A strange incident arose during the reign of David. After three years of famine the Lord revealed a festering situation. Saul, in cold blood, murdered multiple Gibeonites despite an ancient promise to let them live (the Gibeonites fooled Joshua into signing a treaty and letting them stay in the promised land).

Saul’s crimes against humanity required a payment in blood. An eye for an eye. David turned over seven male descendants of Saul’s, who died at the hands of the Gibeonites. This finally appeased the Lord—after that, God answered prayer in behalf of the land.

What to make of such a strange story? This incident illustrates the Lord’s requirement of blood to absolve our sin. As we read in Romans, God presented Christ as a sacrifice of atonement, through the shedding of his blood—to be received by faith.

The idea of blood shed for the absolution of sin offends our modern sensibilities. Today many cherish a therapeutic god who shrugs at our envies and immoralities and assures us it’s not our fault. Fairy gods whisper such banalities.

But the God of the Bible, of Moses and Jesus and Mary and Paul, remains a HOLY GOD. This Holy God is just, and graciously the one who justifies those who have faith in Christ Jesus.

The shedding of blood is literally the only option to settle our violations to God’s holiness. Jesus’s blood flowed to pay that debt for you and me. Believe in Jesus Christ and walk the path of righteousness open through faith in him.

Remember the requirement.

2 Samuel 21 & Romans 3 in reading the Bible in 2023

Photo by K. Mitch Hodge