The Gospel in the Most Unlikely Places

This passage is a foreshadowing of what would happen in Christ. This is a gory but very clear picture of the Gospel. As Christ went to the cross as our sin-bearing substitute, He took away the guilt of all those whom He represented by the payment of a penalty. That’s expiation.

And in the process, God’s guilt was completely satisfied. That’s propitiation. There is not one ounce left of God’s wrath for those for whom Christ’s death made atonement. It has been paid in full. Saul's representatives are punished and God's wrath is turned away. That's the gospel. We were offenders and our representative was punished in our place and God's wrath has been turned away from us. Psalm 103:10-12