In Joshua 9, Israel had made a treaty with the people of
Gibeon. Five hundred years later, Saul
had attacked Gibeon, apparently in an effort to purge Israel of foreign groups,
violating the treaty and promises Israel had made. The attasck had been forgotten until God
brought attention back to it, in II Samuel 21:1. “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.”
After three years of insufficient rainfall, Israel was
starting to suffer, and David prayed asking God why they were experiencing
theis. God said it was because of Saul’s
murdering the Gibeonites. David
immediately sought how he could make things right, in II Samuel 21:2-6a. “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?
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…”
The Gibeonites were not trying to get rich or take advantage
of innocent people, but wanted punishment for those who had committed the
crime. Sine Saul was already dead, they only
asked that his family suffer a little of what they had suffered.
God does not forget what people have done. Sometimes he allows things to go for years
before they have to face the consequences of their actions. In this case, Saul was already dead, but God
held the entire nation accountable for having not dealt with the murders as
commanded in Numbers 35:30. “Whoso killeth any person, the murderer
shall be put to death by the mouth of witnesses: but one witness shall not
testify against any person to cause him to die. 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. And ye shall take no satisfaction
for him that is fled to the city of his refuge, that he should come again to
dwell in the land, until the death of the priest. 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. Defile not therefore the land which ye shall
inhabit, wherein I dwell: for I the LORD dwell among the children of Israel.”
By letting Saul get by with murder, the entire nation was
affected. The Gibbeonites asked that
seven of Saul’s descendants be executed as judgement on him. David readily agreed, in order to Placate
God, in II Samuel 21:6b-9. “…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.”
Michal, David’s wife had developed a disrespect for David
that had destroyed their relationship, even though they remained together. She had raised some of Saul’s relatives as
her own children, and David sent those five boys, as well as two of Saul’s sons
by a concubine to be executed by the Gibeonites and satisfy their demands for
justice. It is hard to realize how
bitter things can become in an unhappy marriage. Because of his promise, Mephibosheth was
spared.
The mother of the other two boys, mourned their deaths,
going out of her way to protect their bodies.
When David learned of her grief, he took pains to make sure not only
they but Saul and Jonathan were properly buried in their family’s burial plot,
as II Samuel 21:10-14. “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.”
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