2 Samuel 21:1-14 (CLICK HERE FOR BIBLE VERSES)
Hi GAMErs,
Today’s passage is 2 Samuel 21:1-14. As usual, I encourage you to open your Bible and read the passage yourself first. See what you can glean with the Holy Spirit’s help. Then read the GAME sharing below. Let’s go!
2 Samuel 21:1a (NIV)
1 During the reign of David, there was a famine for three successive years; so David sought the face of the LORD.
On verse 1: David seeks God after 3 long years of famine. Was this the first time during the famine that David sought the Lord? Knowing David, probably not. Still, let this be a reminder that if you are facing a difficult situation, don’t wait 3 years, or 3 months, or even 3 days to inquire of God. Go to the Lord for help and insight today. He will give you what you need.
2 Samuel 21:1b (NIV)
1…The LORD said, “It is on account of Saul and his blood-stained house; it is because he put the Gibeonites to death.”
On verse 1b: David inquires of God as to the reason for the famine. God explains that it is because Saul tried to wipe out the Gibeonites despite the Israelites having already entered into a peace treaty with the Gibeonites centuries before (Joshua 9:15-18).
What can we learn from this? God holds us accountable for the words we speak. Do not take your promises lightly. When you make a promise, be sure to fulfill it. When you don’t keep your word, you and those who trust in you will suffer.
2 Samuel 21:2-14 (NIV)
2 The king summoned the Gibeonites and spoke to them. (Now the Gibeonites were not a part of Israel but were survivors of the Amorites; the Israelites had sworn to [spare] them, but Saul in his zeal for Israel and Judah had tried to annihilate them.)
3 David asked the Gibeonites, “What shall I do for you? How shall I make amends so that you will bless the LORD’s inheritance?”
4 The Gibeonites answered him, “We have no right to demand silver or gold from Saul or his family, nor do we have the right to put anyone in Israel to death.” “What do you want me to do for you?” David asked.
5 They answered the king, “As for the man who destroyed us and plotted against us so that we have been decimated and have no place anywhere in Israel,
6 let seven of his male descendants be given to us to be killed and exposed before the LORD at Gibeah of Saul–the Lord’s chosen one.” So the king said, “I will give them to you.”
7 The king spared Mephibosheth son of Jonathan, the son of Saul, because of the oath before the LORD between David and Jonathan son of Saul.
8 But the king took Armoni and Mephibosheth, the two sons of Aiah’s daughter Rizpah, whom she had borne to Saul, together with the five sons of Saul’s daughter Merab, whom she had borne to Adriel son of Barzillai the Meholathite.
9 He handed them over to the Gibeonites, who killed and exposed them on a hill before the LORD. All seven of them fell together; they were put to death during the first days of the harvest, just as the barley harvest was beginning.
10 Rizpah daughter of Aiah took sackcloth and spread it out for herself on a rock. From the beginning of the harvest till the rain poured down from the heavens on the bodies, she did not let the birds of the air touch them by day or the wild animals by night.
11 When David was told what Aiah’s daughter Rizpah, Saul’s concubine, had done,
12 he went and took the bones of Saul and his son Jonathan from the citizens of Jabesh Gilead. (They had taken them secretly from the public square at Beth Shan, where the Philistines had hung them after they struck Saul down on Gilboa.)
13 David brought the bones of Saul and his son Jonathan from there, and the bones of those who had been killed and exposed were gathered up.
14 They buried the bones of Saul and his son Jonathan in the tomb of Saul’s father Kish, at Zela in Benjamin, and did everything the king commanded. After that, God answered prayer in behalf of the land.
On verses 2-14: David asks the Gibeonites how he can make amends for Saul’s sin. To satisfy their wrath, the Gibeonites request that David execute 7 male descendants of Saul. To keep his oath to Jonathan, David spares Jonathan’s son Mephibosheth but takes two sons from Saul’s concubine Rizpah and five sons from Saul’s daughter Merab and has them executed and presented on the hill of Gibeah, just as the Gibeonites requested. A heart broken Rizpah camps out nearby and shews away all animals that may want to feed on her sons’ corpses (v10). Rizpah’s actions inspire David to give a proper burial to all seven who had been killed as well as a proper reburial of Saul and Jonathan (v11-14). After that the people’s prayers are answered and the land yields crops again.
What can we learn from this? To extinguish the wrath of the Gibeonites and also to save his nation from a famine, David allows 7 sons of Saul to be executed and exposed on a hill.
In a similar way, the Bible says that when we had sinned against God, our sins had 2 results. First, there would be a spiritual famine in our world, such that we would have no more right to the living water that is God’s presence. Second, God’s wrath raged against our sin. So to stop the famine and to settle God’s wrath, God demanded that a sacrifice be given. Yet out of love for us, rather than demanding that we be the ones sacrificed, God allowed His own Son to be killed in our place. Through the death of God’s Son Jesus, God’s wrath was extinguished and at the same time the spiritual famine ended and we had access once again to God’s life-giving presence.
Father, thank You for sacrificing Your own Son so that my friends and I could live in Your life-giving presence. In Jesus’ name, AMEN!
opyright © 2022 Justin Lim. All rights reserved.
