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2 Samuel 21:6 "[L]et seven of [Saul's] sons be given to us, so that we may hang them up before the Lord at Gibeon on the mountain of the Lord." 

 

Saul had tried to wipe out the Gibeonites even though Israel had promised to spare them. There was a famine in David's time that God revealed was due to blood-guilt from this. David therefore asked the Gibeonites what he could do to make expiation, and this was their response, to which David agreed. (2 Samuel 21:1-6)

 

There is such a thing as generational curses, or, if that wording doesn't sit well, suffering for the sins of our fathers. Indeed, we are all affected by Original Sin which is exactly that. David didn't harm the Gibeonites, nor did the people of Israel, and the Israeli army didn't have much choice when Saul had led them into battle. So the vast majority of those suffering under this famine had nothing to do with Saul's killing of the Gibeonites, yet they are all suffering due to Saul's actions.

 

Our fathers and our leaders shape us, whether we are aware of it or not. If they impress on our conscious or unconscious mind wrong patterns of behavior, those patterns and their effects get built into our families and nations. They have to be purged in some way, and until they are the whole family suffers, even the ones who have not adopted the patterns of behavior and have done nothing wrong. God will eventually raise up someone in that family or nation who is willing to make the hard decisions necessary to purge the effects of the sin, like David, but it will not be easy, and the suffering will fall on all. 

 

In this case, though, there was a direct payment made: seven lives were given to purge the sin. These sons of Saul suffered the ultimate sacrifice for their father's sin. That is Old Testament justice - the lives of these seven, a number of completion, stand in for all the lives of Saul took from the Gibeonites. While God has not changed, and justice still requires such a sacrifice, to our incredible good fortune, we have Jesus. Jesus' life takes the place of the lives that would be demanded to satisfy justice for the sins of our fathers. This does not mean we do not suffer, but rather than our lives being demanded in payment for justice, we are granted eternal life if we accept Him and our crosses as the means of our salvation. Many do not do this, but instead seek worldly justice, which leads to much of the violence and war we see throughout history, up to and including today.

 

If we merge ourselves with Jesus, accepting Him as our Lord and Savior, we will gain the grace to carry our crosses. We will be able to withstand worldly injustices done to us by turning the other cheek. We will no longer seek the lives of others in order to be vindicated, knowing that our vindication has already occurred. It came in the person of Jesus Christ, who died on the Cross for all, even those who commit injustices against us.