Part 13 (2/2)

Confess: Any laziness that keeps you from searching out G.o.d's wisdom for your own life.

Ask G.o.d: To help you treasure his wisdom so that you are willing to actively seek it.

Lift Your Heart Wisdom has nothing to do with how many ”gray cells” you possess.You can be smart as a whip but still full of foolishness. Take a few moments to reflect on this condensed and paraphrased pa.s.sage from the book ofProverbs (3:13-18):”Blessed is the woman who has found wisdom. She has found something more precious than gold. None of her desires can compare with wisdom. For wisdom brings life, wealth, honor, and peace. Wisdom is a tree of life to be gladly embraced.”

Here are a few vital suggestions for cultivating wisdom in your life: * Pray for it, remembering it is a gift from G.o.d.

* Read and meditate regularly on Scripture.

* Surround yourself with wise friends-listen and learn from them. (Consider meeting regularly with a spiritual director.) * Make quick obedience a hallmark of your spiritual life; it leads to wisdom.

Lord, you are the source of the wisdom that brings life, wealth, honor, and peace. May wisdom be like a growing tree in my life, bearing abundant fruit for your kingdom.

Rizpah.

HER NAME MEANS.

”A Hot Stone” or ”Coal”

Her Character: Saul's concubine Rizpah was the mother of Armon and Mephibosheth. Though a woman with few right and little power, she displayed great courage and loy alty after the death of her sons.

Her Sorrow: That her only sons were executed and their bodie dishonored because of their father's crime.

Her Joy: That the bodies of her sons were finally given an honorable burial.

Key Scripture: 2 Samuel 21:8 - 14 Monday HER STORY.

One day a rabbi stood on a hill overlooking a certain city. The rabbi watched in horror as a band of Cossacks on horseback suddenly attacked the town, killing innocent men, women, and children. Some of the slaughtered were his own disciples. Looking up to heaven, the rabbi exclaimed: ”Oh, if only I were G.o.d.” An astonished student, standing nearby, asked, ”But, Master, if you were G.o.d, what would you do differently?” The rabbi replied: ”If I were G.o.d I would do nothing differently. If I were G.o.d, I would understand.”

As told by Joanna Laufer and Kenneth S. Lewis in Inspired (New York: Doubleday, 1998), 5.

One day a woman named Rizpah was standing on a hill in Israel, watching the execution of seven men. Her grief was sharp, for among the dead were her own two sons. Executed for their father's crime, their bodies were left to rot on the hillside, despite a law requiring burial by sunset. Perhaps, like the rabbi, Rizpah wished she were G.o.d, even for a moment. Maybe then she would understand the ”why” of what she had just witnessed.

It is not hard to imagine Rizpah's suffering. To watch as her body convulses in sorrow. To see her pound a fist against her breast to beat away the grief. When will she turn away from the gruesome spectacle? we wonder. But instead of fleeing the scene of her sorrow, she faces it, drawing close to bloodied bodies she once had cradled in her arms. Then she spreads sackcloth on a rock and sits down, refusing to move except to beat off birds of prey by day and jackals by night. Her vigil would last for several months - from mid-April to early October. Rizpah would not bury her grief as long as the bodies of her sons remained unburied.

Joshua had promised to live in peace with the Gibeonites, but Saul had murdered many of them during his reign, attempting to annihilate them. As a result of Saul's oath-breaking, Israel suffered a famine for three years running. In retribution, the Gibeonites had asked David for seven of Saul's male offspring. David surrendered Saul's two sons by Rizpah and five grandsons by Saul's daughter Merab. Blood was spilt for blood.

Scripture doesn't say whether Rizpah's sons shared their father's guilt. But like all mothers whose children have perished by violence - those in Bosnia, Kosovo, Rwanda, Iraq, Afghanistan, our own inner cities, and even our suburbs - Rizpah must have understood the terrible link between sin and death. One person's sin is a cancer that spreads. By refusing to hide her grief, by living out her anguish in public, Rizpah gave meaning to her sons' deaths, making the entire nation face the evil of what had happened.

Finally, the rains came. Finally, the king's heart was touched. Hearing of Rizpah's loyalty and courage, David ordered the remains of the executed to be buried. He even ordered Saul's and his son Jonathan's bones to be reclaimed and buried.

Scripture doesn't say that G.o.d ordered David to hand the men over to the Gibeonites in the first place, or even that the famine ended when they were executed. Instead, as Virginia Stem Owens points out in her book Daughters of Eve, the Bible indicates that G.o.d answered prayers on behalf of the land after the dead were given a decent burial. David's act in honor of the dead may have signaled an end to Israel's divisions. Finally, the land could be healed and the Israelites could reunite under David's leaders.h.i.+p.

Rizpah made the people look at the cost of sin. Like many women in ancient cultures, she had few rights and little power. But her persistent courage gave meaning to her sons' deaths and helped a nation deal with the sin of its leader. Her story is tragic; her response, memorable. Perhaps because of her, other mothers in Israel were spared a similar grief, at least for a time.

Tuesday HER LIFE AND TIMES.

BURIAL.

Rizpah's vigil at the side of her dead sons has love as well as ritual or custom as its source. To allow these sons, these beloved though grown children, to be ravaged by the animals in the area was unthinkable to this mother. So Rizpah kept her lonely vigil, warding off the birds that would peck at their flesh and the animals that would try to drag their bodies away.

As it is today, burial in biblical times was an occasion for showing love and respect for someone who had died. Loved ones usually buried the dead the same day as the death took place, or at least within twenty-four hours (John 11:17, 39). Family members washed the body, anointed it with herbs and spices, then wrapped it in a cloth (John 11:44). The burial itself frequently took place in a cave or in a tomb hewn from the rock that is so prevalent in Palestine. The same cave or tomb would be used by many members of one family (Genesis 49:29-32).

In New Testament times, official mourning for the dead began with the playing of the flute as soon as the death took place. These mournful flute players not only played throughout the preparation for the burial, they also accompanied the procession to the place of burial and continued to play during the official time of mourning, usually seven days (Matthew 9:23). Professional mourners were often also present, accompanying the family to the grave site and staying with the family afterward, adding their wailing and tears to the family's (Jeremiah 9:17).

Even Jesus, present at the creation of the universe, wept at the death of his friend Lazarus (John 11:1 - 43). In his human nature, Jesus understood the finality of death for those who go on living. He partic.i.p.ated in the customs of the day and wept with Lazarus's friends and family. But in his divine nature, Jesus also understood the transitory nature of life and the fact that death is not an appalling conclusion but a glorious beginning.

Wednesday HER LEGACY IN SCRIPTURE.

Read 2 Samuel 21:1 - 14.

1. The killings pretty much wiped out Saul's male descendants. Why would David order such wholesale executions?

2. Rizpah's vigil probably lasted several months. What do you think she went through during that time? What kept her going?

3. What do you think induced David to gather up these bones and bury them?

4. What hard or risky thing can you imagine yourself doing with the pa.s.sion and determination of Rizpah?

5. How is G.o.d's love for you like Rizpah's love for her children?

Thursday HER PROMISE.

Rizpah's consistency and tenacity is a lesson for all who are inclined to give up when the going gets tough. Out of love and a need to do what was right, she stuck out bad weather, cold, fatigue, and wild animals to protect her dead sons. Finally, someone in authority took notice and did something. Her faithfulness was rewarded, and she could rest.

G.o.d promises the same to us. He asks us only to be faithful and to leave the rest up to him. Whatever the situation-harsh parents, unloving spouses, rebellious children, financial difficulties, sickness, or death-G.o.d knows and will uphold and provide in his time.

Promises in Scripture The Lord has rewarded me according to my righteousness, according to my cleanness in his sight.

-2 Samuel 22:25 For the Lord loves the just and will not forsake his faithful ones.

-Psalm 37:28 Yet this I call to mind and therefore I have hope: Because of the Lord's great love we are not consumed, for his compa.s.sions never fail.

They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.

-Lamentations 3:21 - 23 Friday HER LEGACY OF PRAYER.

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.

-2 Samuel 2i:io Reflect On: 2 Samuel 21:8 - 14.

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