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.