SARAH
Back when David was king, the whole country suddenly got hit by a terrible famine.
And this wasn’t just for a few months.
It lasted three whole years.
That’s no small thing.
The crops weren’t growing, people were struggling, and the whole nation was suffering.
David looked at the situation and thought,
“Something isn’t right here.”
So he went before the Lord and asked,
“God, what is going on? Why has this famine lasted for three years?”
The Lord answered him:
“This happened because of Saul and his bloodshed against the Gibeonites.”
David realized what had happened.
The Gibeonites were not Israelites. They were among the people who remained from the Amorites.
But years earlier, the Israelites had made a covenant with them and promised not to destroy them.
That promise had been made before God.
But Saul had tried to wipe them out.
Maybe Saul thought he was doing something good for Israel.
Maybe he thought,
“I’m protecting my people. I’m doing what a king is supposed to do.”
But he had broken the covenant.
And here’s the thing:
People may forget what happened, but God does not.
So David called the Gibeonites and asked them,
“What can I do for you? How can I make things right, so that you will bless the Lord’s people?”
The Gibeonites answered,
“This isn’t about money or gold.
We’re not asking you to give us money.
And we’re not asking you to kill some random Israelite.
But the man who tried to destroy us and keep us from having a place in Israel was Saul.
So give us seven of his descendants.”
David said,
“Alright. I will do what you ask.”
But David remembered something very important.
He had made a covenant before the Lord with Saul’s son Jonathan.
So even though David was dealing with Saul’s family, he would not hand over Jonathan’s son Mephibosheth.
David honored the promise he had made.
In the end, seven other descendants of Saul were handed over to the Gibeonites.
The Gibeonites put them to death and hung them on the mountain before the Lord.
And this happened right around the time of the barley harvest.
Now here comes one of the saddest parts of the whole story.
Saul’s concubine Rizpah had lost her sons.
She took sackcloth and spread it out on a rock.
And she stayed there.
From the beginning of the harvest until rain came down from heaven, she stayed there day and night.
She would not let the birds of the air come down on the bodies.
She would not let wild animals tear them apart.
Think about that.
A mother standing guard over her dead children.
She couldn’t bring them back.
She couldn’t change what had happened.
But she could stay.
She could protect them.
That scene is heartbreaking.
Eventually, someone told David what Rizpah had done.
David was deeply moved.
So he brought back the bones of Saul and Jonathan from the people of Jabesh-gilead.
He also gathered the bones of the seven who had died.
Then he buried all of them together in the tomb of Kish, Saul’s father, in the land of Benjamin.
After everything had been done, God answered the prayers for the land.
The famine finally came to an end.
But the Story Wasn’t Over Yet
The Philistines came back to fight Israel.
David and his men went out to battle.
But David was getting older now.
And during the fight, he became exhausted.
A huge Philistine named Ishbi-benob saw his opportunity.
He was one of the descendants of the giants.
He had a new spear, and the bronze spearhead was extremely heavy.
He was ready to kill David.
But Abishai, the son of Zeruiah, came to David’s rescue.
He struck down the Philistine and saved David.
After that, David’s men said to him,
“King, you are not going out to battle with us anymore!
We can’t let you die.
You are the lamp of Israel!”
In other words,
“David, you’re not just another soldier anymore.
You are too important to risk your life like this.”
Later, Israel fought the Philistines again.
Sibbekai killed another descendant of the giants.
Then Elhanan killed another giant from Gath.
And there was one more who was especially frightening.
This man had six fingers on each hand and six toes on each foot.
That means he had twenty-four fingers and toes altogether!
And he stood there mocking Israel.
But Jonathan, David’s nephew, stepped forward and killed him.
In the end, the Bible tells us that these four men were descendants of the giants of Gath.
They all fell at the hands of David and his men.
Have you ever done something wrong and then tried to convince yourself that it wasn’t a big deal? Why do we sometimes find it easier to hide our mistakes than to admit them?