RIZPAH'S HOPE FOR THE STRUGGLING ONE
September 23, 2001 am
MF Blume
2 Samuel 21:1-6 Then there was a
famine in the days of David three years, year after year; and David enquired
of the LORD. And the LORD answered, It is for Saul, and for his bloody house,
because he slew the Gibeonites. And the king
called the Gibeonites, and said unto them; (now the Gibeonites were not of
the children of Israel, but of the remnant of the Amorites; and the children
of Israel had sworn unto them: and Saul sought to slay them in his zeal to
the children of Israel and Judah.) Wherefore
David said unto the Gibeonites, What shall I do for you? and wherewith shall
I make the atonement, that ye may bless the inheritance of the LORD?
And the Gibeonites said unto him, We will have no silver nor gold of Saul,
nor of his house; neither for us shalt thou kill any man in Israel. And he
said, What ye shall say, that will I do for you.
And they answered the king, The man that consumed us, and that devised against
us that we should be destroyed from remaining in any of the coasts of Israel,
Let seven men of his sons be delivered unto
us, and we will hang them up unto the LORD in Gibeah of Saul, whom the LORD
did choose. And the king said, I will give them.
2 Samuel 21:8 But the king took
the two sons of Rizpah the daughter of Aiah, whom she bare unto Saul, Armoni
and Mephibosheth; and the five sons of Michal the daughter of Saul,
2 Samuel 21:10-14 And Rizpah
the daughter of Aiah took sackcloth, and spread it for her upon the rock,
from the beginning of harvest until water dropped upon them out of heaven,
and suffered neither the birds of the air to rest on them by day, nor the
beasts of the field by night. And it was
told David what Rizpah the daughter of Aiah, the concubine of Saul, had done
. And David went and took the bones of Saul
and the bones of Jonathan his son from the men of Jabeshgilead, which had
stolen them from the street of Bethshan, where the Philistines had hanged
them, when the Philistines had slain Saul in Gilboa:
And he brought up from thence the bones of Saul and the bones of Jonathan
his son; and they gathered the bones of them that were hanged.
And the bones of Saul and Jonathan his son buried they in the
country of Benjamin in Zelah, in the sepulchre of Kish his father: and they
performed all that the king commanded. And after that God was intreated for
the land.
Let us delve into this story and the lesson we can derive from it a little
more this morning.
- Last week we noted that Rizpah's sons were those fathered by
wicked king Saul.
- And his actions in slaying 85 innocent men caused a curse on
the land that wound up being resolved by slaying seven of Saul's sons.
- Their death was by hanging.
Hanging always points to the cross of Jesus Christ in some measure in these
OT stories, for the Old Testament is the New Testament concealed.
- And when Christ died, the things in our lives that cause a cursing
to be removed.
- I concentrated upon a person's determination to understand why,
by looking to the cross.
- But today the Lord would open up the mystery as to how to deal
with sins after we are saved.
Saul's wickedness led to his failed suicide attempt in Mount Gilboa.
- We read that after his attempted suicide, an Amalekite found
him still alive and rendered him his deathblow.
- Upon discovering his body and those of his three sons laying
on the ground, the Philistines beheaded him, took the four bodies to Bethshan
and hanged the body on the wall.
- Note that Saul's body was left hanging.
- Eventually, people of Jabesh-gilead stole the body of Saul from
the wall and burned it and buried the bones beneath a tree.
Saul was hanged.
- Being wicked and coming down to his end in a way that was obviously
a reaping for his evil sown in his life, his hanging tells us of a great
truth we must understand in the Gospel story of Jesus Christ.
- Jesus Christ was crucified, hanged on a an old rugged tree, called
the cross, because of the wickedness of mankind.
- He took upon Himself the penalty and suffering that every single
human being was destined to fulfill due to their sins.
- And this gives rise to the powerful words of the Apostle Paul:
Romans 6:6 Knowing this,
that our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed,
that henceforth we should not serve sin.
Our old man was crucified with Christ.
- Our wicked lives and the old existence we lived without God
in a world of iniquity...
- All of that was crucified with Jesus Christ.
- Looking at our old citizenship in Adam's race, God called our
old lives the OLD MAN.
- The old person we used to be before we, who are Christians,
were born again, living the life of the NEW MAN, was slain with Jesus on
the cross.
- It was not one man who died on that cross.
- It was every person who wanted to be set free from the sinfulness
of being a part of a world who walked away from God, and become a child of
God with a brand new start in a brand new life...
- With slates washed clean and iniquities of the past forgiven
and forgotten by God, Himself....
- My voice sounds in synch with Paul's who said, "I am crucified
with Christ, and I live; yet not I..."
That cross of Jesus done away with my old existence.
I am not the same Mike Blume I was once.
This Mike Blume is of the citizenship of Heaven.
- The old Mike Blume died with Christ on His cross, and is buried
in the tomb of Jesus.
- The New Mike Blume came into existence in Christ's resurrection
from the dead.
Saul's hanging represents the demise of the old man.
As we read 1 Samuel 31, we come across this information.
1 Samuel 31:2-6 And
the Philistines followed hard upon Saul and upon his sons; and the Philistines
slew Jonathan, and Abinadab, and Malchishua, Saul's sons.
And the battle went sore against Saul, and the archers hit him; and he was
sore wounded of the archers. said Saul unto
his armourbearer, Draw thy sword, and thrust me through therewith; lest these
uncircumcised come and thrust me through, and abuse me. But his armourbearer
would not; for he was sore afraid. Therefore Saul took a sword, and fell
upon it. And when his armourbearer saw that
Saul was dead, he fell likewise upon his sword, and died with him.
So Saul died, and his three sons, and his armourbearer, and all his men,
that same day together.
Recall that not only did Saul die, but as a father, Saul died along with
his three sons.
- They died that day together.
1 Samuel 31:6 So Saul
died, and his three sons, and his armourbearer, and all his men, that
same day together.
There seems to be special stress put upon the fact that they died the same
day together.
If Saul is the old life we lived, the old man, then Saul's three sons would
speak to us of the offspring of the old man.
- They are the works of the flesh.
- They speak of the sinful activities and the sinful habits
and sinful indulgences we were involved with, that died the same day the
old man died on the cross.
- All these were hanged together in Bethshan.
My grandfather's conversion is a classic example of how God can take your
old habits and problems and have them slain simultaneously with your old
man, all hanged on the cross of Jesus Christ at the same time when one first
finds salvation.
- My grandfather was an absolute alcoholic.
- He was widely known for his addiction to liquor.
- Mom says his liquor addiction eventually eroded away their
considerable little treasure of wealth invested in two farms.
- And watching his livelihood dwindle away due to the bottle,
grampy could not give up the habit.
- But when he found an old-fashioned Pentecostal church that
offered him a time of repentance at an old-fashioned altar, grampy was filled
with the Holy Ghost and as tongues of another language he never learned came
out of his mouth, that alcoholic addiction came out of his life!
- Saul, so to speak, died that day and so did the
sons of Saul named alcoholism and addiction.
However, as we come to the part of the legacy of Saul's demise in Rizpah's
story, where seven other sons of Saul, who were still alive after Saul's
death, were the cause of a famine in the land of Israel, we come to a message
that seems to be a hand reaching out to those with a problem after salvation.
- If Sons of Saul who were slain the same day as Saul speak
of habits and problems of the flesh removed upon our salvation, then the
sons of Saul who continued after his death and those of their siblings represent
those CARRY-OVER habits and problems from our lives without God on into our
Christian lives.
Church, you may have experienced immediate deliverance from some habits or
problems when you were first saved by the blood of Jesus.
- But don't look down your nose upon those who claim to have
been born again and still struggle with some of those same habits after their
salvation.
- There are some things all of us were immediately delivered
from when we were first set free from sin.
- The same day our old man died, so did many other works
of that old man.
- And if the truth be known, all of us possess some carry-over
problems that remained plaguing our lives after we were saved up until today.
- With some, it may be the sort of addictions from which
my grandfather was immediately delivered.
- You might have been immediately set free from those kind
of things, but you may have a carry-over in some other areas of your life
such as a bad temper, or a stubborn attitude.
- Whatever the case may be, there is hope for the works of
the flesh that have been carried over into our new lives from our old.
- --Anything that's in your life from which you did not enjoy
deliverance when you were saved.
- Rizpah's story gives us that hope!
Like these seven other sons of Saul, these problems in our lives cause us
to miss the blessings of God.
- God held back rain for three entire years due to Saul's
mischief in years gone by.
- Saul was dead, himself, but his house was called bloody.
- Justice was not fully met.
- And similarly, these problems we still battle with are
from the old life of Saul.
- And they must be removed.
Are we not saved if these children of Saul are still around?
- Does this mean that habits from before salvation actually
render what we thought to be salvation to not be so at all?
- Did we not change?
- Yes we were really saved.
- The old man was crucified with Christ.
- The old king of "RUNNING OUR OWN LIVES" was crucified.
Does this mean the cross cannot solve everything?
- If the cross did not wipe out those habits when I was first
saved, along with other habits and problems from which I was immediately
set free, does that mean the cross is not the answer for everything?
- ...that something else is required?
- Does the finished work of the cross mean that whatever
we are set free from when first saved is the ultimate the cross can accomplish?
- Its finished at that point?
- Our lives that continue to struggle were not conquered
by the cross, and we are beyond hope past that point?
- NO!!!!!
Please notice that Saul and his three sons wound up being HANGED.
- That speaks of the cross.
- AND THE SEVEN OTHER SONS OF SAUL, WHO LIVED ON PAST THE
HANGING INTO THE YEARS AFTER, WERE ALSO DEALT WITH BY THE SAME MEANS!
- HANGING!
People, the same cross that slew the old man and his three sons right from
the start of your new life, is the cross that will also take care of the
remaining sons that carry over into your new life without Saul.
- There is no other remedy necessary other than the cross.
- The finished work of the cross doesn't mean that its power
is finished after you first experience it, leaving you stuck with whatever
problems carry on afterwards due to the lack of power in the cross to handle
them.
- No.
- The finished work of the cross refers to the FULL AND COMPLETE
PROVISION GRANTED TO CRUCIFY BOTH YOUR OLD MAN AND ALL SINS AND HABITS AND
TROUBLES AT YOUR INITIAL SALVATION AND THOSE THAT CARRY-OVER -- NO MATTER
HOW LONG AFTER YOUR SALVATION SUCH TROUBLES CONTINUE.
The old life is gone.
- That's dealt with.
- But works of the flesh can continue on with us into our
new lives.
- Sons of Saul.
God said they have to be hanged as well.
- These problems have to be crucified as well.
- Time is of no consequence -- you can still take them to
the same cross of Christ.
- The same blood that washed away your sins, will also wash
away any sins you commit after salvation.
Let them be hanged there, too.
- It hurts and its hard to see this occur because they're
of our own flesh and such things are hard to let go, as her children were
for Rizpah.
- But they will hang, and you must stay there and look at
it, like Rizpah, until its settled in your heart.
- Look at them hanging and don't leave this issue until it
finally hits you that the cross really does set you free from those present
sins.
I told someone yesterday that when you're discouraged you must not simply
pray and see how you feel afterwards.
- No.
- Pray until you break through and you're not discouraged
any more.
- God's power is not the problem.
- Its our faith that is the problem.
- And we must pray until we break through into a revelation
and a newfound faith over that situation, and we are in victory.
- After Rizpah refused to go away until it was settled, when
it was settled, the rains fell and the blessings came once again.
- In other words, if you don't get this truth about the cross
being the remedy in slaying any further sins after your salvation, then look
at this truth in lieu of your problems until it hits you!
You did it when it came to first being saved and regarding your old life.
- You were set free by the cross from your old life.
- Now apply that same truth and means of victory to your
problem at hand.
- Crucify it on the same cross.
- And the blessings will fall.
After the rains fell, someone told David about Rizpah's actions.
2 Samuel 21:11-14 And
it was told David what Rizpah the daughter of Aiah, the concubine of Saul,
had done. And David went and took the bones of Saul and the bones of Jonathan
his son from the men of Jabeshgilead, which had stolen them from the street
of Bethshan, where the Philistines had hanged them, when the Philistines
had slain Saul in Gilboa: And he brought up from thence the bones of
Saul and the bones of Jonathan his son; and they gathered the bones of them
that were hanged. And the bones of Saul and Jonathan his son buried
they in the country of Benjamin in Zelah, in the sepulchre of Kish his father:
and they performed all that the king commanded. And after that God was intreated
for the land.
David took the bones of Saul and his son, who were hanged just as Rizpah
saw her sons hanged, and put them all together and buried them together in
Zelah (a rib).
- The same hanging.
- The same burial place.
- Can you see the point?
When we get victory through understanding that any present problems are to
be hanged on the same cross of Christ that our old man was crucified on,
and apply the same blood of Jesus that saved our souls to wash away these
troubles of today, they will all wind up being buried together just to drive
the point home.
- Buried in the same tomb of Jesus Christ.
And as time went by, the land felt the influence of David's power grow stronger
as the influence of Saul grew weaker.
2 Samuel 3:1 Now there
was long war between the house of Saul and the house of David: but David
waxed stronger and stronger, and the house of Saul waxed weaker and weaker.
Christian lives require time in order for the influence of the Son of David,
Jesus Christ, to come forth more and more.
Its not that Jesus is that weak that even after saving us He can hardly influence
our lives.
- No.
- Its just that He forces Himself on nobody and requires
that we give Him more of our lives so that He can live through more of them
and bring forth fruit of the Spirit in our experience.
- You must yield to His will more perfectly as the years
go by.
Experience the showers of blessings upon your life as you enjoy freedom from
those carry-overs of your old life.
Rizpah's name means "PAVEMENT".
STRONG'S CONCORDANCE
07532 Ritspah {rits-paw'}
AV - Rizpah
Rizpah = "pavement"
1) a concubine of king Saul and mother of Armoni and Mephibosheth
John 19:12-16 And
from thenceforth Pilate sought to release him: but the Jews cried out, saying,
If thou let this man go, thou art not Caesar's friend: whosoever maketh himself
a king speaketh against Caesar. When Pilate
therefore heard that saying, he brought Jesus forth, and sat down in
the judgment seat in a place that is called the Pavement, but in
the Hebrew, Gabbatha. And it was the preparation
of the passover, and about the sixth hour: and he saith unto the Jews, Behold
your King! But they cried out, Away with him,
away with him, crucify him. Pilate saith unto them, Shall I crucify your
King? The chief priests answered, We have no king but Caesar.
Then delivered he him therefore unto them to be crucified. And they took
Jesus, and led him away.
Jesus was sentenced to crucifixion at the judgment seat of Pilate in an area
called THE PAVEMENT.
- Church, His judgment was our judgment.
- Rizpah's story reaches out to you today.
- It helps you understand that God made a provision
for your old life to be judged and crucified with Jesus.
- And not only your old life, but also any carry-overs
and offspring from your old pre-cross lives that still torment you and rob
you of blessings today, they too were judged with Christ by the same cross.