2 Samuel 19-21: God's Will Be Done

The first thing of note here in this part of 2 Samuel is how even years after his death, Saul's sins continue to plague his family.  David has Saul's remaining progeny (save Miphiboseth) crucified to appease the Gabaonites, who demanded satisfaction for Saul's injustices done against them.  This speaks to the severity of Saul's sins and the gravity of God's justice.  It is a sobering lesson for all of us, to avoid sin, to keep God at the center of our family, lest temporal punishment be visited upon our descendants.  

Of note also is the fact that we see crucifixion as a mode of punishment 1,000 years before the crucifixion of Jesus.  I never realized how far back the practice went.  The specifics of how people were crucified doubtless changed much over time (even as far back as Deuteronomy 21 there is mention of people hanging from a tree in a manner some think was an early form of crucifixion).  The descriptions of Respha keeping "beasts" and "birds" away from the bodies of the crucified would indicate that the crosses were much lower to the ground than they were in later times.  Crucifixion was seen in Ancient Rome as a particularly ignoble way of dying, and we see here the implication is the same.  The Gabaonites were incensed at Saul's ruthless and savage betrayal and slaughter of their people, and they wanted the deaths of Saul's descendants to be as severe and as humiliating as possible, thus crucifixion was clearly the manner of death most fitting.  The fact that Jesus Christ, God as Man, came to be put to death in this most degrading way, shows us just how ruthless and savage our sins against Him are.   

Another powerful image from this Chapter is when, after the men had expired on their crosses, "water dropped upon them out of heaven" (2 Samuel 21:10).  This can be seen as a sign of God's appeasement (and a foreshadowing of Jesus's crucifixion and God's appeasement 1,000 years later).  As hard as it is to read of people, seemingly innocent, being put to death in this manner, David is subjecting himself to God's Will, as mysterious and difficult as it may be.  God's justice is done.  Rain falls and things are set right.  May we receive it in all humility.