Something was wrong. So wrong it resulted in divine displeasure — famine for three years. Thus, David “sought the face of the Lord” (2Sam. 21:1). Good move. But then, it seems, David took matters into his own hands.

Reading 2 Samuel 21 this morning and the first half of the chapter just doesn’t land right. I get that there’s unresolved “bloodguilt” on Saul and his family for his self-serving, God-disobeying, aggression to “strike down” the Gibeonites, a Canaanite people Israel had covenanted to protect (Joshua 9). I get that Saul’s sin had never been dealt with and as such stained the land. Good for David in seeking the Lord to bring to light the sin. But, just as in Joshua (9:14), there’s no indication that David sought the Lord as to what to do about the Gibeonites. And it results in David rounding up seven sons of Saul, born by concubines, and handing them over for execution. And like I said, it just doesn’t land right.

And I think here’s why.

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?”

(2Samuel 21:2-3 ESV)

How shall I make atonement? Emphasis on “I”! That sent shivers down my back.

That’s why this Gibeonite “justice” just doesn’t seem to fit with the God who had said “nor shall children be put to death because of their fathers. Each one shall be put to death for his own sin.” (Deut. 24:16). What’s more, after executing the seven sons, they then leave the bodies to hang there day after day, another violation of God’s specific command (Deut. 21:23). I don’t think that going with whatever the Gibeonites felt was just reparation was God’s atonement plan, just David’s. No sacrifice for sin. Just vengeance. How shall I make atonement? Shudder!

I don’t know what should have been done in this situation. But David didn’t either. And rather than ask the Lord, he asked the Gibeonites, “What shall I do for you? How shall I make atonement?”

Thank God for His way of atonement. For substitutionary sacrifice. For the divine design which allows mercy to intersect with righteousness and grace to flow forth from justice.

Thank God for the cross!

Amen?