Can I pray for you in any way? Send any prayer requests to faithhopegodlove@aol.com In Christ, Mark
The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.
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 king summoned the Gibeonites and spoke to them. (Now the Gibeonites were not a part of Israel but were survivors of the Amorites; the Israelites had sworn to spare them, but Saul in his zeal for Israel and Judah had tried to annihilate them.) David asked the Gibeonites, "What shall I do for you? How shall I make amends so that you will bless the Lord's inheritance?"
The Gibeonites answered him, "We have no right to demand silver or gold from Saul or his family, nor do we have the right to put anyone in Israel to death."
"What do you want me to do for you?" David asked.
They answered the king, "As for the man who destroyed us and plotted against us so that we have been decimated and have no place anywhere in Israel, let seven of his male descendants be given to us to be killed and exposed before the Lord at Gibeah of Saul—the Lord 's chosen one."
So the king said, "I will give them to you."
The king spared Mephibosheth son of Jonathan, the son of Saul, because of the oath before the Lord between David and Jonathan son of Saul. But the king took Armoni and Mephibosheth, the two sons of Aiah's daughter Rizpah, whom she had borne to Saul, together with the five sons of Saul's daughter Merab, [a] whom she had borne to Adriel son of Barzillai the Meholathite. He handed them over to the Gibeonites, who killed and exposed them on a hill before the Lord. All seven of them fell together; they were put to death during the first days of the harvest, just as the barley harvest was beginning.
Rizpah daughter of Aiah took sackcloth and spread it out for herself on a rock. From the beginning of the harvest till the rain poured down from the heavens on the bodies, she did not let the birds of the air touch them by day or the wild animals by night. When David was told what Aiah's daughter Rizpah, Saul's concubine, had done, he went and took the bones of Saul and his son Jonathan from the citizens of Jabesh Gilead. (They had taken them secretly from the public square at Beth Shan, where the Philistines had hung them after they struck Saul down on Gilboa.) David brought the bones of Saul and his son Jonathan from there, and the bones of those who had been killed and exposed were gathered up.
They buried the bones of Saul and his son Jonathan in the tomb of Saul's father Kish, at Zela in Benjamin, and did everything the king commanded. After that, God answered prayer in behalf of the land.
2 Samuel 21:1-14
This ends this reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.
Have you ever been at a place in life where you felt dried up…thirsty…in need of relief? Life’s problems can make us feel that way, especially when we are persevering through difficulty. As much as we try to sustain our faith, we still find ourselves sometimes slowly losing it as the searing rays of hardship beat down on our souls and evaporate our hope away…leaving us yearning for help and rescue.
Well, as Chapter 21 of 2nd Samuel opens, we find Israel experiencing a drought…literally. This drought bought about a deep famine that lasted “three successive years” which led King David to seek “the face of the Lord” for relief and rescue.
And as David inquired as to why the drought was so severe and ongoing, the Lord had an answer for him saying, “It is on account of Saul and his blood-stained house; it is because he put the Gibeonites to death."
Now you’ll recall that Saul wasn’t always very good at honoring and obeying God’s word and will. The case of the Gibeonites was just another example of that. For Joshua and the “leaders of the assembly” had made an oath and treaty of peace before the Lord to allow the Gibeonites to live (Joshua 9:15, 18) but Saul decided to ignore that oath and instead attacked and killed the people of Gibeon. Thus his actions had led to consequences for Israel in David’s time.
Armed with the reason for the drought from the Lord, David took positive steps to try and correct the problem and end Israel’s famine. We read where he “summoned the Gibeonites and spoke to them” asking, “What shall I do for you? How shall I make amends so that you will bless the Lord's inheritance?" David’s question shows us that the ball was clearly in the court of the Gibeonites with no limiting conditions applied.
And so the Gibeonites answered David’s questions by telling him what they would accept as compensation for Saul’s wrongs. They told him, “We have no right to demand silver or gold from Saul or his family, nor do we have the right to put anyone in Israel to death…but "as for the man who destroyed us and plotted against us so that we have been decimated and have no place anywhere in Israel, let seven of his male descendants be given to us to be killed and exposed before the Lord at Gibeah of Saul—the Lord 's chosen one."
Note here that the Gibeonites don’t ask for anything that isn’t connected to Saul, the one who had committed the war crimes against them. And David vows to honor their request by giving the Gibeonites seven of Saul’s male descendants…two sons that Saul had with his concubine Rizpah (Armoni and Mephibosheth…not Jonathan’s crippled son who David had vowed to watch over) as well as the five sons of Saul's daughter Merab. The seven men were “handed…over to the Gibeonites, who killed and exposed them on a hill before the Lord…during the first days of the harvest just as the barley harvest was beginning”. The restitution had been made and after David ensured the slain men were given a proper burial along with the bones of Saul and Jonathan in the tomb of Kish, Saul’s father, scripture tells us that “God answered prayer in behalf of the land” and ended the drought and famine.
Through David’s actions, we see where we need only inquire from the Lord as to what He requires and then do it, in order to find our way out of difficulties in our own lives. For the answers to life’s questions are all found in Him…the Fount of all wisdom and knowledge…the Author of our salvation…the Maker, Keeper and Sustainer of our souls. The Lord and the Lord alone brings rain down onto our dryness when we go through tough times and ends our personal droughts, breaking our respective famines and bringing release and relief.
Consider these words from prophet Jeremiah:
Do any of the worthless idols of the nations bring rain? Do the skies themselves send down showers? No, it is you, O Lord our God. Therefore our hope is in You, for You are the One who does all this. Jeremiah 14:22
Satan is good about getting God’s people to seek for help in times of trouble from anything or anyone else but the Lord…and all too often, we fall into that trap. But friends, God’s word is truth and the truth is that we can’t find rain to moisten our dried out souls and reinvigorate our hope from anywhere else except from the Lord…the One who does this and so much more…the One we need to always keep our hope in.
And when we do, the Lord promises to break the drought in our lives and restore us, just as He did David and Israel. I’ll close with these words of God from Isaiah:
“You heavens above, rain down righteousness; let the clouds shower it down. Let the earth open wide, let salvation spring up, let righteousness grow with it; I, the Lord, have created it.” Isaiah 45:8
Let us pray this day and ever more that the Lord rain down on us when we are going through trouble…that He break the droughts that will come in our life by sending showers of righteousness upon us to “let salvation spring up” anew…just like the sprouting of the plants that broke Israel’s famine.
God is ready, able and willing to help us in difficult times. He IS our ever present help in times of trouble...the only One through which we have hope…the only One who can break the droughts of life and restore us over and over again. Amen.
In Christ,
Mark
PS: Please share this with anyone you feel might be blessed by it.
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