“He handed them over to the Gibeonites, who killed them and exposed their bodies 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.”-2 Samuel 21:9
Verse 9 doesn’t waste any time getting right to the point.
The 7 sons of Saul were handed over to the Gibeonites, who were hanged on the BEMAH.
Again, the BEMAH was the high place dedicated to the Lord.
Now, if you’ve ever come across a painting depicting this ghastly event, you’ll notice something interesting.
Pretty much every one of the illustrations shows the executed men hanging from crosses.
That is grossly inaccurate.
Why?
Because crosses were never used in the Middle East!
Surprise, right?
Crosses came from the north.
Most scholars say the Persians came up with this gruesome means of execution around 300 B.C.
Also, whenever you see the words “to hang,” that isn’t accurate either.
What really happened is that the bodies were impaled.
In David’s day, criminals weren’t hanged by rope or nailed to crucifixes.
Rather, those sentenced to death were first killed by stoning or sword, and then their corpses were impaled on stakes.
This served as a warning to others to stay in line lest the same thing happen to them.
Yet even in that case, the dead bodies were only put on display for a day and then taken down.
But here, the bodies are being presented to the God of Israel as human sacrifices of sorts, and they were left hanging there.
They weren’t taken down after a set period of time had passed.
Again, I need to stress that all of this gruesomeness was NOT God’s prescription.
The Lord did NOT seek nor want the death of Saul’s sons as some atonement for the curse of blood guilt now hanging over the land of Israel.
This was all based on man’s carnal ideas.
Ya feel me here?
Alrighty, so today, instead of a takeaway, I wanna present a question to you.
And this is something that has bothered me for the longest time.
So here’s the thing.
The Hebrew Bible explicitly forbids human sacrifice.
“You shall not worship
the LORD your God in that way,
for every abomination to the LORD,
which He hates, they have done to their gods;
for they burn even their sons and daughters
in the fire to their gods.”
-Deuteronomy 12:31
“There shall not be found among you anyone
who makes his son or his daughter
pass through the fire…”
-Deuteronomy 18:10
So, from the Torah’s standpoint, human sacrifice was a pagan abomination, not something God ever desired or accepted.
Yet, Yeshua was offered up as a human sacrifice for the sins of the world.
Heck, in Hebrews 9–10, Yeshua is called the once-for-all sacrifice that replaces the old system of animal sacrifices.
Can you explain this seeming contradiction?
Would love to hear your thoughts on this.
CONNECTING THIS TEACHING TO THE NEW TESTAMENT
“He did not enter by means
of the blood of goats and calves;
but he entered the Most Holy Place
once for all by his own blood,
thus obtaining eternal redemption.
The blood of goats and bulls
and the ashes of a heifer sprinkled
on those who are ceremonially
unclean sanctify them so that
they are outwardly clean.
How much more, then,
will the blood of Christ,
who through the eternal Spirit offered
himself unblemished to God,
cleanse our consciences from
acts that lead to death,
so that we may serve the living God!”
-Hebrews 9:12-14
God commands human beings not to do various things which He Himself reserves the right to do if and as He sees fit. Yeshua was not a “human sacrifice” in the sense that you’re meaning. God commanded us not to murder but He has “murdered” a lot of people as it is His sovereign prerogative to do so. He’s in charge.
Yeah, this is a tough one.
I am not sure how to answer this, but one thing I am sure of is that there is a difference between Yeshua giving up his life to save others, and purposefully burning children to death as a sacrifice to a pagan god.
The sacrificing of human beings as a means of pleasing a false god is the abomination, for it is both murder and idolatry in one horrible action.
Yes, Christianity loves to play the “bloody sacrificial death” card every chance they can, but lets remember what Yeshua said in John 15:13, when he said,
“Greater love has no one than this, to lay down one’s life for a friend.”
God knew the temple would be destroyed very soon, making it impossible (under the requirement in the Torah in Deuteronomy 12) for people to receive forgiveness by sacrifice, so he needed a means to provide forgiveness because that is what his Grace is all about.
It was the role of the Messiah, who was part of God’s plan of salvation from the moment of creation (which is why it is said Yeshua was with God from the start, but that was just in a matter of speaking. He was there in the plan from the start, but not in flesh or spirit) to provide the means for people to receive forgiveness, which then allowed them to commune with God.
Yeshua’s death wasn’t a pagan form of human sacrifice, but rather a man giving up his life, voluntarily, so that others may be saved.
Yeshua knew, through his miraculous birth and being completely filled with God’s spirit, that his life was meant to provide life for millions of others, and he could have done the Jonah thing, if he wanted to: if he had, the Messiah’s name might be Irving or Mendel, because God would have raised up another to fulfill his plan.
As it turned out, Yeshua did what he always knew he was born to do- not to be a human sacrifice, but to be a means for mankind to be able to commune with God throughout all eternity.
He gave his life so that others might live. It was not taken from him as part of a pagan ritual- he gave it up out of love.
That is not the same as burning a baby to death.
To put it simply, the victim in a human sacrifice is an unwilling victim and has no say in the matter. Yeshua willingly gave his life, God the Father gave him, it was a joint willing act, not a sacrifice. However those who are convinced it was a “human sacrifice” will say that I’m merely dicing words and spinning it. There’s no changing their minds on this one.
Yeshua gave his life, willingly laid down his life. That is not a human sacrifice.
Great point, Cory! Appreciate your comment.