A Matter of Civil Justice

647 - Today's Prime Time Devo comes from 2Sa 21:3 Therefore David said to the Gibeonites, "What shall I do for you? And with what shall I make atonement, that you may bless the inheritance of the LORD?" 4 And the Gibeonites said to him, "We will have no silver or gold from Saul or from his house, nor shall you kill any man in Israel for us." So he said, "Whatever you say, I will do for you." 5 Then they answered the king, "As for the man who consumed us and plotted against us, that we should be destroyed from remaining in any of the territories of Israel, 6 "let seven men of his descendants be delivered to us, and we will hang them before the LORD in Gibeah of Saul, whom the LORD chose." And the king said, "I will give them." This whole incident seems so very strange and almost indefensible to us. But let me assure you, God needs no one to defend His actions. He had clearly told David that the three year drought was the direct result of Saul's murderous rampage against the Gibeonites, and the drought would remain in place until the Israelites had made proper atonement. That God viewed the request of the Gibeonites for the execution of the seven descendants of Saul as proper atonement is evident because after the sentence was carried out, the drought ended. A key point to remember here is that this was a civil matter, a matter of the national government of Israel. And if you don't know by now, the government has been given the power of the sword in order to see that justice is served. Ro 13:4 says, “For he (the government) is God's minister to you for good. But if you do evil, be afraid; for he does not bear the sword in vain; for he is God's minister, an avenger to execute wrath on him who practices evil. Saul and his house had practiced evil against the Gibeonites (misused this God-given governing authority) and the sin of his house had never been fully dealt with until now, and rather than cast aspersion onto God for this incident, maybe we would do well to understand that God does not take the national shedding of innocent blood lightly, maybe we ought to rethink this idea of legalized abortion, for we too have misused our God-given trust and authority against the unborn.