Tag: Kindness Duplicates Kindness - 2 Samuel 20-24

2 Samuel 21:10-14

Then Rizpah the daughter of Aiah took sackcloth and spread it for herself on the rock, from the beginning of harvest until rain fell upon them from the heavens. And she did not allow the birds of the air to come upon them by day, or the beasts of the field by night. When David was told what Rizpah the daughter of Aiah, the concubine of Saul, had done, David went and took the bones of Saul and the bones of his son Jonathan from the men of Jabesh-gilead, who had stolen them from the public square of Beth-shan, where the Philistines had hanged them, on the day the Philistines killed Saul on Gilboa. And he brought up from there the bones of Saul and the bones of his son Jonathan; and they gathered the bones of those who were hanged. And they buried the bones of Saul and his son Jonathan in the land of Benjamin in Zela, in the tomb of Kish his father. And they did all that the king commanded. And after that God responded to the plea for the land.

Tag:  Kindness Duplicates Kindness

In the beginning of this chapter of 2 Samuel we read that God has sent a famine on the land of Israel during the time of King David’s rule.   God tells David that it was because, “There is bloodguilt on Saul and his house, because he put the Gibeonites to death.”   Israel had made an ill-advised treaty with the Gibeonites when they came out of Egypt.   Deceived by the Gibeonites, they never-the-less made an agreement to let them live.  When King Saul was king he attempted to destroy the Gibeonites.  God notices when we break our vows.   This displeased God and He sent a famine on the land to punish Israel, well after Saul’s death.  David makes Saul’s actions just, but to do so, the Gibeonites want seven of Saul’s sons to die for this evil done to their people.  The above passages shows that one of the mothers of the dead sons stands guard over her sons dead body (and his brothers) to show them compassion and kindness, even in death. David sees this act of kindness and realizes that the dead body of Saul and his friend Jonathon have not been show proper respect, compassion and kindness.  As a result of this mom demonstrating kindness toward her dead son, David practices the same act of kindness. Kindness begat kindness.   When we see Christ love us unconditionally, we can see the need to love others unconditionally.   Kindness we do should and will produce kindness and acts of love in others.  Love, compassion and kindness are contagious.