God of Justice

It has always surprised me that many people struggle with the Old Testament. Sure, some of the books contain long lists of names and numbers and seem about as exciting to read as the telephone book (remember those?). And some of the stories can, I admit, seem a bit odd, confusing and often blood-thirsty, but when we put in the effort to understand them, we discover something more precious than gold.

Take 2 Samuel 21, for example. Here’s how it begins:

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.”

Seven of Saul’s male descendants (two sons and five grandsons) were duly put to death and, once they were buried (which is a story in itself), the rains returned.

What is that all about?

For the back story we have to go all the way back to Joshua 9. Their 40 years of wandering in the wilderness finally over, the people of Israel were beginning the task of conquering the promised land. They had marched around Jericho and its walls had fallen. They had conquered Ai, and word was spreading.

Some of the people groups in the land decided to band together and go out to fight Israel, but not the Gibeonites. They were smarter than that. They had heard reports of God’s power, and even knew what he had done in Egypt 40 years earlier (Joshua 9:9). They knew that no army would be able to defeat the Lord, so they chose to con their way to safety.

They went to Joshua, dressed in tattered clothes, carrying dry, mouldy bread and pretended they had travelled from a far country. They asked him to make a covenant with them that he would let them live. Joshua and his advisers, forgetting to check with God first, agreed and promised not to kill them.

Even when they realised they had been tricked, they kept their end of the bargain, having sworn it by the Lord. The Gibeonites were allowed to live in the land, though they were treated as conscripted labour for the tabernacle (Joshua 9:22-23).

Back to 2 Samuel. Saul is dead and David is king, but there is a famine. God tells him that the famine is because Saul broke the covenant with the Gibeonites and killed some of them. This incident isn’t recorded in scripture, so we don’t know the circumstances, but the facts remain – Saul broke the covenant, and even though it was made under false pretences, God’s righteousness could not let it go unpunished.

The Gibeonites come up with a very fair solution – Saul tried to wipe them out, so they want a symbolically similar retribution. Seven is symbolic of completeness in the Bible, so the request for seven of Saul’s bloodline to die is symbolic of the complete annihilation of their people that Saul had sought.

But here’s the gold: it doesn’t appear that the Gibeonites were seeking revenge. It wasn’t them who brought it up. God caused the famine. God told David why he had sent it. God wanted to give the people of Gibeon justice.

We learn in Joshua 10 that “Gibeon was a great city…and all its men were warriors” (Joshua 10:2). They could have fought for themselves. Even if they were afraid of Saul, they could have sought vengeance after his death. But although we don’t hear of them worshipping the Lord, they seem to have had a very clear understanding of who he was and his power. They knew they were powerless before him – that’s why they made the treaty in the first place – and it seems they trusted him enough to leave the situation in his hands.

And they were right to do so. The God of justice enacted justice for them.

What an awesome God we serve.

Isn’t that thrilling? This strange little story, when we take the time to understand it, reveals a glorious truth about our wonderful God. He is a righteous and just God who will not let injustices go unpunished. What a comfort as we watch the news and see justice being withheld and evaded. God sees. God knows, and at the right time he will make all things right, by his great power.

*Opinions expressed in guest posts are those of the author, and do not represent any official position held by Jubilee+.*