Well, good evening.
Let's start with reading our passage.
If you'd open your Bibles, if you're looking in the Pew Bible, it's on page 273.
We were looking at 2 Samuel, chapter 21, the first part of that chapter.
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 blood guilt on Saul and on his house, because he put the Gibeonites to death.
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.
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?
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?
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,
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.
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.
The king took the two sons of Rizpah, the daughter of Ai,
whom she bore to Saul,
Armani and Mephibosheth,
and the five sons of Merib, the daughter of Saul,
whom she bore to Adriel,
the son of Barzillai, the Mehalothite.
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 Bar the harvest.
Then Rizpah, the daughter of Ai,
took sackcloth and spread it for herself on the rock,
from the beginning of the harvest,
until rain fell upon them from the heavens,
and she did not allow the birds of the air to come upon them by day,
or the beasts of the field by night.
When David was told what Rizpah, the daughter of Ai,
the concubine of Saul, had done,
David went and took the bones of Saul
and the bones of his son Jonathan
from the men of Jabeth Gilead,
who had stolen them from the public square of Bethshon,
where the Philistines had hanged them
on the day the Philistines killed Saul on Gilboa.
And he brought up from there the bones of Saul
and the bones of his son Jonathan,
and they gathered the bones of those who were hanged,
and they buried the bones of Saul and his son Jonathan
in the land of Benjamin and Zila,
in the tomb of Kish, his father.
And they did all that,
and they did all that the king commanded.
And after that,
God responded to the plea for the land.
Well, that's quite a passage.
In our morning services,
we've been preaching through the book of 1 Corinthians,
and Pastor Matt this morning opened his sermons
basically by saying,
we didn't plan this,
but in God's providence,
here we come to a passage in 1 Corinthians 7
that's all about sex on Valentine's Day.
Well, we didn't plan this,
but here in God's providence,
we've been preaching through the book of Samuel
for a long time in this service,
and we get to a passage that's all about
the St. Valentine's Day massacre.
I am thrilled that this congregation
has been going through Samuel
because it's one of my favorite books,
a book that I have learned an awful lot from.
I was not involved in the conversations
when the pastors and elders chose what to preach,
but I can pretty easily imagine how it went,
knowing everyone involved.
I think Greg was probably the one who said,
we've never preached through Samuel in our church.
Why don't we do that?
And the other pastor was like,
that's a great idea.
I bet we have a lot to learn.
And they were like,
who wants to preach on David and Goliath?
Oh, I do, I do.
And who wants to preach on God's covenant with David
when he tells about Jesus coming?
I do, I do, I do.
And who wants to preach on when Nathan confronts David
and tells him to stop sinning?
Oh, I'll take that.
And who wants to preach on the Gibeonite massacre?
Crickets.
And they were like, hmm,
who's a real chump we could ask to preach on that for us?
Ladies and gentlemen, my name is Rob Dunlop,
and this is my sermon on the Gibeonite massacre.
Now, in the book of Samuel,
and I'm going to keep calling the book of Samuel
because 1 Samuel and 2 Samuel
are really all just one story.
It happens to be that it was a long enough story
that they ran out of paper in the first scroll,
and so they had to use two scrolls,
and that's where you get 1 Samuel and 2 Samuel from.
But it's really just one long story.
In the book of Samuel,
the whole thing has been a chronological account
of what happened in the days
of the life of David and Saul, particularly,
up until the passage
that Greg preached on last week.
And now these last few chapters of Samuel
don't fit into that chronological history.
And so,
that clearly just kind of marks them off somehow.
When my small group went through the book of Samuel
about three years ago,
I got here and I listened to a bunch of passages
that I really respect,
and almost all of them said,
yeah, so, like,
they couldn't figure out what to do with these passages,
so they kind of tacked them on at the end.
And you should think of this as an appendix.
Or, so, this also happened.
That would be a pretty good way of characterizing
the passage we've just read.
But as I was looking at it,
I noticed that,
and this wasn't all my thinking,
I'm not going to take credit,
but the book of Samuel
has three major passages of songs.
One song comes right in the beginning
when Hannah gives thanks
for the birth of her son Samuel
and writes a song of thanks to God.
One song comes right in the middle.
After Saul dies,
David laments over the death of Saul
and his son Jonathan,
which gets alluded to in our passage.
And the third song,
section of songs,
comes, as you'll see in chapter,
I think, 22 and 23,
when David writes a psalm
and the last words of David
are also a song.
And so that struck me as,
well, that seems pretty integral
to the structure of the book,
to have these three songs
so carefully laid out,
this last one coming after,
in the section that everyone else is saying
is just an appendix.
Then I noticed that the appendix,
and I noticed because I read it in the commentary,
is very carefully structured.
You have our story this week,
David cleans up a mess
because of a mistake that Saul made.
Then you have a story about David's mighty men.
And then you have a son.
And then you have a story about David's mighty men.
And then you have a story about how David
cleans up a mess
from a mistake that he made.
And so that parallelism
makes me think that this section
is not just a bunch of,
oh, and this happened too,
and I forgot about it.
But it's actually well-crafted
and an integral part of the book.
So I'm thinking,
what's going on here?
As I was teaching through this
in my small group three years ago,
I said, well,
why don't I go on the hypothesis
that this isn't an appendix,
but it's a proper conclusion to this book?
And by that,
I mean that
you've read through the book
up to this point,
and you've still got real questions
about what does this all mean?
And now the author
is going to take
well-chosen passages,
not because they happened
at the end of David's life,
but because they were the best passages
to make his point,
and answer the biggest questions
that we ought to have as readers,
having gotten to this point.
And what I discovered
is that these six stories,
so before I actually studied
the six stories,
I laid out and said,
what are my biggest questions?
And I discovered
that these six stories
answered them very methodically.
So that became one of the triggers
whereby this story
helped me understand
what the whole book of Samuel is about.
And in fact,
it was one of the biggest
helps for me as a Christian
that I've found in many years.
So I am preaching this passage
not because I want to
bail out our poor pastors
from having to deal
with something really icky,
but because in fact
this is one of my favorite passages,
not because I'm any more comfortable
with what goes on in the story,
but because God used it
to teach me some really important lessons.
I'm hoping that over the course
of the sermon,
I can share some of those lessons
with you and help you
make sense of it.
So, by far,
if you're this far into Samuel,
the biggest question you have
is what really was
the difference between David and Saul?
Very clearly,
God was against Saul
and very clearly,
David was a man
after God's own heart.
But,
why?
What's the real difference
between them?
What's good about David
or bad about Saul
or I don't get it?
That's the question I had.
Before we can even get to
answering that question,
which is the question
I think this passage
is written to help us sort through,
there's a question of
why do I even care
about David and Saul?
So let's start with that one.
And that one,
because I think
much of the book of Samuel
is written
to help us understand
what the difference is
between David and Saul,
you have to ask,
well, why was Samuel written?
Well,
the book of Samuel
was written as a sequel
to the book of Judges.
So it kind of pushes you
back one step.
You have to say,
well, why was Judges written?
Well, the book of Judges
was written as a sequel
to the book of Joshua.
Okay, so why was Joshua written?
It was a sequel
to the book of Deuteronomy.
And before you know it,
in the beginning,
God created the heavens
and the earth.
I think that's the only place
we're going to be able
to start.
You go right back
to creation,
and the piece
out of the creation story
that I want to pick up on
is when he creates
Adam and Eve.
He says,
let us make man
in our image
and let him rule
over the birds of the air
and the beasts of the field
and the fish of the sea
and the things that creep
and crawl along the ground.
What you get from that
is
God made us in his image,
and I understand that to be
God wanted us
to uniquely share
something in common
with him
so that we could have
a relationship with him.
And
the focus of that relationship
was to be on
ruling over creation.
In other words,
God was saying,
I love
watching my
creation flourish.
And I want to share
that joy with someone.
So I'm going to make
mankind
who are able
to rule
over this world
so that they know
something of the joy
of what it is
to see
something under your care
flourish.
And that when God
wants to have
a relationship with us,
that is the primary focus
of what the relationship
should be made of,
is that shared experience
of ruling
and watching creation
flourish.
lest you think
that's just
Genesis 1 idea,
and then God
realized that wasn't
going to work so well
and gave up on it.
Back to our
morning series,
in 1 Corinthians 6,
Paul tells us
that in heaven,
you and I,
if you are a believer
in Jesus,
will be judging
the angels.
So both Old Testament
and New Testament
talk about
ruling
as being a core part
of our eternal destiny.
So,
that's
the starting thought,
is God made us
to relate to him
in,
particularly,
in his character
as a king.
Then you get
most of the Old Testament
up until the book
of Samuel,
and much of what
that is about
is God trying to
teach us
what he is like
and what it would
look like
for us,
as humans,
to live lives
that reflect
his character.
And so that's
particularly what
Deuteronomy is about,
is I basically see
Moses is writing
the first four books
of the Bible
in order to set up
Deuteronomy,
and he gets to
Deuteronomy,
he's like,
okay,
now here's the covenant
that God wants to make
with you.
This is what it looks
like to live
as God's people.
And you get to
the end of Deuteronomy,
and Moses sums it up
pretty tightly.
He's like,
you've heard all the
laws that God wants
you to obey.
You've heard
the root issue
is not,
are you obeying
these laws,
but is your heart
loving the Lord?
And are you obeying
them out of that
motivation?
If you keep
this covenant,
God is going to
bless you beyond
anything you can
imagine.
And it's just
like,
whether you're
inside or
outside,
whether you're
eating or
exercising,
whatever you do,
God's going to
bless you there.
And it just goes
on and on for
about 10 or
20 verses about
how much God
will bless us
if we keep
his covenant.
And then he says,
and if you
disobey this covenant
and break it,
God will curse you.
And that goes on
for a lot longer.
And God says,
so if you
obey him,
he'll bless you
beyond what you
can imagine.
If you disobey him,
he'll curse you
beyond what you
can imagine.
So that's the
book of Deuteronomy.
And as I said,
Joshua is a sequel
to that.
And the point of
Joshua is essentially
the generation that
followed Moses
chose to obey.
And God really did
bless them beyond
anything you can
imagine.
And there are crazy
stories in Joshua.
Like,
hey God,
this is a pretty
good day.
Can you make it
last a little
longer?
And God's like,
what do you want
me to do?
Stop the sun in
the sky?
And they're like,
that'd be a good
idea.
And God's like,
no problem.
That's the sort of
like God blesses
them beyond anything
you can imagine
sort of relationship
they had.
And the end of
Joshua is exhaustive
in showing all
the different ways
that God was
faithful to keep
every promise he
made to them
and bless them
beyond what they
could imagine.
That's a nice
sequel.
Then you get to
Judges.
The book of
Judges is,
put simply,
the people
didn't continue
to keep God's
covenant.
And life got
really bad.
Not so much
because you see
God's curses
in Judges,
but you just see
the depravity of
the human heart
working itself out.
And the people
of Israel just get
worse and worse
and worse.
And the book
of Judges
opens by saying,
there's a little
bit of problem.
They don't have a
leader like Joshua
anymore.
And you get past
chapter one
and the book of
Judges is like,
no, we got a real
problem.
There's not a leader
like Joshua anymore.
And by the time
you get to the end
of Judges,
the refrain that you
hear four times
over is,
they didn't have
a good leader.
And the end
of Judges
is really,
really bad.
And you have
to have that in
mind because that's
where Samuel's
going to pick up
from.
The end of Judges
is essentially
there's a concubine
who gets gain-raped
by an entire city.
They appeal to
justice to the
surrounding towns.
The towns come to
the defense of the
rapists.
So then they
appeal to justice
to the entire
nation.
It starts a civil
war.
The civil war gets
a little out of
hand.
They decide to
pursue a program
of genocide to
kill off that
tribe.
Then they decide
the genocide might
have been a step
too far.
So they're worried
that the tribe
of Benjamin,
which was about
to die out,
there won't be
any woman left
to bear children.
So they decide
to solve that
problem by raping
another 400 women.
You read that
sort of story,
you're like,
these people
deserve to be
cursed.
This is sick
and bad.
And so if you're
coming from the
Deuteronomy picture
of if you obey me
I will bless you,
if you disobey me
I will turn on you,
you expect the
sequel to Judges
to be the story
about how God
curses his people.
You expect this
to be the story
of God's punishment.
punishment.
And you will not
understand the book
of Samuel unless
you start with
the shock of
God's being patient
with these people.
Why is he being so
patient?
Why is God
withholding the
punishment that we
so clearly deserve?
serve?
You can't get very
far into
Samuel without
realizing that
something about
kingship is at
the heart of that
answer.
And as best as I've
been able to guess
at it, God's
thinking right back
to why did I
create these people
in the first place?
And he's thinking,
oh yeah, it's
because I really
wanted them to
share that experience
of what it means
to be good kings,
good rulers.
And here I have,
because these people
prove themselves
so faithless,
so wicked,
I have a unique
opportunity to show
them what my
kingship looks like.
you will never
understand God's
patience more
clearly when you
see it in response
to your stubbornness.
You'll never
understand his
mercy more
clearly than when
you see it in
response to your
depravity.
You'll never
understand God's
faithfulness more
clearly than when
you see it in
response to your
faithlessness.
I think God
looked at the
people and said,
these are stubborn,
depraved, and
faithless people.
What a wonderful
opportunity for me
to show them what
a good king is,
who responds in
patience, in
faithfulness, and in
grace and mercy.
So the book of
Samuel opens with
God is the great
king.
And that was, if you
go back to, if you
remember back in 1
Samuel chapter 5,
there's a story about
how the Israelites
went into battle
against the
Philistines, and
they brought the
ark with them
because they
thought it was a
good luck charm, and
it didn't work out
the way they
expected.
They lost the
battle, the
Philistines stole
the ark.
This is where you
start to see God
is the great king.
Totally independent
of what the people
are doing, they
are clearly somewhere
between wicked and
clueless.
The ark goes into
the land of the
Philistines.
And what are the
problems of Israel
at this point?
You have the obvious
problems that people
are just messed up.
But you have the
surface level problems
of they're slave to
the Philistines,
they're dishonored,
their borders aren't
secure, they're
living in fear.
As the Philistines
take the ark around
to each town,
something terrible
happens.
We're not quite sure,
but it sure seems
like a bubonic plague
came on the
Philistines, something
of that nature.
And essentially, God
single-handedly wipes
out the Philistine
army.
The idols of the
Philistines keep
falling down and
worshipping the ark,
so he reestablishes
the honor of the
Israelite religion.
More than that, he
reestablishes the
honor of the
Israelites, because
the Philistines are
reacting and saying,
if these Israelites
can deal with this
God, they're a whole
different sort of
people than we are.
And they say, we
need to treat the
Israelites with
reverence, if they're
able to have a
relationship with a
God like this, because
this God is too much
for us.
And then they send
the ark back with
a, I'm sorry, no,
and please forgive us
and we'll never do
that again to you,
type offering.
And so God secures
the borders of the
land.
So you see God as
King doing all the
things you expect a
king to do.
All on his own,
he's restoring the
dignity of his
people, he's
restoring the
security of his
people.
And he's helping
the people understand
what it means to
actually worship the
true God.
So, that would be a
nice lesson if it
stopped there.
But the real problem
again is that we as
a people are just so
messed up that we
look at a God like
that and our reaction
is not, I want that
sort of king.
Our reaction is,
get me away from
him.
And that's exactly
what the people of
Israel did.
They said to
Samuel, we want a
human king, not a
God king.
We want a king that
we can see and touch
and maybe manipulate
or bribe.
They didn't actually
say that, but it
becomes pretty clear
that's where they're
headed.
And so you see the
real problem in the
human heart there.
And God, Samuel gets
upset by this.
He's like, why are
they rejecting God?
And God says, let's
give them a king
anyway.
I'll give them Saul.
So, now you have
the stories of Saul,
the bad king, and
David, the good king.
And your first theory
is, it's very early
on that you get told
that David's going to
be a king after God's
own heart.
And so most of the
life of Saul, and all
the life of David
basically, you're
working with this idea
that Saul's a rejected
king, David is an
accepted king, and
you're wondering why.
Your first theory is,
well, Saul's probably
just a bad king, and
David's a good king.
And there's some
evidence for that.
That's not a crazy
theory to have.
Saul is a bad king.
He slaughters all the
priests in the town of
Nob.
In our passage here, he
massacred the
Gibeonites.
He, in his dealings
with David, was
consistently paranoid.
He turned to
sorcery.
He's a complete
hypocrite when he
does that, because
he's the one who had
wiped out sorcery.
He is constantly
bitter about the
fact that God has
rejected him.
He deflects blame all
over the place.
And most of all, he's
just ruthless in his
lust for power.
Over the course of
the book of Samuel,
Saul attempts to
murder David no
less than 16 times.
That's a pretty bad
king.
David, as a good
king, there's some
good story for that
too.
David shows remarkable
courage.
He seems to have
absolutely no fear of
death whatsoever.
He's successful.
He seems like it's a
one man against an
army.
He's no problem for
David.
David listens to the
prophets.
He listens to the
priests in his life.
He's turning to God
the way he ought to.
On the side, over the
course of Samuel, he
pretty much writes the
book of Psalms.
You've got to give him
some credit for that.
most notably, especially
in 1 Samuel, David just
refuses to seize power.
And you see something
remarkable about David's
lack of selfish ambition.
God tells David, you're
going to be king someday,
and David's like, all
right, I'll just wait.
I'm not going to seize
power, overthrow Saul,
kill him, depose him,
any of that.
If God wants me to
be king, I will wait
until God makes me
king.
And so, particularly in
contrast to Saul's
lust for power, you see
a real difference between
David and Saul there.
So, you could get to the
end of 1 Samuel and
think, that's basically
it.
David's a good king,
Saul's a bad king.
But, as you all know
well, 2 Samuel doesn't
play into that story
all that well.
Even before David
becomes king, he starts
doing things that are a
little bit off.
He deceives the priest
at Nob and makes him
take a risk beyond what
they probably would have
taken on their own, such
that they do end up
getting killed by Saul.
He pretends to be insane
when he's among the
Philistines.
It doesn't exactly look
like the picture of
courage.
But then, most notably,
we have Bathsheba
and the adultery.
Uriah, the murder.
Then you have his
daughter Tamar gets
raped.
David doesn't do
anything.
His son Amnon gets
murdered.
David doesn't seem to
care.
His son Absalom
seizes the throne,
starts a civil war,
tries to overthrow
the nation.
And David just
doesn't seem to
be troubled by how
this is ruining the
people God has put
him in charge of.
And so by the time
you get here,
you're looking at
David and thinking,
this is not nearly
the good king that I
thought he was.
This is a king who
seems like content to
let the entire nation
suffer, if only for his
wicked son Absalom,
to survive or be
honored.
It doesn't make sense.
And in fact,
as you get through the
book of Samuel,
particularly as you go
into Cain's, which
you guessed it, is a
sequel to Samuel,
you start getting hints
that Saul wasn't such a
bad king in other ways.
Saul actually instituted
a major religious reform,
getting rid of
sorcery in Israel.
Saul was the first king.
It's a lot of work to
set up a government.
You have to set up a
police department, you
have to set up a court
system, you have to set
up jails, you have to
set up an army, you have
to set up a tax
collection agency, you
have to do this and
that, and it seems like
Saul pretty much did all
that stuff and did it
effectively.
And so the state of
Israel has the hands of
Saul, the pretty talented
civil servant, all over it.
So this idea that David's
just bad and Saul's just
good doesn't quite fit as
like that's the big lesson
from Samuel.
So then I think most
people come up with a
second lesson, a second
theory about what this is
all about.
Theory number two is David
repents of his sin and
Saul never repents.
And there's some good
evidence for that.
There are at least three,
maybe four times in his
life when David is very
directly rebuked for what he
did or what he's about to
do.
Abigail rebukes him when he's
about to murder Abigail's
husband.
Nathan rebukes him after he
does murder Uriah.
Joab, as we saw I think
last week, rebukes David
when, or two weeks ago,
three weeks ago, when David
refuses to welcome home the
troops who had saved him from
Absalom's rebellion.
And in every time that David
was rebuked, he does repent.
That last repentance was a
little iffy, not the best,
but there is repentance there.
So there's something to this
idea that unlike Saul, who
really never repents, David
does respond in repentance.
when convicted of his sin.
So that's a nice theory.
But then you go back to the
rape of Tamar, the murder of
Amnon.
Those are big sins, not that
David committed them, but that
David was totally indifferent to
them and didn't punish the
people that did commit them.
That's a real problem for a
king, to just tolerate rape,
tolerate murder.
And David never repents of
those that we can see.
And so if this is the big idea
of the book of Samuel, it
doesn't quite fit either.
So then a third possible theory.
There's a story of when David was
bringing the ark into Jerusalem
because he wanted to have God
as close to him as possible.
And in the procession where they
were bringing the ark up to
Jerusalem, David danced in front
of it and it seems like he
showed a little bit too much
skin and the servant girls were
going, hee, hee, hee, hee.
And David's wife, Michal, who was
Saul's daughter, rebukes him for it
and says, David, that's not the way
king behaves.
And David responds to her and is
shockingly direct, this is why I am
king and your father is not king,
nor is any son of your father king.
Because I don't try to please people.
I only care about what God thinks of
me.
So if you were to ask David, what's
the real difference between you and
Saul?
That's what David says.
He says, Saul was a people pleaser.
I live to please the Lord.
And I would say, when David's at his
best, that's clearly true.
But David's not always at his best.
And you have all this material in
2 Samuel about Absalom's rebellion and
the rape of Tamar and the murder of
Ammon and so on and so forth, saying
David's not always just trying to
please the Lord.
Sometimes he's just trying to please
himself.
Sometimes he just seems lazy.
So, we get to 2 Samuel 21, or at
least I got here, with 3 half-baked
theories about what this whole book
is trying to teach me about David
versus Saul.
And I want to know the question of
why is David different than Saul?
Because I believe that in one real
sense, God put history on hold to
teach me this lesson so that I would
know what it means when he says, I
want you to have a relationship with
me.
I made you to be a ruler.
I want you to know what it means to
be a ruler.
Look at David.
Look at Saul.
David's a man after my own heart.
Saul is not.
Figure out that difference and you
will be able to have a relationship
with me that's the sort of relationship
I created you to have.
So, I'm interested in knowing this.
I've given three tries of figuring it
out.
None of them quite worked.
And now I get to our passage in 2 Samuel
21, the Gibeonite massacre.
So, let me just retell you the story
quickly to make sure you understand
everything that's going on here.
The Gibeonites are not Israelites.
They are one of the Canaanite people
that God had originally told Joshua to
drive out of the land.
The Gibeonites were more clever than
the rest of the Canaanites and
tricked Joshua into making a treaty
with them that he would not drive
them out of the land and let them
live there.
Saul, while he was king, said,
Treaty Shmidi, I'm more powerful than
you now.
I'm going to take your land back.
And tried to kill them off.
Seems to have killed off many of them,
not all of them.
Years later, after David becomes king,
the Gibeonites pray to God
and say, we need justice because of
this massacre that happened.
And so God sends a famine on the land.
And David prays to God and says,
why did this famine come?
And God reveals to him, it's because
the Gibeonites never got justice.
That much we can all handle.
Now we get to the part that's really
awkward.
David goes to the Gibeonites and says,
what do I have to do to make things
right?
They say, kill seven of Saul's sons.
David's like, okay, I'll do that.
But I'm not going to kill any of
Jonathan's sons because I made a
treaty with Jonathan.
So he kills seven other descendants of
Saul.
The Gibeonites accept it.
God accepts it.
Well, not quite yet.
Then you have this story about Saul's
concubine feels disrespected because
her family was just killed.
And so David says, I'll make you right
too by having the proper state funeral
that Saul should have gotten.
So he has a state funeral for Saul and
Jonathan.
And then God says, okay,
everyone's good.
It sure seems like the seven people
that get killed here didn't get
justice.
I think any modern reader looks at
this story and it's just, that jumps
out.
I don't have great explanations here.
I have some explanations.
I'll share with you the way I think
about this.
Maybe it'll be enough for you.
Maybe you'll want to talk to me after.
That's fine.
The first thing I would note is
the very end of our passage,
verse 14, God says, we've settled
this.
So as much as we might be like,
this doesn't seem right to me,
if you believe that God is just,
then you have to take his ruling for what it is.
God says somehow this made things right.
Second thing I would note,
in the setup of the kingdom of that time,
it is highly implausible that sons and
grandsons of Saul would not have been
high-ranking officials in his administration,
and therefore at some level complicit in
various things that Saul did wrong,
and there were many things that Saul did wrong.
So it is not at all implausible that these
seven people actually did deserve to die.
So that moved me from,
I see people, innocent people getting killed,
to I just don't see due process of the law being followed.
Where is the trial by jury,
and all those things that we have come to associate with,
this is what it takes for laws to be applied impartially.
At that point I have to say,
yep, when I'm studying literature
from a culture that lived on the other side of the world
3,000 years ago,
there are probably going to be some questions that I ask
that weren't burning questions for the author,
and some questions that the author asked
that aren't burning questions for me.
So, while I'm troubled by the lack of due process here,
that's just not something this author
seemed to be concerned about.
That doesn't mean it was right or wrong,
that's just what you're dealing with
when you're trying to deal with
3,000 years and half a world away.
So I come to this saying,
my questions about how due process
do trouble me, they're not answered here,
can I set that aside
and learn the lessons that do seem to concern the author
to make sure I at least get that from this text.
So that's how I'm approaching it.
I'm saying, yeah,
I don't see the due process,
that seems like a big deal to me.
That's not the thing that was on the author of Samuel's mind,
let's try and learn the lessons
that were on that author's mind.
The thing that strikes me
about what David does here
is,
in the contrast I see,
Saul basically says,
I have power,
I'm responsible for advancing Israel's interests,
I have an opportunity to do that
by using my power,
I'm going to do that.
I have power,
I've got a big army,
I have interests,
I want more land,
I have an opportunity,
the Gibeonites are weak,
so I'm going to kill them off
and take their land.
That is a very human way
of dealing with power.
That's why we say
the power corrupts.
Contrast that to what David is doing here.
David says,
I have people,
they're in a family
that they don't deserve,
I have Gibeonites,
they suffered an injustice
they didn't deserve,
I have a covenant with Jonathan,
I owe him things,
I have Saul,
who never got the funeral
that his office said
he should have deserved,
nor did Jonathan get the funeral
that he really did deserve.
How can I use the power
that God has given me
in a way
that does right
by each of those different people?
And it seems,
as I read this passage,
like the narrator's
fairly impressed
that David found a way
to answer the Gibeonites' concerns
without violating his covenant
with Jonathan,
that God accepted
as good enough
to restore
rain to the land,
and
he was able to
honor the family of Saul
such that
it wasn't like
people saw the family
as cursed,
but recognized
that this is all about Saul
and his administration
as opposed to the
broader community
that Saul came from.
And so I look at this
as a story about David
using the power
God gave him
to creatively
be faithful
to everybody
around him.
And that is a lesson
that makes sense
of pretty much
the whole of Samuel.
You go back,
just take 2 Samuel
real quickly,
this idea of
faithfulness
is very much
the major lesson
that explains
almost every passage,
particularly in 2 Samuel.
David wants to be faithful
to God.
He's troubled by the fact
that he has a palace
and God has a tent.
And so he's like,
what does it look like
for me to be faithful
in this situation?
I want to build
God a temple.
God says,
nice try,
I like camping,
but because you have
your heart
in the right spot,
I'm going to make
a covenant with you.
You will have
a dynasty
that endures forever.
David wanted
to be faithful
to Jonathan.
So he said,
let's find out
if there's anyone
left of the descendant
of Jonathan.
He finds Mephibosheth.
He says,
Mephibosheth,
I'm going to give you
all the wealth
that Saul accumulated
as king.
That basically
made Mephibosheth
a real threat
to David's own power.
But he did it
so he could be
faithful to Jonathan.
Then you have
the sad,
and then David,
well,
there are other stories
where David
showed the same
sort of faithfulness
in the battlefield.
Then when David
has problems,
it's always because
he's faithless.
David is faithless
in breaking
his marital vows
and taking Bathsheba.
He's particularly
faithless
in the way
he treats
Uriah,
who's a real
picture of faithfulness
in saying,
I don't want
to abandon
my men on the field.
I'm not going
to do anything
that would dishonor them.
He's faithless
when he puts
his own family
ahead of the rest
of the people
as seen through
the stories of Tamar
and Abnon
and Absalom.
And so you basically
see that David
at his best
has a remarkable
grasp of what
it means to be
faithful to God
and faithful to
other people.
That's why he
doesn't seize power.
Because he's
thinking in terms
of not how
can I advance
my interests,
but
what is consistent
with honoring
all the people
around me
that God has
put in my life.
So I see
that as the
big lesson here.
That if the
theme of Samuel
can be summed up
as power corrupts,
and the question
is,
how can any
king avoid
being corrupted
by that power?
Samuel is pointing
us towards
it's this idea
of being faithful
that's going
to be king.
what does that
mean for me
today?
Why did I say
that this was
a really helpful
lesson for me
to learn?
Essentially,
the way I'm
taking this
is faithfulness
here means
look at the
people around
you,
find a creative
way to honor
each of their
dignities.
faithfulness.
That's what
faithfulness means.
Go through
life saying,
God put this
person in my
path,
what does it
look like for
me to honor
their dignity?
And sometimes
that's going to
take a fair
bit of
creativity
to deal
with every
situation that
way.
That's what I
see David doing
in this passage,
that's what I
think the real
lesson of Samuel
is here.
So,
after I
studied Samuel,
I largely
stopped praying
in terms of,
God, I'm in
this tough spot,
please show me
the right answer
so I don't have
to deal with it.
And many more
of my prayers
became,
God,
please give me
the creativity
to learn how
to honor all
the people around
me in this
situation.
I saw the
goal was not
how do I
solve this
problem and
get out of
the situation,
but how do I
make the tough
decisions that
God makes all
the time as
Cain?
And through
that,
relate to him
in this.
Think deeply
about, here are
all the people
you've put
around me.
What do
each of them
deserve?
What does
each of their
dignities require?
How can I
honor that?
So that
left,
changed me
from thinking
in terms of
solving problems
to I need
to relate to
God in the
position of
making tough
decisions.
things.
The much
bigger way
though, of
course, is
that Samuel is
still just trying
to teach us what
it means for
God to be the
great king.
God to
love.
And I
look at this
question of
how do you
find a creative
way to show
faithfulness to
all the people
around you?
And I want to
emphasize this
last bit about
David throwing
the state
funeral for
Saul.
Saul was
David's enemy.
As I said
before, Saul
tried to kill
David 16
times in this
book.
I don't
have enemies
like that,
thank God.
This is a
story that
teaches us
something about
how you deal
with your
enemies.
And the
Bible is all
about the
question of
how do you
deal with
your enemy?
Because the
essential issue
of the Bible
is that we
are God's
enemies,
and this is
how he's
chosen to
deal with
us.
And he
found the
most creative
way possible
to solve
that problem.
Just like
David doesn't
deal with
Saul according
to the
dignity Saul
actually
deserved as
a vile
tyrant and
attempted
murderer,
an actual
murderer,
but dealt
with Saul
according to
the dignity
he ought to
have had
as a great
king of
Israel.
God's
chosen to
deal with
us not
according to
the dignity
we really
deserve as
depraved
people that
hate his
kingship and
turn from
him,
but according
to the dignity
we could
have if we
were the
people he
made us to
be and
could be
if he
changed our
hearts.
And so
God
creatively
said,
I will die
in your
place,
and thereby
allow myself
to make you
the people you
ought to be.
do you
understand what
I'm saying?
When God
chose to
send Jesus
to die on
the cross
in your
place,
he was
applying an
incredible
amount of
creativity,
how can
a mortal
God become
flesh and
die,
to solve a
problem,
not about
upholding the
dignity you
actually have,
but the
dignity you
could have
as his
child.
And so I
look at this
passage and
see that's
where I
see God's
kingship.
That's what
David and
Saul are
revealing to
me,
is this is
what it
looks like
to actually
be a
great king.
And most
clearly,
then I
understand
what's going
on at
the cross.
I'm not a
professional
preacher,
I'm just
going to
stop there.
So,
let me
pray.
and then
we'll have
our
closing
song.
God,
I ask
that each
person in
this room
would find
their heart
filled with
a desire
love.
I ask you
to have
the sort of
relationship
with you
that you want us to have.
Lord,
in the many trials
you've chosen to put
in our path,
they would respond,
we would respond,
not by shying away
from them or
asking you to take
us out,
but by asking
you
to give us
the purity
of heart
that recognizes
what it looks like
to be faithful
to you
and faithful
to everyone
around us.
so that in
growing
to be
a person
of those
values,
we would
more and more
appreciate
how glorious
you are
in your
kingship
every day.
We
more and more
understand
the miracle
of the cross
and we
would
become
closer and
closer to you
through that.
We thank you
that you are
such a great king.
We thank you
that you
demonstrate
that to us
through the
absurd solution
to our
problems
of you
yourself
dying.
We thank you
for choosing
to live
by
the values
of grace
and mercy
that motivated
you to
desire to do
that for us.
We pray
that you
would make us
likewise
a people
who treasure
those
attributes
and so
are more
and more
marked
as a people
made out
in your
character
a people
who look
very much
like Jesus.
I pray
these things
in his name.
Amen.