2015-04-03
Good Morning Dear Ones,
As we already know, covenant partners share the same ideals, friends, and enemies. When wrongful agreements are made, there are covenant consequences for the parties involved. We saw this in last week’s message regarding the Gibeonites, who worked a ruse against the Israelites. And today, we will look at consequences to David due to Saul’s activities against the Gibeonites before him. 2 SAM 21: 1-2, “During the reign of David there was a famine for three successive years; so David sought the face of the Lord. The Lord said, ‘It is on account of Saul and his blood-stained house; it is because he put the Gibeonites to death.” The Gibeonites were not part of Israel, but were survivors of Israel’s enemies, the Ammorites. Saul wanted to annihilate the Gibeonites and nearly did. You’ll remember that my examination of Saul’s behavior toward the younger David, who had been both a harpist in the former’s court and later a very effective leader of his army, led me to theorize that Saul suffered some form of mental illness. He was at times attempting to kill David, after chasing him all over the countryside, and at other times, offering David friendship.
David was left with a decimated Gibeonite population at the time the wrongful covenant had been made with his army leaders. He asked the Gibeonites, “How shall I make amends, so that you will bless the Lord’s inheritance?“ (3). The Gibeonites realized they had no right to ask Saul or his family for money, or to put anyone from Israel to death. Instead, they asked for seven of Saul’s descendants to be given to them to be put to death and exposed for the Lord at Gilbeath (6).David spared Mephibosheth, the son of Jonathan, and gave over Armoni and Mephibosheth (son of a different relative), two sons of Aiah’s daughter, Rizpah, and five sons of Saul’s daughter Merah. Rizpah had given birth to her two sons by Saul. These seven people were put to death during the first few days of the barley harvest. Rizpah mourned openly by donning sackcloth and ashes, and the seven corpses were exposed on a hill before the Lord (8-10).
Once David knew what Rizpah, Saul’s concubine, was doing, he took the bones of Saul, Jonathan, and those who had been slaughtered at Gilboa [1 SAM 31: 1-13]-and hung at Jabesh Gilead in disrespect and buried them secretly in the grave of Kish, Saul’s father at Zela in Benjamin. After that, God answered prayer on behalf of the land [2 SAM 21: 11-14]. David had come a long way for the better from his checkered past --in honoring His covenant with the Lord. David’s decision to spare Mephibosheth, son of Jonathan, was due to the covenant he had with his father.
We must recognize that God supplies those who are faithful to Him. RO 8: 31-32 is part of a chapter that is a real spiritual gift from God to us. “What then shall we say in response to this? If God is for us, who can be against us? He Who did not spare His own Son, but gave Him up for us all—how will He not also, along with Him, graciously give us all things?” Kay Arthur, a very thorough Bible teacher, tells the story of political dissidents deep in Romania during the Communist Era. These people were banished and starving to a small village. “Golden Throat,” an evangelist was with them. As one knows, winters in the Soviet territory are brutal, and it was winter at the time this incident took place. Russian soldiers should have delivered bread to this village, but at that pre-Christmas evening, they got drunk and didn’t do it. So the dissidents went to bed hungry that night after saying MT 6: 9-13 [The Lord’s Prayer]. After they went to sleep, there was a loud knock on the door. A hand appeared with a loaf of bread. God provided! We can believe Christ’s own words in JN 6: 47-48, 50, “I tell you the truth; he who believes has everlasting life. I am the Bread of Life…But here is the Bread that comes down from heaven, which man may eat and not die.”
New Segment: Road to Redemption-1
There is a Biblical truth that we must believe, which is eloquently stated in PS 111: 9, “He has sent redemption to His people; He ordained His covenant forever; holy and awesome is His name.” Think about this: this truth is given in the OT long before Jesus Christ was ever on the scene in form where mankind could recognize Him! This God-forged plan of salvation is by no accident; it’s laid out logically, step by step, in the order God intends. We are very much on God’s heart, and mustn’t forget that our names are printed on the palms of His hands [IS 49: 18]. Wow! If that doesn’t get our attention, then nothing can. God’s beautifully gracious, generous, and loving heart is all over this. In GN 15: 17 when the Covenant of Abraham was consummated, it was God alone walking between the pieces of sacrificial flesh and not Abraham. This tells us that He initiated the covenant and reached out to mankind first, not the other way around. God provides for His people and offers us blessings. And to think, all we have to do is to repent of our sin and believe in His Son!
PRAYER: O Lord, we come before Your mighty throne with heads bowed, on bended knees, and arms up, as if in the shape of the Hebrew letter, tzadi צ . This is our way of expressing the reverence and awe we have for You. Dearest Abba, You are a miraculous Provider, supplying us with all our needs—physical, emotional, intellectual, and spiritual. PS 13: 5-6, “But I trust in Your steadfast love; my heart shall rejoice in Your salvation. I will sing to the Lord, because He has dealt bountifully with me.” Today, we offer You our utmost praise, loyalty, thanks, and honor for giving us immediate and constant access to You and Your intervention, through Your word and prayer. We discover through our experiences with them, that You grow us in our maturity and knowledge of You, while at the same time providing, healing, protecting, and claiming ownership of us [PS 121: 1-3; PS 71: 20-21; PS 91: 14-16; EPH 1: 13-14]. You knew that from the time of the original sin [GN 3: 1-6] that we would need redemption. Your word is a love letter to us, as we began to see in GN 3: 21, “The Lord made garments of skin for Adam and his wife and clothed them.” This happened just before their expulsion from the Garden of Eden for knowing good and evil. For an animal skin to have been available, blood had to have been shed. LV 17: 11 and HE 9: 22 reveal that there can’t be forgiveness without the shedding of blood. Your loving heat is revealed in the promise of future forgiveness for sin that is in GN 3: 21. We see that You have told us what will happen over mankind’s history even further back in the Scriptures, GN 3: 15. “And I [God] will put enmity between you [the serpent] and the woman, between your offspring and hers; he will crush your head, and you will strike his heel.” Careful reading of that verse tells us that evil will eventually be cut off. PS 97: 10, “The Lord loves those who hate evil; He protects the lives of His people and rescues them from the wicked.” We thank and praise You for Your wonderful attributes, lessons in how to love, intervention in our lives, and for our salvation/forgiveness. This prayer is offered in the holy/mighty name of Jesus Christ. Amen.
David was left with a decimated Gibeonite population at the time the wrongful covenant had been made with his army leaders. He asked the Gibeonites, “How shall I make amends, so that you will bless the Lord’s inheritance?“ (3).The Gibeonites realized they had no right to ask Saul or his family for money, or to put anyone from Israel to death. Instead, they asked for seven of Saul’s descendants to be given to them to be put to death and exposed for the Lord at Gilbeath (6).David spared Mephibosheth, the son of Jonathan, and gave over Armoni and Mephibosheth (son of a different relative), two sons of Aiah’s daughter, Rizpah, and five sons of Saul’s daughter Merah. Rizpah had given birth to her two sons by Saul. These seven people were put to death during the first few days of the barley harvest. Rizpah mourned openly by donning sackcloth and ashes, and the seven corpses were exposed on a hill before the Lord (8-10).
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