Human Sacrifice? (2 Samuel 21)

I hope nobody glazed over this little gem of a story. The Gibeonites wanted to kill 7 men from Saul's family as revenge or atonement for Saul having virtually wiped out their family/tribe (2 Sam 21:5-6). They arrived at this brilliant idea as a way to stop a 3 year famine that had been plaguing the land. Sounds like crazy "pagan" superstition to me.

From v.14, "After that, God answered prayer in behalf of the land." God didn't seem to object to this or try to stop it. Actually, it was acceptable to him because he apparently ended the famine afterward.

Thoughts?

God and David (2 Samuel)

David sees Bathsheba - "Heeeey, how you doin'?"

David amazes me that way he maintains his humility and respect for God despite his power and influence. I'm sure that's a big part of why he and God had such a good relationship.

I found a couple of peculiar (interesting) things about the way God dealt with David though. So after David breaks 2 of the 10 commandments (don't covet your neighbor's wife and don't murder), God punishes him by killing his baby? Granted there's a certain poetic justice in not letting him keep the child from the illicit union, and David accepted it as such. But it's still seems odd to think of God disciplining in that manner. Especially since then, God goes on to not only allow them to have another child, but then that child (Solomon) becomes king and comes to be regarded as one of the wisest men to ever live. Just an interesting mix of harsh consequences, grace and love in this story.

To be honest, a lot of what is attributed to God in these stories seems like superstition; like people trying to make sense of good and bad events by saying God did it because it was deserved because of this or that. I know that's a cynical outlook, but then how do you make sense of good things happening to bad people and bad things happening to good people. Do you attribute it all to God specifically blessing and cursing individuals? Are people dying of AIDS in Africa because God's upset with them about something? I don't know. Would love to hear thoughts...

Judges: Jephthah

Judges 11:30-31:

And Jephthah made a vow to the LORD: "If you give the Ammonites into my hands, whatever comes out of the door of my house to meet me when I return in triumph from the Ammonites will be the LORD’s, and I will sacrifice it as a burnt offering."

Then who comes out of his door when he comes home in triumph? His daughter. Ugh! What a knucklehead! What kind of a moron makes a promise like that? I can only guess that in that time it was typical to keep animals in the house and he must have expected a goat to walk out the front door. But it was still a house. Obviously a person could just as easy be the first thing out, right? Really bizarre story.

The other interesting thing about it is that it doesn't say that God tried to stop this sacrifice in any way. I had some hope that, like in the case of Abraham and Isaac, God might step in and say, "Hang on. Don't really do it. Here's a ram instead." Or something like that.

I'm just not even sure what to do with that story. Why is it in there? The author makes no comment on the event one way or the other, which doesn't help.