Let's turn back again tonight
to 2 Samuel. And this evening, let's turn
to chapter 21, 2 Samuel chapter 21. Then there was a famine in the
days of David three years, year after year. And David inquired
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 you 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 coast of Israel. Let
seven men of his sons be delivered unto us, and we will hang them
up unto the Lord in Gebeah of Saul, whom the Lord did choose. 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. But the king took the two sons
of Rizpah, the daughter of Eah, whom she bare unto Saul, or Moni
and Mephibosheth, and the five sons of Michal, the daughter
of Saul, whom she brought up for Adriel, the son of Barzillai,
the Meholalite. And he delivered them into the
hands of the Gibeonites, and they hanged them in the hill
before the Lord. And 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. And Respha, the daughter
of Ea, 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 that rest
for the daughter of Ahab, 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 Jabesh-Gilead,
which had stolen them from the street of Beth-shan, 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 Zila, in the sepulchre of Kish, his father, and they performed
all that the king commanded. And after that, God was entreated
for the land. What I want us to do tonight,
I want us to look at what we are told in these verses which
we've just been read. Then I have three lessons for
us to take from them tonight. First thing that we see, there
was a famine in the land, which means, of course, that the Lord
had withheld rain, and not just for a year, but we are told for
three years. We are more familiar, all of
us, are more familiar with the famine in the days of Elijah. Because of wicked King Ahab and
his wife Jezebel and their idolatry, God caused it not to rain for
three and a half years. And remember, God supplied Elijah
during that time by that widow woman of Zarephath. But God answered. When there was that contest,
Elijah told King Ahab, said, you gather the false prophets
of Baal, and I believe there was 850 of them, prophets and
ministers of Baal, and we'll build an altar, and I'll be by
my altar, the altar to God. and let the false prophets or
the prophets of Baal be by their altar. And we'll lay a calf,
a butchered calf upon the altar, each altar, and the God that
answers by fire, he will be God." And all the people said, yeah,
we agree with that. And you remember those false
prophets, how they cut themselves and cried unto the Lord jumped
on the altar and all kinds of gyrations and things that religious
people sometimes do, trying to get God to answer them, their
God, rather, to answer them. And of course, Elijah, mocking
them, said, cry a little louder. He may be on a journey. He may
be asleep. Speak a little louder. And of
course, nothing happened until the time, and this is so important
when you read that story, until the time of the evening offering."
That is at three o'clock in the afternoon when the evening offering,
the lamb, was slain in the tabernacle and then the temple in Jerusalem.
And incidentally, that's the very same time that the Lord
Jesus Christ died. Three o'clock in the afternoon,
wasn't it? From 12 to three, there was darkness
upon the face of the earth. But then at three o'clock in
the afternoon, he dismissed his spirit. But anyway, when Elijah,
he repaired the altar and he stood to the altar. And you can
read that prayer that he prayed. It's a very simple prayer. You
can read it probably in 30 seconds. And God answered by fire. And
God didn't just take the sacrifice. He took the wood and he took
the stones and he took the water that they had poured on the altar. He just licked, the fire just
licked it all up. Fire came down from God. And
then the false prophets were slain. And then of course, Jezebel,
remember her vengeance against Elijah, and he took off running
and God took care of him. But this is a different famine.
This famine here, and that famine happened during the days of a
wicked king, King Ahab and Jezebel, his queen. And that famine came
upon the land because of idolatry. And God hates idolatry. There's
no question about that. If you read the 10 commandments
as they are given in Exodus chapter 20, all of those commandments
are sins against God and God hates sin. But that particular
commandment, God said he would visit the children of those who
are guilty of idolatry. But this famine we're reading
about tonight, three years, no rain, But not during the reign
of a wicked king, but in the reign of a good king. That is
David, one of the greatest of the kings that Israel ever had,
King David. It was great. And so he called,
he inquired of the Lord. You say, well, how did he do
that? Well, we know they had the Urim and the Thummim. Those
stones in the breastplate of the high priest. And somehow,
no one knows for sure, really. You can read different ideas
or suggestions, but no one really knows today how God made known
His will through those lights and those stones that were in
the breastpiece of the high priest. But somehow God did. And David,
we read here, inquired of the Lord. And the Lord told him what
the problem was, why there was a famine, why the rain had been
withheld. It was because of Saul and his
bloody house. The way that he had tried to
exterminate the Gibeonites. Notice that in verse one. Then
there was a famine in the days of David three years, year after
year. And David inquired of the Lord
and the Lord answered, it is for Saul. Here's the reason. Here's the reason for the famine.
Here's the reason that I've withheld rain. It's for Saul and for his
bloody house because he slew the Gibeonites. Well, we've got
to ask, who are the Gibeonites? Who were the Gibeonites? Well, keep your places here,
but let's go back to Joshua chapter nine. to find out who these Gibeonites
were. Remember, in the history of Israel, that God would not allow Moses
to go into the promised land, but he raised up a leader by
the name of Joshua. And they came into the land to
conquer the land. They came to the first city of
Jericho, and we're all familiar with how they marched around
the wall one day, second day, third day, the seventh day seven
times, and then the walls fell down when they blew the trumpets.
The walls fell down. And then there was city after
city, they advanced and were conquering. Well, here we read
of some people that these Gibeonites, they saw the handwriting on the
wall. They had to do something or Joshua
and Israel would destroy them as God had commanded Israel to
do to the inhabitants of the land of Canaan. You say, why
would God do that? Because of their wickedness,
because of their evil. And God gave them from the time
of Abraham God told Abraham his posterity would be servants in
a strange land because the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet full. But when that time came, when
that cup was full of iniquity, then God delivered Israel and
commanded them to go into Canaan and to destroy everyone and everything. Well, these give me nice They
saw how Joshua and his army was advancing. And let's read about
it here in Joshua 9. And it came to pass when all
the kings, which were on this side of Jordan in the hills and
in the valleys and all the coasts of the great sea over against
Lebanon, the Hittite and the Amorite, the Canaanite, the Perizzite,
the Hivite, and the Jebusite heard thereof that they gathered
themselves together to fight with Joshua and with Israel with
one accord. And when the inhabitants of Gibeon
heard that Joshua had done unto Jericho and to Aion, they did
work wildly and went and made as if they had been ambassadors
and took old sacks upon their asses and wine bottles, old and
rent and bound up and old shoes had clouded upon their feet,
and old garments upon them, and all the bread of their provisions
was dry and moldy. And they went to Joshua unto
the camp at Gilgal, and said unto him, and to the men of Israel,
We be come from a far country. Now therefore make ye a league
with us.' And the men of Israel said unto the Hivites, Peradventure
you dwell among us, how shall we make a league with you? And
they said unto Joshua, We are thy servants. And Joshua said
unto them, Who are you, and from whence came you? And they said
unto him, From a very far country thy servants are come, because
of the name of the Lord thy God. For we have heard the fame of
him, and all that he did in Egypt, and all that he did to the two
kings of the Amorites, that was beyond Jordan. To Sihon, king
of Heshbon and Og, king of Bashan, which was at Ashtoreth. Wherefore,
our elders and all the inhabitants of our country spake to us, saying,
Take victuals with you for the journey, and go to meet them,
and say unto them, We are your servants, therefore now make
ye a league with us. This our bread we took hot for
our provision out of our houses on the day we came forth to go
unto you. But now behold, it is dry and
it is moldy. And these bottles of wine which
was filled were new. And behold, they be rent. And
these old garments and our shoes have become old by reason of
the very long journey. They were lying through their
teeth, weren't they? Yes, they were. And the man took of their
vittles and asked not counsel at the mouth of the Lord. And
Joshua made peace with them and made a league with them to let
them live. And the princes of the congregation
swear unto them. Let's skip down to verse 18. And the children of Israel smote
them not. because the princes of the congregation
had sworn unto them by the Lord God of Israel, and all the congregation
murmured against the princes. But all the princes said unto
all the congregation, we've sworn unto them by the Lord God of
Israel. Now, therefore, we may not touch
them. This we will do to them. We will
even let them live lest wrath be upon us because of the oath
which we swear unto them. And the princes said unto them,
let them live, but let them be hewers of wood and drawers of
water unto all the congregation as the princes had promised them. So we say who the Gibeonites
were. They were people who had deceived
Joshua and Joshua Not asking counsel of the Lord, he wasn't
alone. It says the elders with him.
They made, and if you still have your Bible open there to Joshua
chapter nine, I want you to notice two words in verse 15. Joshua made peace with them and
made a league with them. Now that word that is translated
league is the same word which is translated covenant. in other
places in the Old Testament. He made a covenant with them.
And then the second word, he swear unto them. Well, think of how long now,
how long these Gibeonites had lived. The Israelites didn't
destroy them. They let them live in Palestine,
in their land, for over 300 years. During the days of the judges,
at least 300 years until the day of Saul, when he became king,
then these Gibeonites had lived inside the country of Israel. And they had made them hewers
of wood and drawers of water. Now, remember the altar at the
tabernacle, the fire was never to go out. Took a lot of wood. Took a lot of wood. And when
they would offer sacrifices, those sacrifices, when the animals
were slain and cut up, they had to be washed. Took a lot of water. And that's what these Gibeonites
had done over these years. They had been hewers of wood
and drawers of water. And some believe that when Saul
commanded the priests, remember we saw this many months ago now,
I guess, but Saul commanded all the priests to be killed. And
many believe that when he did that, that's when he commanded
also these Gibeonites to be killed because they had been serving,
no doubt, in the tabernacle, hewing wood, cutting wood, and
drawing water. But then we see David asks the
Gibeonites what could be done. I mean, we're in a bad situation
here. God's not giving us any rain,
there's a famine in the land, and it's all because of Saul.
How in the world can we make this right? How can we make an
atonement? Well, the Gibeonites said, we
don't want any silver or gold from Saul. We're not interested
in silver or gold. And then they said, we don't
even want a man of Israel to die. And of course, by that,
I understand we don't want anyone other than these sons of Saul
to die. Not any other man. We're not
asking for that. But they asked for seven sons,
seven sons of Saul to be slain, to be hanged. Why seven? I don't know. I don't know. Someone suggested
that David only had eight sons and grandsons living and Mephibosheth
was that eighth. And there was no way David would
agree after he had made a covenant with Mephibosheth's father, Jonathan,
to give him to be slain. I don't know if that's true or
not, but they asked for seven. And there's two Mephibosheth's
here, you see that when we read through it. When he gives them
these seven men, they're two sons of Saul, and one of them
is named Mephibosheth. Now his nephew, that Mephibosheth,
his nephew's also named Mephibosheth, and he's the one that's eating
at the king's table. He's the one that David showed
kindness for Jonathan's sake. And then there's five grandsons
that are listed here. That's who the seven are. Two
sons and five grandsons are given into the hands of the Gibeonites.
And they were all executed at the same time. They were hanged.
They were all hanged at the same time. And then the mother of
those two sons, she had been a concubine of Saul, she took
a some kind of a material and spread it out there on the rock,
and she waited there day and night, making sure that the buzzards
and the wild beasts didn't come and tear the flesh off or eat
the flesh of these seven men that were left hanging. Now,
we don't know how long they were left hanging. It may have just
been a couple of days. But it was long enough that God
sent rain. When they were hanged, then there
was a short period, no doubt, when God did send rain, showing,
testifying that what had been done had been done according
to the will of God. But when David, when he was told
what this mother had done, He commanded that they take the
bones of Jonathan and Saul that had been buried at Jabesh Gilead. Remember the Philistines, when
they killed Jonathan and Saul and I think Jonathan's brother
in battle, they found them the next day. They cut off their
heads and put them in their towns, you know, in their temples bragging
about their God Dagon and what he had accomplished and then
they hang their bodies up on the wall and these men from Jabesh
Gilead, brave men, no doubt, went all night and took the bodies
down and burned them and brought their bones back and buried them
in their city. But now David commands that their
bones be taken and and the bones along with these seven. And all
of them have a proper burial in the sepulchre of Kish, that
is the father of Saul. And so that's what we got. That's what we have here. It's
a horrible thing, isn't it? I mean, just to read about how
men slaughtered one another. And life was cheap, wasn't it?
It's sad, but it seems like we're living in a day just like that
now. I mean, people, we read it, we hear it on the news every
day, don't we? Someone didn't like something
and maybe rage, road rage, if someone just pulls out a gun
and shoots them. Or they go into a convenience
store and ask for the money and they don't get the money fast
enough or whatever, they just take their life. It's sad, isn't
it? It's sad. Who can doubt man's
depravity when you read the scripture, when you look at the news, or
when you read? The depravity of man, man taking
advantage, the strong taking advantage of the weak. Injustice,
that's what man by nature will do. Well, I have three lessons. for us, and they're very simple
lessons. But the first lesson is this, to give thanks and to
be thankful to the Lord for our food. There was a famine in the
land. When you think it was because
the Lord withheld the rain, how quickly, today. And we know there have been famines
in certain parts of the world in our lifetime. But even in
this country, with all the modern technology and the machinery
and all of the farming that goes on, but we are still dependent
upon God to give the rain, to cause his sun to shine. There
wouldn't be any crops. There wouldn't be any food for
us to eat. And, you know, as I thought about
this, I want you to look at Psalm 104 just a moment. Turn over
to Psalm 104. It's easy to pray before our
meals, and we should, no doubt about it. But we should be thankful,
too. Not only give thanks, that is
not only speak a word of thanks unto God, but to really be thankful
in our hearts. And we have something to eat.
And you parents, I know especially as you look at your small children,
can you imagine what it would be like? And some people are
going through that probably right now in the world. And no food
for their children. Look here in Psalm 104. I was
reading this, I think it was last Sunday morning. It says,
verse 10, Psalm 104, verse 10. He sendeth the springs into the
valleys, which run among the hills. They give drink to every
beast of the field. The wild asses quench their thirst. By them shall the fowls of the
heaven have their habitation, which sing among the branches.
He watereth the hills from his chambers. The earth is satisfied
with the fruit of thy works. He causeth, notice that, he sendeth
the rain. He watereth, rather, he watereth
the hills. He causeth the grass to grow
for the cattle and herb for the service of man, for the food
of men. that he may bring forth food
out of the earth, and wine that maketh glad the heart of God,
and oil to make his face to shine, and bread which strengtheneth
man's heart." Yes, the Lord God, he feeds his creation. He feeds
us. How we should be thankful, how
we should be reminded of this. You know, the Lord Jesus Christ,
he said the same thing in Matthew 5 when he said, He that is speaking
of the Father, he maketh his son to rise on the evil and on
the good and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust. God sends the rain. God gives
the rain. God causes the sun to shine.
How we should be ever mindful and thankful that God provides
us with food. So much in our country, in our
day, So, so much. God's been so good. And you know,
when the Lord fed the thousands with a few fish and a couple
of loaves of bread, you know the first thing he did when he
took that bread and those fishes, he gave thanks. He gave thanks. You know, we don't want to be
like, and this is a crude illustration, we don't want to be like A pig
or a hog, do we? They just throw the food in and
they just eat it up. They never give thanks. We don't
want to be like that, do we? God help us to be thankful. Help
me to be thankful. That's my prayer. Well, the second
lesson for us here, to give thanks to the Lord for his covenant.
Israel, we saw this there in Joshua, Israel made a covenant,
made a league, that's the word covenant, with the Gibeonites,
but it was broken. Oh yeah. God's covenant, how
we should give thanks to God's covenant of peace that cannot
be broken. The covenant that God made with
his son, the Lord Jesus Christ, on behalf of his people. The
Lord Jesus Christ is the surety of that covenant. And like David
says, and we'll see this in a few chapters, the Lord willing, it's
ordered in all things and sure. How we should be thankful for
this covenant. It's an everlasting covenant,
isn't it? That covenant that Joshua and the men of Israel
made with these Gibeonites, it was a covenant, a compact, or
a contract between two parties, yes, but they were both men. Both parties were men, and men
are fallible, and men will change. But thank God tonight for His
covenant, the covenant of Him who never changes. And His covenant
shall stand forever and forever. And the third thing, we should
give thanks unto the Lord for His oath. They not only made
a league, a covenant with these giving knights, but they swear.
They took an oath. And of course they broke their
oath, didn't they? Look with me in closing to Hebrews
6. Hebrews chapter six, we should
give thanks tonight for our food. We should give thanks tonight
for his covenant of grace. And we should give thanks tonight
for his oath here in Hebrews chapter six and verses 17 through
19. The apostle said, Hebrews six,
verse 17, wherein God willing more abundantly to show unto
the heirs of promise the immutability, the unchangeableness of his covenant,
confirmed it by an oath, that by two immutable things in which
it was impossible for God to lie, we might have strong consolation,
who have fled for refuge to lay hold upon the hope set before
us, which hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure
and steadfast, and which entereth into that within the veil, by
two immutable things. Number one, his word, his gospel,
the gospel word. All ye that labor and are heavy
laden, come unto me, and I will give you rest. Him that cometh
unto me I will in no wise cast out. God's word is given unto
us. And then he took an oath. We
have these two immutable things that we might have assurance
and we might have the peace of God in our hearts tonight knowing
a strong consolation if we fled to Christ for refuge, if he is
our refuge. He's our Savior, He's our Lord. May the Lord bless His word to
us here tonight. Three very simple lessons, but
God help us to think about them.