Two Wrongs Don't Make a Right

Introduction:

Have you ever taken a rock and thrown it into a pond and watched the ripples move from the place where the rock enters the, water outward towards the bank and then move back.

When I was a kid, my grandfather had a lake house and we would float in the water in front of his house. We used to love it when boats would come by and we would rock up and down on the waves and then we would wait for them to come back again. It was much like that rock that is thrown in the water.

However, sin has waves much like the ripples of the water. One sin doesn’t just impact us, but it can have effects on our families and those closest to us.

Sometimes to try to deal with our failures we commit even more wrongs. The old proverb rings true that two wrongs don’t make a right!

We are going to see this played out for us tonight in this passage from 2 Samuel.

2 Samuel 21:1–14 ESV

1 Now there was a famine in the days of David for three years, year after year. And David sought the face of the Lord. And the Lord said, “There is bloodguilt on Saul and on his house, because he put the Gibeonites to death.” 2 So the king called the Gibeonites and spoke to them. Now the Gibeonites were not of the people of Israel but of the remnant of the Amorites. Although the people of Israel had sworn to spare them, Saul had sought to strike them down in his zeal for the people of Israel and Judah. 3 And David said to the Gibeonites, “What shall I do for you? And how shall I make atonement, that you may bless the heritage of the Lord?” 4 The Gibeonites said to him, “It is not a 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.” And he said, “What do you say that I shall do for you?” 5 They said to the king, “The man who consumed us and planned to destroy us, so that we should have no place in all the territory of Israel, 6 let seven of his sons be given to us, so that we may hang them before the Lord at Gibeah of Saul, the chosen of the Lord.” And the king said, “I will give them.” 7 But the king spared Mephibosheth, the son of Saul’s son Jonathan, because of the oath of the Lord that was between them, between David and Jonathan the son of Saul. 8 The king took the two sons of Rizpah the daughter of Aiah, whom she bore to Saul, Armoni and Mephibosheth; and the five sons of Merab the daughter of Saul, whom she bore to Adriel the son of Barzillai the Meholathite; 9 and he gave them into the hands of the Gibeonites, and they hanged them on the mountain before the Lord, and the seven of them perished together. They were put to death in the first days of harvest, at the beginning of barley harvest. 10 Then Rizpah the daughter of Aiah took sackcloth and spread it for herself on the rock, from the beginning of harvest until rain fell upon them from the heavens. And she did not allow the birds of the air to come upon them by day, or the beasts of the field by night. 11 When David was told what Rizpah the daughter of Aiah, the concubine of Saul, had done, 12 David went and took the bones of Saul and the bones of his son Jonathan from the men of Jabesh-gilead, who had stolen them from the public square of Beth-shan, where the Philistines had hanged them, on the day the Philistines killed Saul on Gilboa. 13 And he brought up from there the bones of Saul and the bones of his son Jonathan; and they gathered the bones of those who were hanged. 14 And they buried the bones of Saul and his son Jonathan in the land of Benjamin in Zela, in the tomb of Kish his father. And they did all that the king commanded. And after that God responded to the plea for the land.

Pray

Appendix to the book

1. Seek the Lord to Determine the Offense (v.1)

2 Samuel 21:1 ESV

1 Now there was a famine in the days of David for three years, year after year. And David sought the face of the Lord. And the Lord said, “There is bloodguilt on Saul and on his house, because he put the Gibeonites to death.”

There was a famine that had lasted 3 years

It was obvious that the famine was not a normal bad year of crops

This occurred sometime between the covenant with Mephibosheth the son of Jonathan and the rebellion of Sheba

David does the right thing in bringing the matter to the Lord to find out why he had withheld the rain and plagued the land

Saul had tried to commit genocide against the Gibeonites by whiping them out

The Gibeonites were a group of people who had been living in the promised land that had been devoted to destruction by the Lord

Joshua and Israel had been deceived by them (Josh 9) and the result was that a covenant was made with them that they would be perpetual laborers for Israel in exchange for protection from them

Saul ignored the covenant

This covenant had happened around 400 years earlier

Illustation: Virgil Earp - saw the wild west all the way up through the late 50’s (1879-1959)

It would be easy for them to forget, but we see that God takes covenants seriously and had withheld the rain

Application:

When things go bad in your life, have you ever stopped to think about whether or not the reason might be due to sin?

If it is due to sin, have you repented of it

2. Seek the Lord to Determine the Solution (v.2-6

2 Samuel 21:2–6 ESV

2 So the king called the Gibeonites and spoke to them. Now the Gibeonites were not of the people of Israel but of the remnant of the Amorites. Although the people of Israel had sworn to spare them, Saul had sought to strike them down in his zeal for the people of Israel and Judah. 3 And David said to the Gibeonites, “What shall I do for you? And how shall I make atonement, that you may bless the heritage of the Lord?” 4 The Gibeonites said to him, “It is not a 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.” And he said, “What do you say that I shall do for you?” 5 They said to the king, “The man who consumed us and planned to destroy us, so that we should have no place in all the territory of Israel, 6 let seven of his sons be given to us, so that we may hang them before the Lord at Gibeah of Saul, the chosen of the Lord.” And the king said, “I will give them.”

David is not to be commended here.

David doesn’t go back to the Lord for the solution, he goes to the Gibeonites

Remember that the Gibeonites are pagans. They may live in Israel, but they are not fully committed to God.

He seeks to appease the Gibeonites rather than going back to God to ask what he and the people should do

The shedding of blood defiles the land and it needed to be acknowledged; however, the Law specifically forbad sons from being punished for the sin of their fathers

Deuteronomy 24:16 ESV

16 “Fathers shall not be put to death because of their children, nor shall children be put to death because of their fathers. Each one shall be put to death for his own sin.

The solution that the Gibeonites offer is a pagan solution

Unlike Saul they only want 7 of his sons (number of completion)

Impaled or hung

Some possible explanations - these sons might have been involved in the raids with Saul

Rizpah - her deed and dedication to honor her sons bodies

She might have been out there for several weeks

She showed honor and dignity in a bad situation

She inspired David to award and honor the bodies of Saul and Jonathan

Application:

Don’t Commit More Sin to Cover Up for the Previous Sins

Sin requires an atonement

3. Seek the Offended to Offer Reconciliation

God responded, but this was not a sign of endorsement for their deeds

Sending the rain could be looked at as God stopping the madness

David was responsible for seeking the offended, but if they suggested sin, he should have taken a stand and gone back gone back to the Lord

We are only able to do what we can do

Romans 12:18 ESV

18 If possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all.

Conclusion

The conclusion of this matter is an interesting one. I had a pastor friend of mine mention that he would love to preach this text one year for mother’s day.

It’s the story of Rizpah and her defending the corpses of her dead sons until God showed his favor on the land by sending the rain.

God does grant relief and accepts the act of justice, but we must not confuse His accepting it with His condoning it.

The people are thinking in terms of their rituals. They think that the only way to free themselves from this drought is to appease God like He is one of their own pagan Gods.

God had made other ways in the Law for people to cleanse the land. We won’t go into all of them tonight, but they are all a foreshadowing of the cleansing that God will bring about through Jesus.

If this story disturbs you, that is a good thing.

God is not sheltering us from the consequences of our sin and evil choices. The Bible does not seek to sanitize life, but to bring us along with it so we can see what our sins cause.

However, remember that our sins are far greater than these. It shouldn’t be these 7 men alone that die for the sins that have been committed.

Our sins have polluted the land and the price of our offense is our own blood.

However, in our case, another has come along to atone for our sin and cleanse the land. Jesus came and became a curse by being hung on a tree before God.

His death stayed the wrath of God toward the believer.

What we should take away from this passage is that God does not dismiss the covenants that He makes. He takes them seriously. God will not forget the covenant that He made with every believer to cover their sins and remove them.

One day when Christ returns, we will be able to look with joy on His return and know that our sins have already been dealt with.