No real SOAP today -- I'm not sure how to apply this, but today's reading included 2 Samuel 21:1-14, and the part of about how God seemed to be satisfied with the killing of the 7 sons of Saul always bothered me. How could justice be served by executing 7 innocent men for the crime of their father?
Then I came across this meditation by Susan McGeown. She says:
Why did David let the Gibeonites execute Saul’s descendants? The famine was clearly a divine punishment (Deut 28:47-48) and Saul’s family was responsible. The reparation demanded was legal (Num 35:31). Yet the OT prohibits punishment of a son for his father’s sins (Deut 24:16, Ezek 18:1-4, 14-17). Perhaps the answer is found in the reference to Saul’s “blood-stained house” (2 Samuel 21:1). The seven adult male descendants of Saul may very well have had a part in the war against the Gibeonites.By the way, while googling on this topic, I found this meditation on this chapter by Bob Deffinbaugh which is pretty good reading.
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