II Samuel 21:1- Then there was a famine in the days of David three years, year after year; and David enquired of the LORD. And the LORD answered, It is for Saul, and for his bloody house, because he slew the Gibeonites.
After three years of famine, David finally asked the Lord "why?". I wonder why David waited three years to ask? It wasn't because of his own sin that this famine was in the land. It was because of a sin that Saul had committed.
That tells us something about God. Some times the bad things we go through aren't our fault. It's not because God is punishing us. But, we still need to remember that how we respond to these bad times will be judged.
II Samuel 21:2-3- And the king called the Gibeonites, and said unto them; (now the Gibeonites [were] not of the children of Israel, but of the remnant of the Amorites; and the children of Israel had sworn unto them: and Saul sought to slay them in his zeal to the children of Israel and Judah.) Wherefore David said unto the Gibeonites, What shall I do for you? and wherewith shall I make the atonement, that ye may bless the inheritance of the LORD?
King David called the people that were wrong and asked them how to make it right. If we wrong someone we are suppose to confess it to God, but we are also suppose to make it right with the person that we wronged.
II Samuel 21:5-6- And they answered the king, The man that consumed us, and that devised against us that we should be destroyed from remaining in any of the coasts of Israel, Let seven men of his sons be delivered unto us, and we will hang them up unto the LORD in Gibeah of Saul, whom the LORD did choose. And the king said, I will give them.
The Gibeonites wanted to punish Saul. Since Saul was dead, they said that they wanted his sons punished. They wanted 7 of Saul's descendants to die for Saul's transgression.
And David was willing to pay this price with one exception. David was a man of his word, and he was going to make sure that he kept his promise to Jonathan.
II Samuel 21:7- 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.
David found 7 men other than Jonathan's son and delivered them to the Gibeonites.
II Samuel 21:8-9- But the king took the two sons of Rizpah the daughter of Aiah, whom she bare unto Saul, Armoni and Mephibosheth; 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 in the hill before the LORD: and they fell all seven together, and were put to death in the days of harvest, in the first days, in the beginning of barley harvest.
The Gibeonites took all seven of them and hanged them.
II Samuel 21:10- And Rizpah the daughter of Aiah took sackcloth, and spread it for her upon the rock, from the beginning of harvest until water dropped upon them out of heaven, and suffered neither the birds of the air to rest on them by day, nor the beasts of the field by night.
The mother of two of the men went out there and kept watch over the bodies. She wouldn't let any of the carrion feed on them. Even after their death she was protecting them.
II Samuel 21:11-14- And it was told David what Rizpah the daughter of Aiah, the concubine of Saul, had done. And David went and took the bones of Saul and the bones of Jonathan his son from the men of Jabeshgilead, which had stolen them from the street of Bethshan, where the Philistines had hanged them, when the Philistines had slain Saul in Gilboa: And he brought up from thence the bones of Saul and the bones of Jonathan his son; and they gathered the bones of them that were hanged. And the bones of Saul and Jonathan his son buried they in the country of Benjamin in Zelah, in the sepulchre of Kish his father: and they performed all that the king commanded. And after that God was intreated for the land.
When David heard what this mother was doing, he went and gathered the bones of the men that had been hanged, along with the bones of Saul and Jonathan, and buried them in their grandfather's sepulchre.
The Lord healed the land of the famine. But, the people still did sinful things.
The Lord always punishes us for the wrong that we do. Some times, he allows time to pass before He punishes us. And, some times, like David, we choose the punishment.
II Samuel 24:1- And again the anger of the LORD was kindled against Israel, and he moved David against them to say, Go, number Israel and Judah.
God moved David to number the people, even though He had said before that this was a sin.
II Samuel 24:8-9- So when they had gone through all the land, they came to Jerusalem at the end of nine months and twenty days. And Joab gave up the sum of the number of the people unto the king: and there were in Israel eight hundred thousand valiant men that drew the sword; and the men of Judah were five hundred thousand men.
Once the people had been numbered, David realized what he had done.
II Samuel 24:10-12- And David's heart smote him after that he had numbered the people. And David said unto the LORD, I have sinned greatly in that I have done: and now, I beseech thee, O LORD, take away the iniquity of thy servant; for I have done very foolishly. For when David was up in the morning, the word of the LORD came unto the prophet Gad, David's seer, saying, Go and say unto David, Thus saith the LORD, I offer thee three things; choose thee one of them, that I may do it unto thee.
God was going to let David choose what his punishment would be. He gave him three choices.
II Samuel 24:13- So Gad came to David, and told him, and said unto him, Shall seven years of famine come unto thee in thy land? or wilt thou flee three months before thine enemies, while they pursue thee? or that there be three days' pestilence in thy land? now advise, and see what answer I shall return to him that sent me.
David was told to choose wither seven years famine, three months of being chased by his enemies, or three days of pestilence. Which would you choose?
I'm sure David thought of these three options very carefully. If there was a famine people would starve to death, and there was no telling how many people would die. If they were chased by the enemy there was no guarantee that the enemy wouldn't attack the innocent cities of the land, and a lot of people could die. So David chose the option that would allow him the most mercy.
II Samuel 24:14- And David said unto Gad, I am in a great strait: let us fall now into the hand of the LORD; for his mercies are great: and let me not fall into the hand of man.
David chose the pestilence. That way God would be the one to choose who would die.
II Samuel 24:15-16- So the LORD sent a pestilence upon Israel from the morning even to the time appointed: and there died of the people from Dan even to Beersheba seventy thousand men. And when the angel stretched out his hand upon Jerusalem to destroy it, the LORD repented him of the evil, and said to the angel that destroyed the people, It is enough: stay now thine hand. And the angel of the LORD was by the threshingplace of Araunah the Jebusite.
An angel of death went through the land killing people. He killed around 70 thousand people when he got to Jerusalem. Once the death angel was near Jerusalem, God told him to stop.
That's the power of God. Just one angel could kill 70,000 people in three days, but with one word God could make him stop.
II Samuel 24:17-18- And David spake unto the LORD when he saw the angel that smote the people, and said, Lo, I have sinned, and I have done wickedly: but these sheep, what have they done? let thine hand, I pray thee, be against me, and against my father's house. And Gad came that day to David, and said unto him, Go up, rear an altar unto the LORD in the threshingfloor of Araunah the Jebusite.
David prayed and confessed his sin. He begged for mercy, and God gave him the answer he needed. He was to go build an altar and sacrifice.
II Samuel 24:19-25- And David, according to the saying of Gad, went up as the LORD commanded. And Araunah looked, and saw the king and his servants coming on toward him: and Araunah went out, and bowed himself before the king on his face upon the ground. And Araunah said, Wherefore is my lord the king come to his servant? And David said, To buy the threshingfloor of thee, to build an altar unto the LORD, that the plague may be stayed from the people. And Araunah said unto David, Let my lord the king take and offer up what seemeth good unto him: behold, here be oxen for burnt sacrifice, and threshing instruments and other instruments of the oxen for wood. All these things did Araunah, as a king, give unto the king. And Araunah said unto the king, The LORD thy God accept thee. And the king said unto Araunah, Nay; but I will surely buy it of thee at a price: neither will I offer burnt offerings unto the LORD my God of that which doth cost me nothing. So David bought the threshingfloor and the oxen for fifty shekels of silver. And David built there an altar unto the LORD, and offered burnt offerings and peace offerings. So the LORD was intreated for the land, and the plague was stayed from Israel.
David bought the threshing floor and all the things that went with it, and he built an altar right there and sacrificed to God. God accepted this sacrifice and told the death angel to leave.
It's always hard to apologize for the wrong that we've done. But, when we confess our sins to God we obtain mercy. If we get mad at God for his punishment, then things will only get worse.
David learned this lesson because of all the troubles he went through. We don't have to go through our own troubles to learn. We can learn from the life of David.
