2 Samuel

2 Samuel 21:1-6

It took three years of famine to get Israel's attention regarding a sin that was over thirty years old.  God revealed to David that Saul had attacked the Gibeonites breaking a vow of protection made by Joshua.  We have to go all the way back to Joshua 9:3-27 to find that Joshua had made a covenant with the Gibeonites.  The bible doesn't tell us when it happened but Saul must have attacked the Gibeonites, killing some of them in his efforts to rid the land of the Canaanites.  The Gibeonites weren't Jews, yet they resided in Gibeon in the land of Benjamin. 

We can see several important things here.  God honors and values the covenants with the gentiles as well as the Jews.  A covenant or vow doesn't have an expiration date.  But probably most important is that God is patient in dealing with our sin.  While any person might look at this and say it was a long time ago, let sleeping dogs lie!  God has waited though; for the right place and time.

David approached he Gibeonites humbly to serve them.  They didn't want money or gold or retribution; they sought only justice.  While Saul affected wholesale slaughter on them, they asked only for 7 descendants of Saul to die for justice.  David agreed to these terms.

2 Samuel 21:7-14

These 7 descendants were hanged 'before the Lord' indicating it was, in fact, in His will this be done.  A broken vow could not be unbroken, so justice was done by payment being made by the descenants of Saul.  The seven fell together and and then left there until the drought ended.  They sought to appease God and they were waiting on a signal from him by the drought ending. 

Rizpah took up a gruesome vigil.  She assumed a place of mourning but also protected these bodies.  To the Jews it was considered a disgrace for the birds or wild beasts to be allowed to get to the bodies.  Yet we know "he who is hanged is accursed of God" from Deuteronomy 21:23. 

David was moved by the vigil of Rizpah.  He gathered the bones of Saul, Jonathon and the bones of those hanged and gave them all a proper burial in a family grave.  After all this was done, God heeded the prayer of the land. 

2 Samuel 21:15-22

The Hebrews term "rapha" is interpreted as giants.  These men were the Rephaim from the people Anikim.  These men were giants, had 6 fingers and 6 toes.  There is a lot of evidence that these men were the offspring of the fallen angels that had taken earthly woman for their wives.  See Genesis 15:19-21; Numbers 13:33; Deuteronomy 2:11; 3:11, 13; Deuteronomy 2:10, 11, 20, and 21.  There were apparently 4 descendants of the giant that were struck down.  The Goliath must be another Goliath or should have said "the brother of" Goliath.

It is worth noting that David had picked up 5 stones and there appears to have been five Philistine Giants.  David killed Goliath and had four more stones left.  These may be the other four for which David had a stone.  Instead of a stone their death came by his faithful servants.

©2016 Doug Ford