David delivers Saul’s sons to the Gibeonites

1 Then there was a famine in the days of David three years, year after year; and David inquired of the Lord. And the Lord answered, It is for Saul, and for his bloody house, because he slew the Gibeonites.

2 And the king called the Gibeonites, and said unto 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 unto them: and Saul sought to slay them in his zeal to the children of Israel and Judah.)

3 Wherefore David said unto the Gibeonites, What shall I do for you? and wherewith shall I make the atonement, that ye may bless the inheritance of the Lord?

4 And the Gibeonites said unto him, We will have no silver nor gold of Saul, nor of his house; neither for us shalt thou kill any man in Israel. And he said, What ye shall say, that will I do for you.

5 And they answered the king, The man that consumed us, and that devised against us that we should be destroyed from remaining in any of the coasts of Israel,

6 Let seven men of his sons be delivered unto us, and we will hang them up unto the Lord in Gibeah of Saul, whom the Lord did choose. And the king said, I will give them. (2 Sam. 21:1-6)

This is a rather odd story. 

If you remember, the Gibeonites were people who tricked Joshua into making a league with them when the Israelites were entering the land.  They were allowed to stay and became servants to the Israelites.

Evidently one of the perfidious things Saul had done was he had broken that league and killed Gibeonites and the Lord wasn’t happy about it and wanted to use the famine to bring that to remembrance so that David would make it right.

At David’s question of how to make it right, the Gibeonites asked that seven of Saul’s sons be given them to be hung up unto the Lord in Gibeah.  And David consented to this.

Just who was executed is a little in doubt because in v7 it says Mephibosheth was not delivered to them, but in the very next verse it says he was.  Also, v8 says five sons of Michal were delivered over, but earlier in 2 Samuel it is said that Michal never had children.  (It could have just referred to children by her other husband that Saul gave her to, and before David got her back again.)

Now, in principle, this story is weird because the whole of Israel is plagued for the sins of one man and then Saul’s sons (who we presume are innocent) are put to death as restitution for those sins.

However, if we see this story as yet another type of Christ’s sacrifice in the scriptures, we can gain instruction from it.  The whole nation of Israel is plagued by the sin of Saul, corresponding to how the whole world is plagued by the sin of Adam and the fall, and we all partake in it.  To make it right, the king’s sons are executed, even though they are innocent, thereby prefiguring how Christ, an innocent man, gave Himself to atone so that we could escape the punishment.