Rizpah

She did it by refusing to move.

Her name was Rizpah.

And for roughly six months, through the scorching heat of a Judean summer, through nights filled with the sounds of prowling predators, in the presence of a horror most of us cannot even imagine, she kept a vigil on a lonely rock in Gibeah.

What she was guarding and why is one of the most haunting stories in all of scripture.

The famine, the Gibeonites, and the seven men hanged on a hill before the Lord.

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If the story of a forgotten mother who moved a king deepens your faith, subscribe, leave a like, and tell us in the comments: Which silenced woman of the Bible do you believe deserves to be remembered? Our story begins not with Rizpah, but with a crisis.

Second Samuel, chapter twenty-one opens with these words.

He doesn't give him Mephibosheth.

He gives them five, um, adopted sons of Michael, who are s- they're therefore the adopted grandsons of Saul, and two sons of Saul's concubine Rizpah, and hangs them for ...

And, and remember in those days they didn't hang them, take their bodies down, and bury them.

The bodies were hung there to decompose in the noose.

So they wanted everybody to see them.

And Rizpah, one of the most astonishing and heroic stories in the Bible, she goes out there and camps underneath those dead bodies of her sons.

And all day and all night she drives away predatory animals, nocturnal animals, and buzzards.

She drives them away month after month after month.

There is someone we must see in this text, a woman who holds this hard story to the grounds of life.

Her name is Rizpah, a name you may be hearing for the first time today, a name you will remember from now on.

So let's listen so we might see her.

She will not let us move on easily.

Although the people of Israel had sworn to spare them, Saul had tried to wipe them out in his zeal for the people of Israel and Judah.

David said to the Gibeonites, "What shall I do for you? How shall I make expiation, 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 anyone to death in Israel." He said to them, "What do you say that I should 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 handed over to us, and we will impale them before the Lord at Gibeon on the mountain of the Lord." The king said, "I will hand them over." 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 son of Saul.

The king took the two sons of Rizpah, daughter of Aiah, whom she bore to Saul, Armoni and Mephibosheth; and the five sons of Merab daughter of Saul, whom she bore to Adriel son of Barzillai the Meholathite.

He gave them into the hands of the Gibeonites, and they impaled them on the mountain before the Lord.

Therefore, David said to the Gibeonites, "What shall I do for you? And with what shall I make atonement that you may bless the inheritance of the Lord?" And the Gibeonites said to him, "We will have no silver or gold from Saul or from his house, nor shall you kill any man in Israel for us." So he said, "Whatever you say, I will do for you." Then they answered the king, "As for the man who consumed us and plotted against us, that we should be destroyed from remaining in any of the territories of Israel, let seven men of his descendants be delivered to us, and we will hang them before the Lord in Gibeah of Saul, whom the Lord chose." And the king said, "I will give them." But the king spared Mephibosheth, the son of Jonathan, the son of Saul, because of the Lord's oath that was between them, between David and Jonathan, the son of Saul.

So the king took Armoni and Mephibosheth, the two sons of Rizpah, the daughter of Aiah, whom she bore to Saul, and the five sons of Michal, the daughter of Saul, whom she brought up for Adriel, the son of Barzillai, the Meholathite, and he delivered them into the hands of the Gibeonites, and they hanged them on the hill before the Lord.

So they fell all seven together and were put to death in the days of harvest, in the first days, in the beginning of barley harvest.

Controversial from today's standards, no doubt.

Here we find a punishment that a generation after the perpetrator is now being killed.

What do you think about that? I would love to know in the chat.

Verse 10, "Now Rizpah, the daughter of Aiah, took sackcloth and spread it for herself on the rock from the beginning of the harvest, or beginning of harvest, until the late rains poured on them from heaven.

And she did not allow the birds of the air to rest on them by day, nor the beasts of the field by night.

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 Aiah, whom she bore to Saul, Armoni and Mephibosheth, and the five sons of Merab the daughter of Saul, whom she bore to Adriel the son of Barzillai the Meholathite.

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 harvest, at the beginning of barley harvest.

Then Rizpah the daughter of Aiah 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 beasts of the field by night.

When David was told what Rizpah the daughter of Aiah 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.

One thing I've, uh, learned through reading in, uh, 2 Samuel, there's a story.

It talks about Rizpah.

She was a concubine of King Saul.

Yeah.

Oh, yes.

And so God had to send a famine on them.

So, uh, the, the boys were killed, and Rizpah would stay there all night with sa- uh, I think it's sackcloth.

Is it-

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 Aiah, whom she bore to Saul: Armoni and Mephibosheth; and the five sons of Merab the daughter of Saul, whom she bore to Adriel the son of Barzillai the Meholathite; 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 harvest, at the beginning of barley harvest.

Then Rizpah the daughter of Aiah 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 beasts of the field by night.

When David was told what Rizpah the daughter of Aiah, 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 Zela, in the tomb of Kish his father.