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CHAPTER 21 (ESV)
1 Now there was a famine in the days of David for three years, year after year. And David sought the face of the Lord. And the Lord said, “There is bloodguilt on Saul and on his house, because he put the Gibeonites to death.” 2 So the king called the Gibeonites and spoke to them. 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. 3 And David said to the Gibeonites, “What shall I do for you? And how shall I make atonement, that you may bless the heritage of the Lord?” 4 The Gibeonites said to him, “It is not a matter of silver or gold between us and Saul or his house; neither is it for us to put any man to death in Israel.” And he said, “What do you say that I shall do for you?” 5 They said to the king, “The man who consumed us and planned to destroy us, so that we should have no place in all the territory of Israel, 6 let seven of his sons be given to us, so that we may hang them before the Lord at Gibeah of Saul, the chosen of the Lord.” And the king said, “I will give them.”
7 But the king spared Mephibosheth, the son of Saul’s son Jonathan, because of the oath of the Lord that was between them, between David and Jonathan the son of Saul. 8 The king took the two sons of Rizpah the daughter of Aiah, whom she bore to Saul, Armoni and Mephibosheth; and the five sons of Merab the daughter of Saul, whom she bore to Adriel the son of Barzillai the Meholathite; 9 and he gave them into the hands of the Gibeonites, and they hanged them on the mountain before the Lord, and the seven of them perished together. They were put to death in the first days of harvest, at the beginning of barley harvest.
REFLECTION:
- The three years famine in David’s days was caused by the breach of a treaty between Israel and the Gibeonites. Saul ferociously attacked the Gibeonites, who still held land in Israel. David obliged the Gibeonites’ demand and ordered the execution of seven of Saul’s male descendants. Famine was stopped.
- In today’s culture, we are not used to linking natural disasters to the evil deeds of men. However, we we are whole people and, in us there exists both the physical and spiritual. Sin cannot be isolated but has causes and consequences. Is it possible that there is a closer relationship between the way people live and the kind of the world we live in?
PRAYER:
Faced with the rapid destruction of the ecology of the earth, I, as a steward of God’s creation, should be mindful not just of present but also future generations.
If I use God’s creation without regard for God’s creatures (present or future), violate the eighth commandment, “You shall not steal”. Lord, help me to be a good steward in my thoughts, behavior, morality, life style.(1 Pet 4:10)
