Do you have your Bibles with you?
I hope you have the word of God with you, and if you do, please
meet me in Second Samuel chapter 21.
I'm not sure if you realize, but there are three chapters left to
the study, 3 chapters. Left until we pause and pray and
consider where the Lord will take us next.
But when you come to chapter 21, we're not going to read right
away, because I want you to see something quite interesting.
Within these three chapters, you actually have three sets of
three different themes. And so the best way to really
show it to you is to have you follow along with me.
Look at chapter 21 very briefly. What you'll notice in the 1st 14
verses is the theme of divine discipline.
And then you go to chapter 24 and what will you see?
David census his error in doing so.
And we're going to explore that in great detail.
Why was that? God brought about judgment for
his senses. But again, we have the theme of
divine discipline on the outskirts of these three
chapters. And then you come to the second
part of chapter 21, and what will you notice here in verse
15, down to the completion of this chapter?
You will have a brief tribute of some of the soldiers in David's
army. What will you notice in chapter
23? You'll notice there in the
second part. A tribute to some of David's
mighty men. So on the outskirts you have the
theme of divine discipline. You come closer, you have the
theme of tribute to David soldiers.
And then you come to the you come to the source there in the
core. And what do you have?
Well, look here at Chapter 22 in the first part, and you have
David's song of deliverance. And what do you see there in the
first part of chapter 23? Yet another song.
Again, the outskirts, divine
discipline. Following that, you have a
tribute to some of David's men. And then at the core you have
two of David's psalms living side by side.
What are we to make of this? A simple observation of the
beauty of God's word. This is just symmetrical art.
The Bible is not just random information being stuffed
together. There was thought behind this,
and more importantly, it's divine authorship.
And so we even see a beauty in this final collection of
chapters in our study. But what's more beautiful is the
substance, what it is that we are going to read today as we
deal with the first part at the end of this book.
And what we will face. Today's is a heavy text, but
nonetheless a very crucial and important text.
Many lessons to learn in this example of divine discipline.
And so let's read together in the first few verses of chapter
21. Now there was a famine in the
days of David for three years, year after year.
And David sought the face of the Lord.
And the Lord said there is blood guilt on Saul and on his house,
because he put the Gibianites to death.
So the king called the Gibianites and spoke to them.
Now the Gibianites were not of the people of Israel, but of
the. Remnant of the Emirates.
Although the people of Israel had sworn to spare them, Saul
had sought to strike them down in his zeal for the people of
Israel. And Judah and David said to the
Gibianites, What shall I do for you, and how shall I make
atonement, that you may bless the heritage of the Lord?
The Gibianites said to him, It is not a matter of silver or
gold between us and Saul or his house, neither is it for us to
put any man to death in Israel. And he said, What do you say
that I shall do for you? They said to the king, the man
who consumed us and planned to destroy us, so that we should
have no place in all the territory of Israel.
Let seven of his sons be given to us, so that we may hang them
before the Lord at Gibia of Saul, the chosen of the Lord.
And the king said, I will give. Them Lord, we ask that you would
give us the Spirit of wisdom and revelation.
In light of this specific text, may there be no confusion.
May there be no intrusive thoughts that would rob us of
the treasures that you have for us in every line of this
chapter. May we become more acquainted
with your ways. May this chapter pull us closer
into intimacy with your Son, the Lord Jesus Christ.
And as our sister prayed, may there be a special grace and
empowerment. In the delivery and the
reception of this word, your word says that the anointing
that abides in us teaches us, and we want to know what that
anointing can offer us, that anointing that has been
purchased by Christ and made available to all of his
children. We give you glory and honor and
thanks for the study in advance. And the precious name of Christ
we pray. Amen.
Now there was a famine in the
days of David for three years. A famine.
That we are not sure when exactly took place, but it was a
famine that for three consecutive years happened.
And what we see here right from the beginning is that David
seeks God in prayer. He realizes what's happening in
the nation and his response seems noble.
He pauses, he pulls away, he comes to meet before God and he
says, what is this all about? Is this something to praise in
David? You can say yes, but I would say
yes and no. David does the right thing in
praying. But consider and read carefully
of when he chooses to pray. When does he choose to pray?
After how long? Three years?
After three years of famine? He then chooses.
To seek the face of God. Now, some attempt to justify
David's lack of praying here or delay and praying by saying that
he was simply waiting and and trying to discern whether this
is a natural cause or there's a spiritual implication behind it.
But when you when you take David's behavior here and you
put it on the backdrop of of Scripture, namely the Law.
You would realize that there is no weight in justification for
David's lack of praying or delay in praying.
Let me prove that to you very quickly.
Go to Deuteronomy 11 and I want you to see a couple of verses in
verse 13. This is one of God's promises,
his conditional promises to the people before they entered into
the very land that experienced this famine centuries later.
The Lord is speaking here in Deuteronomy 11 and notice what
he says in verse 13. And if you will indeed obey my
commandments, that I command you today to love the Lord your God,
and to serve Him with all your heart and with all your soul, He
will give rain for your land in its season, the early rain, and
the later rain that you may gather in your grain, and your
wine and your oil. There is a connection here
between God's pleasure over His people and their experience of.
Economic prosperity. That was the unique relationship
that Israel had with God at this time.
And so there is no question that there's a spiritual implication
behind this famine. This famine is indicative of
some kind of violation that took place between the covenant that
God had made with this people and David, who was a king, not
just the king of king, instructed in the same book,
Deuteronomy 17 to know the law to have a copy of in his own
hands. And to read it day and night, he
should have known that the fact that we have not seen rain means
that something has gone wrong on our part.
God is obviously trying to get our attention, and we failed to
take heed. David, as a leader, failed to do
so. And and this teaching goes
beyond being acquainted with the word of God, right?
You have the full copy of God's revelation.
You must seek to master His Word from cover to cover.
But there's another lesson here, and it's a reflection of our
human nature. There are some people who, by
the grace of God, know how to abide in the place of prayer
when all things go well, right? There are others who only visit
the closet when things don't go their way.
And then there are others who only pray when things go very
bad. Very bad, because some people
think they're smart. Some people think they're clever
when things kind of take a different turn or turbulence
comes. They think they're in their own
wisdom and strength, that they can deal with it.
But when things increasingly become worse and all your ideas
and plans don't seem to go forward, then you hit the ground
praying. And that's what David is
demonstrating here. It's not until three years past
where he begins to seek the Lord.
And that's unfortunate because that is not the way to utilize
the gift of prayer. You see here, by the grace of
God, that even after three years the Lord answers.
Think about that. You allowed an interval of three
years, and the moment you choose to humble yourself and to see
God, he still is willing to hear you and answer you.
That's the grace of God. It's never too late to restart.
It's never too late to take your spiritual disciplines seriously.
It's never too late. It's been three years, 10 years,
6 conferences, 11,000 Sunday services, 10,000 Bible studies,
and you still haven't changed. When you change, God is ready to
receive you. Three years go by and this man
prays and God will say where you been for the past three years?
You know what? Why don't I wait three weeks and
then I'll get back to you. Let's Let's be fair here.
No, He answers him right away. And yet it makes you wonder, if
God was willing to answer him after three years, wouldn't he
have answered him if he prayed in year one?
And if that is true, then how much trauma, loss, pain,
suffering, affliction? David could have been preserved
from if he had chosen to simply pray, to seek God.
Remaining in prayer assures us safety from unnecessary trials
and self-inflicted pain that famous him right.
And so we see here that David unfortunately prays.
Too late. But the fortunate thing is that
he prays nonetheless. And I can't help but think of 1
specific exhortation in a New Testament where we are.
Promised that if you are enduring something and you pray,
God will give you the wisdom you need to know how to navigate
through it. Do you know which reference?
I'm Speaking of James 1/5. What is the command and the
promise in James 15, if any right, if any of you lacks
wisdom? Let him ask God, who gives
generously to all without reproach.
That's wonderful, because there are some people don't feel
worthy to come to God and to ask him to receive something.
And James assures you, he gives to all without reproach, without
reproach, and it will be given him.
Now we take that verse out of its context, and we just
rehearse it and quote it and preach it, and it's a wonderful
principle. But it's a principle tied to a
specific context. In what context is James saying,
if you ask God for wisdom, he'll.
Give it to you. Good, you said it.
And you're right. When you meet trials of various
kinds, so the understanding there is when you meet trials,
your reflex must be I must meet with God.
I must meet with God, because one of the pains of trials.
Is that it comes with difficulty and cause us to wonder, how do I
handle this? And James by the Spirit assures
you, if you do know how to pray in those moments, God will give
you His mind and how to understand the nature of this
trial and how to most redemptively make the best of
this trial. And I've seen that in so many
scenarios. I've talked to mothers who have
children who go in and out of jail, who want to come back home
and they say, brother, what do I do?
And James would say seek God for wisdom.
Every case is different and there are people in ministries,
and I can attest to this, that deal with issues that I'm
telling you seminary and no theological book can prepare you
for. Our sinful nature is very
creative and coming up with issues.
Where do I go? James says seek God for wisdom,
and he will give it to you. He'll deposit it in your mind.
He'll put something in you that you can't find on your bookshelf
that you can't get from your professor, that even perhaps
your pastor might not be able to guide you in, but God will.
Don't doubt it. Come to him.
That's exactly what David does. He doesn't understand what's
going on here. Is this a test?
That God wants me to endure? Or is this something that I must
combat with my faith and overcome it with my trust in the
Lord? He seeks the Lord he should have
known better, but he seeks the Lord.
He at least does that, and God answers him and God tells him
What is the reason for this famine says that here there's
blood. Guilt on that.
On Saul and on his house. We haven't heard from Saul for a
while. Right?
Here he is again. What's happening here is because
of what Saul has done at some point in his life, and what Saul
has done is that he put to death some of the Gibianites.
Now, if you're a student of the Old Testament, you should be.
Concerned. In fact, you should be shocked.
When were the Gibianites introduced to us in the Old
Testament? Who remembers?
Very good Joshua. Now let me take it to the next
step. What chapter in Joshua?
Oh, very good. Somebody prepared for this Bible
study? Yes.
Any teacher will be thrilled to know that the people that he's
teaching no Joshua Chapter 9 and the story is very familiar to
us. I hope, Josh, when the
Israelites come in their campaign to take over the land
of Canaan because it was a promised land and these
Gibianites have studied what's happening here.
These are people of a connection to the true.
Living God and wherever they go they succeed.
We have no chance. And these Gibianites were
numbered among the Canaanites, and so they were also.
Call to face the same faith of absolute eradication.
And they did not want that. And So what do they do?
They come to Joshua and the leaders, and they tricked them.
They tricked them and make them believe that they were from a
distant country, distant land, and they want to come into
covenant with them. And after some clever
presentation, Joshua and the leaders were told, did not seek
the Lord. And so they were deceived and
that they didn't make a covenant with these people and that
covenant entailed. That these Gibbonites would live
among them and would be untouched for the rest of their
days. And that obviously went against
what God intended for the Canaanites, but the covenant was
so binding that it was to remain forever.
Even in the days of David. And what you have with Saul
instead is that for centuries this was honored, The Gibbonites
were at peace. And live peaceably among the
Israelites. And then Saul became king.
Saul becomes king, and he attempts to.
Absolutely rid these people from the land.
This guy bugs me for different reasons.
It really just shows how twisted and gross his disobedience was.
I mean, it was bad enough from what we saw in First Samuel.
Then you come to Second Samuel. And you get just another insight
of just how rebellious he really was.
When God told Saul kill all the Amalekites, did he obey?
No, he didn't. He kept some.
And when it came to the people that through covenant were
protected, Saul tries to kill them all.
What's wrong with you? And we look at this and we think
to ourselves, there's obviously something twisted about this
man, and that is true. But this says also something
about the Lord, because the Lord here shows just how much he
takes seriously the principle of covenant.
This promise was made hundreds of years before Saul's day, and
any oath, any agreement, any promise that was made, matters
to the Lord. So what do we learn from this
concerning God? He takes our words seriously.
He does any commitment. Anything that you sign on a
dotted line, anything that you. Confess with your mouth anything
that you say, do perform. That comes with your word, your
yes or your no. It really matters to God.
And so this is really a warning to us.
We may forget, we may ignore, we may neglect, we may dishonor.
God doesn't. But with this warning, you have
a word of comfort, deep comfort. Think about it.
If this is how God upholds covenant, then you have no
reason to fear concerning your assurance in Christ Jesus.
Absolutely no reason to doubt that if Christ comes tomorrow or
500 years from now, he will not forget.
Nor will he dishonor his promise concerning you because of his
faithfulness. Yes, Hallelujah.
Indeed, I don't have to lose one wink of sleep.
Wondering if God is going to change His mind.
I can be sound in my sleep. I can be sound in my mind.
I can be filled with worship and praise every second of my
existence for one sole reason God keeps.
His word, when he says it, he means it.
But man is so different. And though we don't understand
the clear motives of Saul and going after the Gibianites, we
get a little hint. I don't know if you caught it,
but come here quickly with me. At the end of verse two says
although the people of Israel had sworn to spare them, Saul
sought to strike them down in his zeal for the people of
Israel and Judah in his zeal for the people of Israel and Judah.
Now remember what was Saul's excuse and First Samuel 15 when
the prophet confronted him about his disobedience concerning the
Amalekites. Here's one of his.
Excuses. I listened to the people.
The people convinced me.
Keep the sheep, keep a gag as a trophy and all will be well.
And he did. And he paid for it.
And what was his reason? And coming after the Gibianites?
The same reason to impress the people.
His zeal for the people caused. Them.
To violate a covenant, an ancient one, and it would cost
the nation living for the opinions of men is a sure method
of spiritual suicide. You live for people.
You have a passion for what people have to say about you or
don't say about you. Disobedience is inevitable.
See, Saul's problem was that his zeal wasn't for God.
If his zeal was for God, then he would have punished the
Malachites and protected the Gibianites at all.
This is yet another reminder of how deceptive our emotions can
be. He was enthusiastic, he was
passionate about this cause, and he interpreted his feelings and
allowed it to filter to determine what was right and
what was wrong. Emotions can do that.
And it doesn't matter how emotionally invested you are in
a person or in a thought or a conviction or an idea, your
emotions do not validate the cause.
They don't. And how important is this in
light of our day, where we are now in a culture that is pushing
for this notion that if you feel strongly about it, that it must
be right? As long as you feel strongly
about it, then we will accept it and we will.
That's the path that we're on. Thank God we still have some
same people, but the trajectory is proving otherwise.
We're losing a grip on simple, right and wrong.
But let's let's let's take it beyond just just that.
Let's, let's zoom in here. How true is Saul's attitude in
day-to-day things? day-to-day things, we commit to
a ministry. And then you no longer feel
passionate about the ministry, and so you just pick up and move
on. You were so in love with her,
right? And your ceremony was so
spiritual, and it was so Spurgeon asked.
When you made your vows beautiful, people were crying
and it looks so awesome and it sounded so romantic, but you
just don't feel like you're in love anymore.
And so divorce is very attractive now.
She Saw's problem was his feelings completely ignored the
principle of covenant. And people are doing the same
today, whether the zeal is there or the absence of zeal, and that
determines what you do with your.
Promises. That's contrary to the nature of
God. That's contrary to the calling
of the people of God. That your yes be yes and your no
be no. I thought about that Jesus.
What Jesus? Meant by that is you don't need
to attach with your with your yes and yes.
I promise I'll do it. I promise I won't do it.
Your yes should be enough. Your no should be enough.
That should be the level of integrity that we should strive
for in the Spirit. So Saul had a zeal, and that
zeal let him in the wrong direction, but he justified it
because it just was so there, present and powerful.
And it let him into disobedience.
Your feelings can do that. And so we come here and what do
we see? David confronts to give you
nights. He calls them over and he asked
them, OK, this has been made known to me.
What do we do about it? And before we look at this
interaction. Did anybody think to themselves,
where were the Gibianites to begin with?
What I mean by that is, why didn't the Gibianites initiate
this case for retribution? Where were they for all this
time? Saul had long passed.
David was king for quite some time.
You would think that once David took his place that they would
have been there in line to say, hey David, I'm not sure if you
realize what Saul had done, but we have a problem here.
Can you help us? None of that happened.
David is the one initiating it, David is the one approaching
them, and the Gibby Night seem to have just held their peace
for all this time. And there is no explanation for
their silence. But it makes you wonder, based
on what you see about their character in this interaction,
if they had just paused and waited and trusted in the
sovereignty of God, I wonder. This is just speculation.
This isn't dogmatic, but I wonder.
If they give you nice just allowed God to deal with their
offense, Maybe they cried out to him.
It's not indicated. They trusted in God's vengeance
for sure. And God did come to their aid.
He brought a famine. He brought a famine and it got
the people's attention. And again, look here at their
character when the opportunity comes their way, look what they
said in verse 4. The giving night said to him it
is not a matter of silver or gold between us and salt or his
house. Neither is it for us to put any
man to death in Israel. There's two things that are
being said here. Look, you can't give us any
amount of money to make up for this and we're not looking to
make any money out of this. Secondly, we recognize our place
in this nation because remember. When they made that treaty with
Israel, they didn't have the same status as the people of
Israel. They were servants.
They carried water and they cut wood.
We have no civil rights in this. We can't put anyone to death.
And So what I take from that is these people did not exploit the
situation. They didn't say, oh, this is our
chance to get money, this is our chance to get rich, this is our
chance to get some revenge, to give them a taste of their own
medicine and put some of their own to death.
No, these were people who had integrity and we're not
vengeful, nor were they greedy. They said we're not looking to
take advantage of this time. So that says something about
their nature, that says something about their heart
posture. But then David asked then what
do you want? And this is what they asked.
Give us seven of Saul's sons. Let us hang them.
Now that.
Further confirms something about their wisdom, One they asked for
Saul's sons. To be hung by their own hands.
I think that's a detail that we can't miss, because I think they
had this understanding that if David were to perform this, that
it could have added more fuel to the fire between the feud of the
dynasty of Saul and David's dynasty.
And they didn't want that. We'll take care of it.
There's wisdom there. Secondly, these Gibianites,
though, not Israelites. We're among the people of Israel
long enough, I believe, to be familiar with some of God's law.
Let's hang them. Now, why that form of execution
out of many forms of execution that were available in that
time? Any idea?
Yes, that's right. Somebody said it.
And Deuteronomy 21, we're told in verse 22 that if anyone
committed a crime that was worthy of death, they were to be
hung before the Lord. And in that hanging.
There would be a display demonstration of divine
displeasure. This person has been cursed by
God, and the people understood that by doing this they were not
only seeking some kind of retribution for themselves, but
they were going to satisfy God's justice, and so they wanted to
perform this particular legislation, this particular
punishment. And David understood what they
were saying. He says.
You know what? It's yours.
But here's what we might consider a philosophical debate,
or theological one, although there is such an obvious array
of wisdom and fairness and grace.
Is it just for Saul's? Sons to receive capital
punishment for Saul's sin. Because there are some who go to
the extent of saying that this story is really about how David
was in the wrong and instead of seeking God, he sought the
council of these Gibianites. And in doing so he killed
innocent men. Because the sons are not
supposed to pay for the sins of their father, right?
That is in Deuteronomy. So what do we have here?
Do we have David who is mistaken or do we have something else?
Any ideas? Was it right for Saul sons to
undergo this punishment? Yes.
Right. So there are consequences of
sins from especially parents, anybody in authority?
Yes, absolutely. There is that principle of
consequences going beyond your own life.
That's. Throughout the Word of God, yes.
OK, so verse 14, how the people prayed.
And so you're saying that it wasn't necessarily David's
dealing with the Gibby Knights, but the people's prayers that
brought about OK Was it right for Saul's sons to receive
punishment for what happened? What seems to be Saul's sin?
OK. So there's something about God's
approval of what taken place that seems to validate what
happened. OK, I understand your answer and
that's a good point. That's a good observation
because if God did end up giving rain, then there's no error
here, right? Let's see.
Yes, yes, seven is a significant number, number of completion.
It gets into the OK, so you're talking about the glory of God,
where it's told that those who hate him, they will be visited
in the 3rd and 4th generation. Is that you're speaking about
Yes. Yes.
Yeah, that's that's that's one answer that people would allude
to that God's. Recognition of Saul's hatred
again back to our sister point. Affected generations after.
Yes, you have one more answer. Maybe 2.
And then we'll move forward. Yes.
Blood guilt. So life and life, right?
Eye for eye, tooth for tooth, foot for foot.
OK. So the nation is that guilt
here. It's not necessarily a
particular person. OK, one more and then we're
going to have to move forward. Brother George, did you have
something or were you scratching your neck earlier?
No answer. OK, we'll take it for Lori.
Very good and perfect segue. How do we know that it wasn't
just Saul? What we do know and that, and I
think it's just careful reading that eliminates philosophical
debate and speculation and more than that, even wrong
interpretation. Go back to verse one.
Read it carefully now. There was a famine in the days
of David for three years, year after year, and David sought the
face of the Lord and the Lord said There is blood guilt on
Saul. And who?
And on his house, not just Saul, but it's household, you see now
careful reading. And on his house the sons of
Saul were not guilty merely by association, but because of
participation. On some level they were agents
of destruction against the Gibianites, at least in part.
And David here, receiving this proposal is not just
subjectively trying to deal with this issue.
I believe, at least in this part, he is in perfect alignment
with the law and another law. So let me read this to you.
And if you're writing notes, you can write down this reference in
numbers 35 and Numbers 35 we read here.
In verse 33, the Lord speaks you shall not pollute the land in
which you live in Numbers 3533, for blood pollutes the land.
And no atonement can be made for the land, for the blood that is
shed in it, except by the blood of the one who shed it.
So there is no violation of the law.
There is no contradiction. There is no neglect.
There is perfect alignment, Saul and his household.
There's blood, guilt on them. And because the land has been
polluted by blood, it demanded the lives of those.
Who shed that blood? And that is what we have up to
this point. So we addressed briefly the
silence of the Gibianites. But there is another silence
that we have to address. We talked about why it took
David to come to the Gibianites for this to happen.
But here's another question. Why did God wait so long?
Why didn't he make this known?
Why didn't he let a famine happen in the days of Saul?
Why at this point? With David at this time, with
the nation at this point in history, why?
Any idea? And listen before you answer
that you can think about it and apply it in your own life, in
your own observation. How is this person committing
such evil and they still get away with it?
How are they still prospering? How is that ministry still
standing? How are their doors still open?
And there's so much false doctrine, there's so much sexual
sin, there's so much meddling with the funds.
How? How are they still standing?
How can a nation still be a nation, still be in the top
three super powers of the world and legalize and promote such
perversion and push God out of their schools and push God out
of their government? How?
Any idea?
I'll give you what I believe. It's a hint there in the Book of
Revelation. It's in chapter 2 when the Lord
speaks to one church, and in that address you have.
And insight about how God deals with man's sin.
Look there in chapter 2, verse 20.
There is a woman in this church and she's referred to as
Jezebel. Not the Jezebel that you read in
Kings, but one who imitates Jezebel and her rebellion
against authority in her attempt to be authoritative and to lead
people into sin. And the Lord speaks.
He writes a letter to this church and he says there are 220
revelation. But I have this against you.
That you tolerate that woman Jezebel who calls herself a
prophet test and is teaching and seducing my servants to practice
sexual morality and to eat food, sacrifice to idols.
Look at verse 21, the first few words.
I gave her time to repent. I gave her time to repent.
Why does the Lord allow this prophet test to preach this
false teaching and to lead people into sin?
Why didn't God just strike her down right away?
Why didn't God close the church down?
Because I gave her time to repent.
Why didn't God strike Saul down? Why didn't he bring a famine and
days of Saul? I believe because he gave the
household of Saul. He gave the nation of Israel
time to repent and they didn't take advantage of that time.
Just like sinners today, sinners take that silence from heaven
and allow it to just feel them to sin even more.
It's unfortunate, isn't it? But here it is.
God finally brings discipline because again, he doesn't
forget. Man may forget and the time is
up, and time will come up for every single person.
And so we see here that once David deals with the Gibianites,
and we just settled the matter that this is not any
confliction, there's no any confliction with the word of
God. We move forward in the selection
of the men. Look here in verse 7, verse six
rather. He says I will give them verse
7. But the king spared
Mephebisheth, the son of Saul, son Jonathan, because of the
oath of the Lord that was between them, between David and
Jonathan the son of Saul. Isn't that wonderful?
What a contrast between these two leaders.
You have Saul, who had no regard for a promise, and then yet you
have David, who kept his from Mephebisheath.
Covenant with Jonathan that his descendants would not be hurt,
they would not be touched. And when it came to the
selection, when it came to possible judgment coming to this
household, the Fed Bechet was spared.
We were told here that he would evade judgment.
You have a shadow of the gospel here.
Is it not clear? the Fed bechet was associated
with a guilty family and because of an oath that he had this only
covenant that would have spared him because that covenant was
made. He was able to escape the
judgment that finally came. It's no different than you and
I. You and I are associated with a
guilty family, the human race, son and daughter of that rebel
Adam. But because of your covenant,
not with David, but the son of David, you will be spared.
And what I love about this picture of Mephebuscheth is that
the scene before this, that the last time we see Mephebuscheth
and David, David and Mephebuscheth had an encounter.
Mefebachev was accused by Ziba for being disloyal to David.
He was a traitor, apparently, according to Ziba's words, he
betrayed you. And yet, despite the
accusations, his status remained the same.
David did not change his promise to Mefebachev, though there was
an accuser that convinced them otherwise.
It is the same for you and I in Christ.
Satan will accuse you. Do you realize right now that
one of the things that Satan is doing while you're doing your
own thing is trying to convince God the Father that you're not
worthy to be saved day and night, He accuses the brethren.
That person got baptized, and he promised to never watch
pornography again. And there he is.
He. He's your son, Huh?
You're going to let him in? Is that really how your justice
works? And then Satan comes to you and
he tries to convince you something wrong about the
Father, like he's such a liar. Look at you.
You think God's going to love you?
I think God's going to hold on to you.
You're a mess. How many times are you going to
pray about this? You realize how holy he is.
You realize he's not going to really tolerate this.
But the picture we have. Here is, despite the accusation,
despite the demand for your life, his word remains it will
prevail, and that's the comfort you and I have.
But unfortunately, not everybody lived under that blessing.
And so you read in verse eight of the victims.
Not really victims of the ones who deserve to be punished.
The king took two sons of Rispa, the daughter of Aya.
Whom she bore to Saul, Armoni and Mefebachev.
A different Mefebachev. And the five sons of Mira, the
daughter of Saul, whom she bore to age-old, the son of Barzalai
and Mihola fight. So seven were chosen. 2 of them
came from a woman named Rispa. According to Second Samuel 3
verse 7. Rispa was one of Saul's
concubines. That's important.
And then you come here and you realize that 5.
Came from Mirab, the daughter of Saul.
Now some of your translation might read what not Mirad,
Mikhail. Now the reason why some
transitions have Mirab is because there are different
manuscripts that identify this person differently.
Mirab is the other daughter of Saul, not the one that David
married. Mikhail is the one that David
married. And there is an explanation here
if whether it's Mirab or Mikhail.
If it is Mikhail, the problem is Mikhail could not have children.
You guys remember that she could not bear children, but the
transition would read that Mikhail perhaps reared she
adopted the kids of her sister. Something must have.
Happened to her sister Mirab, and she raised them up herself.
She almost adopted them. That's if you have the Mikhail
transition, right? Mirab here.
They're basing it off other Hebrew manuscripts that would
identify her. And that makes more sense
because she was the one who was married to a Joe, the son of
Berzalai. Regardless, the seven have been
determined and will be executed. And that's exactly what happens.
Verse 9. And he gave them into the hands
of the Gibianites, and they hang them on the mountain before the
Lord, and the seven of them perished together.
They were put to death in the first days of the harvest, at
the beginning of barley harvest. I'm surprised the chapter
doesn't end there. I'm surprised the story doesn't
end there. They were hung.
It's over. Move on.
But instead, you and I are brought into a very sad scene.
It's heartbreaking. It's tragic, actually.
Instead of just concluding that the Lord honored this and then
he made it rain and then you move on.
We have a very descriptive scene of RISPA.
There have been many books written about Woman of the
Bible, many blogs written. Personally, I've never
encountered anything mentioning this woman and what she
displayed in her character. Let's read it and you'll get how
dark it is just by my simple reading.
Then Rispa, the daughter of Aya, 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 beast of the field
by night. That's a tragic sight.
Here you have a mother who already lost so much of her
security when Saul killed himself.
Right. If there's any security left in
her life, it's through her sons. And now that's taken from her.
It wasn't easy to be a widow. It wasn't easy to be a widow
with no one to take care of you, and the next person to take care
of you would be either Redeemer or your own children.
And all of that is taken from her right?
And the impression that you get from this verse is that she
decides to make her home at this atrocious.
Despicable sight. While her sons are there
technically being crucified, not in the Roman way, but hanging
there day and night, she sought to preserve them from being
further defiled. And so you can just imagine that
she's there. Throughout the day, in the
blazing Middle Eastern sun, she would stand and keep her post so
that whenever any bird would fly on the shoulder of one of her
sons, she would try to shoo them away.
I want you to imagine and feel how she would lay on that rock
in the coldness of the night while her clothing would be wet
from the dew and she would be awakened midnight at the sound
of dogs attempting to rip a limb off of that tree from one of her
sons and her fearlessly getting up and shooing them away,
chasing them off. This is the kind of life that
this woman lived for. Days, weeks and some even
believe. Months.
You're going to find out that what was left of her son's was
just bones. So they were there for some
time. Their flesh rotted, their organs
dissipated, and they were just left with bones.
And she guarded them and she watched over them, and she was
under severe surveillance night and day.
And what do we make of this? Like why are we told that she
did this? Why is that even important?
I mean, you can just write it off and say, well, all the Holy
Spirit really wants us to do is just get another glimpse of the
ugliness of sin, the brokenness of our world.
Here you have a mother who in a, in a sense, almost lost her mind
because all her loved ones experienced these tragic deaths,
the closest people to her. And here she is abandoned and
alone almost in hysteria. But there must be more than
that, and I believe there is more than that.
I believe that the best way to look at this is to understand it
again in in the light of the law of God.
The law of God. Because I believe what we have
here is more than just a woman who is displaying her love for
her children in a very public way.
I believe you have a woman here who is displaying A perseverance
that proves to us that even a poor woman.
Can move the hand of a king. Deuter Army 21, verse 22 tells
us that if anyone commits a crime that is worthy of death,
he used to be hanged on a tree, but that's not the completion of
those instructions. Does anyone remember what else
is to be done if someone were to be hung on a tree?
Very good in Deuter Army 2123. Let me read it to you.
His body shall not remain all night on the tree, but you shall
bury him the same day. For a hangman is cursed by God.
You shall not defile your land that the Lord your God is giving
you for an inheritance. So yes, hang him on a tree.
But in order to not defy the land even further, remove him
from the tree. Is that what happened with the
sons of Rispa? No.
Weeks go by and they're they're rotting, and I wonder why.
I'm under the persuasion that the Gibianites didn't really
know any better. Remember, David handed them off
to them. They hung them and they kept
them. But Rispa knew better.
And so this woman, I believe, comes to this place and she
desperately seeks to protect her children in order.
To honor them the way God would have honored them in that sense
and honored the land she defends, She protects, she
overseas and she was powerless. I mean, who is this woman to
remove them from the tree? Who is this woman to to to make
this happen? And so she does the best that
she can and she just chases away the animals.
That would try to bring about more dishonor to these precious
boys of hers. And her commitment to that, more
than just grief, her commitment to that was so obvious, was so
persistent, was so unbroken that it came to David's attention.
And when David learned about what risk I was doing, he
realized what they had not done. And he makes it a mission of his
to not only take the bones of Rispa's sons, but to go after
Saul and Jonathan's bones and to give them a proper burial.
Why, as an expression of honor in that culture, more than that,
to be in alignment with God's heart and will and law.
I look at this woman and I think to myself, if the perseverance
of this woman was able to stir a forgetful.
Inattentive, sinful king, How much can you and I expect from a
God who is perfect in all of his ways?
You know, there's some people who pray, There's some people
who walk in faithfulness, and they wonder how long will this
take before I get God's attention?
God, if you can only tell me how much of prayer, how much of
obedience, how much of my participation?
We'll finally get you to look at my situation and to bestow favor
upon me. You have some people who think
like that. They think like the pagans.
That's how Pagans think. Let let's beat our chest.
Let's bruise ourselves, let's starve ourselves until we
finally get Bow's attention right.
That's what the face off on Mount Carmel was all about.
And Elijah's like. Maybe your God is sleeping.
Maybe he's on the toilet. He said that, not me.
And unfortunately, we can translate paganism into our
theology because it's human nature.
And this woman here displays such brilliance in her
perseverance, and it encouraged us to do the same.
But not to expect what she finally realized that, oh oh,
really? Rispa is doing that?
Well, we got to do something. I can't believe it.
We How did we miss that? That's not how God works.
There are so many examples I I can point to This one example
came to mind, and I'm not biased.
His name is Daniel, and there's one little insight in Daniel's
prayer life that touched me so deeply because it helped me
realize how prayer works or how God hears prayer.
There was a point in Daniel's life where we're told that he
prayed for three weeks, he fastened and prayed for three
long weeks, and at the end of three weeks an Angel appears
with a revelation. That would actually give him
insight into the last days. But when the Angel appears, he
says something that was not just true for Daniel, it is true for
the prayerful St. of this hour. Now I want to show it to you so
that you'll never forget it, so that you'll never pray the same.
You'll never think about prayer the same way again.
It's in Daniel chapter 10 and it's found there in verse 12.
And notice what is said to him. Daniel 1012.
Then he said to me, Daniel writes.
Fear not, Daniel, for from the first day that you set your
heart to understand. And humbled yourself before your
God. Your words have been heard from
the first day heaven heard you. But when was his prayer
answered? 3 weeks later.
But from the first day, he was heard.
Can you imagine that? Think about that.
If that wasn't there, we would have thought that after three
weeks, finally Daniel was able to break through and get this
busy God's attention and to get a appointment with his ear.
That's how we think about God. No, we're told through this the
moment that you set your heart to humble yourself and to seek.
My face, I heard you. I heard you.
And in my wisdom, I don't answer right away because there's a
development of your faith in this.
But in this context, it wasn't because of that necessarily.
It's because of the warfare that took place, Satan trying to
interfere with the revelation that was trying to come to
Daniel. But I pray that you would never
forget that truth. From the moment that you set
your face to seek his, God hears, there's no doubt.
How comforting is that? That it's not prayer attempt 96
that's going to grow through as though some divine lottery that
we just throw things in the air and one thing will be caught by
the Lord eventually. If I keep doing it, that's not
how it worked. From the first moment I can, I
can be so at peace knowing, Lord, I know I might be at at a
while doing this. I know that I might be.
Here seeking unite after night. But one thing I am comforted by
is that you know. You see, you hear?
You've already taken into consideration from the first
time, the first time. What kind of God is this?
It's our God. What kind of king is this?
It's our king. Not like David, who learned from
some messenger that Rispa was there indirectly protesting what
is taking place is injustice and wanting her sons to be buried
properly. He sees right away.
And so finally. We won't read it.
Why not? Verse 11.
When David was told what Rispa, the daughter of a I, 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 Jay
Besh Gilead, who had stolen them from the public square of Beth
Shan, where the Philistines had hanged them on the day of the
Philistines killed Saul and 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
solemn his son Jonathan in the land of Benjamin and 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. There's something about that
last phrase that's worthy of meditation.
In this concluding sentence you have a very another very
important truth about how prayer works in the economy of our God.
And after that, God responded to the plea for the land.
There was a plea for the land that God did not respond to
until something took place, namely the dealing with Saul Sin
along with his household God. Would not recognize the plea
until the sin was dealt with. When sin is tolerated, prayer is
obstructed. When sin is tolerated, prayer is
obstructed, the Psalmist said. If I had cherished iniquity in
my heart, the Lord would not have listened.
If I cherished iniquity in my heart, the Lord would not have
listened. And so yeah.
In Daniel's case, you see that he sought the face of God, and
the first moment he did, God hurt him.
But if you want one way for God not to hear your prayer, not
that he can't hear, but that he chooses not to recognize, it's
to lovingly hold on to sin and expect the privilege of prayer
at the same time. Just won't happen.
And in this case, here we see a very important, timeless truth.
As long as sin is ignored, as long as sin is tolerated, you
will not know prayer. And here's how I'm going to
conclude the Bible today. I hope you didn't fall asleep.
I know it's late. But let me give you a pressing
question in in pressing love. And I thought about this in
meditation. I looked at it, and this went
through my mind. What do I believe about prayer?
What do I believe about prayer that would make the possibility
of not experiencing its promises a great enough motivation for me
to forsake sin? Does that make sense, or was
that a mouthful? What do I personally, through I
hope the Word of God, believe about prayer that the
possibility of not experiencing its promises would be enough of
a motivation to forsake sin? Or is prayer in the peripheral
of my reality? That the threat of God
confiscating the promises tied to it not bother me?
That makes sense. A good father.
A good mother. And one of the ways that they
would discipline their children would see something that that
child might enjoy in light of disobedience in order to teach
them something about the consequences of disobedience.
Now if my father told me, son, because of your attitude on the
dinner table, there's no dessert for you, that would upset me.
It would upset me, especially if I had to sit in another room and
see my siblings devouring chocolate fudge sundae.
But if my father came to me and said, son, because of your
disobedience, you're not going to have broccoli tonight, all
right? Woe is me.
No broccoli tonight. It's a very silly analogy, all
right, but sometimes simplicity helps.
You have some people who view prayer as a chocolate fudge
sundae. You have others who see prayer
as cold broccoli, and so they're able to live without it.
My friend, if you're able to live without prayer, I have many
questions for you. Serious questions, but one thing
I am convinced of. Of a person who can consistently
go without knowing the promises and pleading with the Lord is
that you don't know what prayer is all about.
What what what? We're in your history with the
Lord. What is it about your life that
you can say if it wasn't for prayer, if it wasn't for prayer,
then if it's not prayer for today?
These things would change. This is what would change about
me, certainly. So the Lord, as a loving father,
would not respond to their plea until that sin was dealt with.
And once that sin was dealt with, the heavens opened again
and He was willing to heal their land.
I hope that you would live in such a way where prayer as Cory
Tanboom would say. Prayer is either the steering
wheel of your life or it is a spare tire.
It's the last resort. It's your emergency call.
But for some, it's the very thing that helps you, guides
you, directs you, leads you, empowers you, strengthens you.
There's so much more to say in these verses, right?
But we will have to wait till next week.
If the Lord wills, let's pause our hearts again and pray.
Lord, tonight we thank you that even in a very dark chapter in
David's life and the life of the nation of Israel, we have felt
the warmth of your rays of wisdom, truths about your
nature. And Lord, we just ask that our
hearts, as our brother open the surface with our hearts would be
softened even more. And we ask, oh God, that
whatever point resonated with us would not be ignored, but it
would be applied. Father, we pray that you would
receive the necessary worship as a response.
More than just a song, more than just emotions being stirred.
Help us be a people who keep their promises.
Help us in days where we doubt where we stand with you, your
promises. We remember that you were not a
forgetful king. Lord, we look at Rispa and we
see a woman who is willing to fight and stay until what she
believed to be true would come to pass.
And it did. And Lord, we just even lift up
parents. Now who would apply the same
tenacity of this woman, not for the dead, but for the living,
spiritually speaking, the vultures and the creatures of
the night that seek to defile our children?
May you give mothers and fathers the stamina and the insight and
the grace to shield their little ones.
And Lord, we just want to give you glory tonight.
We want to extol you and exalt you.
Every word in this book has been given, Lord, for our
sanctification, and we felt it tonight.
And we want to thank you for it. In Christ's name.
Amen. Amen.
Why don't we do that? Why don't we worship the Lord?
Give him glory.