Scripture: 2 Samuel 21:1-22
Sermon Series: 2 Samuel: When God is Your King! – Sermon 21
Nez Perce tribal leader, Chief Joseph (picture) said, “It makes my heart sick when I remember all the good words and the broken promises.”
Did you know that between the Revolutionary War and the aftermath of the Civil War, over the course of almost a century, the United States and Native American nations signed some 368 treaties? If you know American history or have read books like Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee (picture), you know that our government has broken treaty after treaty. It’s what 2 Samuel 21 is about, Broken Promises, really much worse, a broken covenant. Wonderfully, our chapter ends with…Brave Heroes.
2 Samuel 21-24 don’t follow the account chronologically. They’re not the next part of the story. The final details of David’s life ended in 2 Samuel 20 with his return to the throne. They’re an epilogue to 1 and 2 Samuel. These final four chapters summarize David’s reign and reflect on his kingdom.
If you’re new to Grace, you’ll want to know that we’ve been systematically working our way through the book of 2 Samuel. There have already been a number of passages that quite honestly, we’ve found embarrassing and difficult. Nevertheless, we study the Bible because it is the Bible.
In chapter 21 we have a tragic picture. It’s actually a perplexing and confusing one. It was painful to even study. The natural reaction on our part is to say, “How could this possibly be?” It confronts us with uncomfortable truths, challenges us with difficult questions. It’s important for us who affirm our faith in the Lord Jesus, that we don’t pass superficially over these things.
We recognize that the world in which we live is one that’s harsh and cruel. What we see here from these many years ago we don’t need to find simply in the pages of Scripture; we’re aware of all that’s been unfolding in recent years in our own country. At the same time, we recognize that Louis Armstrong (picture) was on to something when he sang:
I see skies of blue, and red roses, too,
And I see them bloom for me and you,
And I think to myself, “What a wonderful world.”
And it is a wonderful world. We humans are capable of being almost angelic, yet at the same time we’re capable of being cruel like apes. We harness nuclear power to sustain various necessities and yet also use it to destroy vast swaths of humanity, and we need to face up to this.
All of this is not a problem for our atheist friends. They come to us with, “How could you believe in a God like that? How could you believe in that God that’s described in the Bible?” Yet, if they’re honest like Stephen Hawking (picture) who was honest enough to acknowledge: “If there is no God” (which he believed was true) “and we have evolved by chance through millions of years, then everything that happens, whether good or bad, must be viewed as simply the result of random, pitiless indifference. From this perspective, to ask why is not only meaningless; it is actually irrelevant.”
The underlying problem is that this is God’s world and God is a holy God. No sin passes unrecorded. Biblical history takes into account the presence of God in the world that He has made. So, the key to history is actually God’s providential rule over everyone and over everything. And that’s radically different from the outlook of much of contemporary culture who go about life as if somehow there is no God to whom we’re accountable to.
But this is God’s world. It was created by Him, and it’s sustained by and directed by Him—and that’s where the problem lies. Because people then say, “How can such things happen in God’s world?”
It’s one of the great challenges we face as Christians. That’s why it’s a help to be confronted by perplexing, sad, and difficult passages like this because it demands careful thought. If this was a movie, it’d have a warning attached, “The following film contains scenes some viewers may find disturbing. Viewer discretion is advised.” Look at the clip: seven sons hanged; a mother holds vigil over their decaying bodies for months to protect the corpses. Why would we even study it? It’s all so sad.
And many churches and pastors wouldn’t study it. I’m not saying that to my credit. I’m stuck with it! We finished 20, so we must do 21. It’s not like I thought, “How can I ruin those last weeks of summer? I think I’ll do that horribly difficult passage in 2 Samuel 21.”
No, we’re here because this is our conviction. We hold to God’s Word’s conviction about itself that it’s “Profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that we may be presented faultless, ultimately, before God’s glory; that it is able to make us wise for salvation” (2 Timothy 3:15-16). Romans 15:4 urges us to study all of Scripture. “For whatever was written in earlier times was written for our instruction, so that through perseverance and the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope.” This is all included in “whatever was written.” As we study it, it’s going to cause us to pause and ponder.
Our task is straightforward. It’s the same task for every passage of Scripture. We must ask of the passage, “What is it actually saying?” Not, “What would I like it to say?” or “How does it make me feel?” As we dive in to what 2 Samuel 21 actually says, I want to break it down into 4 C’s: Cause, Cure, Compassion and Courage. If you’re taking notes…
1. The CAUSE of the famine
Three years? Unbelievably, it took David that long to seek the Lord to discover what was going on with this famine.
Remember when Covid hit? There was a run on toilet paper. Can you imagine going to Walmart and finding no toilet paper on the shelves for three years? You can imagine that there was some freak El Nino with one year of famine but not three years.
God had warned the nation that if they sinned, He’d send a famine as a wakeup call. Leviticus 26:19-20, “I will make your heavens like iron and your earth like bronze. And your strength shall be spent in vain, for your land shall not yield its increase, and the trees of the land shall not yield their fruit.” Israel has broken a covenant, but it took the King three years of famine before He sought the face of God to find out what was happening.
You no doubt know parents who never correct their children. What kind of Heavenly Father would God be if we sinned terribly, continued in it and God never corrected us? Hebrews 12:5-6: “My son, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord, nor be weary when reproved by Him. For the Lord disciplines the one He loves…” There was a famine because of unrepented sin. God loves and corrects us to bring us to repentance.
This doesn’t mean that all suffering is correction for sin. Sometimes God is pruning our lives as we find in John 15. We need to do a soul check and see if God is trying to get our attention. It sure seems David was a bit dull here.
It’s important for us to understand that the reason for a terrible situation may be unknowable to us. That’s the lesson from the book of Job. There was a reason for Job’s suffering, as the readers see in chapters 1 and 2. But Job and the others in the book never learn this. It’s possible to trust that God has His reasons without ever knowing what those reasons are. Job did that.
As Christians today are to turn to their Bibles to understand God’s purposes, David turned to the Word of God. In his case, it was probably through the means of the high priest. When David sought Him, God told him why this was taking place. David isn’t kept in the dark about Israel’s sin.
It’s important to realize that King Saul had been dead for decades. God had extended mercy to Israel for some 40 years, withholding His judgment until this time. In His kindness God tells us about our guilt so we can do something about it. As New Testament believers, we know it involves Christ, His death and resurrection. God longs for our repentance and restoration.
No doubt David was surprised by the answer. The problem wasn’t about food or famine. The problem was the presence of sin and injustice in his kingdom from a previous administration. Something wrong had been done and it hadn’t been set right. The problem that he could see was caused by a problem much harder to see, but God showed it to him. The nation was suffering because of one man’s sin, a previous leader’s sin – King Saul.
A big lesson here is that if we understood how much suffering our sin brought into other’s lives, especially those we love, we’d run from sin rather than be drawn into it. The personal sins of one man brought starvation to others. The nation suffered because of Saul’s sin of breaking a covenant.
It’s true today. We see political leaders, business leaders, a spouse or parent, living a sinful personal life. When someone approaches them about it, they’ll blow it off with, “My personal sin has no impact on others.” But our lives do have a big impact on others. None of us sin in a vacuum. Those around the individual blowing off God’s commands will suffer, too.
Breaking God’s covenant is very serious. The Anglo-Portuguese Treaty of 1373, also known as the Treaty of London, is the oldest continuous treaty still in effect today. It was signed on June 16, 1373, by King Edward III of England and King Ferdinand I and Queen Leonor of Portugal.
King Saul violated a 400-year-old covenant the nation had made under Joshua. Who are the Gibeonites? The narrator tells us. “Now the Gibeonites were not of the people of Israel but of the remnant of the Amorites. Although the people of Israel had sworn to spare them, Saul had sought to strike them down in his zeal for the people of Israel and Judah” (2 Samuel 21:2)
When Joshua was conquering the land, these pagans, the Gibeonites, came to him disguised as if they’d traveled a long distance (Joshua 9) and asked for a treaty. Deceived by them, Joshua, without consulting God, made a covenant with them. He swore by God or Yahweh’s name in this covenant.
We’re not sure what Saul’s motive was. Some think that because the Gibeonites had territory in Saul’s home tribe’s land of Benjamin, it was to expand their territory. Others conjecture it happened when Saul went on a blood rage and massacred the priests of Nob when he thought they’d allied with David. The Gibeonites were just another part of his murderous rage.
Saul was insecure. He was a people-pleaser. Being a people-pleaser is costly. To gain political support he’s a nationalist. He’s pro-Israel. Sounds familiar, doesn’t it? Ironically, Saul was punished by God because he didn’t obey and kill the Ammonites that God had commanded him to, but then he killed the Gibeonites that he was covenanted by God to protect.
Because the Gibeonites deceived Israel, there was a lot of hatred toward them. Most Israelites had no problem seeing them suffer. What about us? What people group would we have no problem seeing suffer? Do we have a biblical worldview of Palestinians? What happened on October 7th was evil, but modern-day Israel isn’t innocent. Since the beginning of this war, it’s estimated that 150,000 Palestinians have died. 50,000 of them are Palestinian Christians, our brothers and sisters, have lost their lives in this war.
Do we have Islamaphobia? How about those on the opposite side of our politics? Do we demean, even hate them?
King Saul was an Israelite first, then a God-follower. What about us? Are we Americans first? Our political party first? Or are we King Jesus and citizens of His Kingdom first?
God’s covenants are vital. Covenants are part of God’s program with humanity. This reminds us of the importance of covenants. Throughout Old and New Testament history, God dealt with people covenantally.
When God spared Noah and his family, He made a covenant with them and gave the rainbow as a sign of it. God made a covenant with Abraham, with its accompanying sign, circumcision. God made a covenant with David to build him an eternal house. Christ-followers are part of the New Covenant. It was inaugurated by Jesus through the shedding of His blood. God has always dealt with His people in accordance with a covenant.
David’s dealings with the Gibeonites are a matter of keeping a covenant. Though this covenant was 400 years old, it was still to be honored. Breaking it had serious consequences. It cost Saul’s sons their lives and caused a famine. Time does not weaken these covenants. Even when men don’t take their covenants seriously, God does, and He expects us to keep our covenants.
God’s justice is unforgetting and unrelenting. Jean-Claude Juncker (picture), one-time European Commission President, revealed in an interview that he keeps a book with the list of people who’ve crossed him in the past. So, one of the most senior officials of the EU walks around with a book of names of people who’ve mistreated him. Juncker said in an interview, “I have a little black book called ‘Le Petit Maurice’ where for the past 30 years I have noted when someone has betrayed me.” The book became so well-known when he was prime minister of Luxembourg that he’d tell people attacking him, “Be careful. Little Maurice is waiting for you.”
We may say that “time heals all wounds” but not with God. God didn’t forget the covenant breach or what Saul did forty years before. God is a God of justice. Revelation tells us that someday the books will be opened. “And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and books were opened. Then another book was opened, which is the book of life. And the dead were judged by what was written in the books, according to what they had done” (Revelation 20:12). That’s what’s known as the Great White Throne judgement. There’s no statute of limitations with the justice of God.
Only because of His grace, I won’t be there and if you’ve committed your life to Christ, neither will you. Christ’s cross satisfied God’s justice. The Great White Throne is only for those who never commit their life to Christ.
We often think, “where is the justice?” God is the God of justice. For those who never accept the pardon of Jesus’ blood, they will face His justice.
God’s people are to keep their promises and vows. Do you want others to know that you’re a Christian? Keep your word. Keep your promises. If you tell your spouse or your kids, you’ll do something, do it. Can your company count on you? What about here at church? Do you keep your word?
One promise we easily break as believers is, “I’ll pray for you.” A minute later, we’ve forgotten. My solution for that is to try to pray right then. I don’t trust my memory.
One that’s heartbreaking and hurts our testimony before a lost world is the breaking of marital vows. Statistics show that divorce is just as high among believers as it is among unbelievers. There are biblical reasons for divorce but it’s not we don’t communicate, or don’t feel in love anymore. As Chuck Swindoll (picture) said, “There are two processes that should never be started prematurely…embalming and divorce.”
Many professing Christians have jettisoned God’s moral and marital ethic. Christians who have meltdowns over homosexuality, Drag Queens and transsexuality see little wrong with cohabiting. Among adults ages 18 to 44, 59% have lived with an unmarried partner at some point in their lives. Most Americans (69%) say cohabitation is acceptable. One of the growing areas of cohabiting are retired couples who won’t get married because it’d hurt their Social Security benefits. Like divorce, cohabiting is as common among professing Christians as it is among those who don’t know the Lord. One of the greatest testimonies of the power of the cross is a Christian couple who takes their marital vows seriously and have a Christ-honoring marriage.
2. The CURE for the sin
The Gibeonites’ suggestion and David’s solution are horrible and unbelievable. There are varied interpretations of this, most of them justifying it with lex telionis or “an eye for an eye.” I don’t think so.
First, how did Israel get into this mess with the Gibeonites in the first place? They made a logical decision without ever consulting God before making a vow. What does David do when the nation is suffering a famine that’s apparently God’s judgement? He consults the Lord. But what does David do when he’s trying to solve this? He doesn’t consult the Lord. He consults the victims who are pagans on what will make this right.
I think David made a mistake we all easily make. He’s in a hurry. It’s a famine. His people are starving. In doing so, David breaks a promise he himself had made. After David spared Saul’s life, Saul asked him, “Swear to me therefore by the Lord that you will not cut off my offspring after me, and that you will not destroy my name out of my father’s house.” And David swore this to Saul” (1 Samuel 24:21-22).
Seven is deliberately symbolic for the house of Saul. The way that the text reads it’s possible that some of them had even participated in the genocide.
We’re not sure how these seven men were executed. Some think they were hung. Others that they were thrown off a cliff. However, it went down, it’s horrible. It happened during the barley harvest in Saul’s hometown of Gibeah which was in mid-April. It violates Deuteronomy 24:16: “Fathers shall not be put to death because of their children, nor shall children be put to death because of their fathers. Each one shall be put to death for his own sin.”
Though the Mosaic Law does talk about generational consequences of a parent’s sin. It’s happened to all of us as we suffer for Adam’s sin. We suffer from the sins of our parents, as our children will suffer from ours. For example, it’s common for alcoholic parents to have alcoholic children.
The Gibeonites request wasn’t God’s way of dealing with sin. God’s way is that of repentance. God’s way of dealing with sin wasn’t human sacrifice. His way is the provision of a substitute. That’s the whole point of all the sacrifices, so that eventually the substitution for sin is provided in “the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world” (John 1:20). But there’s no opportunity for repentance, just judgement. Pagans like the Gibeonites know nothing of God’s mercy. God desires atonement not retribution.
What happens is horrible and shaming in that they’re not only executed, but their corpses are left to rot, unburied. It’s to indicate divine displeasure.
This is one of those passages that should leave us sober. It shows the high price of sin and its long reaching effects.
3. The COMPASSION of a grieving mother
I doubt you’ve ever heard a Mother’s Day sermon about Rizpah, yet she represents so many moms. She’s the poster child of the suffering mother.
First, she’s King Saul’s concubine, not his wife, just used by him. After he dies, his general, Abner sleeps with her for his own pleasure. And now we see her two sons torn from her arms.
Rizpah is powerless to reverse the sentence, but she can reverse the shame attached to her sons and the grandsons of Saul. She spreads out sackcloth, a symbol of mourning, on a rock. Despite the dangers and the weather, she maintains a vigil for some six months. When vultures or scavenging animals come to feast on the carcasses, though probably in her sixties, she drives them away. Her name echoes down the corridors of history for a broken-hearted mom. Alfred Tennyson (picture) memorialized her with his poetic pen and Joseph Mallord William Turner (picture) with his brush (painting).
On a hot summer night in August of 1955 14-year-old African American Emmett Till (picture) was dragged from his relatives’ home in Mississippi by two white men. He was stripped naked, pistol-whipped, shot in the head, and his lifeless body dumped in a river. Emmett Till’s body was returned to his mother in Chicago. Witnessing the extent of the brutality enacted on the bloated unrecognizable corpse of her son, she insisted on an open casket. She said, “I wanted the world to see what they did to my baby.” In a similar way Rizpah’s vigil resonates with the heartbreak of innumerable mothers.
David in compassion and because of his covenant with Jonathan protected Jonathan’s disabled son, Mephibosheth. When he hears of Rizpah’s vigil, his heart is moved with compassion. How can he pour balm on this sordid affair? He determines to give the bones of Saul and Jonathan and these seven descendants a royal burial. He has the remains of Saul, and his sons exhumed from their burial place in Jabesh-gilead and be brought back to the territory of Benjamin to be interned in the family tomb of Kish, Saul’s father.
Rizpah exemplifies the best of motherhood. She possessed a quality of courage and compassion, that’s an example to us. Richard Phillips (picture) writes, “Rizpah reminds us all that while we remain subject to the tragic affairs of our times, the covenant faithfulness of mothers, fathers, pastors, Sunday school teachers, and godly friends can make all the difference for the spiritual well-being, and even the eternal destiny of those we love.” We need more with the devotion and compassion of a Rizpah.
Why did God give us the story of Rizpah? She’s surely an example, but I think it’s also here to make us sad. It’s how God sees sin. It’s heartbreaking.
Finally, the drought ends not with the execution of these men but when David did the right thing and buried these men who’d been executed. “And after that God responded to the plea for the land” (2 Samuel 21:14).
4. The COURAGE of God’s soldiers
From the sins of a father, and the love of a mother, we end with the war of the sons. Four incidents are recorded here that all probably occurred in the last ten years of David’s life.
Unlike King Saul who stayed in his tent while his soldiers fought, David is in the heat of the battle. Leaders lead. It’s why David was such a great one. But age was catching up with him. A giant, Ishbi-benob is about to take the weary king out and Abishai steps in again for his king.
These four giants were all related to Goliath. There’s an old gospel song that has this line:
It’s a battlefield, brother, not a recreation room
It’s a fight and not a game
Run if you want to, run if you will
But I came here to stay.
David and his men never stopped fighting. They had enemies all their lives. As believers, that’s true for us. “For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places” (Ephesians 6:12).
Of these four men, only one, Abishai, is familiar. The others are little-known servants of the Lord. But the meaning of their names gives us insight into their character. Sibbecai means “God is intervening.” Elhanan means “God is gracious.” Jonathan means “God has given.” Is it any wonder that they’re successful? They were on the right team.
As servants of King Jesus, we’ve been given the victory over our gigantic enemies – the evil one, sin and death. Matthew Henry (picture) wonderfully writes, “The enemies of God’s people are often very strong, very subtle, and very sure of success, like Ishbi-benob, but there is no strength, nor counsel, nor confidence against the Lord.”
Periodically, you’ll hear a believer moan, “Why is my Christian life so hard?” Because we have an Enemy. Thankfully we’re on the winning team.
Think about this. Would we rather have hard now and rejoice for all eternity or have easy now and suffer for all eternity? Me? I’ll take hard now.
Notice that David had a band of brothers and so do we, a band of brothers and sisters. There are no one man or one-woman bands.
On our vacation Jane and I visited with several old friends, brothers and sisters in Christ. We saw Russ and Rosemarie Wing. Though I’d shared the gospel with Russ when they lived her, it was when they retired and moved that Russ gave his life to Christ. Jane and I were able to pray with them…and Russ graduated two days later, meeting His Savior face to face. We had dinner with friends that I haven’t seen in decades. Mark and Lori West love the Lord and use their gifts to serve Him.
On Tuesday after we’d returned, we had dinner with Tom and Eva Fickes. I had the joy of leading Eva to the Lord 24 years ago. Recently, Tom has had a bout with bladder cancer and our friend, Tom, may beat us all Home.
Where am I going with all of this? David had a band of brothers. Do you? We need other believers to fight alongside us. To step in when we’re weary.
One of the greatest blunders of contemporary Christianity is the idol of individuality or the family altar of we four no more, when God has so much more for us. We are family, God’s Forever Family! Please don’t miss out!
Conclusion
Let’s tie it all up.In the early 1900s, the Australian government had a policy of assimilating their aboriginal population into greater society. They did this by relocating native children, especially mixed-race, into white families or institutional homes. The long-term goal was complete integration of the aboriginal population into mainstream white society. These children became known as the “stolen generation.”
In 1997 a report titled Bringing Them Home was released. It was an effort to understand what happened to all those children. This report estimated that at least 100,000 children had been removed from their homes. Families were broken apart, children sometimes mistreated, and a cultural heritage was washed away by this policy. The Australian government is still trying to find the best way to make restitution. They issued a national apology in 2008 and celebrate a national “Sorry Day” (picture) to continue that remorse. They’re committed to making amends, but it’s still a current issue.
A “Sorry Day” wouldn’t have satisfied the Gibeonites, and it won’t satisfy a holy God. Even the hanging of seven men didn’t pay for evil. The only shed blood that can satisfy justice, God’s justice, is the blood of Christ. Galatians 3:13-14 tells us, “Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us—for it is written, “Cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree”—so that in Christ Jesus the blessing of Abraham might come to the Gentiles, so that we might receive the promised Spirit through faith”
Because of our sin, we’re all under the curse. The only way for that curse to be removed is through what Christ accomplished when He was hung on the cross. Jesus became the curse in our place. He received our curse so that we could receive God’s blessing. Nothing else is necessary.
It begins with the cross. It begins when we hear the gospel message of what Christ accomplished there. Jesus took all of our punishment when He died. God specializes in saving the worst of the worst. Do you have some things in your background that you’re ashamed of? God knows all about it and His grace is greater than your sin.
How do you find God’s grace? Just ask for it. It’s that simple. The more you know you need God’s grace, the better candidate you are to receive it. Hold out your empty hands and ask God for His grace. You’ll never be turned away and it’s never too late.
This is the miracle, the wonder, the scandal, the shock of God’s grace. It truly is “out of this world” for no one in this world would have thought of something like this. When we see Jesus who loved us and gave Himself for us, the only contest will be to see which one of us will sing the loudest, “Amazing grace, how sweet the sound, that saved a wretch like me. I once was lost but now am found, was blind but now I see.”