Also David seems to have only spared Mephibosheth only because he made an oath, and not for the fact that he was only five years old and did not participate in killing the Gibeonites? It is easy to read this story blithely, and to think that David righted some longstanding wrongs that had happened, and then God happily sent rain to the parched land of Israel. 4. II Samuel 21:1-2 Now there was a famine in the days of David for three years, year after year; and David inquired of the LORD. Then, I am sure, he started to think about other things that were happening, and he started to make some reforms in himself. Yes, my lord, he answered. It springs out when you are not ready. So let seven of Sauls sons or grandsons be handed over to us, and we will execute them before the Lord at Gibeon, on the mountain of the Lord.. Community answers are sorted based on votes. This cultural thing about wanting our heroes flawed is so deeply ingrained in us that we cannot imagine anyone going through life without sin. However, if they did not participate, they are not going to be given a black mark by God for something that they did not do. In 1 Samuel 10, Saul first tries to kill David by straight up pinning him to the wall with his spear, but David dodges twice. WebThese lists are not concerned with the Gibeonites at Gibeon, but with the Benjaminite group which came to settle at Gibeon in the course of time. The Gibeonites left their mark on Israel's history in another wretched incident involving So he said, "Whatever you say, I will do for you." You had only black and white television if you had television. They wanted blood by putting to death seven male descendants to die for the crimes of that house against the Gibeonites. If the Gibeonites brought guile and deceit into the land; it was Saul who set the example for deep and devastating delusion. Where have you been, David? He made huge errors in judgment, both personally and in a larger sense. Because he may have been still depressed by Absalom's death. They probably went from Gibeon by some circuitous route so they did not come directly from the west where they actually lived. King Saul would conscript them into the army, and off they would go in a bloodthirsty rage against somebody else. The Gibeonites were not Israelites, but the remnant of the Amorites, which Saul pursued from within Israel. Deuteronomy 21:22-23 If a man has committed a sin deserving of death, and he is put to death, and you hang him on a tree, his body shall not remain overnight on the tree, but you shall surely bury him that day, so that you do not defile the land which the LORD your God is giving you as an inheritance; for he who is hanged is accursed of God. Justice seems to have been served. Luke 21:36 "Watch therefore, and pray always that you may be counted worthy to escape all these things that will come to pass, and to stand before the Son of Man.". I think he was looking at Adonijah and Solomon, and seeing the positioning for the throne, and he just wanted to throw up his handsflee like some bird (Psalm 139). Now if the LORD your God enlarges your territory, as He swore to your fathers, and gives you the land which He promised to give to your fathers, and if you keep all these commandments and do them, which I command you today, to love the LORD your God and to walk always in His ways, then you shall add three more cities for yourself besides these three, lest innocent blood be shed in the midst of your land which the LORD your God is giving you as an inheritance, and thus guilt of bloodshed be upon you. Why are they where they were? After that, they had their problems at Ai, and figured out that Achan was responsible for that. Certainly, after three years you would. Was John the Baptist conceived via an immaculate conception? But talk about your flawed heroes! Joshua and that generation did not do their entire job, and so they were stuck. God is not bloodthirsty, but He had told them what to do. Christ says, Luke 21:34-35 "But take heed to yourselves, lest your hearts be weighed down with carousing, drunkenness, and cares of this life, and that Day come on you unexpectedly. God did not necessarily overlook all their sins, but He certainly forgave them. God took the initiative in this matter, by afflicting the nation of Israel with a famine because the house of Saul had put the Gibeonites to death. This indicates that God was not pleased, whatsoever, with how this situation was resolved by David. All answers are REVIEWED and MODERATED. And these men, they need to be buried. He received good marks in Scripture. He got a little weird, throwing spears at David (and Jonathan too, once). Yet, because of the long time that has passed since then until now, when the Gibeonites were asked to bring it up, how many of the guilty ones had died? Before she married David, Abigail had been the wife of _____. WebA three years' famine in the days of David was attributed to God's anger at the unexpiated crime of Saul in slaying the Gibeonites. He was far from God during this time. Moreover, Samuel said, "What have you done? WebDavid serves Saul with music on his harp Nov 24, 1025. Davids choice of victims reflects at least the covenant between him and Jonathan, if not also the one between him This meant the latter harvest has passed, and maybe another month or so went by. Forty years, at least, has passed, and had they been involved in it back when Saul was still kinglet us say they were 18 to 20 years oldthese men involved in this massacre, should they still be alive, might be 60, 65, or even 70 years old. With all the recent rebellions, he was probably worried that his alliances were going to fail, because he may have appeared to weaken. Joshua 9:3-6 But when the inhabitants of Gibeon heard what Joshua had done to Jericho and Ai, they worked craftily [remember that], and went and pretended to be ambassadors. He was not really on the ball like he should have been. II Samuel 21:14 So they performed all that the king commanded. Leviticus 26:18-20 And after all this, if you do not obey Me, then I will punish you seven times more for your sins. And that day Joshua made them woodcutters and water carriers for the congregation and for the altar of the LORD, in the place which He would choose, even to this day. That is the bottom line. Deep and long lasting trouble for both parties - both the Israelites and the Gibeonites - was the fruit of this clever, but calamitous deception. Should we make a covenant with them? They buried the bones of Saul and Jonathan his son in the country of Benjamin in Zelah, in the tomb of Kish his father. Things were going wrong. He went after a people that God did not want exterminated anymore. What I am trying to show you by going through these different places is that there is plenty of law that King David could have looked back on. We don't hear much of the Gibeonites again until the reign of King Saul. A lot can happen in two years. WebWe will attack Gibeon, because they have made peace with Joshua and the Israelites." He does not live long past the end of II Samuel. At the request of the Gibeonites themselves, seven sons of Saul were executed ( II Sam. Even though the avenger of blood could kill the person if he caught him before he arrived at the city of refugewhat this verse is saying, here, is that if the nation follows through, and enlarges the lands by obeying God, He will designate more cities of refuge so that they are closer. The Israelites had taken an oath concerning them, but in his zeal for Israel and Judah, Saul had sought to kill them.) They knew all the things God had stipulated about what they were to do when Israel was going to come into the land. So he said, "Whatever you say, I will do for you." The consequences are not the guilt. Rizpah, Lord Alfred Tennyson in 1878. Then we have the explanations of which we just went over. Another group, however, argues that as God's anointed king, How do other hominoids (e.g homo erectus, homo neanderthalensis, etc.) There is more space given to David's flaws than anyone else in the whole Bible. All it is, was, "We want blood, and anyone from the house of Saul will do.". He came at this as though he were guilty with Saul; that all Israelites were guilty with Saul and his house. Web2 Samuel 21:1 Context. So 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. Numbers 35:29-33 And these things shall be a statute of judgment to you throughout your generations in all your dwellings. This does not make any sense. The LORD is near to those who have a broken heart, and saves such as have a contrite spirit. or who shall stand in his holy place? My supposition is that he may have been still questioning God about the way his reign seemed to have crumbled, and all he had was enemies around him. II Samuel 21:1-14 Now there was a famine in the days of David for three years, year after year; and David inquired of the L ORD. He just let the natural cycles take their course. For all his misguided efforts and pains, Saul reaped the fruits of his delusion. What is meaning of 2 Cor. If you read Psalm 51 it is very clear that he understood his own makeup. To put it in a more modern time setting, a lot of people prefer Batman (the dark one), or Spiderman (the geek), to Superman for the very same reasons. There was a covenant with those people that not only Joshua and the people honored, but also God Himself honored as well. And she did not allow the birds of the air to rest on them by day nor the beasts of the field by night. You might say a whole cycle of generations. THE STORY OF THE GIBEONITES - Skeptic turned believer, Catholic, father of 3, ABC/DTS graduate, guitar music ministry Baptist church. Lets be clear from the very beginning, David was kind to Mephibosheth for his father Jonathans sake (2 Samuel 9:1). Mephibosheth was only five ye Vote Up I think he was distracted because the turmoil had taken such a toll on Israel, and the famine too, that he was worried about the economy, rebuilding cities and fortifications, and his alliances with Hiram and others. In the economy of God's providence, however, such tiny events often matter much. He committed colossal sins that whole nations would be held in contempt for. Now, we move forward, not very long in time, to Joshua 9. It is tainted.". Had David been righteous and been crying out to God, God would have heard him. On the mammoth scene of world history this minor alliance would rank as a minute encounter. Deceit and delusion are powerful spiritual weapons of destruction but they pale in potency compared to the creative and edifying Word of God come alive by faith in believers' hearts! Therefore, the world is full of sintheir own sin. This is in the second commandment. Therefore, one of the first things that Joshua and the Israelites do is they allow a big problem to linger in their midst. But it does not say so here in so many words. What do we do in a time of spiritual famine? You cannot tell. God!before the Lordin Gibeah of Saul. Gibeon is only a few miles mostly north of Jerusalem. It does not require at all times that a person guilty of bloodshed die. And the king said, "I will give them." . A good answer provides new insight and perspective. In some ways, the story centers around covenants or treaties, one made between Israel and the Gibeonites in Joshua 9, another between Jonathan and David in 1 Sam. He sees the hearts of men and the hidden actions of men. The historical narrative of King David is drawing to a close. Then they answered the king, "As for the man who consumed us and plotted against us, that we should be destroyed from remaining in any of the territories of Israel, "let seven men of his descendants be delivered to us, and we will hang them before the LORD in Gibeah of Saul, whom the LORD chose." By this time, Moses had died and was buried. King David came at it from a position of weakness, not of one who knew God's law and could answer these people from spiritual strength. If, in the event the Israelis ever came their way, they would be servants to the people of Israel. So he did to them, and delivered them out of the hand of the children of Israel, so that they did not kill them. Jerusalem is almost directly west a few miles, but it is quite high from the Jordan to the Jerusalem. He was humble and relied on God, and was granted many victories over Israels enemies. Things started to go downhill over time however, as Saul became presumptuous and arrogant; he ignored several direct commands of God, and the last straw came when he interfered in offering a sacrifice to God, in direct contravention of what hed been told to do. So the king called the Gibeonites and spoke to them. There was a great deal of turmoil in Israel leading up to this time. Of course, a part of it is being able to look at ourselves and see how dirty, nasty, and rotten we are, and saying, "There is no way that anybody could live in this world without sin; even God's beloved Son.". Sheba's rebellion is in the previous chapter, II Samuel 20. Deuteronomy 32:4. I do not know if that was the case, but he had just gone through Absalom's rebellion, and Sheba's rebellion, and maybe he allowed that to cross his mind too. There is no record in the Bible of Saul killing Gibeonites. Then, they went after Jericho, and it fell. 1. In effect, what they wanted to do was hang the bodies of Saul's family in Saul's hometown in sight of Jerusalem. WebTheir apostasy began with the Hivites from Gibeon, and in time, the leaven slowly spread. When the Gibeonites heard that the other nations were going to attack them, they sent a message to Joshua and the people, Help! And they sent them to Joshua at Gilgal. So, others besides Saul were guilty. And the king said, "I will give them.". You didn't do it. This was a long time ago. ", So David went out and said, "There are some things that have needed to be done. Their representatives were not up front with the Israeli leaders. Report. Because of their peace treaty and their oath with the Gibeonites, which included these people. Finally the light came on, and David said, "I had better ask what is going on here. It would have been the answer. What did David do to end the famine caused by Saul breaking a treaty with the Gibeonites? Israel and Judah," who may have fretted at the inconvenience of having the Gibeonites among them. They are going to cause problems. The person who commits a sin is guilty of that sin, and God punishes that person for that sin. It must have been a satisfactory solution from Gods point of view, because he sent the rain on the land after the measures had been taken. These curses are things like diseases that might affect genetics, and they came as the result of sin. THE STORY OF JOSEPH - To all appearances, it seems that they got away with it. (Mark 6:20). Let me ask God about this. He was tired of life, tired of war, tired of all the politics, tired of all the rebellion, tired of Joab. He became jealous and he went wacko, basically. There is no want to those who fear Him. God told Joshua to get rid of all these foreigners in the land. The Bible doesnt really say. This is taken from the book Antiquities of the Jews, pg. 7: AFTER this, when the country was greatly afflicted with a King David was probably huffing and puffing, "I can't lift this thing! As mentioned earlier, there was the rebellion of Absalom. We do not know how long before II Samuel 21 this incident happened. Seven of Sauls descendants were hanged as a result. The "Man of Steel" is just too perfect, too smart, and too invincible. Then the men of David swore to him, saying, "You shall go out no more with us to battle, lest you quench the lamp of Israel.". That generation had begun to pass. He will not relent. So, give or take, 40 to 50 years have passed. Why did he not seem to notice the first year and say to himself, "Hmm. We have all followed in the same way of life as our first parents Adam and Eve. They were a group of Amorites. Nob. The rest of the Canaanites resented the defection of the Hivites which so greatly weakened the forces for defense, and, headed by Adoni-zedek of Jerusalem, they assembled to wreak vengeance on Gibeon. But, they like the dark one because he is moody, and doing things not for quite the right reasons. David didnt get the throne until Saul and Jonathon were both dead. David was anointed king many years before he took the throne. He had Saul tryin Instead, David brings back twice as many. Now, if we would go through II Samuel 24, that even though David made a huge mistake in chapter 21, he did it right in chapter 24. WebMany centuries later (the period from the exodus of Israel to the reign of Saul is generally considered to be about 400 years), Saul came to the throne in Israel. God punished the whole nation for breaking the covenant. He is able to judge justly. What Saul did was commit another presumptuous sin. 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