“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 on behalf of the land.”-2 Samuel 21:14
When David got wind of Rizpah’s noble actions, he was so moved that he arranged for the bones of Saul and Jonathan, along with the bones of the 7 men of Saul’s household who were executed, to be gathered up and buried in the tomb of Saul’s father Kish.
We’re told the place of burial was in Saul’s tribal territory of Benjamin.
This would have been viewed as great benevolence on David’s part.
Now, just for the record, when it says “bones” here, that’s not necessarily to be taken literally.
It refers to the remains of the body, which could have been more than just the skeletal remains.
It could also have been ashes.
So this story concludes with the words…
“After that, God answered prayer on behalf of the land.”
This meant the Lord finally sent rain to fertilize the land so that crops could finally grow.
This leads us to the sixty-four thousand dollar question.
Did the execution of the 7 innocent men serve as a satisfactory atonement that caused the Lord to lift the curse of blood guilt from the land?
I’m calling these men “innocent” because, as far as we can tell, they had nothing to do with the massacre of the Gibeonites many years ago, other than simply being descendants of Saul.
So to repeat…
Did the deaths of these men satisfy God’s holy justice system, enabling the Lord to let rain fall again?
There’s no simple “Yes” or “No” answer to this question.
Remember when David asked the Lord about the cause of the drought.
How did God respond?
He simply said it was because of the blood-guilt due to Saul and his household slaughtering the Amorites.
That’s it!
Did the Lord prescribe the death of the 7 men?
Did He ask for them to be impaled on stakes at some unauthorized cultic worship site?
Heck, the Lord never even hinted that 7 men of Saul’s household should be turned over to the Amorites.
Everything that happened was based on the wild imaginings of David, his court, and the Gibeonites.
It was all a wild concoction, homies!
Ya feeling me here?
This wouldn’t be any different than the Catholic church’s system of going to a priest to confess your sins in private.
Scripture never commands believers to confess sins to a priest.
Every example of confession in Scripture is directly to God or to one another in mutual prayer and healing.
Anyway, I don’t wanna go down that rabbit hole.
My point is, we gotta look at other probable motives and causes when we examine this situation.
For instance, here’s something to consider.
Did you know that it was customary in those times for a new ruler to sometimes kill off the entire family of the former king to prevent a future uprising?
Much of Saul’s family was still alive.
Given what we know about the violent and vengeful nature of tribalism, don’t you think these living members of Saul’s family posed a very real threat to David’s monarchy?
The answer is hell to the yeah, they did!
Sooner or later, another Absalom-like rebellion was bound to happen.
Someone from the ex-king’s family would start craving power, get a big head, and then claim…
“Hey, my ancestor was king, so I deserve the throne too!”
This meant the new king, and even his offspring, would always be in danger.
The old king’s family would always be secretly plotting how to take back what they still thought belonged to them.
So if David and his household wanted to sleep well at night, it was in his best interest to get rid of all of Saul’s household.
That’s right.
I’m telling you all parties involved in this situation had much to gain politically speaking, besides just ending the famine.
This also leads to the takeaway for today.
It is this.
Go DEEPER when reading Scripture.
Those folks who automatically assume that Saul’s family’s blood-guilt, the execution of his descendants, and God’s supposed acceptance of that act as an atonement ain’t really reading the text very carefully.
They’re jumping to conclusions not founded in Scripture.
Personally, I get so disappointed by what passes as sound Bible study in most congregations today.
Everybody wants to simplify the deep and mysterious truths of Scripture into easy-to-digest doctrinal soundbites without going into any depth.
Again, sometimes you gotta dig deeper if you really wanna get to the golden nuggets of God’s Word.
This is exactly what we’re gonna do in the days ahead.
See ya next time.
CONNECTING THIS TEACHING TO THE NEW TESTAMENT
“Anyone who has to drink milk
is still a baby, without experience
in applying the Word about righteousness.
But solid food is for the mature,
for those whose faculties have been
trained by continuous exercise
to distinguish good from evil.”
-Hebrews 5:13-14
Leave a Reply