2 Samuel 21
by Pastor Lawrence Bowlin

The events that take place in this chapter likely occurred earlier on in David’s kingship, but the author points them out now to show David’s faithfulness to God in obeying his commands. Unlike King Saul who was afraid of Goliath and stayed away from the battle lines when the giant began taunting the army of Israel, David continually stood up to the giants, not only killing Goliath but leading his men to eradicate their reign of terror inspiring his mighty men to stand toe-to-toe with the enemy and prevail. In this short summary in the latter part of the chapter, the author is showing David’s courage and strength as the king to defend his people against all their enemies.

On the other hand, in the first half of the chapter, the author is displaying David’s courage and ability to defend his people against any internal threats showing his integrity and his willingness to pursue justice. For three years in Israel there had been a famine in the Promised Land which was unusual thing for a people supposedly living under the blessing of the Lord. In fact, in Leviticus 26 Moses explains that famine is part of the curse that God would bring upon his people if they disregarded his laws. Thus this disparity between God’s expected blessings and the cursed land led David to seek the counsel of the Lord in finding the reason for his displeasure. And the Lord revealed to him that this had occurred because King Saul had broken covenant with the Gibeonites seeking to kill them in his zeal for the people of Israel.

If you remember, in Joshua ch.9, the Gibeonites were part of the original inhabitants living in the land of Canaan who had deceived Joshua and the Israelites telling them that they had come from a land far away and wanted to enter into a covenant with them. Because Israel did not seek the counsel of the Lord before making such a covenant, they ignorantly and foolishly bound themselves to these Canaanites by oath in the name of the Lord. But acting in accord with his own character, King Saul disregarded the covenant and sought to kill the Gibeonites in order to give their land to his brothers. By doing this, King Saul and all of Israel polluted the land with blood of the innocent, and according to Numbers 35.33, the only way to cleanse the land was to shed the blood of the one who had taken these lives unjustly. But Saul had already died in battle making that an impossibility.

It seems the Lord had told David to ask the Gibeonites how he could bring forth justice for them, and instead of asking for silver and gold, or for the slaughter of the same number of Israelites as those Gibeonites who had been slain, the Gibeonites asked for seven of Saul’s sons to be hanged in Saul’s hometown. More than likely these sons had helped to carry out Saul’s wicked schemes and had benefitted from it holding the Gibeonites lands and maintaining some of their possessions, so it is not that these men were completely innocent. There was certainly the lawful sense of an eye for an eye being asked for here and David willingly assented to it, carrying out their wishes in full. It was only after these hangings took place and after the bodies of these men along with Saul and Jonathan were given a proper burial that the rains came and the crops grew proving that this atonement was pleasing to God.

I would be remiss if I didn’t address the subject of reparations in light of this passage this morning. There are some in our culture today who are demanding reparations, asking for silver and gold, and even the punishment upon half the people in our nation today based solely upon the color of their skin, rather than upon the conviction of sin as it can be proven in a court of law. This is clearly not what the Gibeonites were seeking, nor would it have been allowed under the Law of Moses. Every act of justice for an individual or a group of people must be proven to be righteous in itself or else it only repeats the cycle of injustice in the land.

The point of this passage is to show that David is a courageous and just king who rules overs his people in righteousness, faithfulness and love. He is not a perfect man, though, as we well know. Nevertheless, he points the reader to the perfect Son of David who when he returns to claim his rightful throne on earth will bring a full and complete justice shedding the blood of all those who do not repent of their sins committed against the Lord and against one another. On the other hand, this righteous king has shed his own blood for us, laying down his life for those who deserve to be put to death for their many sins and injustices, and he alone can fully cleanse our land of its many generations of sins and injustices.