The Power of Covenant

We don't live in a culture of covenants. We should. They are all over the Bible and they were serious. They were also intended to save and bless people. We turn to another troubled moment for David to see how.

David's troubles with rebels turn into troubles with the Lord. In 2 Samuel 21, there's a three-year famine n the land and the Lord tells David why:
2 Samuel 21:1–2 (ESV) 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.

It should be eye-opening to modern people that the Lord would hold Israel accountable for the mistreatment of a people group from a generation ago. But the Lord is not LIKE US. He is perfect in justice and will repay evil upon the wickedness of men even if injustice hovers over humanity for some time. Saul had evidently mistreated the Gibeonites with whom Joshua had made an agreement of peace. We should remember that Joshua foolishly entered into that covenant without seeking the Lord yet Israel was bound to it. Now, centuries later, David finds out by seeking the Lord that Saul broke the covenant and death is the remedy.

David seeks what the Gibeonites want in retribution: 

2 Samuel 21:5–6 (ESV) 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.”

Now modern people will have a big problem with this. How terrible for the sons of Saul to pay for Saul's mistreatment. But we have to remember first that the Lord covenanted with the people in the law - an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth. The law required the life of a murderer for his murder. 

Deuteronomy 19:21 (ESV) Your eye shall not pity. It shall be life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot.

When a community or nation takes it easy on murderers, the fear of the law loses its bite and you get an increase in murder. Today's "civilized" west works ever harder to keep murderers alive and put innocent unborn children to death. This is bizarre but also testifies to a culture caving in on itself. Time will reveal such foolishness and future generations will have to pay for the foolishness of this one. 

We must also remember the sons and grandsons of Saul would have served in his military (as Jonathan did) and were perhaps complicit in the actions of their father. And no effort to rectify this injustice was sought by the descendants of Saul. God had to "wake" Israel up to their broken vows. 

The text points out that David spares Mephibosheth from judgment. 

2 Samuel 21:7 (ESV) But the king spared Mephibosheth, the son of Saul’s son Jonathan...

Why spare Mephibosheth? The text continues:

(VERSE 7b) "because of the oath of the LORD that was between them, between David and Jonathan the son of Saul."

Remember that Jonathan made a covenant with David to spare his house when the Lord set him on his father's throne.

1 Samuel 20:14–15 (ESV) If I am still alive, show me the steadfast love of the LORD, that I may not die; 15 and do not cut off your steadfast love from my house forever, when the LORD cuts off every one of the enemies of David from the face of the earth.”

What a picture of our seat in heavenly places with Christ. Mephibosheth once again escapes the tragedy that should have been his because of a covenantal promise his father made with the anointed king. Think of this more succinctly. Because Mephibosheth's FATHER covenanted with the King, he was placed at the king's table, given lands and prosperity and spared from the judgment of sins he should have paid for. WE are Mephibosheth. And the covenantal agreement between the Father and the Son (King Jesus) has saved us and blessed us and spared us.