Dr John Woodhouse notes in his opening paragraph this section that it is one of the bible’s most difficult stories. 

It is not so much difficult to understand as difficult to hear and accept. The action involves a small number of people.

But - in Dr Woodhouse’s words - it is an account of immense personal suffering, unimaginable grief and what feels like intolerable unfairness. It is a story that will cause most sensitive readers to wonder what is going on.  And our greatest difficult is in God’s role in what happened.

There are four sections to the story.

The famine.

The conversation.

The execution

And the surprise. 

It is so emotionally gut wrenching and complex we are going to deal with it over several days.  Just the first section today.  The first two verses.  The famine. 

2Samuel 21:1-2 During the reign of David, there was a famine for three successive years; so David sought the face of the Lord. The Lord said, “It is on account of Saul and his blood-stained house; it is because he put the Gibeonites to death.”

2 The king summoned the Gibeonites and spoke to them. (Now the Gibeonites were not a part of Israel but were survivors of the Amorites; the Israelites had sworn to spare them, but Saul in his zeal for Israel and Judah had tried to annihilate them.)