2 Samuel 21 (Part 1) Bible Study (David Avenges the Gibeonites) | Pastor Daniel Batarseh

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.

2 Samuel 21 · chapter mention

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.

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.

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

Joshua 9 · chapter mention

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.

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.

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 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?

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

2 Samuel 3:7

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.

Daniel 10 · chapter mention

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.