Today's Favorite Verse: 2 Samuel 21:1, 3

Today's Favorite Verse: 2 Samuel 21:1, 3
"Then there was a famine in the days of David three years, year after year; and David inquired of the LORD. And the LORD answered, It is for Saul, and for his bloody house, because he slew the Gibeonites.
Wherefore David said unto the Gibeonites, What shall I do for you? and wherewith shall I make the atonement, that ye may bless the inheritance of the LORD?

As I read this I wondered if the sins of Saul would really fall on David and his people? Why was the famine not in Saul's time. Why would David have to atone for something Saul did? As I pondered this I read this in the Old Testament Student Manual.

"Did God Require the Sacrifice of Saul’s Sons to Alleviate the Famine in the Land?
“This terrible episode must have been done in [the] days of David’s spiritual deterioration. The law would have not permitted sons to be put to death for the guilt of a father or a forefather. It cannot have been a revelation from the Lord that either required or approved this deed done ‘to avenge the Gibeonites’—some of whom Saul had slain in spite of the ancient promise of Joshua that they might live in Israel.
“It is a pathetic picture to envision the innocent mother of innocent sons guarding their bodies from the birds and beasts; and it is repulsive to read that after all this was done ‘God was entreated for the land.’ This is apostate theology, comparable to that of the Canaanite-Baal religions.
“The text is somewhat corrupted too, and the name Michal must be a mistake for Merab, for it was Merab who married Adriel. If it is indeed Michal, David’s wife and Saul’s daughter, who is meant, this is a very bitter ending to their relationships as man and wife.” (Rasmussen, Introduction to the Old Testament, 2:40.)
(Old Testament Student Manual, "2 Samuel 13-24: The Price of Sin: Tragedy in the House of David")

"The fathers shall not be put to death for the children, neither shall the children be put to death for the fathers: every man shall be put to death for his own sin."
(Deuteronomy 24:16)

"So ye shall not pollute the land wherein ye are: for blood it defileth the land: and the land cannot be cleansed of the blood that is shed therein, but by the blood of him that shed it."
(Numbers 35:33)

Day 3840