Holly Seventh-day Adventist Church

2 PROBLEMS

3 WHAT TO DO?

SUMMARY 4

5 2 Samuel 21:1-2 NJB 1 In the days of David there was a famine which lasted for three years on end. David consulted Yahweh, and Yahweh said, ‘Saul and his family have incurred blood-guilt, by putting the Gibeonites to death.’

6 2 Then the king summoned the Gibeonites and said—now, the Gibeonites were not Israelites, but were a remnant of the Amorites, to whom the Israelites had bound themselves by oath; Saul, however, in his zeal for the Israelites and for Judah, had done his best to exterminate them… 2 Samuel 21:1-2 NJB

SUMMARY 7

2 Samuel 21:4-6 4 The Gibeonites replied, ‘Our quarrel with Saul and his family cannot be settled for silver or gold, nor by putting to death one man in Israel.’ David said, ‘Say what you want and I will do it for you. 8

2 Samuel 21:4-6 5 Then they replied to the king, ‘The man who dismembered us and planned to annihilate us, so that we should not exist anywhere in Israelite territory 9

2 Samuel 21:4-6 6 we want seven of his descendants handed over to us; and we shall dismember them before Yahweh at Gibeon on Yahweh’s hill.’ ‘I shall hand them over,’ said the king. 10

RESULT 11

2 Samuel 21:10 10 Rizpah daughter of Aiah, wearing sacking and spreading some out for herself on the rock, from the beginning of the barley harvest until the rain fell on them from heaven, kept the birds of the sky away from them in the daytime, and the wild animals away at night. 12

13 PROBLEMS & QUESTIONS  Corporate Punishment  Enforcing an Oath Under False Pretenses  Sacrificing Human Life as Expiation for Sin  Ritual Requirement Valued More than Human Life

CORPORATE PUNISHMENT 14

Enforcing an Oath Under False Pretenses 15

Sacrificing Human Life as Expiation for Sin 16

Ritual Requirements Valued more than Human Life 17

God expects faithfulness to the standards of right and wrong