2 Samuel 21:1-6: a reflection

1There was a famine in the days of David for three years, year after year; and David sought the face of the LORD. The LORD said, “It is for Saul, and for his bloody house, because he put the Gibeonites to death.” 2The king called the Gibeonites and said to 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 to them; and Saul sought to kill them in his zeal for the children of Israel and Judah); 3and David said to the Gibeonites, “What should I do for you? And with what should I make atonement, that you may bless the LORD’s inheritance?” 4The Gibeonites said to him, “It is no 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.” He said, “I will do for you whatever you say.” 5They said to the king, “The man who consumed us and who plotted against us, that we should be destroyed from remaining in any of the borders of Israel, 6let seven men of his sons be delivered to us, and we will hang them up to the LORD in Gibeah of Saul, the chosen of the LORD.” The king said, “I will give them.”

A three-year famine drives David to seek the LORD, and the answer he receives is sobering: the famine is connected to a wrong that had never been made right. Saul, in his zeal, had broken Israel's ancient sworn oath to the Gibeonites and put many of them to death, and that broken oath and shed blood still lay unaddressed. The passage that follows is a hard and troubling one, difficult for us to read, involving a grim reckoning; but underneath it lies a principle worth drawing out with care: that broken covenants and unaddressed wrongs have consequences that do not simply vanish with time.

Set aside the harshness of the ancient reckoning, which belongs to its own time and troubles us rightly, and notice the deeper principle. Israel had made a solemn oath to the Gibeonites, outsiders living among them, and Saul had violated it. That broken promise did not simply disappear; it lingered, a wrong that still needed to be faced. God took seriously both the breaking of a sworn word and the injustice done to a vulnerable people who had been promised protection.

The enduring truth here is that our promises matter and our unaddressed wrongs do not simply fade. God cares that we keep our word, especially to the vulnerable, and that wrongs, even old ones, be faced rather than buried. A broken promise or an unrighted wrong can cast a long shadow until it is dealt with honestly. Take your commitments seriously; keep your word, especially to those with little power to hold you to it. And do not imagine that time alone heals a wrong left unaddressed. Face what needs facing, make right what can be made right, and take seriously, as God does, both the keeping of promises and the doing of justice.

Lord, a lingering famine traced back to Saul's broken oath and the wrong done to the Gibeonites, an unaddressed injustice that had not simply faded with time. Teach me to take my promises seriously, to keep my word, especially to those who have little power to hold me to it. And keep me from imagining that time alone heals a wrong left unaddressed. Help me face what needs facing and make right what I can make right, rather than burying it. You take seriously both the keeping of promises and the doing of justice; make me faithful in both. Let no broken word or unrighted wrong lie festering in my life.