2
Samuel chapter 21 can be misinterpreted. Many people today
mistakenly believe that God is punishing them for the sins of the
past. They believe they must pay some penalty to earn God’s favor.
Although God often gets our attention through our circumstances, His
desire is to draw us closer to Himself. The chapter begins, “During
the reign of David, there was a famine for three successive years“.
So David “sought
the face of the Lord“.
The
Lord said, “It
is on account of Saul and his blood-stained house; it is because he
put the Gibeonites to death“.
Remember, 400 hundred years earlier, Joshua made an oath with the
Gibeonites. These Gibeonites were actually neighbors of Israel that
had lied in order to save themselves from destruction by the army of
Israel (Joshua chapter 9). When asked why they lied, the Gibeonites
said, “Your
servants were clearly told how the Lord your God… gave you the
whole land… so we feared for our lives.
So
Joshua saved them… and did not kill them…but made them
woodcutters… for the altar of the Lord“.
These people did not earn God’s mercy through their good works,
but they were saved because of a promise, and God always keeps His
promises.
The
chapter continues, King David summoned the Gibeonites and was
informed, “Saul
in his zeal for Israel and Judah had tried to annihilate them“.
“How
shall I make amends so that you will bless the Lord’s inheritance?”
David was concerned for God’s reputation. These Gibeonites asked
for an extraordinary punishment. “Let
seven of [Saul’s]
male descendants be given to us to be killed and exposed before the
Lord“.
King David said, “I
will give them to you.”
But King David spared Mephibosheth son of Jonathan, because of the
oath he made with Jonathan. “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.”
Leaving their bodies exposed was a humiliating death reserved only
for the worst enemies, but we read of an act of incredible selfless
love by Rizpah, mother of some of those slain.
She
stood vigil over the bodies. “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“.
When David was told of her compassion, he took the bones of those who
had been killed and buried them with the bones of Saul and Jonathan
in the tomb of Saul’s father. “After
that, God answered prayer in behalf of the land.”
The penalty had been paid in full. There is only one thing stronger
than the love of a mother for her children, and that is the
incomprehensible love of God. Jesus did more than watch over us, He
took our punishment upon Himself. “Christ
has redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for
us for it is written, ‘Cursed
is
everyone
who hangs on a tree’,
that the blessing of Abraham might come upon the Gentiles in Christ
Jesus, that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith”
(Galatians 3:13). My friend, Jesus has paid your penalty on the
cross as well. You don’t need to earn His favor, just believe His
promise and receive His Spirit by faith.