Please turn in your Bibles to 2 Samuel chapter 21. Most pastors that I've talked with skip over this passage. I'm planning to preach two sermons on this grisly passage because there's so much meat in here. There's a lot of good stuff in here. I'll read all first of the 14 verses, but I'm only going to preach on the first nine. Now there was a famine in the days of David for three years, year after year. And David inquired of the Lord, and the Lord answered, it is because of Saul and his bloodthirsty house, because he killed the Gibeonites. So the king called the Gibeonites and spoke to them. Now the Gibeonites were not of the children of Israel, but of the remnant of the Amorites. The children of Israel had sworn protection to them, but Saul had sought to kill them in his zeal for the children of Israel and Judah. Therefore David said to the Gibeonites, what shall I do for you? And with what shall I make atonement that you may bless the inheritance of the Lord? 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. So he said, whatever you say, I will do for you. Then they answered the king, as for the man who consumed us and plotted against us that we should be destroyed from remaining in any of the territories of Israel, let seven men of his descendants be delivered to us and we will hang them before the Lord in Gibeah of Saul, whom the Lord chose. And the king said, I will give them. 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. So the king took Armoni and Mephibosheth, the two sons of Rizpah, the daughter of Aiah, whom she bore to Saul, and the five sons of Michal, the daughter of Saul, whom she brought up for Adriel, the son of Barzillai, the Meholathite. And he delivered them into the hands of the Gibeonites, and they hanged them on the hill before the Lord. So they fell, all seven together, and were put to death in the days of harvest, in the first days of the beginning of barley harvest. Now Rizpah, the daughter of Ayah, took sackcloth and spread it for herself on the rock from the beginning of harvest until the late rains poured on them from heaven. And she did not allow the birds of the air to rest on them by day, nor the beasts of the field by night. And David was told what Rizpah, the daughter of Aiah, the concubine of Saul, had done. Then David went and took the bones of Saul and the bones of Jonathan, his son, from the men of Jabesh-Gilead, who had stolen them from the street of Beth-shan, where the Philistines had hung them up, after the Philistines had struck down Saul in Gilboa. So he brought up the bones of Saul and the bones of Jonathan, his son, from there, and they gathered the bones of those who had been hanged. They buried the bones of Saul and Jonathan his son in the country of Benjamin in Zila in the tomb of Kish's father. So they performed all that the king commanded. And after that, God heeded the prayer for the land. Father, we thank you for this your word. It is our glory to search. For the deep things of God, it is our glory to seek to live them out. And we know by ourselves we cannot do that. Even for this, we go to the cross of Christ and the grace that he purchased for us. We pray for your anointing upon my preaching and upon the hearing of your word. May you be glorified with the responses of our hearts. We pray this in Jesus name. Amen. Well, in chapter 21 we're beginning a brand new section of the book of 2 Samuel, and commentators have pointed out that this is topically arranged rather than chronologically arranged. And to help you see that, I've given you kind of an outline up on the top right-hand side. It's formed in a chiasm where the A at the beginning and the A at the end are parallel. So in this chiasm you see that there is the offense of a king and its expiation in chapter 21 being parallel with the offense of a king and its expiation in chapter 24 at the end of the section. Then in the B sections You've got lists of military war heroes and their exploits. And then smack dab in the middle of the chiasm, which is always the most important thing that everything in the section is driving towards and away from, are the C-sections. And those are two poems that talk about God's perspective on David's kingdom. Okay, it gives hopes. to the nations that have problems because it shows God's favor in the midst of sin. In fact, in the second Psalm, David points out, it's really impossible to have any Christian kingdom that is absent of fault, that is absent of some sin, and yet God's grace covers over those sins. In fact, I think it is high time that Christians quit thinking of the gospel as only applying to individuals. It applies to every area of life and even nations as governments need the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. And the passage we're going to be looking at today shows the incredible patience of God despite the sin of a nation. And in many ways the mistreatment of the Gibeonites under Saul's kingship parallels America's mistreatment of at least some Indian tribes. And hopefully this tiny introduction to the subject will stimulate some interesting discussion over the dinner tables afterwards, because it's not a topic that's talked about a great deal. But to give you the full impact of what this passage was intended to teach, we've got to give you some background. And that's what I'm going to do right now. If we lived in Israel in the time of David, And if they had a Memorial Day, like we're going to be celebrating tomorrow, they would likely be remembering the war heroes and the fallen all through Israel's military history, including the conquest of the land of Canaan. Joshua was dispossessing some so-called indigenous tribes claims to the land, and they were hostile to God. They were hostile to God's law. They were hostile to Israel. They were hostile to human decency. If you've ever done any study of archeology of that period of time, you realize exactly what God was talking about when he said that their cup of iniquity was full. These are the ones that God was going to judge. He said, don't mess with these other countries. They were plenty wicked enough. But their cup of iniquity was full. And I think I've shared with you before a word picture that helps you to get a feel for how bad these tribes were. If you've ever watched the movie Indiana Jones Temple of Doom. put that on steroids and the tribe that's in there, and you get a little bit of a feel for what was going on in Canaan. Jeffrey Dahmers would not be an anomaly back then. I'm not saying they were all Jeffrey Dahmers, but I'm saying it was an incredibly cruel, incredibly vindictive, incredibly debauched, degenerate culture that If even Americans nowadays who are liberals were transported back then and they had to live with those people for a year, they'd be cheering on Joshua and his men. I'm convinced that there would be no complaining about God's judgment of the land of Canaan, not at all. So what is surprising is not the conquest of Canaan, but that God would insist that Israel honor a treaty made with one of those tribes, the Gibeonites. You see, the Gibeonites were horrible too. Their cup of iniquity was full too. Okay, this is really an amazing thing when you think about it. The Gibeonites were spared as a testimony to God's grace. that Gibeon was radically transformed into a tribe that eventually became more faithful to God than most of the Israelite tribes had been is a testimony to God's grace and that God would honor this treaty so many years later, again, as a testimony to God's grace. So what I want you to do, I want you to turn over to Joshua chapter nine, and I'm gonna read the whole chapter. I think it gives you a good feel for what was going on in the background. And some people are puzzled, why would God honor this treaty when it was deceitfully entered into? Joshua 9, beginning at verse 1. And it came to pass when all the kings who were on this side of the Jordan, in the hills and in the low land and in all the coasts of the great sea toward Lebanon, Behitite, the Amorite, the Canaanite, the Perizzite, the Hivite, and the Jebusite heard about it, that they gathered together to fight with Joshua and Israel with one accord. But when the inhabitants of Gibeon heard what Joshua had done to Jericho and Ai, they worked craftily and went and pretended to be ambassadors. And they took old sacks on their donkeys, old wineskins torn and mended, old and patched sandals on their feet, and old garments on themselves, and all the bread for their provision was dry and moldy. And they went to Joshua, to the camp at Gilgal, and said to him, and to the men of Israel, we have come from a far country, now therefore make a covenant with us. Then the men of Israel said to the Hivites, perhaps you dwell among us, so how can we make a covenant with you? But they said to Joshua, we are your servants. And Joshua said to them, who are you and where do you come from? So they said to him from a very far country, your servants have come because of the name of the Lord, your God, for we have heard of his fame and all that he did in Egypt and all that he did to the two kings of the Amorites who were beyond the Jordan to Sion, king of Heshbon and Og, king of Bashan, who was at Ashtoreth. Therefore, Our elders and all the inhabitants of our country spoke to us saying, take provisions with you for the journey and go to meet them and say to them, we are your servants. Now therefore make a covenant with us. This bread of ours we took hot for our provision from our houses on the day we departed to come to you. But now look, it is dry and moldy. And these wineskins which we filled were new and see they are torn. And these are garments and our sandals have become old because of the very long journey. Then the men of Israel took some of their provisions, but they did not ask counsel of the Lord. 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. And it happened at the end of three days after they had made a covenant with them, that they heard that they were their neighbors who dwelt near them. Then the children of Israel journeyed and came to their cities on the third day. Now their cities were Gibeon, But the children of Israel did not attack them because the rulers of the congregation had sworn to them by the Lord God of Israel and all the congregation complained against the rulers. Then all the rulers said to all the congregation, we've sworn to them by the Lord God of Israel. Now, therefore, we may not touch them. This we will do to them. We will let them live, lest wrath be upon us because of the oath which we swore to them. And the rulers said to them, let them live, but let them be woodcutters and water carriers for all the congregation as the rulers had promised them. Then Joshua called for them and he spoke to them saying, why have you deceived us saying we are very far from you when you dwell near us. Now, therefore you are cursed, but none of you shall be freed from being slaves, woodcutters and water carriers for the house of my God. So they answered Joshua and said, because your servants were clearly told that the Lord your God commanded his servant Moses to give you all the land and to destroy all the inhabitants of the land from before you. Therefore we were very much afraid for our lives because of you and have done this thing. And now here we are in your hands do with us as it seems good and right to do to us. So he did to them and delivered them out of the hand of the children of Israel so that they did not kill them. And that day Joshua made them woodcutters and water carriers for the congregation and for the altar of the Lord in the place which he would choose even to this day. Now, I think I would have been tempted to say, hey, we entered into that covenant under deception, that covenant is null and void. I probably would have been one of the ones complaining against Joshua and saying, what is this? You really are obliged under God to destroy Gibeon but Joshua's perspective was that a covenant had been made and though it was foolishly made it had to be honored Since the Israelites would not be in sin For honoring the treaty it was binding and it was so binding that when the rest of the Canaanites went to war against the Gibeonites in chapter 10 they appealed to Joshua to defend that they said we're one of you now and Are you going to come and defend us? And in chapter 10, Joshua did so with God's blessing. Now, here's the cool thing about this, where God's grace is manifested. They actually did embrace the God of Israel as their God. And throughout Israel's history, they were far more faithful to God than most of Israel was. When Israel apostatized, they remained true. When most of Israel refused to come back into the land of Canaan after the exile, they came back. They continued to fulfill the covenant that they had made before and they remained true to God throughout their history. And so that gives you a little bit of a background of who those Gibeonites were. They were a remnant indigenous tribe of Canaanites who had previously been doomed to destruction, but whom God and his providence had rescued and saved. They're basically equivalent to some of the early Christianized Indian tribes. Now let's go back to 2 Samuel Chapter 21 and see what happened under King Saul. Verse 1 says, Now there was a famine in the days of David for three years, year after year. And David inquired of the Lord, and the Lord answered, It is because of Saul and his bloodthirsty house, because he killed the Gibeonites. Now take a look down at verse 5. Then they answered the king, as for the man who consumed us and plotted against us, that we should be destroyed from remaining in any of the territories of Israel. So that's what King Saul did. He broke an ancient treaty that was almost 400 years old. Actually, by the time you get to chapter 21, it's just slightly over 400 years old. And Saul had planned to wipe out every man, woman, and child of the Gibeonites. Now obviously some had escaped, but as far as God was concerned, as far as the Gibeonites were concerned, this was cold-blooded murder and this was a scandalous, a serious breach of covenant. The third fact that's very important to understand is that Saul's whole household was somehow implicated in this murder and this breaking of the treaty. Do not think of the people who get executed in verses 8 through 9 as being innocent. Okay? Not at all. God told David in verse 1 that the reason for this famine was because of Saul and his bloodthirsty house because he killed the Gibeonites. Notice that phrase, because of Saul and his bloodthirsty house. So even though Saul had ordered the slaughter, his household had followed through on doing the slaughter and therefore they were guilty. And it's not hard to understand how the adopted children of Michal were guilty of murder because their dad, who had married Michal's sister, Merab, He was willing to clearly violate God's laws on anything in order to be friends with Saul. That's quite clear in 1 Samuel 18. He just blindly followed Saul's orders. And so I'm convinced that all seven of these men who were executed were directly involved in the murders and in the attempt to genocide. In fact, if you don't take that position, I think it makes absolute nonsense out of verse 14. You know, it doesn't make any sense whatsoever. God was pleased with what David did. Okay. Now we've already dealt with point D and the treaty in question was made with non-Israelites, but let's read verse two. So the King called the Gibeonites and spoke to them. Now the Gibeonites were not of the children of Israel, but of the remnant of the Amorites. The children of Israel had sworn protection to them, but Saul had sought to kill them in his zeal for the children of Israel and Judah. Now the key point is that God was upset with them, with this broken treaty, despite the fact that it was made with a pagan Amorite indigenous tribe. Covenants must be kept, even those covenants that are foolishly entered into. And one application of this principle is in 1 Peter 3, where the apostle Peter says, you know, we should never marry an unbeliever. But if a woman is married to an unbeliever, she should stick with that unbelieving husband. The fact that he is an unbeliever does not break the covenant. And the fact that the Gibeonites were Canaanites did not make that covenant null and void. The last fact that is important to understand by way of backdrop is that verse two shows that Saul sought to exterminate the Gibeonites out of nationalistic zeal. OK, this was this this was not something God commanded them to do. Instead, the text says Saul had sought to kill them in his zeal for the children of Israel and Judah. So this is a very man centered political motivation or reason. Well, in much the same way, the American violation of Indian treaties was often done with a great deal of public approval and public pressure. People were constantly squatting on the land, trying to move, and they were pushing the Indians north and west. And in the same way, Saul broke this covenant out of some kind of public pressure. We aren't told what. Saul's attempt at genocide was done out of zeal for the people. Now, with that as a background, Let's take a look at how seriously God took this violation of the covenant. And I think you can see the seriousness just by the consequences. First consequence was famine. Verse one says, now there was a famine in the days of David for three years, year after year. Now back in those days, famines were devastating. If you have used up your one year supply of food and you've used up your reserves because you've planted, now this is the third time you've planted seed and it's now harvest time and that is all gone, you're probably, you've dipped into selling your assets and there's probably a lot of people who are starving. This is really a national catastrophe. a whole nation was suffering. So it's a pretty major consequences for violating the covenant. The second consequence was that the land had become polluted by blood. The second part of verse 1 has God saying by prophetic revelation, It is because of Saul and his bloodthirsty house because he killed the Gibeonites. Now, later on, we're going to look at Numbers chapter 35, and we're going to be seeing that murder, in order to be atoned for, has to have the death penalty. Nothing else is going to cleanse the land from that pollution. Well, here was a situation where many lives had been deliberately snuffed out and nothing had been done about it. We don't know the exact date that this event took place, but there's a tiny window that you can fit it into. We know Saul died in 1056 BC, and we know Mephibosheth was raised to David's table in 1040 BC. So the event took place somewhere between 16 years earlier and 22 years before, which means that all seven of these slaughtered men would have been grown men when the slaughter of the Gibeonites took place. But even 16 years is quite a long time between sin and judgment. And to me, this indicates, first of all, that there is no such thing as a statute of limitations when it comes to murder. A murderer must always be put to death. And we shouldn't think that just because there's no immediate cause and effect judgment, that national catastrophes have no connection to sin. You just need to realize God is patient. Okay. Patience does not mean indifference to sin. Now, in this case, God was being patient for at least 16 years and possibly longer. The third consequence of this broken treaty was that God was not hearing people's prayers. Take a look at verse 14. They buried the bones of Saul and Jonathan his son, the country of Benjamin in Zila, in the tomb of Kish his father. So they performed all that the king commanded. After that, God heeded the prayer for the land. Okay, so this indicates that God was not hearing the prayers of that nation. He would not listen. Their prayers were being hindered. In some ways, this is parallel to 1 Peter 3, verse 7, where it says that if husbands Do not dwell with their wives with understanding. If they do not show honor to their wife as to the weaker vessel, their prayers will be hindered. But this is on a national scale. Their prayers were being hindered on a national scale. God would not even listen to the prayers of King David. Righteous King David until the issue of this broken treaty was dealt with. And so this really is an important issue to understand why it is that some nations continue on in judgment and misery for such a long period of time. Their national sins have never been put under the blood of Christ. Verse three gives the fourth consequence, lost blessing. Therefore David said to the Gibeonites, what shall I do for you? And with what shall I make atonement that you may bless the inheritance of the Lord? Now, that's an amazing situation. Until that minority group was willing to bless Israel, God was withholding his blessing. I mean, that's the kind of power that your words can have for either blessing or for cursing. A country can have lost blessings simply because of the plight of a minority that is being So those are the four consequences. They show that God treated them seriously. Now, unfortunately, we Westerners tend to be skeptical that such consequences can flow from national sins. We tend to be skeptical that there's any connection whatsoever between famine and plagues and locusts and termites and other things that are listed in Deuteronomy 28 and the sins of a nation. They just say that just does not seem very scientific. But God's providence rules every aspect of a nation's life, including droughts and famines, and there are always consequences when national sins are ignored. Does that mean that every time there's a disaster in a country that there is sin involved? I say no. Luke 13, I think, is pretty clear. Not every disaster can be attributed to sin. But the reverse, we should not think that because That that that's true that you never have any connection. We just need to keep sin and, and disaster is separate. No, the opposite is true. Sins that are ignored in a nation always result in disaster. Disaster is not always the result of sin. There could be other reasons that God brings, but sin always it's guaranteed will result in disaster. Whatever a nation sows that it will also reap unless it is confessed. And let me just try to fill this out a little bit, this concept. There's a lot that's been written. about the war between the states as being a judgment upon both the North and the South over their treatment of slaves and blacks who were freed from slavery. And I do think that that was a contributing factor. But I've always wondered why in the studies two other major and very despicable issues in America have been completely left out as necessitating God's judgment. Those two issues are America's imperialism via the doctrine of manifest destiny, right? Manifest destiny doctrine and our mistreatment of Indian tribes within our nation. You tie those two things together with slavery and we have every reason to be judged. Now I understand that some of the treaties were broken by the Indians themselves. Some of them were very war, constantly going to war. I'm not talking about those treaties. That's their problem. I'm talking about the treaties where our national government very deliberately broke treaties with Indians who were living in peace, who were keeping their side of the bargain, forcing them to leave their lands, and occasionally even engaging in attempted genocide. And yet Christian books that deal with that era tend to overlook those things. I've only looked at the timeline. of broken Indian treaties and looked at it in terms of a big picture, kind of a meta drawing of the whole thing. And so I've not dug into the details in my research, but I've seen enough potential correlations that I think it would make a very fascinating study to take every broken treaty with Indians, where we're the ones who are at fault, we're the ones who broke it, And then looking to see if there were any national disasters that happened just within a few years of that broken treaty. Now, the little research I've done, I've looked through all of the different treaties, the little bit of research that I have done, I think there is a strong, strong correlation between those two issues, imperialism outside of the nation, broken treaties inside of the nation, and droughts, locust plagues, wars, economic troubles, and other disasters that have hit us. I don't know of any study that's done this, but I firmly believe that just as there was a famine that hit Israel within a half generation of this mistreatment of the Gibeonites, there have been numerous disasters that have hit America after our ungodly actions. I think it'd be a fascinating study for some young person to be involved in. So even though this passage shows God's patience and mercy, nations eventually reap negative results of their ungodly policies. And I don't think there could be any questioning of that thesis. Anyway, David did not consider three years drought to be a coincidence. He investigated. He inquired of the Lord. And I wish that Christian historians would do the same thing, that they would inquire of the Lord. Lord, what are the connections in history? They don't write providential history, for the most part. That's what we're trying to do at PHF. But Lord, what are the connections between the sins of a nation and, you know, bloodshed in America and the downhill slide that we have been having into humanism? And don't think that judgment is about to hit. No, no, no. We have been facing judgment for my entire lifetime. I think going back at least to the war between the states, but probably in some minor judgments prior to that as well. And if America is to find healing, it must first of all discover the sins that need to be repented of. And I'm not saying I've got it all figured out, I don't, but I think it would be a worthwhile project, writing down the national sins that need to be repented of by our leaders and beseeching God to raise up Davids who would be willing to do so. Now once David found out there was national guilt that had offended Almighty God, he immediately set out to rectify the problem. Verse 3 says, therefore David said to the Gibeonites, what shall I do for you? And with what shall I make atonement that you may bless the inheritance of the Lord? Now that verse shows three things that David was attempting to do. First of all, he was asking, what shall I do for you? He wanted to make amends on a horizontal plane. He wanted to get things right between him, between the nation and the Gibeonites. And to some degree, America has righted some of the wrongs that we did to the Indians. Some of the treaties were good, actually, in trying to make amends for that. But I don't think we did it in a biblical way. In fact, the reservation system was very deliberately intended as a part of the subjugation of the Indian peoples, and it created absolute disaster in this nation. It was horrific. But that was the first thing David asked. How do I make amends on some level on a horizontal plane? Then there is the phrase, and with what shall I make atonement? So atonement is the Vertical? Yeah, it's the vertical plane. NIV has it totally wrong when they translate that as amends. That's what the first phrase is. It's making amends horizontally. This should be translated, like the New King James does, as atonement. That word atonement always refers to removing God's wrath from a people. And that's why some liberals are so offended with the word atonement. They never use it. They always substitute in the translations other things because they do not believe that God can have wrath on individuals or that God can have wrath upon nations. But I think it's quite clear God can have wrath even against Christian nations. We must plead the atonement of Christ's blood for our nation. The third thing that David was looking for was a return of God's blessing and favor upon the nation. that you may bless the inheritance of the Lord." Okay, so he's trying to make things right with men, trying to take away God's wrath upon the nation and returning God's blessing down upon that nation. Now, I'll be the first to admit that imperialism and broken treaties with Indians is just the tip of the iceberg of all of the things that we have done wrong in our nation. And it's one of the things that makes it really challenging to know exactly what connections there are, because there's so many sins that we need to repent of. It's not just imperialism and broken treaties and treatment of the slaves. We've got to repent of abortion and homosexuality and rejecting God's law and kicking God out of the courtrooms and so many other sins. But I do believe we must also, in order to remove God's curse on this nation, we must also repent of these broken Indian treaties and the gross mismanagement of the Bureau of Indian Affairs. Actually, 2013, great book, very, very easy read by R.J. Rushtuni. Now, he's been dead for a while, but this was an unpublished work that they put out called The American Indian, and he shows we have a great deal of guilt on our hands. And though he doesn't mention the Gibeonites, I believe the parallels between Saul's mistreatment of the Gibeonites and our own government's mistreatment of the Indians, especially under Andrew Jackson, have strong parallels. Now, what is so encouraging about the situation is that the Gibeonites do not appear to be bitter or mercenary in their reply. And the first evidence is obviously an argument from silence. It's not entirely solid, but many commentators have pointed out that it's remarkable that this is the first time that this has come up, that they have not complained about this treatment previous to this. They were leaving this in the hands of God to rectify the problem. But consider the explicit evidence in verse four. 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. So he said, whatever you say, I will do for you. They're not seeking liberty from their position as temple servants. They're quite willing to fulfill their side of the bargain made 400 years before, nor are they looking for money, nor are they looking for vengeance against any other person in Israel other than the people who are explicitly involved in this criminal activity. to try to make other people pay would be sort of like, you know, the American population having to pay for crimes and theft that they did not commit or that their ancestors did not commit. And the Gibeonites wanted no part in anything like that. Their goal was for the guilty alone to pay. And this is such a refreshing contrast with modern socialistic attempts at restitution for wrongs done to minorities. Modern white guilt has made matters worse for Indians by keeping them indefinitely on a welfare dole. And Rushdini, I think, does an outstanding job of demonstrating that. The reservation system actually robbed the Indians of whatever vestiges of self-respect and initiative that they may have had. Rushdini quoted one Indian who understood how, and by the way, he was a missionary to the Indian reservations and knew them very, very well, and they loved and respected him. But he quoted this Indian who was saying, yeah, the reservation system has destroyed the Indian population. It's robbed us of initiative. It's just been a very bad thing. But he said, you guys are having the same thing happening to you. The Indian said, I've been across the country two or three times now in the last few years, and I've learned something. The white man isn't much better. He has a reservation fever now. He wants someone to put a fence around the whole North American continent and take care of him. He wants the government to give him a handout and to look after him just like Uncle Sam looks after us. And he's going to get it. If some outfit doesn't come in and do it for him, some foreign country, and turn the whole of the United States into a reservation, he'll do it to himself. You wait and see, because he's got reservation fever. And Rush Dooney said, you know what, he is absolutely right. But the Gibeonites refused to have reservation fever. Modern liberal attempts to right wrongs that were done to slaves 150 years ago and more is to saddle people who had nothing whatsoever to do with bad conduct with Welfare expenditures, unfair treatment via affirmative action and quotas, apologies by white people who had zero role in slavery or its abuses. It's ridiculous. That is not biblical justice and the Gibeonites only wanted what the law of God allowed. The law did not allow for compensation in capital offenses, did not allow for it. Okay, Numbers 35, 31 through 32 is quite clear that there can be no money ransom paid for murder. It just can't do it. Nor did the law allow for people who were not guilty of the crime to be punished by the crime. There was only one answer that they could give to David's question if the Gibeonites wanted to follow God's law, and that was to ask for capital punishment for those who were involved in the murder. As the New American Commentary states, compensation was not to come in the form of money or land, but in a manner prescribed by the Torah. In cases involving the unsanctioned taking of human life, the Torah called for retribution in kind. Compare Exodus 21-23, Leviticus 24-21, Deuteronomy 19-21, even though the case might involve aliens, Leviticus 24 verse 22. So this passage stands as a rebuke, not just to the federal government and to the states for their mistreatment of the Indians, it stands as a rebuke to minorities within our nation who have allowed bitterness and abuses that have happened in the past to justify them becoming socialistic parasites. This passage cuts two ways. It speaks against self-pity, against envy on the one hand, and against greed and covenant breaking on the other. It calls upon all of us to look to the law of God for our answers. The next evidence that the Gibeonites lack bitterness or a mercenary spirit can be seen in verses 5 through 6. Then they answered the king, as for the man who consumed us and plotted against us, that we should be destroyed from remaining in any of the territories of Israel, let seven men of his descendants be delivered to us and we will hang them before the Lord in Gibeah of Saul, whom the Lord chose. And the king said, I will give them." Now in view of the fact that they had been subjected to genocidal holocaust, this is a very moderate request. Surely there were other soldiers who had been involved in this massacre. Okay, but they appear to only ask for Saul's descendants that had been involved in the slaughter to be executed. They wanted the leaders hung just as Moses had stipulated that the leaders be hung in Numbers 25. Now in that Baal Peor incident, Moses left the rest of the guilty parties for God's justice to fare it out. But the leaders were clearly implicated, so he definitely had them all receive the capital punishment of hanging. And to me, both of those passages show that God holds military and political leaders far more accountable than He does those who are further down the chain of command. But actually, all of those who are involved in Numbers 25 suffered in some way. 23,000 others. Now God himself did the judgment of the 23,000 others. But why did the Gibeonites come up with the number seven? Was that arbitrary? Some people say, wow, it's a perfect number. You know, it's just symbolic. I don't think it was arbitrary. And the first hint it was not arbitrary is the reference to Saul being from Gibeon. Gibeon was one of the Gibeonite cities. It was where Saul and his household resided. And because of the close relationship between the Gibeonites and the Levites, and because they had been living around Saul and his whole family all through the years, I think they knew which one of Saul's ancestors were involved in these crimes. Perhaps they'd already been involved in having their own war crimes investigation. But anyway, they come up with the number seven. The second hint that the number seven was not arbitrary is that David agreed to it. And commentators point out that David would not have approved of the execution of the innocent because his whole goal was to remove God's wrath, not to extend it. He knew that if there was now going to be There were innocent people being killed here. Now we're going to kill some other innocent people to make up for those innocents. That's not going to remove God's wrath. His whole purpose was removing God's wrath. And so it is likely that at least seven of Saul's descendants had in some way been involved. I actually believe it was more, but they had already died of the other guilty parties in 1 Samuel 31. But verse 7 is introduced to this thematic story to theologically show that it's not proper to break one covenant in order to honor another covenant. 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. Now when David is determining which descendants of Saul would be executed and which ones would not, Mephibosheth was one of the ones that was spared. Now you might think, okay, because it uses the term spared, The Gibeonites wanted to kill Mephibosheth, and he's saying, well, no, you can't do that. He's going to spare him. I don't think you need to read it that way. Depending on whether the Holocaust was 16 years ago or 22 years ago, Mephibosheth would have been either a child or unborn. There is no way he could have been involved in that Holocaust. And besides, he was a cripple. So why does the text say that David spared him? Well I think it was a thematic contrast with King Saul. Unlike King Saul, who did not keep the covenant made with the Gibeonites, David kept his covenant with Mephibosheth. Unlike King Saul, who spared the Amalekites whom God had commanded Him not to spare, and who did not spare the Gibeonites whom God had commanded Israel to spare, David did not spare criminals. but he did spare Mephibosheth. In other words, though Mephibosheth's life was never in danger, the writer is setting up a deliberate contrast with Saul. Saul's sparing of the Amalekites cost him the kingship. Saul's failure to spare the Gibeonites cost Israel many lives. In contrast, David's sparing and not sparing followed God's justice perfectly. So hopefully that helps you to understand why verse 7 is worded the way it is. It's highlighting the fact that David is a guy who believed in keeping covenants and who followed God's law. Now in verse 8, David carefully picks which seven descendants would be executed. It says, So the king took Armoni and Mephibosheth. And by the way, that's a different Mephibosheth. He'd be the uncle to the Mephibosheth who was spared. So the king took Armoni and Mephibosheth, the two sons of Rizpah, the daughter of Ayah, whom she bore to Saul, and the five sons of Michal, the daughter of Saul, whom she brought up for Adriel, the son of Barzillai, the Meholaphite. Now liberals love to say this is a contradiction because earlier Michal said to have no children until the day that she died, and yet here she's got five sons. So there's obviously a contradiction in the Bible. All you need to do is just keep reading. Because it says she brought them up for Adriel, whom 1 Samuel 18 says was married to her sister Merob. So these were her nephews. Ancient Jewish commentaries called Targums say that this was, quote, the five sons of Merob whom Michal reared. Her sister and her brother-in-law obviously died and Michal raised these five sons for them. But in some way, these five sons must have proved to be guilty of being involved in the Holocaust along with their dad, Adriel. And from what we know of Adriel, that's not surprising. Finally in verse 9 we see that David handed the guilty parties over to the Gibeonites to be executed. It would be sort of like handing over Andrew Jackson and Chivington and some of the other scoundrels who had killed off these men, women and children in cold-blooded murder. handing them over to the leaders of some of these tribal units that had been almost decimated and saying you can execute capital punishment upon these people. But instead what happened in America is these guys were given medals, sometimes more medals than in some of the incredible wars that people have been involved in. They were honored for butchering women and children. Verse 9 says, And He delivered them into the hands of the Gibeonites, and they hanged them on the hill before the Lord. So they fell, all seven together, and were put to death in the days of harvest, in the first days, in the beginning of the barley harvest." Five quick things that this verse shows. First, this was not a secret execution. It was a public execution. The Bible speaks against all secret executions, you know, that are done behind closed doors. All executions were supposed to be done publicly, and what it did is it tended to discourage injustice. by the government, but it also tended to be a deterrent to crime. This was a public statement that even government officials are not above the law and cannot escape from the justice of God in David's nation. Even David's nephews, those five people were his nephews, could not escape from God's justice. Now it's not always true because David wanted Joab executed and he simply did not have the power to do so. In fact, he says that they're too powerful for him in one passage. But he did talk to Solomon and say, you know, what I was not able to do, maybe you can figure out how to do. He wanted justice done to Joab. But in any case, this was a public statement that even public officials are not above the law. Second, it was said to be before the Lord. So this is a Godward motivation to turn away God's fierce anger. The other time that this phrase occurs is in Numbers 25, verse 4, with the leaders who were involved in the fornication with the Midianite fertility cult women. were hung before the Lord to take away God's fierce anger. Until executions follow God's law and are done for His glory, we will not see success in deterring crimes. Criminals are voted into office with impunity. We must once again have a God-focused criminal system. Now the means of execution was hanging. in my view, most people's view that's impossible, that Israelites never hung anybody. Some people say that Numbers 25 and Deuteronomy 21 is only talking about ritual exposure of bodies after they have been killed. But I think the text here, especially in the Hebrew, is very, very clear. The word, so they fell, so they fell, is describing the hanging. OK, so they're clearly up on some platform or stools, something elevated. They all fall into a hanging position. OK, the hanging does not occur after they are dead. The Hebrew text indicates that the consequence of their hanging or falling at the same time is they were put to death. So death comes after hanging and the hanging is described as falling together. So I think it perfectly describes a gallows kind of an execution where a platform is kicked out from under their feet. But whether you agree with that or not, everyone seems to agree that this very deliberately parallels the hanging of the government leaders in Numbers chapter 25, verse 4, to remove God's fierce wrath and the statement in Deuteronomy 21, 22 through 23, where the hanging was a declaration that these people were cursed before the Lord. In other words, even though there were other forms of execution allowed, this form of execution, or if you prefer, this form of displaying the bodies after execution, was considered to be a curse. It was the worst way to be executed. And again, it highlights how seriously God takes breaking covenants. It is far more serious than we tend to make it. And it's interesting that Paul quotes Deuteronomy 21 passage to show that Jesus became a curse for us by hanging on a tree. And the connection to this passage shows that the gospel of Jesus relates to nations. OK, removing the blood guilt of nations. There is hope for America if we will plead the execution of Jesus. They also waited to do this until the time of the barley harvest so that it can symbolically connect the crimes of these men with the famine. They saw sin and judgment as connected. And I think it's imperative we start seeing sins in our nation connected to the judgments as well. Now the only part of this whole mess that may have violated the law of God was allowing the bodies to remain exposed for so long after they were dead. But there is a lot of debate on that. Some commentators think that Numbers 25 justifies this in the case of people who were to be treated as cursed. Others say, no, Deuteronomy 21 verse 23 is quite clear. Even those who were cursed could not hang on a tree after sundown. And a lot of debate, I tend to side with the people who say this very clearly was a violation of the law, the law of God. And one hint for me is the last phrase in verse 14, that it's not until they take the bodies down and they give them a proper decent burial that God starts answering their prayers. And that didn't happen until David was shamed by Rizpah's devotion. And we'll look at her devotion in a couple of weeks. But I didn't wanna get into the whole controversy of whether this was lawful or not. But in any case let me end with seven brief additional applications. First application is that we need to get used to seeing God's hand of discipline in our lives as individuals and families and as nations. We should not treat our troubles as meaningless random events. Now it is true The book of Job demonstrates that not all disaster that comes into our lives is a result of sin. But many, if not most disasters in the Bible appear to be. So while we can't say that everyone who suffers a disaster is committed to sin, we can say the reverse. I think we can say that flagrant sin does result in disaster. But I think at a minimum, we need to at least ask the Lord, Lord, am I facing these troubles because of sin in my life? or sin in our family or sin in the nation as a whole. I think it's at least worth asking. The second application is that we should realize that God treats promise keeping extremely seriously and whether those promises are made by individuals or nations. It's one of the reasons why I just do not like us getting involved in all of these treaties with the United Nations. Now, once we've made a treaty, if keeping the treaty actually makes us day by day be in violation of God's law, then we must repent of the treaty. We must break it. But if it does not involve us in that ongoing kind of sin, then we don't have much choice. We're stuck. We are obliged to keep the treaty, even if the treaty was foolish. Psalm 15 verse 4 speaks of those whom God honors and one of the descriptors is, he who swears to his own hurt and does not change. Ecclesiastes 5 verse 5, better not to vow than to vow and not pay. And I think Christians of all people should be those who are known to be, their word is as good as gold. Are you a promise keeper? I think this passage admonishes us to be promise keepers. You know, George Washington, he was very opposed to that treaty that they had entered into prior. But anyway, he said, it's made, we have to honor it. He was a man who believed we needed to be good to our word. The third application is that the passage of time does not lessen responsibility or lessen guilt. Just because 400 years had gone by did not mean that Saul could get away with breaking that treaty with the Gibeonites. And just because 16 to 22 years have passed since Saul's sin does not mean that God is not going to discipline Israel. It doesn't matter how long ago a sin may have occurred. We should seek to remedy the fall. Fourth, this passage shows that God was giving time for repentance, but when repentance is not forthcoming, he has to bring out the paddle, right? Don't ever interpret God's slowness to deal with sin as evidence that he doesn't care about sin. Don't confuse patience with indifference. Revelation 2 verse 22 says, I gave her time to repent of her sexual immorality and she did not repent. And it goes on to talk about the severe discipline he was going to bring that woman's life in Thyatira because she was presuming upon God's patience. But he said, I gave her time to repent. Slowness of judgment is time for repentance, not evidence of indifference. The fifth application is that capital punishment is critical to cleanse the land of blood guiltiness, and this includes for the murders of millions of babies. Our land is utterly polluted, and it makes it impossible for me to sing God Bless America without at least some metal reservation after she's repented or whatever. How can I ask God to bless when the land is stained with the blood of millions? I want you to turn with me to Numbers chapter 35 Too many Christians in the pro-life movement Ignore this critical verse which calls for capital punishment for abortionists And our own unicameral is right now trying to do with capital punishment completely and in East we just can't allow that anyway numbers 35 Let's begin reading at verse 30 Whoever kills a person, the murderer shall be put to death on the testimony of witnesses, but one witness is not sufficient testimony against a person for the death penalty. Moreover, you shall take no ransom for the life of a murderer who is guilty of death, but he shall surely be put to death. 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. So you shall not pollute the land where you are for blood defiles the land and no atonement can be made for the land for the blood that is shed on it except by the blood of him who shed it. Therefore do not defile the land which you inhabit in the midst of which I dwell for I the Lord dwell among the children of Israel. This is the chief verse that makes me worry that America cannot avert judgment The land cannot be cleansed without the shedding of the blood of its murderers. And Deuteronomy 21, 1 through 9 says that when this cannot be achieved, there is one out. That's why I'm not totally depressed over this. But there is one out, and that is where they take a bull They break its neck, they wash their hands over it, and they say, we don't know who murdered this person. There's confession of the sins by the leaders of the nation, but it's all symbolic of Christ's atonement for the sins of the nation. We need the blood of Christ to cover our nation's sins. And when the nation's leaders do not take that role seriously, God brings his own judgments to cleanse the land. He does it through war, disease, famine, and other forms of death. Could the enormous loss of American life since 1775 be in some way God's execution of vengeance? Possibly. America's been involved in 120 wars since 1775 at enormous loss of life. It's at least worth thinking about. The last application is that we can praise God for his covenant grace and that he's a covenant keeper. Like Gibeon, We all deserve to die. We deserve the harem, utter destruction warfare that was a type, it was a picture of hellfire in the future. We all deserve to go to hell. Not one of us could have complained if we went to hell. We'd have no right to complain, but praise God, he not only saved us, but he promises to keep us for all of eternity. Praise God, he not only saved us, but he's promised to be a God to us and to our children after us, to a thousand generations of those who love him. And I find it remarkable that the Gibeonites had a history of faithfulness to God for 400 years up to this point, and for another 470 years up to the time of Nehemiah. That's 870 years of covenant succession and we don't know that it stopped then, we just don't have any history after the time of Nehemiah. But they're a remarkable example of people whose lives were turned upside down so thoroughly that they put the shame, many of the Israelites. And we can pray that we would have many generations of covenant faithfulness in our descendants. So be encouraged on the one hand, be challenged on the other. to covenant faithfulness. Amen. Father, we thank you for this passage. And there's so much in it that we fail on. But we pray for the covering of the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. We pray for your mercies to flow upon our nation in granting repentance and granting leaders like David who would be willing to make the restitution that needs to be made. Who would confess the sins of our nation so that your wrath could be turned away? We ask for your gospel to flow This is a nation that Satan stole from the Lord Jesus Christ from Christendom and we pray for restitution that you on behalf of your son would Give justice and that you would give back this nation to your son and give it back sevenfold. I We pray this in the strong name of Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior. Amen.