2Samuel 21:1-9
Paying Old Debts
We move into the last details given of David’s life. It is possible that some
of these items are out of order chronologically. No dates are given of some of
the events and some of these things might have happened while David was dealing
with the curse of his sin. It is not uncommon in Scripture for a topic to be
completely covered in one section and the four returns of David covered a long
time period.
However, it is equally possible that these events are in chronological order and
what we are reading happened in the last years of David’s life. If that is the
case, then it becomes even more apparent that David and his kingdom never
completely recovered from David’s sin. To paraphrase what one writer wrote,
David started with a bang but he went out with a whimper. David started his race
in power, but he crossed the finish line limping.
May God help us to finish our race better than that!
I. \\#2Samuel 21:1\\ A Hungry Land
A. The Bible says that a famine had gone on in the land for three years.
1. A famine means that there was no food.
2. Food in that day could not be stored in large amounts for
indefinite periods of time.
3. Neither would there be a lot of international aid to help in
that kind of situation.
4. If a famine lasted that long, you can be sure that people were
dying.
B. Interestingly, God used the famine as a picture of Israel’s spiritual
condition.
Amos 8:11 Behold, the days come, saith the Lord GOD, that I will send a famine
in the land, not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the
words of the LORD:
12 And they shall wander from sea to sea, and from the north even to the east,
they shall run to and fro to seek the word of the LORD, and shall not find it.
1. It is possible that God chose a famine to get Israel’s attention
because it best represented their spiritual condition.
a. Perhaps Israel had again turned from the Word of God.
b. This has always been one of the chief flaws in Israel’s
character.
c. Even during the days of great spiritual leaders such as Moses
and the judges, Israel turned from the Word of God.
(1) 2Kings describes Israel in the days of Moses.
2 Kings 18:12 Because they obeyed not the voice of the LORD their God, but
transgressed his covenant, and all that Moses the servant of the LORD commanded,
and would not hear them, nor do them.
(2) Judges 2 describes Israel shortly after they entered
the Promised Land.
Judges 2:20 And the anger of the LORD was hot against Israel; and he said,
Because that this people hath transgressed my covenant which I commanded their
fathers, and have not hearkened unto my voice;
21 I also will not henceforth drive out any from before them of the nations which
Joshua left when he died:
d. Just as surely as people die physically from a lack of food,
so people die spiritually from a lack of God’s Word!
(1) We tend to categorize things in importance.
(2) If we see pictures of children starving, our inclination
is to send them money to help—as it should be.
(3) But it is far more important that we feed the souls of
those who are without Christ!
(4) As painful as the slow death of starvation is, it is
preferable to eternal damnation!
2. It is all too easy to fall into a spiritual state of relying on
our own wisdom and understanding instead of obeying the Word of
God.
a. With little doubt, we are in the days of such a famine.
b. I see in this text how that David went to the Lord to ask
God why the famine had come.
(1) The Bible tells us that God somehow spoke to David,
perhaps by a vision or a prophet.
(2) Then David proceeded to do what God had told him to
do WITH NO ONE QUESTIONING THE REALITY OF GOD SPEAKING.
(3) Even when David turned seven Jewish men, sons and
grandsons of King Saul over the Gibeonites, there is no
record of the people questioning the reality of God
speaking in a way that David could discern what God
wanted.
c. I long for a day when America and even we, the people of God,
might believe in a God who speaks and in the Words that He
has spoken to us!
C. Most think that the text reveals the cause of the famine.
1. \\#2Sam 21:10\\ "until water dropped upon them out of heaven"
2. Most feel that there was a drought in the land.
3. And interestingly, David speaks of his spiritual condition as
being DRY during periods of his life.
a. Psalm 32
Psalm 32:3 When I kept silence, my bones waxed old through my roaring all the day
long.
4 For day and night thy hand was heavy upon me: my moisture is turned into the
drought of summer. Selah.
(1) Most believe Psalm 32 was written after and about David’s
time of sin with Bathsheba.
(2) He describes his relationship with God as a dry time,
like the drought of summer.
(3) Of course, David starts that Psalm by describing how
blessed we are to be forgiven and when speaking of his
dry days, he speaks of them in the past tense.
(4) However, those dry days were so bad that they left an
unforgettable memory written on his mind.
b. We have all gone through dry days with God.
(1) Days when our joy and spiritual drive were gone.
(2) Hopefully, during these days of revival, you have found
forgiveness for whatever sins separated you and your
God.
(3) Let us never forget or repeat those days of spiritual
drought!
D. The question arises, "Why did it take David three years to enquire of
the Lord?"
1. That is part of the reason some believe that David himself was
going through another "dry" spell spiritually.
2. However, in all fairness to David, times of spiritual famine and
drought are easy to fall into.
a. No one notices the first day of a drought or famine.
(1) It just didn’t rain that day.
(2) Potentially, every day it doesn’t rain is the first day of
a drought and famine.
(3) While every drought starts with a first day of no rain,
not every first day of no rain leads to drought, so we
don’t notice when the drought begins.
(4) When David did notice the rain had stopped, he probably
figured it would come eventually.
(a) It will rain next month.
(b) We’ll catch up during the next rainy season.
(c) Next year’s crops have to better.
(d) Then you start hearing of one farmer’s whole crop
dying out, one man’s cattle dying, one city’s well
drying up.
(5) Before you know it….
(a) The nation has ended its second season of drought and
wondering about the third.
(b) The death toll has started to climb, not only of
livestock but of the people as well.
(c) People are leaving, not only their city, but the
nation, in search of a place with water.
b. So it is with a spiritual drought.
(1) They begin unnoticed and they grow before we know it.
(2) For whatever the reason, we don’t get around to getting
into God’s presence.
(3) Maybe we were too busy that day.
(4) It may even be that we prayed that first day, read our
Bible—maybe we even went to church.
(a) Even so, we didn’t really worship.
(b) We didn’t feel our God’s presence.
(5) The next thing you know, you are spiritually dry and there
is a spiritual famine.
3. The good news is that David did eventually notice the famine and
turned to God.
a. The Bible says, "David enquired of the Lord."
b. He sought the Lord with the intent of securing Him.
c. David was not offering a curious question. David wanted God
and His aid.
II. \\#2Samuel 21:1-2\\ A Broken Promise
A. God reveals to David that the problem is a sin committed and a promise
not kept.
1. The making of this treaty with the Gibeonites is described in
Joshua 9.
2. It was a treaty based on trickery and deceit; but after Joshua
let it stand, it became a binding treaty.
3. Apparently, after honoring the treaty for over 400 years, King Saul
decided Israel wasn’t bound by it and set out to kill the
Gibeonites.
4. The Bible doesn’t tell us when or how Saul set about this deed.
5. I am kind of curious as to what stopped him.
6. Regardless, Saul has been dead for years. David is the king.
B. Why does God choose NOW to seek justice for the Gibeonites?
1. Because God wanted justice for the Gibeonites.
a. We must never forget that every wrong will be righted by our
God.
(1) That is God’s nature.
(2) God cannot let a wrong go unrighted.
b. You ask, "Then why did it take God so long?"
(1) We must also remember that God is not on the clock.
(2) Time doesn’t mean anything to Him.
c. The truth is, we mistake God’s justice for our vindication.
(1) Both are promised in the Bible and, if both are due, both
will be rendered.
(2) But while they both accomplish the same end, they are not
the same thing.
(a) Vindication is not always justice.
i. If all God did was vindicate us, His justice might
suffer.
ii. However, if God seeks justice, any vindication due
us will also be given.
(b) If God’s only purpose was to vindicate us, God would
probably be in more of a hurry.
i. Part of the joy of being vindicated is to be there
when it happens.
ii. We all want to get that "I told you so" in there.
iii. However, since God is primarily seeking justice,
He does not have to be in any hurry.
iv. God has all of eternity to deal with every guilty
party.
2. Because God wanted justice for David and Israel.
a. Remember, it is also very possible that David was spiritually
dry and Israel was experiencing a famine of God’s Word.
b. God is a big enough God that He can STACK His purposes.
(1) By that I mean God can accomplish more than one thing at
a time.
(2) It has been years since I played chess, but one of the
keys of that game is to divert your opponent’s attention.
(3) You want to make him think you are doing one thing, while
setting up another.
(4) God is the Master Chess Player.
c. Friend, if we hold onto our sin and force God to deal with it,
we just might get caught up in a tidal wave of justice.
III. \\#2Samuel 21:3-9\\ A Payment Due
A. Once David knows what the problem is, he seeks its solution.
1. Maybe you are wondering why God did not tell David what to do to
FIX this sin.
2. The solution to wronging another person is always the same -
restitution.
3. We must go to that person, ask for forgiveness, and make whatever
payment we can to make things right.
4. Restitution is a lost concept in today’s world.
a. People today think a "I’m sorry" will fix anything.
b. We need to understand that a few cheap words mean nothing.
(1) First, you don’t need to tell someone what you are. If
you wronged them, they already now how sorry you are.
(a) What you need to do is to ask them to forgive you.
(b) To ask for forgiveness requires a lot more humility
than to simply state a fact.
(2) Second, you need to ask them what it will take to make it
right.
(a) You say, "I wouldn’t dare give them that kind of
position over me!"
(b) Then you’re still just a sorry rascal who is not
ready to be forgiven.
(c) You say, "They will make me do something outrageous."
(d) If you wronged them, and it takes something
outrageous to gain their forgiveness, then it is
your debt and it needs to be paid.
5. David understood these things and so he came to the Gibeonites and
asked, "What can I do to make you bless God’s people again?"
B. The Gibeonites on the other hand, knew God well enough not to attempt
to swindle Him or God’s people.
1. The Gibeonites had lived among the Jews for 400 years.
a. They had seen God’s justice, His power and His might.
b. So they are very careful in what they request for restitution.
c. I hope you and I understand that when God is being good to us,
we don’t want to sin it away!
2. The Gibeonites ask for seven sons (or descendents) of King Saul.
a. It would seem that seven was a token number, and a small token
number at that.
b. I imagine that Saul had slain many more than just seven
Gibeonites.
c. These Gibeonites are actually showing Saul’s house a great
mercy.
d. They could have asked "an eye for an eye." If they had, no
doubt all of Saul’s house would have been wiped out.
3. The Gibeonites don’t even ask for David to kill the men.
a. As David knew this family, that might have been a difficult
thing for David to do.
b. Besides, according to God’s law, it was the right of the
slain Gibeonites’ families to execute justice upon these seven.
C. So David selects seven men.
1. He makes sure to exclude Jonathan’s Mephibosheth because of the
promise David had made with Jonathan.
2. But seven, two sons, and five grandsons of Saul, were delivered.
3. These seven were put to death.
4. I am not certain whether they were all hanged as we think of
an execution, or if they were killed in some other manner
and their bodies hanged for public viewing.
D. In the end, their bodies were left hanging for some time.
1. It was actually against Jewish law to allow a body to hang
overnight.
2. Apparently, God allowed an exemption to that law for this act of
justice.
IV. \\#2Samuel 21:10\\ A Loving Mother
A. That exemption gave us an opportunity to see a mother’s love.
B. The mother who was forced to give up two of her sons, two boys who had
not part in Saul’s wrong doing, holds a vigil over her sons’ bodies.
1. Her two sons were stacked out, probably on some kind of make-shift
gallows.
2. Of course, animals would try to eat their decaying bodies.
3. This mother spread out sackcloth, perhaps as a blanket, perhaps as
a tent, and stayed by the bodies of her children to see that the
animals did not get to them.
4. What love! What courage! I think that only a mother could do
something like that.
C. How long did she maintain this vigil?
1. The Bible says, "until water dropped upon them out of heaven."
2. That would mean until the drought was over.
3. It appears that the Gibeonites intended to keep the bodies hanging
out there until God ended the drought which caused the famine.
V. \\#2Samuel 21:11-14\\ A Compassionate King
A. This act of love on the mother’s part, moved David to have compassion
on all the weary and battered house of Saul.
1. Saul had sinned, but all of Saul’s heirs had made payment on Saul’s
sin.
2. From Jonathan, a good son who had died with his father, to
Mephibosheth who was lame all of his life, to his grandsons who
were left out to be meat for the animals, they had all made their
payments.
3. I imagine David identified with Saul’s family some. After all, it
was he who sinned with Bathsheba, but how many of David’s
children and grandchildren had paid and were paying the price?
B. So David gathers all the bones of the slain and buries them in Saul’s
family cemetery.
1. Thus ends the payment for Saul’s sins.
2. Of course some of Saul’s grandchildren and great grandchildren
will still have to grow up without their fathers, but at least
no new judgments will come.
3. Even though David’s sin has been put away, his grandchildren are
still facing that same consequence.
4. Perhaps we begin to understand God’s warning of sin being passed
down to the third and fourth generations.
Now notice the last line of \\#2Sam 21:14\\ - "And after that, God was interested
for the land." After the restitution was made. After David closed the books on
Saul by burying the bones of the slain, God gave Israel their blessings back.
My, my. How much sin steals! Let’s pray we can finish our race without a visit
from the justice of God.
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