Gospel Reflections #1154: Not hiding the weakness

2 Samuel 21:1 “In the days of David, there was a famine that lasted for three years. David sought an oracle from the Lord. The Lord said, ‘The blame lies with Saul and his family for having killed the Gibeonites and shed their blood.’”

In the region of Palestine, a famine lasting one year was not an uncommon occurrence.

However, a famine occurring ‘for three consecutive years’ was clearly an extraordinary situation, and the whole nation was plunged into hardship.

David did not regard this situation as merely a natural disaster, but as ‘some sort of message (sign) from God’, and so he ‘prayed to the Lord and sought His will’.

The cause revealed by the Lord was not the sin of the current king, David, but that of the late King Saul and his clan.

Saul had once massacred the Gibeonites living within Israel.

This remained in God’s sight as ‘blood guilt’; because it had been left unaddressed without repentance or atonement, the land was cursed, and God’s judgement was brought down in the form of a famine.

Why did Saul’s killing of the Gibeonites constitute such a grave sin?

It was because, in the time of Joshua, Israel had concluded a non-aggression pact (covenant) with the Gibeonites, promising to ‘preserve their lives in the name of the Lord’.

Driven by his own sense of justice and nationalism—‘out of zeal for the people of Israel and Judah’—Saul broke this sacred covenant and sought to wipe them out.

To treat lightly an oath taken in the name of God is regarded as a grave act of rebellion against Him.

Even after Saul’s death and the transition to David’s reign, the sin of the past—the breach of the covenant with God—had not been erased.

This demonstrates the gravity of the consequences of sin and that God is a God of justice.

When faced with a national crisis, David did not attempt to resolve it by his own wisdom alone, but first humbled himself before God in prayer.

This teaches us the importance of not merely relying on human solutions when facing dead ends or trials in life, but of adopting an attitude of ‘listening to the Lord’.

We can learn from both David and Saul.

We tend to think that a little deception or a lie is not a bad thing if there is a valid reason or if it is for someone else’s sake, but God is always sincere and faithful towards us.

Rather than changing our behaviour depending on who we are dealing with, we demonstrate our trust in and obedience to God by keeping our eyes fixed on Him at all times, ensuring there is no guilt or cloudiness in our hearts.

However, we are weak beings.

By not hiding that weakness from God, but allowing Him to see it, and by confessing our awareness of our sin, God grants us forgiveness.

We should bear in mind that our casual dishonesty might lead to serious consequences down the line.

AUTHOR'S BIO: This Gospel Reflections page is written by Masae San, who resides in Hiroshima, Japan. Masae is a dedicated student of the Bible with a deep passion for the Gospel of Jesus Christ. She shares her daily reflections on Gospel perspectives to reach out to others and spread the message of God's true love through a Christ-centered approach. We are sharing her insights here so that you, too, can experience the joy that comes from knowing and understanding the true Gospel and the love of God through Jesus Christ.