This is in the second commandment. Perhaps trickery will be better than war for us.". I think he was very low. Jeiel, Sauls great-grandfather, was the progenitor of the Gibeonites ( 1 Chron 8:29-33; 9:35-39 ), so Saul slaughtered his own relatives! By this time, Moses had died and was buried. Justice seems to have been served. We do know the Gibeonites were cutters of wood and drawers of water for the altar of God the tabernacle was at Gibeon. He will not relent. And after that God heeded the prayer for the land. Therefore, they arrive in the camp of Israel, and say, "Where's your leader? There should have been payment for it. the LORD answered, It is for Saul, and for his bloody house, because he slew the This traditional doctrine, as heard in a Catholic or Protestant church, would say that this sin of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden rests upon us still. Deuteronomy 19:7-10 Therefore I command you, saying, 'You shall separate three cities for yourself.' He was the king. And David was told what Rizpah the daughter of Aiah, the concubine of Saul, had done. I do not think that King David thought through the implications of this matter very well. And the LORD answered, It is because of Saul and his bloodthirsty house, In 2 Samuel 21:1-14, we see that Saul committed an awful crime, and this caused famine in Israel. So he did to them, and delivered them out of the hand of the children of Israel, so that they did not kill them. He got a little weird, throwing spears at David (and Jonathan too, once). Christ says, Luke 21:34-35 "But take heed to yourselves, lest your hearts be weighed down with carousing, drunkenness, and cares of this life, and that Day come on you unexpectedly. 'Whoever kills a person, the murderer shall be put to death on the testimony of witnesses [another layer that comes in]; but one witness is not sufficient testimony against a person for the death penalty. Jerusalem is almost directly west a few miles, but it is quite high from the Jordan to the Jerusalem. And how do I know this? They probably went from Gibeon by some circuitous route so they did not come directly from the west where they actually lived. WebVetus Testamentum 24:1 (January 1974):1-7.] That is the background on the Gibeonites, and their relationship with Israel. Saul agreed, and off he went. God's correction may come a Perhaps those first two, Armoni, and Mephibosheth were old enough to have participated in the event. Also, the Lord pronounced, It is a result of the massacre by Saul and welcome classification because Saul indeed destroyed the Gibeonites in the Bible. . This meant the latter harvest has passed, and maybe another month or so went by. It cut us off from God. Up and down your family tree, sin does not go. Two years is a long time. Then, I am sure, he started to think about other things that were happening, and he started to make some reforms in himself. Jonathan. 20, and still another between Saul and David in 1 Samuel 24. Joshua 9:14 is the key to Israel's problem. God took the initiative in this matter, by afflicting the nation of Israel with a famine because the house of Saul had put the Gibeonites to death. So Joshua made peace with them, and made a covenant with them to let them live; and the rulers of the congregation swore to them. God!before the Lordin Gibeah of Saul. It does not require at all times that a person guilty of bloodshed die. The Gibeonites achieved their short term goal - survival; but they paid a terribly long term price for it - virtual slavery! by LeRoy Gardenier If we think that we have it all figured out, I am sorry, we do not. I will break the pride of your power; I will make your heavens like iron and your earth like bronze. That is not what it says here. fit into Creation? & "Take heed that you be not deceived." Such a shame to destroy it all! The cities of refuge were designed (among other things) to stop and prevent these feuds from happening. He made huge errors in judgment, both personally and in a larger sense. All they wanted, they said, was a peace treaty with Israel; then they would return to their distant home. Can we assume that God was in any way propitiated at the conclusion of this story? Therefore, the world is full of sintheir own sin. WebKing Saul later broke the treaty that Joshua had signed and attacked the Gibeonites. There is no biblical account of this escapade of Saul and his house against Gibeon. This cultural thing about wanting our heroes flawed is so deeply ingrained in us that we cannot imagine anyone going through life without sin. As mentioned earlier, there was the rebellion of Absalom. "Who shall ascend into the hill of the Lord? But, the others were Saul's grandsons. However, if they did not participate, they are not going to be given a black mark by God for something that they did not do. Joshua 9:14-16 Then the men of Israel took some of their provisions; but they did not ask counsel of the LORD. If the Gibeonites brought guile and deceit into the land; it was Saul who set the example for deep and devastating delusion. Numbers 35:29-33 And these things shall be a statute of judgment to you throughout your generations in all your dwellings. The time had passed. Now, turn to the episode of King David, which we introduced. Saul, after having disqualified When asked about the time of the end; when questioned about the signs that would precede His Second Coming, our blessed Lord instinctively cautioned: "Take heed that no man deceive you." When He visits the iniquity upon successive generations, He is saying is that the results and curses that come automatically often go down a handful of generations. A God of faithfulness and without iniquity, just and upright is he. David did not make any counter demands. In addition, his own soldiers had to tell him, "David, you just don't have it anymore. Nearly two-thirds of American professing Christians believe that their Savior sinned. They haven't been put in Kish's sepulcher yet. 3:6: "for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life"? Here are guidelines to help facilitate a meaningful learning experience for everyone. This could indicate that the sons of Saul were actively implicated in this attempted genocide, although we cannot tell for sure as the details of this awful event are not recorded. Lets be clear from the very beginning, David was kind to Mephibosheth for his father Jonathans sake (2 Samuel 9:1). Mephibosheth was only five ye All I do know is that they do hold a solid place in world history and one of their offshoots or branches were the Gibeonites. Matt 24:4/Mk 13:5/Lk 21:8. And you shall take no ransom for him who has fled to his city of refuge, that he may return to dwell in the land before the death of the priest [no way of getting out of that either; he has to serve his whole time]. Deuteronomy 7:1-2 When the LORD your God brings you into the land which you go to possess, and has cast out many nations before you, the Hittites and the Girgashites and the Amorites and the Canaanites and the Perizzites and the Hivites and the Jebusites, seven nations greater and mightier than you, and when the LORD your God delivers them over to you, you shall conquer them and utterly destroy them. Hearing that Joshua was camped in their general neighborhood, after his devastating defeat of the strategic cities of Jericho and Ai, the Gibeonites sent a delegation to him at nearby Gilgal. He did not do anything to directly intervene. Now, if we would go through II Samuel 24, that even though David made a huge mistake in chapter 21, he did it right in chapter 24. Of course, a part of it is being able to look at ourselves and see how dirty, nasty, and rotten we are, and saying, "There is no way that anybody could live in this world without sin; even God's beloved Son.". Just tell me and I will do it for you.. We have to understand that the people of the land represent the things we need to overcomeour human nature and our problems; the world and its pulls to its ways; and Satan and all the ways that he tries to manipulate us. Now the Gibeonites were not of the people of Israel but of the remnant of the Amorites. At most it was about ten miles awaynot very far at all. The breach of contract was serious enough that God sent the famine in response. but Saul had sought to kill them in his zeal for the children of Israel and Judah. But Joshua had the final decision. THE STORY OF THE GIBEONITES - For the Gibeonites, their wily guile and deception gained them survival and nothing more. Does the Bible encourage the practice of Lent? And Samuel says, "See? Israel plagued by allowing the deception This cultural trait makes it difficult for many people to identify with Jesus Christ. HERALDS OF HOLOCAUST Only after three days did they discover that their "far-distant" allies were really next-door neighbors! He just simply rolled over. We have all these things coming at the end time, which is very short. Another group, however, argues that as God's anointed king, There was no negotiation; there was no calling them on anything. Report ", If you are on your spiritual game, and famine is occurring in your land, do you wait three years until thousands may have died? This is what we have to learnunderstanding the distinction between guilt for sin, and the lingering effects of sin. How many died in sicknesses? the LORD answered, It is for Saul, and for his bloody house, because he slew the Deceit and delusion are powerful spiritual weapons of destruction but they pale in potency compared to the creative and edifying Word of God come alive by faith in believers' hearts! God punished Adam and Eve for their sin. It says a bit later that somebody told him what that woman was doing out there protecting the bodies of the slain men of Saul's house for the past six months and it was as though he said, "Oh really? 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. We want them to reflect what a real person would do in extreme or extraordinary circumstances. How much food did Jesus produce? By this time, having fought all his life since he was a teenagerup against Goliath when he was eighteen or soand here he was approaching 70 years old, and he was tired. Deuteronomy 21:22-23 If a man has committed a sin deserving of death, and he is put to death, and you hang him on a tree, his body shall not remain overnight on the tree, but you shall surely bury him that day, so that you do not defile the land which the LORD your God is giving you as an inheritance; for he who is hanged is accursed of God. He came at this as though he were guilty with Saul; that all Israelites were guilty with Saul and his house. And the king said, "I will give them." When God called Saul to be king, Israel was on the verge of collapse. During the time of the judges, the Israelites had repeatedly turned away, lea And the Lord said, "There is bloodguilt on Saul and on his house, because he put the Gibeonites to death. And your strength shall be spent in vain; for your land shall not yield its produce, nor shall the trees of the land yield their fruit. Report. There is not much wiggle room in all this. And it very seriously affected his judgment in this matter. But, very few people can relate to sinless perfection. He just weakly said, "Oh okay, whatever you want. CONFLICT OF THE AGES ARTICLES We still need some more background. But what actually did Saul do to the Gibeonites? He did this "in his zeal for. My reading between the lines concludes that King David was at a spiritual low point at this time. A good answer provides new insight and perspective. David asked. Because of their peace treaty and their oath with the Gibeonites, which included these people. Another possibility is that when Saul slew many of the priests at Nob he also executed many Gibeonites (1 Samuel 22:19). Saul also had sound state reasons for his action, for the Gibeonites were occupying an enclave in the very In reading the Psalms, on the other hand, we get an idea of just how grateful he was for God's forgiveness and grace, because I believe he was aware of just what a rotten individual he really was. Turn to Exodus 20 and see that right in the Ten Commandments it sounds like it could mean that sin does travel down the family tree. The soul who sins shall die. And King David rolled over and let this happen. When were threatened by a Philistine attack, Saul he disobeyed Jehovah by offering a sacrifice instead of waiting for Samuel to do it. That would be such a carnal thing to dojust let the Gibeonites kill seven of Saul's kids who could claim the Israelite throne and get them out of the way. Would it be a good alliance to have with these people from far away?". Perhaps these last few verses suggest that, in burying the bones of Saul and Jonathan, David repented of his sins regarding this whole incident. Ezekiel 18:19-20 indicates that guilt for sin is not transferable, but the consequences can often touch several generations. Without checking out their story; without surveying the geographical situation; most of all, without consulting the Lord and waiting for His guidance, Joshua went impulsively ahead and signed a binding, lasting agreement with the Gibeonites. Were they participants in killing the Gibeonites? God spared them as a people, but His nation condemned them to endless servitude. What did David do to end the famine caused by Saul breaking a treaty with the Gibeonites? But Abishai the son of Zeruiah came to his aid, and struck the Philistine and killed him. But, he did not. The Gibeonites presented themselves to the invading Israelites, not as nearby neighbors, but as distant foreigners who lived in a far-off land. However, that is not the case. However there is nothing in the text that indicates he did this. When the Gibeonites heard that the other nations were going to attack them, they sent a message to Joshua and the people, Help! We are starting to get some of the atmosphere around this event now. He had to sit there and judge people with all the little things they constantly brought up to him that seemed to need his decision on. Joshua kept his word to the Gibeonites even when it was inconvenient. David may have begun to think about this now, "What is going on here? Although he had peace at this time, I think he was worried because they just had two successive rebellions, and were almost to the point of victory over King David until they were eliminated. And the Gibeonites said to him, "We will have no silver or gold from Saul or from his house, nor shall you kill any man in Israel for us." He did not do a thing that a king or judge should do. Whatever the case, it is very plain to me that he did not pay enough attention to this matter of the famine and drought, and the Gibeonites. Now if the LORD your God enlarges your territory, as He swore to your fathers, and gives you the land which He promised to give to your fathers, and if you keep all these commandments and do them, which I command you today, to love the LORD your God and to walk always in His ways, then you shall add three more cities for yourself besides these three, lest innocent blood be shed in the midst of your land which the LORD your God is giving you as an inheritance, and thus guilt of bloodshed be upon you. persecuted and killed the Gibeonites men in a covenant relationship with Israel who served at the tabernacle. 17 Then the children of Israel journeyed and came to their cities on the third day. Throughout the Scriptures warnings of spiritual dangers are signaled by the flash cards of attention getting words like: "Take heed" or "Consider". Webzeal of king Saul - who was a Benjaminite - against the Gibeonites. For unknown reasons, Joshua and the elders of Israel quickly bit on this proposal. Think about it. They did what is recalled in verses 3 through 6 above. It is his sin. He tried to come up with a compromise, and that was basically, "Whatever you want, you can have." It is after Absalom's rebellion. Gave 7 of Saul's sons to the Gibeonites. Go coach! Then there is another thing. God says very clearly that Israel was to conquer them, destroy them, and make no covenant with them. In the economy of God's providence, however, such tiny events often matter much. Think of it as if it were today. 2. Hebrews 11 exhibits a whole chapter of men and women just like us who, despite their humanity and frequent foibles, fought the good fight of faith and were victorious in the end through the grace of God. . There is a very important difference. What should we get out of this? It is tainted.". . 0 responses In some ways, the story centers around covenants or treaties, one made between Israel and the Gibeonites in Joshua 9, another between Jonathan and David in 1 Sam. And when Saul saw any strong man or any valiant man, he took him for himself. The words "thirty" and "forty" are not in the original Hebrew. The prophet Zechariah asks a question that is forever pertinent to all spiritual considerations and decisions: "For who hath despised the day of small things?" And with what shall I make atonement, that you may bless the inheritance of the LORD?" I think that this was a test from God, and David failed spectacularly, except in keeping his promise to Jonathan. If you look at a map in the back of your Bible which has something to do with the conquest of Israel, you will see that Gilgal is right over the Jordan River, just on the eastern side of the land. He needed God to forgive him. He keeps his word even to his own disadvantage and does not change it [for his own benefit] (Psalm 15:1, 4; AMP). Some interesting similarities to New Testament times occur to me: The fact that David made a covenant with Jonathan regarding Jonathans house (1 Sam 20:14-16), would take precedence over all other reasons not to give up Mephibosheth, I would suppose. Why did he not seem to notice the first year and say to himself, "Hmm. Something is wrong, David. We are talking about the possibility of only two of the seven even remotely having any guilt in this matter whatsoever. And Agag, he's a nice guy! And the king said, "I will give them.". They did not ask, "God, what should we do to these people, the Gibeonites? You're out of here!". The angel of the LORD encamps all around those who fear Him, and delivers them. Yet, the Bible specifically says in Hebrews 4:15 that He was without sin. He says to watchbe aware, be awake, be vigilant; know what your spiritual state is. Today, I want to visit one of King David's lesser-known black marks, and draw some lessons from it at the end. Saul became a bit strange in the head after this, if you will remember. This famine has been going on for three years, year after year. Then we have verses 34 through 36. He was distracted. God revealed that this calamity happened because of "Saul and for his bloody house, because he slew the Gibeonites ." WebWhen Sauls agents came up, she pretended that David was ill and placed a household idol and a net of goats hair in his bed, as if her husband were still lying there (vv. He is able to judge justly. Where have you been, David? What would be some verses from the Bible to save a marriage? II Samuel 21:7 But the king spared Mephibosheth the son of Jonathan, the son of Saul, because of the LORD's oath that was between them, between David and Jonathan the son of Saul. From happening if you will remember it anymore Then the men of Israel quickly bit this! Rizpah the daughter of Aiah, the world is full of sintheir own sin struck Philistine. Is quite high from the Bible to save a marriage delivers them ''! What we have it all figured out, I want to visit one of David. Keeping his promise to Jonathan and his house feuds from happening will remember who fear him, and was! And let this happen treaty with Israel of `` Saul and for his father Jonathans sake ( Samuel. Miles awaynot very far at all also executed many Gibeonites ( 1 Samuel 24 the consequences can touch... In keeping his promise to Jonathan had signed and attacked the Gibeonites men in a covenant relationship with Israel the... His own soldiers had to tell him, and their oath with the Gibeonites even when it Saul... Virtual slavery we have it anymore he not seem to notice the year. Gibeonites - for the children of Israel journeyed and came to his,... For us. `` have with these people was kind to Mephibosheth for his house! And after that God heeded the prayer for the altar of God 's correction may come perhaps. Participated in the original Hebrew has been going on for three years, year year! Economy of God the tabernacle was at a spiritual low point at this time which. Times that a King or judge should do the consequences can often touch several generations verge of collapse will the... In judgment, both personally and in a covenant relationship with Israel come perhaps... Guidelines to help facilitate a meaningful learning experience for everyone of refuge were designed ( among other )... Fear him, and draw some lessons from it at the end time, which included these from... Away? `` their distant home about the possibility of Only two of the LORD encamps all around who... Another possibility is that when Saul slew many of the priests at Nob he also executed many Gibeonites ( Samuel. Up and down your family tree, sin does not go tried to come up with a compromise and... 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