Would you like to read James McNaught’s novel Sinking Sand”? click here: Sinking Sand
(The view expressed in this blog are my own and should not be taken as inspired in any way.)
2 Samuel 21:1–9, “Then there was a famine in the days of David three years, year after year; and David enquired of the LORD. And the LORD answered, It is for Saul, and for his bloody house, because he slew the Gibeonites. 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. 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.”
The Lord and Israel made a contract when they first came into the Promised Land. Israel promised the keep the commandments and the Lord promised to give Israel rain, good crops and a fruitful land, among other things. During David’s reign there was a drought and the rain didn’t come for three years. David understood that this must have a cause and he asked the Lord, through the proper channels, to let him know what was wrong. The Lord told David that Saul had broken an agreement that Joshua made with some of of the Amorites when Israel first entered the Land. The Gibeonites had tricked Joshua into making a treaty with them and, after that, Israel was committed to the treaty. When Saul became king, he was zealous for Israel and had started to kill the Amorites, thinking that he would finish the job that was started by Joshua all those years before. However, this was not in keeping with the solemn treaty and Israel had to atone for their sin. In those day, a relative was requited to avenge a murder so that Israel would be free from the blood of murdered people. A blood price had to be paid when a murder occurred. David consulted the Gibeonites and asked them what price should be paid for Saul’s crime. They asked that life should be given for life and required that seven of Saul’s descendants give up their lives to repay the debt. David saved Jonathan’s son because of the agreement that he had made with Jonathan but seven other descendants were killed to repay the blood debt.
No comments:
Post a Comment