2 Samuel 21:6 “let seven of his male descendants be given to us to be killed and their bodies exposed before the Lord at Gibeah of Saul—the Lord’s chosen one.” So the king said, “I will give them to you.”
The value a society places on a life varies by place and time. Some cultures value life much less than others. Much of the African continent has a low value perspective due to the poor conditions and frequency of child deaths. Because so many die during childhood, they have chosen to place high value on someone who will probably not make it past childhood.
As you read this, you probably have some reaction to the words. How can this be? Why doesn’t someone step up and help them understand just how precious life is! This needs to change!
The value of a life has changed since Bible times, at least for those most affected by the Scriptures. Christians have established medical and educational institutions around the world based on the value we place on each individual. Our values have impacted our outreaches.
Our text tells us about a bargain struck to help bring and end to an injustice. Saul’s legacy included attempting to kill and entire clan of people, the Gibeonites. Saul had tried to wipe them out completely, and unjustly. The Gibeonites had pulled of a deception in order to preserve their lives. They had pretended to being a distant people and gained a treaty of peace with Israel.
But Saul had not honored that treaty. He had worked to wipe them out. David is trying to restore the Gibeonites in order to reconcile with God.
Now the way this reconciliation is to take place is very harsh. Lives for lives. In our day and age this would be almost unthinkable. It bristles our very spirits.
But the cost of reconciliation is high. So often in the Hebrew Scriptures there is an animal sacrifice that stands in the place of the human who should be dying. But here, the ante is upped. Humans have to die for humans.
Notice that there are seven men to be given, seven. Going back to the days of creation, seven has come to represent the covenant God made with humanity, and the response humans were to make back to Him. Work six days and rest the seventh. This was an act of trust.
More than seven Gibeonites had been killed, so it wasn’t a man for man accounting of the debt of death that was being paid. But seven men would represent the LORD’s presence in again ratifying the treaty made. Seven men dying for an even larger number who should die if it was a man for man exchange.
To our modern ears this still sounds horrific. I am sure it had a very similar sound to their ears. It is one thing for men to die in battle, but for them to be offered freely from one group to another group as a life for life exchange, just doesn’t have a category in our thinking.
This was David’s attempt to atone for the wrong done by Saul. It was David’s attempt to right the wrong. And as far as we know, it worked. Rain returned. Reconciliation had happened. Those who were once far away were brought near.
I think a possible equivalent to this act might be the call for reparations for former slaves and their descendants. But from my understanding, and I know it could be wrong, during the 1960’s & 1970’s programs were created to bring about a leveling of the field. The social programs of welfare and medicaid, for instance, were meant to help those at the bottom to take a step up.
Is there a debt to be paid? By you? By me?