There was a time when King Saul tried to commit genocide and wipe out the Gibeonites. From what I could tell, they did not fight back, nor did they complain directly to anyone about their case. It would also seem that they may very have committed their lives into God’s hand for it was God who sustained and protected them from the beginning of their relationship with Israel.

Whatever was the case, God had their back and because restitution had never taken place, God took it upon Himself to set the situation right. One to acknowledge it and secondly to have some sort of reimbursement take place. To get King David’s attention, there was a famine in the land for three years and so in David’s prayer walk, he decided to check out whether this was because of a sin Israel had committed.

Sure enough it was – unjustified murder and the breaking of a covenant set up with God and the Gibeonites was the cause.

I love that God speaks for them. I love that they were rewarded with honour for leaving everything in God’s hands. I love that they actually became judges in their own case and a blank slate was given to them to write their demands on. Remember in Job how God would not forgive his friends unless Job prayed for them? The prayers of the poor and despised matter.

During David’s reign there was a severe famine which lasted for three full years. So David consulted the Lord about it, and the Lord said, “Saul and his family are guilty of murder; he put the people of Gibeon to death.” So David summoned the people of Gibeon and said to them, “What can I do for you? I want to make up for the wrong that was done to you, so that you will bless the Lord’s people.” Then they buried the bones of Saul and Jonathan in the grave of Saul’s father Kish, in Zela in the territory of Benjamin, doing all that the king had commanded. And after that, God answered their prayers for the country. – 2 Smuel 21: 1, 3, 14 GNT

“Packer’s exposition of the Lord’s Prayer is perhaps the most accessable and concise contemporary one available.” Timothy Keller: Packer, J. I. – Listening to Pray: The Lord’s Prayer