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to 2 Samuel chapter 21, 2 Samuel chapter
21. And if you're using the Bible
in the chair, you'll find that on page 321, page 321. Well, let me pray, say a couple
of words by way of opening, and then we'll get to the text. Our gracious God, we give you
thanks. Lord, we delight in seeing professions of faith like we
saw tonight. Lord, we ask that you will strengthen
those young men and we pray, Father, that you'll strengthen
all the young believers in our midst. And Lord, for those who
have not made a profession of faith yet, we pray that you would
work in them and prompt them, Lord, to come forward and make
that profession. Lord, we ask tonight that you'll
bless us as we continue to look at your word. And Father, as
we open up a somewhat difficult text this evening, we pray that
we might see at least clearly the substitutionary element in
the text, that we might see Christ. But Father, we ask for your wisdom
and guidance, we pray for your help, and we ask it in Jesus'
name, amen. Well, I'm going to read in just
a couple of minutes a text that I think is, in some ways, could
be one of the hardest parts of 2 Samuel. I want you to think about what
it is that we're dealing with tonight. We've actually really
come to the end of the David story at the end of chapter 20,
and then In chapters 21 through 24, we find stories about the
life of David, but not necessarily in the order that we have been
finding them. In fact, when you look at chapters
21 through 24, it seems to have some kind of a structure to it.
For instance, you have chapter 21 and you have this story about
David and Saul and the Gibeonites. And then you have a story about,
starting in verse 15, about the giants. And then you have this
song of deliverance. And then you have, in chapter
23, David's last words. And then you have another story
about mighty men. And then you wind up with another
story about David. And there seems to be something
of a structure here. And it seems to be that this
way of doing it is sort of rounding out the story, the life of David.
For now, I want you to know that this story is one of those stories
that is fairly difficult. In some ways, it seems very straightforward. I mean, after all, we are going
to encounter the story about substitutionary atonement. In
other words, a violation has been committed. Life is exchanged
for a life. And in that sense, it's substitutionary
in character. But we also find other perplexities
in this text. For instance, we find this woman
by the name of Rizpah. And she seems to be a wonderful
mother. And what I've discovered is that she can actually take
over the story. In fact, I even named the title
of the story, A Mother's Love Tonight. But is she the hero? For instance, let me ask this.
Is the woman, Rizpah, the hero or is she a catalyst? Is she a foil for some event
in the story that is important and beyond her? That's just one
question that you might ask when you get to the text this evening.
There are some hard things about this text. And I want us to look
at it, and I want us to see the story. I want us to see some
of the complexities. and I want us to see the Lord
Jesus Christ insofar as we're able in the text this evening.
So let me have you turn with me to 2 Samuel 21 and you can
follow along with me as I read verses 1-14. 1-14. 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 on his house because he put the Gibeonites to death.
So the king called the Gibeonites and spoke to them. Now the Gibeonites
were not of the people of Israel, but of the remnant of the Amorites,
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 Gibeonites,
what shall I do for you? And how shall I make atonement
that you may bless the heritage of the Lord? The Gibeonites 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
Gibeah of Saul, the chosen of the Lord. And the king said,
I will give them. But the king spared Mephibosheth,
the son of Saul's son, Jonathan, because of the oath of the Lord
that was between them, between David and Jonathan, the son of
Saul. The king took the two sons of
Rizpah, the daughter of Ahai, whom she bore to Saul, Armani,
and Mephibosheth, and the five sons of Merib, the daughter of
Saul, whom she bore to Adriel, the son of Barzali. the Mahalathite. And he gave them into the hands
of the Gibeonites, and they hanged 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 the barley
harvest. Then Rizpah, the daughter of
Vahai, took sackcloth and spread it for herself on the rock from
the beginning of the 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 beasts of the field by night.
When David was told what Rizpah, the daughter of Ahai, 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 Jabesh-Gilead,
who had stolen them from the public square of Beth-shan, where
the Philistines had hanged them on the day the Philistines killed
Saul on 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 Saul and his son Jonathan in the land of Benjamin
in Zella, 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. Now that's quite a text. When
you think about it, it's straightforward. There was sin and there was atonement. Of course, the sin was that Saul
sought to put to death the Gibeonites. He sought to destroy those people.
And the Gibeonites understood that there needed to be atonement. And so they asked for seven sons
of Saul in order to make that atonement. And so it's straightforward
enough. There was sin and there was atonement. So we should at least get that.
But I want us to look at the text tonight, and I want us to
look at it from three different perspectives. I want us to first
of all see the purpose of the famine, Secondly, I want us to
see some of the perplexities of the story. I think it's important
that we just look at the story and see some of the perplexities
that are here, because I think it will enlarge our understanding
of the text itself. And then I want us to look at
the poor substitutes that we have here, the poor substitutes. So the purpose, the perplexities,
and the poor substitutes. First of all, what about the
purpose of the famine? The story opens in the third
year of famine. Now the question is, what year? Three years when? Three years
after the rebellion of Sheba? Is that what we're looking at?
Many scholars think that's the case. In other words, it's three
years after the rebellion of chapter 20. But there are other
scholars who say, no, it's not that time, but this is before the usurpation of Absalom. And so this story is out of chronological
order. In other words, this story is
taken and it's built in that structure-like way that I mentioned
earlier, and it's for the purpose of providing a capstone for the
David story. So this is not in chronological
order. It's not after Sheba's rebellion. This needs to be understood
having taken place before Absalom's rebellion. Now, I don't know
how we make that decision. But I have a tendency to think
that it is later and not earlier. I have a tendency to think that
it is three years after Sheba. Now, I want us to think about
that just for a minute. Because in one sense, it really
doesn't matter. In one sense, when we look at chapters 21 through
24, I think we ought to see something of a capstone to David's life.
I mean, that's what I think is here. Let me show you what I
mean by that. Just kind of follow along with
me for just a minute. When you look at this particular
story, one of the things that you discover is this. You discover
that chapter 21 has to do with the sin of Saul. And then what you find is you
find the story about the giants and then you find David's song
and the last words of David which are poetic as well. And then
you find another story about giants and then you find David. But you find a story about David's
sin. Now, when you look at it that
way, the interesting thing that emerges is that we have a story
here about Saul's sin in 21 and a story about David's sin, the
census, in chapter 24. Now, you have to ask yourself,
why in the world is that the case? Why do we have a capstone
of Saul and David and both stories are about their sin? Now, I'll
tell you what I think. I have a tendency to think back
to the very first chapter of 1 Samuel. And there I argued
that what we ought to see is Saul as something of a type of
the first Adam and David as a type of the second Adam. Now when
you see it that way, and you go all the way to the end of
2 Samuel, and you find these two figures, the type of the
first Adam and the type of the second Adam, what you find is,
you find they're both sinners. In other words, these are only
types. These are not saviors. Saul and David, if they were
going to be saved at all, need to put their faith and their
trust in the second Adam, or at least in the promises of the
second Adam to come, the shadows and the types that they saw as
Israelite people. I think that's one way to see
chapters 21 through 24. But I don't wanna get caught
up in the structure tonight beyond that. I'll say another word about
the structure of our own text when we get to the end, but let
me say something to you about the famine itself. When you open
up the story, it's kind of an interesting thing. It's the third
year of famine, and it's the third year of famine that David
inquires of the Lord. Now think about that for just
a minute. You know, year one, if you're living back in these
times and there's a famine in the land, you're praying to God
and you're pinching your belt and things like that, but it's
a famine and this is that time of year and you get used to that
to some degree. And then the second year comes
around and you say to yourself, this is second year of famine,
I wonder if something's up. And the third year of famine
hits and you go, hey Lord, Why the famine? I think you're trying
to tell us something. And so he inquires of the Lord.
And beautifully and graciously, we're told in the text that God
answers him. God tells him. This is because of Saul. You know, I want you to think
about that for just a minute. Saul had sinned in his zeal against
the Gibeonites. Think about that. Here is Saul,
he's zealous for the people of Israel and Judah, so zealous
that he disregards a covenant that God upholds. Now you have
to ask yourself, if you were standing in front of Saul, here's
this man of stature, big man, heads taller than any other man,
a man of bravado, and he's saying to you, you know what? Don't
you love the people of Israel? Those Gibeonites tricked us.
And what are we doing? Protecting them. Do you remember
when we got into a war because of them, because of their trickery?
And so this is what we should do. And you can get behind somebody
like that if you're not thinking. If you're not thinking, you can
really get behind somebody like that because of their outward
stature and because of the bravado and because of the twisted logic. But God says, you know what?
You forgot the covenant, Saul. And the covenant is a vital and
important thing. God works by covenants. And even
if that covenant was made foolishly, that covenant is a legitimate
covenant. I mean, there are many people
that enter into marriage and wish they hadn't. But you don't
say, well, it's an illegitimate covenant now, I'm just gonna
leave it. No, it's a covenant. Much like the covenant in our
text. Now, again, I want you to think about this. There's
some interesting things here. Think about the timeline, Joshua
chapter nine. When would that have been? It
would have been about the year 1400 BC. When would Saul have
violated this covenant? Probably around 1020. You know,
400 years later. And now here, we're about maybe
980-ish. Famine in the land. Saul's now
dead, and David says, God, what gives? And God says it's because
of what Saul did with the Gibeonites. Now, you
know, I would just say to you at this point, this is one of
those aside comments that we ought to hear. This is why it's
so difficult for us, if not impossible, to read off of Providence like
we can know the interpretation. Oh yeah, that happened the other
day and this is the mind of God in it. Really, can you do that?
I mean, my guess is that if you would have asked David before
this was revealed to him, why do you think this famine is happening? He would have said, boy, it's
probably something I did. You know, everything else is.
But God says to him, no, it's not because of what you did,
it's because of something Saul did. Now at that point, David calls
the Gibeonites. Now this is in one sense probably
the most straightforward part of the text. So I want to pick
up with some of the perplexities in the text now. David gathers
the Gibeonites and he asks them this. He says, what shall I do
for you? Now, you and I have been trained to be wary about
this kind of statement, right? I mean, it's true that David
inquired of the Lord and found out why it was that the famine
took place, but now, all of a sudden, David says this, what shall I
do for you? And it has an eerie sort of feeling
to it, because when Joshua was approached by the Gibeonites,
he did not inquire of the Lord and ask the Lord whether he should
have made that covenant. went ahead and made the covenant
on his own. And here David is asking the
Gibeonites, what shall I do for you? Not what can I take to the
Lord on your behalf, but what shall I do for you? And it raises an eyebrow. It
raises an eyebrow for me. And so they say to him, they
say, well, this is the problem. They actually don't start that
way. They actually say, what can we do? We're powerless. And
David says, no, what would you have me do? And they say, well,
this man tried to destroy us. And so we want seven of his children. You know, the symbolic number
of wholeness. We want symbolically to destroy
all of Saul's race. Give us seven. Now, when you think about this,
I don't know about you, but again, I look at this and I think to
myself, if this is ceremonial, I never remember a time. when God was into human sacrifice.
And so I don't look at it like that. I don't look at this like
this is a ceremonial thing. I look at this like this is David
the king. And these people are coming to him and they're saying
to him, an eye for an eye, David, you're the king, you exact justice,
and so exact justice in this case. And so David is acting
as a king. And I think we can still see
the atonement in it. But I want you to understand
something, I don't see it as fully ceremonial. David is acting
as a magistrate. And here they do, they want an
eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth. Seven sons, symbolic of wholeness
for the people that he tried to kill. And David grants the
request. Now, here's another interesting
thing. Who does he take? In this situation, how do you
decide who to take? How do you decide who's going
to be given as these seven symbolic men who will die? Well, two are taken from Rizpah.
Now, you may not remember Rizpah, but Rizpah was the concubine.
It's always the concubine, isn't it? Rizvah was the concubine
of Ish-bosheth. Ish-bosheth was the son of Saul
who had set himself up as king under the might and strength
of Abner. He was the one who opposed David when David was
made king in Hebron over the tribes of Judah and Benjamin. Now the interesting thing is
this, this woman has had a difficult life. Because if you remember
right, this is the woman that Abner decided to take. Abner
was the commander of Ish-bosheth's army, and he decided to take
this woman to be his concubine. Now, you have to realize what's
being said there. If you had the king's concubines,
it was as if you had the king's authority, his power. And so
you can rightly imagine that this would have angered Ishbosheth
and so Ishbosheth gets all angry and he confronts Abner and you
know how Abner was. Abner basically said, you will
quiet down or you will get a trouncing. And so Ishbosheth had to live
with the fact that everybody knew that Abner had his concubine
Rizpah. And so she was the symbol of
a power move. She had a difficult life. But
she was a concubine of Saul's son, at least for a time. And
then there are the sons of Merib. Now Merib was the daughter of
Saul who was originally promised to David in 1 Samuel 8. Saul
had promised Merib to David, but remember, he didn't end up
giving her to David, he ended up giving her to Adriel. And
she had sons by Adriel, and so David takes five of those sons. So he takes two from Rizpah,
he takes five from Merib, but we're told an interesting thing.
And the interesting thing is that he protected Mephibosheth. And you know, it's really interesting
how long the verse is that says this. It's a beautifully structured
verse. Now you think of that, and you
know, humanly speaking, think about it the way it is today,
right? This is an invalid. And David chose to protect him. You know, that's not the way the world
thinks. Sometimes that's not the way the church thinks. Why would you spare him? Why wouldn't you spare one of
these able-bodied people? At least they can do some work.
And here's this man who's an invalid and you're going to spare
him. And David would have said, yes,
I am going to spare him, but I want you to understand there's
nothing in him that is moving me to spare him. The thing that
causes me to spare him is the covenant. Now, right there you
can see the difference between Saul and David. For Saul, the
covenant was an irrelevant piece. You know, the zeal of the Lord
has consumed me, and I'm a man for Israel. But here is David,
who's making this choice to spare this invalid, this man of seething
dishonor who he brought to his table. And now he's choosing to save
him because of the covenant. It's a beautiful thing really,
isn't it? And one of the things that it reminds us of is that
though David sins in chapter 24 and needs a savior, the beautiful
thing about it is this, it points up the fact that the greater
son of David will not forsake his covenant toward us. in giving his son for our life. When he went to the cross in
our stead, when he bore the curse that was meant for us, God will
never forsake that covenant. It's a beautiful thing. There's another perplexity here,
though, and it's this, and the question is, what's Rizpah the
catalyst for? What's she the catalyst for? Think about it. She spreads out
this sackcloth on the rocks for a long, long time. And she keeps
the birds away from the bodies of these men. She keeps the beasts
away from the bodies of these men. And David hears about it.
And David hears about it, and he's convicted by it. And he
sends to the men of Jabesh Gilead and he says, hey look, you guys
rescued the bones of Saul and Jonathan in the day and I never
did anything about it. So I'm gonna come and collect
them now and I'm gonna take these bones of these seven men and
I'm gonna take them all and I'm gonna bury them. And I'm gonna
bury Saul and Jonathan in their family plot. Men of Jabesh Gilead
would have been thrilled with that. But I want you to notice something.
I want you to notice that Rizpah is not the catalyst for God. Yes, she stayed there until the
rains came, but notice she's the catalyst for David. And it's when David takes those
bones and buries them that God brings relief to the land. That's really interesting, if
you ask me. I want you to think about how this text is structured. Just think about it with me for
a minute here. If you look in 21.1, God is angry. But go now
to the very end of the verse, and there we find that God is
not angry, verse 14. So it starts in verse one, God's
angry. It ends with God's not angry. But then you look at verses
two through four, and it's David seeks to resolve Saul's crime,
his sin. Then if you go to verses 10 through
14, or at least the first part of verse 14, David gives Saul
a proper burial. And then if you look at verses
five through six, the Gibeonites have demands. In verses eight
and nine, those demands are met. And the very center of the text
is the story about David keeping covenant with Mephibosheth. The question I think is this,
why was God appeased by Saul's burial? Why not the death of these seven?
I mean, after all, David said, look, guys, we want you to bless
the heritage of the Lord. Tell us what we need to do in
order to make atonement. And they do. And yet, that's
not the reason why God brings relief. It doesn't seem to be
the reason for atonement. What seems to be the reason for
the atonement is what David does. Now, the middle of the text,
I think, is the important cue. It's that David kept the covenant.
You know, it's a beautiful picture, isn't it? In some ways it reminds
us of something like the Passover where David shields Mephibosheth
from a destroying angel that's going to come and deal mercilessly
with Saul's house. Mephibosheth should have been
swallowed up but he was spared. Now, if that's the case, then
it provides a wonderful picture into the works of David's greater
son, the Lord Jesus Christ. Because surely in the midst of
an evil one who would love to consume the posterity of Adam,
Jesus Christ the second Adam comes and hides us under his
wing. And he does that by having taken
the curse meant for us upon himself. Yet death couldn't hold him,
remember, and so he came back to life, he resurrected from
the dead, and so not only is his death our death, but his
life is our life. And this table tonight is a reminder
of that. We come to this table remembering
the death of the Lord Jesus Christ and one of the beautiful things
about it is that it's because of the death that we have life
in him and have it abundantly. And so tonight as we come to
this picture let's be reminded of one greater than David who
is faithful to his covenant in a way greater than David it could
ever be. Let us come to the Lord Jesus Christ. Father in heaven
thank you for the Lord for the bounty of his goodness toward
us. Lord, we ask that you would bless
us tonight as we come to this table. And we pray, Father, that
we would come recognizing that the Lord Jesus Christ is a great
savior. And so we pray these things in
his precious and blessed name. Amen.
A Mother's Love
Series 2 Samuel
| Sermon ID | 21125142332893 |
| Duration | 32:01 |
| Date | |
| Category | Sunday - PM |
| Bible Text | 2 Samuel 21:1-14 |
| Language | English |
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