to make the sin right and removed the curse, ending the famine.
“Then there was a famine in the days of David three years, year after year; and David inquired of the LORD. And the LORD answered, It is for Saul, and for his bloody house, because he slew the Gibeonites.” (II Samuel 21:1)
In Deuteronomy 28, God promised Israel that if they would serve him he would bless everything they did, but that if the began to go against him. He would gradually remove their blessings like a loving father until they began to pay attention, one of the things he would do was to allow their crops to fail as a warning that they were getting too far away from what was right.
When the famine first started they didn’t think much about it, but after three years, it began to register that this was more than just a temporary drought. Finally David took the trouble to ask why God was allowing it. God’s response was that it was because Saul had slain a lot of the Gibbeonites, and that there had been no effort to make it right.
“And the king called the Gibeonites, and said unto them; (now the Gibeonites were not of the children of Israel, but of the remnant of the Amorites; and the children of Israel had sworn unto them: and Saul sought to slay them in his zeal to the children of Israel and Judah.) Wherefore David said unto the Gibeonites, What shall I do for you? and wherewith shall I make the atonement, that ye may bless the inheritance of the LORD?” (II Samuel 21:2-3)
Believing that God was going to give the land of Canaan to the Jews as he promised, The people of Gibbeon had deceived the people of Israel in order to make a treaty with them, In Joshua 9. Because they believed what the Gibbeonites told, them, Israel signed the treaty, even though God had forbidden them to make treaties with the local peoples. When they realized what had happened, most of the Israelites wanted to break the treaty and kill the Gibbeonites.
Joshua and the other leaders admitted they had broken God’s command in making the treaty. They pointed out that if they broke the treaty, they would then have broken another of God’s commands, compounding the problem. Committing another sin would not alleviate the problem of the first.
About five hundred seventy five years after Israel signed the treaty, Saul decided that he needed to get rid of the non Jews to purge the Jewish culture of outside influences. He simply ignored the treaty and had many of the Gibbeonites slaughtered. Israel had done nothing about making theirs right for about fifty years, so God brought judgment on them for it.
Numbers 35:33 warns of the danger of letting murderers go unpunished, and Saul’s killing the Gibeonites was murder. “So ye shall not pollute the land wherein ye are: for blood it defileth the land: and the land cannot be cleansed of the blood that is shed therein, but by the blood of him that shed it.” By not executing the murderer, any nation tacitly approves murder, bringing God’s judgment on the entire nation. By doing nothing about it, Israel had accepted responsibility for the murder of the Gibbeonites. Since Saul and most of his family were dead, David asked the Gibbeonites what they thought was fair. Only by executing the murder could the judgment be lifted. Numbers 35:31 says that no alternative punishment can be substituted. “Moreover ye shall take no satisfaction for the life of a murderer, which is guilty of death: but he shall be surely put to death.”
With this in mind, it is easy to understand why David would later instruct Solomon not to allow Joab to die of natural causes. Please note that the defilement is for any nation, not just for Israel. Think of the judgment America deserves because they approve murder by not administering the death penalty in most cases.
Similar statements are made about homosexuality and other sexual sin. Leviticus 18 stresses that these types of sins were why God took the land from the Canaanites, and warns that it will happen for any nation.
“And the Gibeonites said unto him, We will have no silver nor gold of Saul, nor of his house; neither for us shalt thou kill any man in Israel.
And he said, What ye shall say, that will I do for you.
And they answered the king, The man that consumed us, and that devised against us that we should be destroyed from remaining in any of the coasts of Israel, Let seven men of his sons be delivered unto us, and we will hang them up unto the LORD in Gibeah of Saul, whom the LORD did choose.” (II Samuel 21:4-6a”
The Gibbeonites did not ask for a monetary judgment against Saul’s family, or that somebody be executed, but that they be allowed to execute judgment on seven of his descendants for Saul’s crime while he was king.
“And the king said, I will give them.
But the king spared Mephibosheth, the son of Jonathan the son of Saul, because of the LORD'S oath that was between them, between David and Jonathan the son of Saul.
But the king took the two sons of Rizpah the daughter of Aiah, whom she bare unto Saul, Armoni and Mephibosheth; and the five sons of Michal the daughter of Saul, whom she brought up for Adriel the son of Barzillai the Meholathite: And he delivered them into the hands of the Gibeonites, and they hanged them in the hill before the LORD: and they fell all seven together, and were put to death in the days of harvest, in the first days, in the beginning of barley harvest.” (II Samuel 21:6b-9)
David acquiesced to their request but remembered his agreement with Jonathan and refused to allow Mephibosheth to be killed. The only remaining members of Saul’s family were two illegitimate sons of Saul by Rizpah, and five sons of Adriel that Saul’s daughter Michal had adopted and raised since she had no children of her own.
The Gibeonites executed them in first few days of barley harvest, and hanged the bodies for all to see as a reproach on Saul’s family.
“And Rizpah the daughter of Aiah took sackcloth, and spread it for her upon the rock, from the beginning of harvest until water dropped upon them out of heaven, and suffered neither the birds of the air to rest on them by day, nor the beasts of the field by night.
And it was told David what Rizpah the daughter of Aiah, the concubine of Saul, had done.
And David went and took the bones of Saul and the bones of Jonathan his son from the men of Jabeshgilead, which had stolen them from the street of Bethshan, where the Philistines had hanged them, when the Philistines had slain Saul in Gilboa: And he brought up from thence the bones of Saul and the bones of Jonathan his son; and they gathered the bones of them that were hanged. And the bones of Saul and Jonathan his son buried they in the country of Benjamin in Zelah, in the sepulchre of Kish his father: and they performed all that the king commanded. And after that God was entreated for the land. ” (II Samuel 21:11-14)
Though they had been executed for their father’s crimes, Rizpah was hurt by th etreatment of her sons, and protected the hanging bodies from the weather and scavengers. David heard about her efforts and recognized her pain. He had Saul and jonathan’s remains exhumed in Jabeshgilead and all the bodies were moved to Saul’s family plot Benjamin, at Zelah, to provide relief to the family.
God accepted the efforts to make the sin right and removed the curse, ending the famine.
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