II SAMUEL 21 Lesson # 23
NO MAN IS AN ISLAND
I. Introduction:
Note: We are going to deal with the concept of the “sins of the fathers” today. We are going to look at how our lives can be helped or aided by the actions of those who went before us.
Q Is a child’s life heavily influenced by the actions of their parents?
An = Let them answer the question as they see it.
Q Does a child’s economic upbringing get influenced by the parent’s or grandparent’s financial decisions?
An = Obviously the child who is raised in a home with better financial resources is reaping the benefits of their parents or grandparents financial status. However, that does not necessarily predestine the child to riches.
Q Does a child’s moral development get influenced by the parent’s moral and spiritual decisions?
An = Again, the child with good moral and spiritual upbringing from their parents has a better chance to develop in a positive moral or spiritual manner. However, again there are great exceptions to this general rule. Good parents have had children that turned their backs on their parent’s faith and morals and kids from terrible homes have developed into wonderful people.
Note: One thing is clear. Though not absolutely determinative, our parent’s and grandparent’s choices do affect our lives. They can affect our town, our city, our nation, our culture. We do not live in a vacuum. We affect others and others affect us!
Q Does it bother you that this is the way life is?
An = It can really bother us if we choose to see it that way. Or we can see just how important our choices are for our nation, our city, our family, our children and our grandchildren. It makes what we do doubly important. We cannot control other’s lives, but we can influence them by our choices.
II. The Gibeonite Episode: Reaping the Result of Other’s Mistakes. II Samuel 21:1-14.
A. The Problem: Saul’s Injustice and Violation of a Covenant. II Samuel 21:1-2
>>>> Have someone read II Samuel 21:1-2.
Q Why was there a three year famine?
An = It appears to have been because of Saul’s bloody treatment of a group of people called the Gibeonites.
Q Who were the Gibeonites?
An = Our text tells us that they were a group of “non-Israelite” people, Amorites, who had a treaty or covenant with Israel. It also appears that Saul had violated the covenant.
Q What was the treaty or covenant and how did it come about between the Israelites and the Gibeonites?
An = See if someone can tell the story or knows a lot of the story from Joshua 9. If no one knows the story then you tell it. After someone tells the story ….
>>>> Have someone read Joshua 9:18-21.
Note: The Gibeonites had lived among the Israelites as blue collar workers and servants. They were protected by a covenant sworn to them “on oath by the Lord the God of Israel”.
Q Why did Saul, hundreds of years later, after the two people’s had successfully lived together, now start trying to kill them?
An = The Bible says it was because of his zeal for Israel and Judah. It was his nationalist fervor!
Q Was Saul spiritually right with the Lord?
An = He appeared to be. He was highly religious but inwardly disobedient. He always was religious, actually quite superstitious, but wound up killing 80 priests of the Lord and Saul attempted to murder David countless times.
Note: Those who are “superficially religious” are often the most nationalistic and brutal towards the rights of minorities.
Note: Notice those who wave the flag and violate others in the process. If it is not apparent, underneath they are probably Sauls.
Note: Minority rights are sacred before God and no nationalistic fervor justifies kicking around the underdog.
Q Is it fair that Israel is now affected with a famine because of Saul’s past brutality?
An = Saul was the king, and they benefitted from his correct decisions and therefore it is not unreasonable that they suffer from his bad decisions. Matthew Henry, p. 356, reminds us that “time does not wear out the guilt of sin” nor can we build hopes of freedom from consequences just because the judgments are delayed. God has withheld blessing because of injustice.
B. Seeking Justice: David and the Gibeonites Dialogue. II Samuel 21:3-6.
Q If you are the leader and you find out that your predecessor had harmed and brutalized a group before you took power, what do you do?
>>>> Have someone read II Samuel 21:3-6.
Q What is the first thing David does?
An = He calls the offended party in and asks them what they think is fair. He knows the future blessing of the Israelites is dependent on how a group of non-Israelites were handled.
Q How would this apply to today?
An = If we mistreat non-believers will this affect the Lord’s blessing of His church people? If we mistreat any group within our church will this not affect the greater whole, even if we are the majority and the correct group, if we broke our word to do it? What about our treatment of racial minorities within the church?
Q Did the Gibeonites want monetary reparations?
An = No, they did not. They did not want to be free of their obligations to work for the Israelites. They did not want gold or silver from Saul’s estate. They wanted justice! They indicated that their social position made it impossible to acquire true justice. Saul had murdered many of them and they were not allowed to ask for blood vengeance.
God, however, was now speaking up for them in the form of a famine.
>>>> Have someone read Numbers 35:30-34.
Note: Israel was now defiled and without justice taking place the land would remain under a curse.
Q Could David relate to the treatment these Gibeonites had received at the hand of Saul?
An = Yes, he could. He too had almost been murdered numerous times and Saul had tried to exterminate David from within the borders of Israel. They had experienced the same treatment at the hands of Saul.
Q What did the Gibeonites want to satisfy the death of their own people?
An = They wanted seven of Saul’s sons to be turned over to them and to be executed. Saul, who did so much to others to aggrandize his own position and that of his household’s future had brought disaster on his household.
Note: When we take over a leadership position the past injustices must be dealt with for their to be a positive future with the Lord. Even if we did not cause any of the injustice we are responsible to see that justice is served.
C. Justice Served: The Death of Seven Sons. II Samuel 21:7-14.
>>>> Have someone read II Samuel 21:7-9.
Q Why did David not allow any of Jonathan’s children to be executed by the Gibeonites?
An = The satisfying of the breaking of one oath does not justice the breaking of another one. David does not break a promise in order to keep one.
Q How were these seven men executed?
An = The Hebrew verb is a rare one, and it is hard to determine, but it involved some form of hanging the bodies after they were dead.
>>>> Have someone read Deuteronomy 21:22-23.
Note: They were hung up on a hill.
Note: The story does not end here though. It is not a matter of simple justice. It seldom is. Powerful men do horrible deeds, and they hurt others including their own family.
>>>> Have someone read II Samuel 21:10.
Q How does the mother of two of the men executed respond?
An = She camps out with sackcloth and keeps the birds of the air and the beasts of the field from desecrating the bodies of her sons until the rain falls. The falling of the rain, no doubt symbolized the breaking of the drought, which had probably brought on the famine. She watched over her sons until the Lord restored His blessing.
Q Do you know people like Rizpah?
An = We cannot control what others do to our families sometimes, but we can choose to never stop serving, never stop working to show respect, even if it is to the dead bodies of our precious loved ones.
>>>> Have someone read II Samuel 21:11-14.
Q How does David respond to Rizpah’s actions?
An = He went to honor Saul, Jonathan, and these hanged men and had them all honorably buried. David obeyed the dictates of justice, but he showed pity and honor to the accursed “hanged ones”.
We need not show disrespect, even to the judged.
Note: When David obeyed and brought justice and honor, even to the judged ones, then the Lord ended the famine.
Q What injustice is there that remains in our midst (that we can correct) that stops the Lord from blessing us?
III. Battling The Giant’s Family: Dealing with the Other’s Goodness. II Samuel 21:15-22.
Note: We have seen how David had to deal with the mistakes of others. However, negative results are not the only thing we deal with from the actions and choices of others.
Note: The NIV has chosen to translate the term “raphaim” as “Rapha” but traditionally the raphaim have been understood to be giants or the “sons of Anak”. A group of extraordinary large people who Joshua encountered when he spied out the land (Genesis 15:20 and Joshua 17:15) and seemed to have produced Goliath and the men mentioned here.
>>>> Have someone read II Samuel 21:15-17.
Q How did David become vulnerable to the giant Ishbi-Benob?
An = He became exhausted. This may indicate that David was getting older and not able to compete in the manner he used to with the troops.
Q Who saved David’s life?
An = It was Abishai, Joab’s brother. The same one David has on numerous occasions complained of. He was quite a hard man, but God used such a man as Abishai to save David’s life. God seems to have a sense of humor, and He will often do such things.
Q Have you experienced the grace of God through likes of a man like Abishai?
Q What did the men of Israel demand of David after this “near miss” with Ishbi-Benob?
An = David’s men refused to let him go into battle again.
Q What reason did they give for their demand to retire David from the battlefield?
An = He was the “lamp of Israel”. They wanted him alive. This says a lot for David and the attitude the men had towards him. It echoes the statement of his men in II Samuel 18:3. David was loved by his men.
>>>> Have someone read II Samuel 21:18-22.
Q How many more times did David’s men win battles against the descendants of Rapha or the giants?
An = Three more episodes are mentioned here.
Note: This is a familiar biblical theme. There are no “lone rangers in Jesus”. We do not succeed without the help of others in our spiritual walk and we do not succeed in fighting for our Lord without the help of others.
We and Israel often reap the benefits of other’s labors. We need one another, even the fierce types like Abishai, if we are to make it.
It is only our foolish pride that thinks we can make it alone.