Keeping an old Vow & Honoring the Dead - 2 Samuel 21:1-14
Prayer: Lord, the passage we have today is one of blood & pain, of revenge & grief. This is a difficult passage that needs careful consideration, please work through the power of your Holy Spirit this day to help us to see your purpose & plan being worked out through the events described.
Quickly Form Groups:
1. Think about sins you've committed that have had long-term consequences. How do you see God's grace at work through the consequences? What good can come from God's chastisement?
I am standing in front of you today, teaching the Word of God, as a direct result of the chastisement of God. I'm not going to take the time today to share my story, but I will say that I know what it is to be broken at the hands of a loving God. When God breaks or punishes it is with a purpose: it gets our attention, it causes us to repent, it causes us to commit ourselves more deeply to His ways. Not all pain in our lives is a result of our sin, but no matter the cause God doesn't waste pain in the lives of His beloved; instead, He uses it in an efficient and purposeful way. If you're going through something painful today I'm going to encourage you to go to your knees & seek God's face to discover how He is working through it for your benefit.
Today we have another bloody passage, and this one seems a bit contrary to how God might work, so we're going to have to look at a bit of history to understand this one. We're going back to the time when Joshua was leading the Israelites into the promised land, and there were many battles going on to capture the land from those who were inhabiting the land. The Israelites had been commanded by God to wipe out the inhabitants of the land because the people in the land were deeply pagan & reprobate - beyond hope of salvation.
Joshua 9 - The Gibeonites were spared, and verse 15 tells us an oath was made that they would not be destroyed - at this point in Israel's history an oath would have been made to God. They would live among the Israelite's with a specific function. Despite the mistake (sin) of the leaders in not consulting the Lord, the Lord is still going to hold Israel to this vow.
2 Samuel 21:1 - Back to David's day, there is a famine for 3 years - this would have been hard on the nation as a whole. The obvious problem is that food supplies were low, for both man & beast, but the problems go deeper. This is an agrarian culture, they were dependent on farming for overall national finances & thus national strength. It's not clear when this famine occurred during the reign of David, but by other indicators in the passage it occurs after Mephibosheth (Saul's grandson, Jonathan's crippled son) had been brought into David's royal court.
David knows how God operates, there is trouble & God doesn't waste pain, so David seeks God to determine what is causing the problems. We don't know the extent of David's seeking God's face, but I'm guessing that this seeking happened throughout the 3 year period of drought. We also don't know how God communicated to David, we're not told, it could have been directly (though not likely by the passage) or by prophet or by use of the Urim & Thummim.
God points out the problem - Saul & his blood-soaked house have broken a vow & put the Gibeonites to death. God takes vows seriously, it is an egregious sin to break a vow. God is holding the nation of Israel to an old vow made about 400 years previous to this time in David's reign, a vow that had been brokered during Joshua's time & broken during Saul's reign.
2 Samuel 21:2-3 - Now that David knows the cause of the famine he begins to take action. Saul had tried to destroy the Gibeonites because of his national pride, breaking Israel's vow, now David is trying to set things right. David summons the Gibeonites & asks what can be done to make amends for the wrong done to their people at the hand of Saul & his house. Because a vow made to their people had been broken they had every right to call on God to bring down a curse on the land, David is negotiating for a return of God's blessings on the nation of Israel.
2 Samuel 21:4-6 - The Gibeonites are a people under subjection to Israel (not slaves, but under Israel), as a subjugated people they had no right to request blood-justice in Israel. This is man's way, not God's way, God's perfect justice is for all people - slave or free & everyone in between. David encourages them to speak what they would want, as king he is granting them the right to request blood-justice in Israel for this particular wrong.
The Gibeonites make their request, they rightly lay the blame for their trouble on Saul & his house. Not only had Saul tried to annihilate this people, he had made it almost impossible for them to find a place to call home within Israel. They request 7 of Saul's descendants to be given to them for execution & exposure before God in Saul's former place of residence. They are actually demonstrating knowledge of God in their request, they ask for 7 men - 7 is considered a number of completion, they are not asking for as many to be slain as had been killed at Saul's hand.
David agrees to this, 7 of Saul's descendants will be slain & exposed, this will serve as a message to Saul's house in particular & Israel as a whole. God is going to extremes in this passage to make a point: He expects His people to be people of their word because it reflects on His character, and God always keeps His word. (Ecclesiastes 5:4-7)
2 Samuel 21:7-9 - David spares Mephibosheth, keeping his own vow in doing so, but selects 7 other descendants of Saul's house and hands them over (the Barzillai mentioned is not the one that helped David a couple chapters back). The men are executed together & exposed on a hill in full sight of God & man. This nearly obliterates the line of Saul, the only recorded descendants of Saul's remaining are from Jonathan's line. The timing of the execution is at the beginning of the barley harvest, approximately mid-April, relatively early in the year.
2 Samuel 21:10 - Not much of Saul's family remains to grieve, but Rizpah has just lost her two sons, sons born to Saul. She guards the bodies, she won't let any birds or animals get to the bodies. She stays from the time of the barley harvest until a time of heavy rain - this rain may indicate that the famine was caused by drought, but we aren't told that directly. How long was this? We don't know, but in her grief she's committed to her task.
2 Samuel 21:11-14 - David hears about Rizpah he has compassion on her & Saul's family, the wrong against the Gibeonites has been set right, now it is time for Saul's family & Israel as a whole to find healing. (1 Samuel 31:11-13) Apparently David knew what had happened to the bodies of Saul & Jonathan, how the men of Jabesh Gilead had risked their lives to honor them & give them a proper burial. Now David honors them further by returning their bones, along with the bones of the 7 slain descendants of Saul, and burying them in the tomb of Saul's father in their tribal homeland of Benjamin. This might not seem like such a big deal to us, but to ancient peoples this was critical - they wanted to be buried with their ancestors.
Now God answers the prayers on behalf of the land, the land will once again be fruitful. God sometimes takes His time answering prayers, and many times answers in ways that we don't understand, but that is His prerogative. He has time on His side, and His ways are always best, His ways serve His purpose and His plans. When we leave spiritual matters unresolved we will face consequences, leading to a famine in our relationship with God.
Closing Prayer: God, we all experience periods of spiritual famine, times when it feels like we're "all dried up", yet we know that as your children you never leave us. Lord help us, when we experience a famine, to come to you & seek to make things right. Amen!
Quickly Form Groups Again:
2. What unsettled business do you have in your life? Who needs to be forgiven? Where do you need to make restitution? What chapters of your life need to be re-written or closed by God?
3. Pray for each other.
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