The sins of the Father onto his Sons

 2 Samuel 21:1-14

Often I wonder what would I have titled this paper, well my Bible gives this title “Justice for the Gibeonites” but what about the sins of the father onto his sons?

If a person were reading this account and had no history of the history of Joshua and Israel, they would be wondering why is it Justice for the Gibeonites?  We need to go back to the book of Joshua in your Bible and chapter 9, beginning in verse 3 we have the account of the Gibeonites.  They had heard what Joshua and Israel had done to Jericho and Ai.  This is the action they took found in verses 4-11, “they acted deceptively. They gathered provisions and took worn-out sacks on their donkeys and old wineskins, cracked and mended.  They wore old, patched sandals on their feet and threadbare clothing on their bodies. Their entire provision of bread was dry and crumbly.  They went to Joshua in the camp at Gilgal and said to him and the men of Israel, “We have come from a distant land. Please make a treaty with us.”  The men of Israel replied to the Hivites, “Perhaps you live among us. How can we make a treaty with you?”  They said to Joshua, “We are your servants.”  Then Joshua asked them, “Who are you and where do you come from?”  They replied to him, “Your servants have come from a faraway land because of the reputation of the Lord your God. For we have heard of His fame, and all that He did in Egypt, and all that He did to the two Amorite kings beyond the Jordan—Sihon king of Heshbon and Og king of Bashan, who was in Ashtaroth.  So our elders and all the inhabitants of our land told us, ‘Take provisions with you for the journey; go and meet them and say, “We are your servants. Please make a treaty with us.”’

And if you keep reading Joshua, you will find out that Joshua finds out that he got conned and because of the Covenant the two nations have entered he cannot go to war with them, so he makes them servants of Israel.  But Saul in his zeal to remove Israel’s enemies does go to war with them and kill many of them. 

So King David and the people of Israel are in a famine for three years, and David sought the face of the Lord.  And this is what God told David; “There is bloodguilt on Saul and on his house because he put the Gibeonites to death.”  When a leader is a man of integrity before God and man, he listens and takes action, and that is what David did.

David went to the Gibeonites and asked a good question; what can I do to make things right for you?  And they asked for the death of seven of Saul’s male descendants.  David agreed and turned over seven, and they hung them in the town of Gibeah, it was Saul’s hometown.

We do not know how long they hung in that square, but we do know that Rizpah one of Saul’s concubines began to watch over the bodies both day and night and keep the birds and the wild animals from them.  When David heard of this he went and took back the bones of Saul and Jonathan and also these men and buried them in Saul’s father's tomb.

From the Back Porch,

Bob Rice