During David's reign there was a famine for three successive years, so David inquired of the LORD. The LORD answered, "It is because of the blood shed by Saul and his family when he killed the Gibeonites." The Gibeonites were not Israelites but rather a remnant of the Amorites. The Israelites had taken an oath concerning them, but Saul had tried to kill them in his zeal for the Israelites and Judah.2 Samuel 21:1-2 (HCSB)
There's a lot more to this passage, but it's too much for a single blog post. So I'm just going to look at the first two verses.
First off, I want to comment about the location of this passage within the Bible. The previous chapters give a seemingly chronological (and rollercoaster-like) account of David's reign in Israel. This passage, however, doesn't necessarily procede these events; it appears to recount an incident that occured "during David's reign." My guess is that this happened shortly after he was formally recognized as King by all of Israel, following Ishboseth's death. Otherwise, it would be odd to experience a famine for something that had happened over 30 years ago.
Chronology aside, here are some interesting things to take away from this:
- The famine was a caused because of wrongdoing by the deposed King of Israel.
- The wrong committed was the violation an oath that Joshua had made with the Gibeonites.
- The oath was made under false pretenses. Joshua didn't realize the Gibeonites were living in the land they were taking control of.
- Joshua and the leaders of Israel made the oath without consulting God.
- Had not Joshua made the oath, the Gibeonites would have been destroyed by Israel during their conquest of the promised land.
- Saul lost his Kingdom because he did not kill all of the Amalekites as God had instructed him to.
- Saul had killed the Gibeonites out of zealousness for his country.
- The famine was not stayed by Saul's death nor by David's righteousness.
To me, this is a classic example of Matthew 18:18, "I tell you the truth, whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven." Here you have a people group destined for destruction that were instead sworn to safety by human intervention, resulting in a heavenly change in destiny. This is evident because God now punished Israel for killing the Gibeonites, whereas before the oath, God was moreso endorsing getting rid of the Gibeonites. What had been bound on earth was bound in heaven. (For another example, read the account of 1 Kings 20 when King Ahab spared the life of Ben-hadad, king of Aram.)
Also, this is a sobering example of the power of oaths. First, the oath was made well over a hundred years earlier by men long dead. Secondly, the oath came about by means of deception--had not the Gibeonites lied, then most likely Joshua would never had made the oath. Thirdly, the oath effectively reversed the original decree of God, that Israel force out the inhabitants of the promised land. Nowadays, I wouldn't be surprised that in lieu of this evidence that a judge might declare that the oath is not binding. But God definitely considers it binding.
