Alrighty, today’s post is gonna be long.
But the good news is we’re finally gonna conclude this story of the Amorites.
So, let’s get on with it.
These Gibeonites (as they’re also called) had been harboring a bitter hatred toward the House of Saul for over two generations.
Of course, we can’t blame them.
Who wouldn’t feel bitter towards a monarchy that attempted to commit genocide against them?
The only problem was that the Amorites were the equivalent of what we’d call “resident aliens” in our day.
If they had tried to get revenge on the House of Saul, there would’ve been no legal justification for it.
It would’ve been viewed as a criminal rebellion of Gentiles going off and attacking Hebrews so they could satisfy their blood vengeance.
So after decades of this hatred toward Saul’s house festering in their souls, when David finally gave the Gibeonites a legally approved chance for revenge, they jumped on it with the enthusiasm of a starving tiger pouncing on its prey.
Tragically, the Amorites decided to take vengeance in the most horrific and dishonorable way they could.
They asked for 7 of Saul’s innocent descendants to be turned over for execution,
When I say “innocent,” I ain’t kidding.
The men David turned over were either young children or hadn’t even been born when Saul went off and committed his crazy massacre against the Gibeonites.
But, as I pointed out yesterday, David’s house also benefited because the death of the remaining members of Saul’s family would prevent the chances of a coup from occurring.
So, this whole situation was a bit more complex than it seemed at first glance.
Onward.
Let’s move to the crux of the matter.
Based on Torah, did the deaths of these men serve as a proper atonement for the curse of blood-guilt hanging over the land of Israel at this time?
To answer this question, take a good look at verse 14:
“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
Notice that this sentence does NOT specifically say that, as a result of the execution of the 7 men, the Lord accepted this as a proper blood atonement that led to the land being cleansed.
All it says is that AFTER everything was said and done, God decided to show mercy to the land.
Correlation doesn’t necessarily mean causation here, folks.
Also, notice the timing of when God accepted Israel’s appeal for the famine to end.
God sent rain after the 7 bodies were properly buried, NOT after the men were executed.
That’s an important variable we shouldn’t overlook, don’t you think?
And you know what?
Many Rabbis say the same thing.
They say that God’s decision to show mercy in this situation was connected to the proper burial of the corpses and had absolutely nothing to do with God’s holy justice system being properly met by the execution of the 7 men.
In other words, the death of the men was NOT an atonement.
And ya know what?
I agree with them on that one point.
I don’t think the execution of the 7 men was some kind of proper blood payment that satisfied God’s justice system.
On top of that, neither do I think the proper burial of the corpses had anything to do with satisfying the Lord’s justice system.
So why did God eventually allow rain to fall again in Israel?
The answer is simple.
Because of His mercy.
Nothing more and nothing less.
Sure, the timing of when God sent rain happened after the burial of the corpses.
But so what?
Again, correlation doesn’t equal causation here, homies.
My point still stands.
God sent rain NOT because of executions or burials.
He sent rain out of His mercy.
And it just happened to occur after Saul and his family were buried.
Finally, let’s go to Scripture, where we find a Torah precept that actually speaks on this matter.
Read these verses:
“Fathers are not to be executed for the children,
Nor are children to be executed for the fathers;
Every person will be executed for his own sin.”
-Deuteronomy 24:16
This makes it pretty clear that a man is only responsible for his own sins.
He certainly isn’t responsible for the sins of his long-gone dead ancestors.
Ya feeling me here?
Having said that, there are ripple effects of sin that can echo through the generations.
For instance, check out this verse:
“…for I, the LORD your God,
am a jealous God,
visiting the iniquity of
the fathers on the children,
on the third and the fourth generations
of those who hate Me,”
-Exodus 20:5
This leads to an area where Christian theology gets all screw-bally.
Look, (speaking to Christians here), you can’t apply the principle of “generational curses” to what we’ve been talking about up until now
The new generation is NOT responsible for the sins of the generation that came before.
But the new generation does bear the burden of the sins of the previous generation.
Are you catching that key distinction?
For example, take a look at this New Testament verse:
“Therefore, just as sin entered
the world through one man,
and death through sin,
and in this way death came
to all people, because all sinned…”
-Romans 5:12
Contrary to popular misunderstanding, this verse isn’t talking about guilt and punishment per se.
It’s talking about how humanity inherited a mortal, sin-inclined nature because of Adam.
This doesn’t mean God executes innocent children for their father’s sins.
It means the effect of sin ripples throughout the generations.
Brokenness, dysfunction, corruption.
All of these pass down unless the Lord intervenes (which, thank God, He has!).
The Apostle Paul, in Romans 5, is simply taking this truth to the spiritual level.
Humanity shares Adam’s fallen nature, NOT his legal guilt.
Or to put it another way, Adam’s sin created the first wave of corruption that has echoed through all creation.
So you’re not “beholden” to Adam’s sin in the judicial sense.
But you were born into a damaged system that began with him.
I hope that makes sense.
Alrighty, finally, finally, let’s close with the takeaway for today.
And yeah, man, I know this is getting long.
I told you it would be.
But I wanna finish this up, so we can move on to the next topic tomorrow.
So we’ve been talking about how the curse of blood-guilt was hanging over the land of Israel.
Well, here’s the bottom line.
There is not one nation on planet Earth today that does not have the curse of blood guilt hanging over its land.
Not one!
Including modern-day Israel.
For instance, look at what the Japanese did to the Chinese in World War II, during what is known as the Nanjing Massacre.
Japanese troops murdered an estimated 200,000 to 300,000 civilians and prisoners in the most barbaric means possible.
The Chinese people (especially the older generations) still despise the Japanese because of what happened.
Or how about the Rwandan Genocide?
In just 100 days, extremist Hutu militias slaughtered around 800,000 Tutsi and moderate Hutu civilians.
Or how about what US soldiers did to more than 500 unarmed Vietnamese civilians in the village of My Lai during the Vietnam War?
They killed them all in an unprovoked attack.
Of course, we can’t forget what happened in Nazi Germany between 1941-1945 when Hitler’s men murdered over 6 million Jews and millions of others across occupied Europe.
And fast forward to October 7th, 2023, when Hamas militants launched a large-scale surprise attack on southern Israel.
I could go on and on.
There’s the Armenian Genocide, the Bosnian Genocide, not to mention all of the shootings and terrorist attacks that have occurred recently all over the world.
I think you get my point.
Every nation on earth carries the weight of blood-guilt over its people.
And just as God showed mercy to ancient Israel in 2 Samuel 21…
Every country in the world stands in the same need.
Minus the Lord’s grace…
Every one of them…
Including your nation…
Is utterly doomed.
CONNECTING THIS TEACHING TO THE NEW TESTAMENT
“When the Son of Man comes in his glory,
and all the angels with him,
he will sit on his glorious throne.
All the nations will be gathered before him,
and he will separate the people
one from another as a shepherd
separates the sheep from the goats.”
-Matthew 25:31-33
“The sky receded like a scroll,
every mountain and island
was removed from its place.
Then the kings of the earth,
the princes, the generals,
the rich, the mighty,
and everyone else,
both slave and free,
hid in caves and among
the rocks of the mountains.
They called to the mountains
and the rocks,
‘Fall on us and hide us from
the face of him who sits on
the throne and from
the wrath of the Lamb!’”
-Revelation 6:14-17
“With a mighty voice he shouted:
‘Fallen! Fallen is Babylon the Great!’
She has become a dwelling for demons,
a haunt for every impure spirit,
a haunt for every unclean bird,
a haunt for every unclean
and detestable animal.
For all the nations have drunk the
maddening wine of her adulteries.’”
-Revelation 18:2-3
Leave a Reply