Okay, this is going to be long. It comes from 2 Samuel 21:1-14. God brought me to this section when I opened my Bible tonight. It’s about atonement, repentance, forgiveness, and sacrifice.
Before we go on: Israel represents a person who has sinned against someone. The Gibeonites represent the person who has been sinned against.
1 There was a famine during David’s reign that lasted for three years, so David asked the Lord about it. And the Lord said, “The famine has come because Saul and his family are guilty of murdering the Gibeonites.”
Because of the wrong that was committed by Israel against the Gibeonites, which the Israelites had not atoned for, they were experiencing a time of intense hardship.
2 So the king summoned the Gibeonites. They were not part of Israel but were all that was left of the nation of the Amorites. The people of Israel had sworn not to kill them, but Saul, in his zeal for Israel and Judah, had tried to wipe them out. 3 David asked them, “What can I do for you? How can I make amends so that you will bless the Lord’s people again?”
4 “Well, money can’t settle this matter between us and the family of Saul,” the Gibeonites replied. “Neither can we demand the life of anyone in Israel.”
“What can I do then?” David asked. “Just tell me and I will do it for you.”
Israel (represented by David) asks for forgiveness and offers to atone for the sin that was committed against the Gibeonites. Note that forgiveness isn’t enough–Israel must atone for the sin in order to make things right between the two nations.
5 Then they replied, “It was Saul who planned to destroy us, to keep us from having any place at all in the territory of Israel. 6 So let seven of Saul’s sons be handed over to us, and we will execute them before the Lord at Gibeon, on the mountain of the Lord.”
The Gibeonites demand as atonement, not money, but a sacrifice that will prove to them that Israel will no longer follow in the ways of Saul, by sacrificing the descendants of Saul. The descendants of Saul represent the part of the sinner (Israel) that is most closely connected to the sin. If Israel can sacrifice them, then it is evidence that Israel will not sin in this way again.
“All right,” the king said, “I will do it.” 7 The king spared Jonathan’s son Mephibosheth, who was Saul’s grandson, because of the oath David and Jonathan had sworn before the Lord. 8 But he gave them Saul’s two sons Armoni and Mephibosheth, whose mother was Rizpah daughter of Aiah. He also gave them the five sons of Saul’s daughter Merab, the wife of Adriel son of Barzillai from Meholah. 9 The men of Gibeon executed them on the mountain before the Lord. So all seven of them died together at the beginning of the barley harvest.
So Israel offers the Gibeonites a part of Israel, to atone for the sin, and the Gibeonites take it and sacrifice it before God.
10 Then Rizpah daughter of Aiah, the mother of two of the men, spread burlap on a rock and stayed there the entire harvest season. She prevented the scavenger birds from tearing at their bodies during the day and stopped wild animals from eating them at night. 11 When David learned what Rizpah, Saul’s concubine, had done, 12 he went to the people of Jabesh-gilead and retrieved the bones of Saul and his son Jonathan. (When the Philistines had killed Saul and Jonathan on Mount Gilboa, the people of Jabesh-gilead stole their bodies from the public square of Beth-shan, where the Philistines had hung them.) 13 So David obtained the bones of Saul and Jonathan, as well as the bones of the men the Gibeonites had executed.
14 Then the king ordered that they bury the bones in the tomb of Kish, Saul’s father, at the town of Zela in the land of Benjamin. After that, God ended the famine in the land.
Rizpah represents the part of Israel most closely connected to the sacrifice. The sacrifice is very painful to her. While her sons’ bodies lie unburied, she stays for months by their sides, mourning. Not all is right with Israel during this time, and the famine continues. When David finally buries the bodies, and puts them to rest, Rizpah returns home and God ends the hardship that Israel had been going through.
So, to recap the application: When we commit a sin against someone, it is not enough to repent and ask for forgiveness. There must be an atonement. (When we fail to atone for a sin that we have committed against another, we may experience a time of hardship, just as Israel did.) Jesus has already atoned for our sins against God, but only we can atone for our sins against each other. Atonement involves showing repentance through sacrificing a part of ourselves that is connected to the sin, as evidence that we will not repeat the sin. In this way, we “make things right” with the other party, and assure them that we truly repent.
This sacrifice, as any sacrifice, should be painful. (If it isn’t, then it isn’t a sacrifice.) When we make this sacrifice, we will mourn the loss of a part of ourselves. It may take months before we can get over it. But only once we no longer mourn the loss of the sacrifice that we have made have we really, truly repented of our sin.
Request for comments! Please let me know what you think of this interpretation.
2 Comments
After more thought, I think atonement is something we should seek if we have not already been forgiven. If we already have forgiveness for our sin, atonement isn’t necessary. But a right heart will desire to atone for sins committed against others, and should seek it (”I’m sorry. What can I do to make it up to you?”). If the other party can forgive without atonement, that is good for them, but the one who sinned should not expect it.
Yeah, I’m not sure how much can be absolutized, but I think you are definitely on to something. The hard fact is that reconciliation involves three parties (God, you, and the other person) and each has a stake in the process.
Note also the symmetry between that Saul tried to do to the Gibeonites and what they did to his family.