David Faces a Famine

They are connected. They are connected because it speaks of God's divine retribution. One upon an individual, Sheba, the son of Bichri, as well as Amasa, who both were killed in chapter 20 but experienced divine retribution. Chapter 21, a whole nation experiences the retribution of God because one man sinned and it wasn't David. It was Saul and it happened almost 30 years ago. Nobody ever sins solo and one sinner destroys much good. Ecclesiastes 9 verse number 18. And so therefore we begin to realize that even though dead, Saul was dead, the repercussions of his sin would still be felt in the nation of Israel.

That should be a wake-up call for all of us because even though you live your life and you sin against God and you don't face the consequences, those who follow you will. That's what happened in the life of Israel and what happened to Saul's family we will read about. 14 verses, 2 Samuel chapter 21. Now there was a famine in the days of David for three years, year after year. And David sought the presence of the Lord and the Lord said it is for Saul and his bloody house because he put the Gibeonites to death.

So the king called the Gibeonites and spoke to them. Now the Gibeonites were not of the sons of Israel but of the remnant of the Amorites. And the sons of Israel made a covenant with them, but Saul had sought to kill them in a zeal for the sons of Israel and Judah. Thus David said to the Gibeonites, what should I do for you? And how can I make atonement that you may bless the inheritance of the Lord? Then the Gibeonites said to him, we have no concern of silver or gold with Saul or his house, nor is it for us to put any man to death in Israel.

And he said, I will do for you whatever you say. So they said to the king, the man who consumed us and you plan to exterminate us from remaining within any border of Israel, let seven men from his sons be given to us. And we will hang them before the Lord in Gibeah of Saul, the chosen of the Lord. And the king said, I will give them. But the king spared Mephibosheth, the son of Jonathan, the son of Saul, because of the oath of the Lord, which was between them, between David and Saul's son, Jonathan.

So the king took the two sons of Rizpah, the daughter of Aiah, Armoni and Mephibosheth, whom she had borne to Saul and the five sons of Merab, the daughter of Saul, whom she had borne to Adriel, the son of Barzillai, the Malathiite. Then he gave them into the hands of the Gibeonites and they hanged them in the mountain before the so that the seven of them fell together. And they were put to death in the first days of harvest at the beginning of barley harvest.

And Rizpah, the daughter of Aiah, took sackcloth and spread it for herself on the rock from the beginning of harvest until it rained on them from the sky. And she allowed neither the birds of the sky to rest on them by day, nor the beasts of the field by night. When it was told David what Rizpah, the daughter of Aiah, the concubine of Saul had done, then David went and took the bones of Saul and the bones of Jonathan, his son from the men of Jabash-Gilead, who had stolen them from the open square of Beth-shan, where the Philistines had hanged them on the day the Philistines struck down Saul in Gilboa.

And he brought up the bones of Saul and the bones of Jonathan, his son from there. And they gathered the bones of those who had been hanged and they buried the bones of Saul and Jonathan, his son in the country of Benjamin and Zillah in the grave of Kish, his father. Thus they did all that the king commanded. And after that, God was moved by entreaty for the land. The Bible speaks to us about the character and nature of the Almighty. Everything in the Bible is about God. So when we read the Bible, we understand him.

When we understand him, we understand why he does what he does. And we need to understand God. And this passage of scripture opens up to us more about the character and nature of God that help us understand how it is he operates in the hearts and lives of people. And how God is sovereign and controls everything, how he rules over all, that nothing happens without him either consciously orchestrating or permitting to take place because God is in charge of everything. So we want to begin with the cause of the famine.

And then we want to look at the cure for the famine. Just two simple points. The cause of the famine was God. God caused the famine. He's the one who did it because of what Saul had done some 30 years earlier, which opens up to us a whole bunch of questions. The Bible is very clear. There was a famine in the days of David for three years, year after year. Why was there a famine? Because God caused the famine. If there's a famine today, it's simply a famine because there is some kind of global warming.

It's caused because of sunspots. It's caused because of some kind of planetary disturbance. But you know, as children of the living God, we are able to understand more about the weather than the scientists do. Scientists don't necessarily understand that, but because we know the living God and we know he controls everything, we know that God is in charge of the famine. God was the one who caused there to be a famine in the land of Israel. How do we know that? Well, simply because God tells them because of what Saul did, this is why you have what you have.

And it just didn't happen by happenstance or by circumstance. It happened because God was in charge. So let me help you understand a couple of things.

Isaiah 45 or 46 verse number nine says, for I am God and there is no other. I am God and there is no one like me declaring the end from the beginning and from ancient times, things which have not been done, saying my purpose will be established and I will accomplish all my good pleasure, calling a bird of prey from the East, the man of my purpose from a far country. Truly I've spoken I will bring it to pass. I have planned it. Surely I will do it. God declares that he is in absolute control of all things that happen.

And when things are good, we understand that when things are bad, we have a hard time with that. So before Isaiah 46 is Isaiah 45, which says in verse number five, I am the Lord and there is no other besides me. There is no God. I will gird you though you have not known me. That men may know from the rising to the setting of the sun, that there is no one besides me. I am the Lord and there is no other. The one forming light and creating darkness, causing wellbeing and creating calamity. I am the Lord who does all these things.

God makes it very clear that he is the creator of calamity. That is something you need to digest, something you need to put your arms around to be able to come to grips with the God who controls everything. He controls the weather. He controls the sea. He controls the wind. He controls everything. In fact, he holds all things by the word of his power. Meaning that if any time he decides not to uphold the universe and all that happens, it will disintegrate. He holds it together because he is the God who is the creator of all things.

Having said that, the book of Lamentations, the third chapter, verse number 37 says, who is there who speaks and it comes to pass?

In other words, do you know anybody who says something and whatever they say happens exactly as they said it? Well, the answer to that is no, except God. The Bible says, who is there who speaks and it comes to pass unless the Lord has commanded it?

Is it not from the mouth of the most high that both good and ill go forth? In other words, if God commands good to go forth, good goes forth. If God commands ill to go forth, then ill goes forth. If God creates calamity, then calamity happens because God is in charge. So when you come to the book of Ecclesiastes, the seventh chapter, 13th verse, it says, consider the work of God for who is able to straighten what he has bent. In the day of prosperity be happy, but in the day of adversity, consider God has made the one as well as the other, so that man may not discover anything that will be after him.

God is the creator of the days of prosperity. God is the creator of the days of adversity. That's who he is. He is an absolute sovereign control of everything. So much so the Bible says in Acts 15 verse number 18, known to God from eternity are all his works.

Jeremiah 51, 29, every purpose of the Lord shall be performed. Psalm 115 verse number three, our God is in heaven.

He does whatever he pleases. Psalm 135 verse number six, whatever the Lord pleases, he does in heaven, in earth and in all the seas. The Bible says in Psalm 105 that everything that happened in Egypt, he did when it came to the plagues in Egypt under the regime of Pharaoh.

It says in verse 26 of Psalm 105, he sent Moses, his servant and Aaron, whom he had chosen. They performed his wondrous acts among them and miracles in the land of Ham. He sent darkness and made it dark and they did not rebel against his words. He turned their waters into blood and caused their fish to die. Their land swarm with frogs, even in the chambers of their Kings. He spoke and there came a swarm of flies and gnats in all their territory. He gave them hail for rain and flaming fire in their land.

He struck down their vines, also in their fig trees and shattered the trees of their territory. He spoke and locusts came and young locusts, even without number and ate up all the vegetation in their land and ate up their fruit or ate up the fruit of their ground. He also struck down all the first born in their land, the first fruits of all their vigor.

The Psalmist said, when the plagues happened in Israel, God did it. Having said all that, if someone asked you what happened in Oklahoma City, what would you say? You see, you have to understand that God rules over everything. Right? Now, if you go on television and you say that God was the one who caused the tornado, or in some cases, hurricanes, or in some cases, tsunamis, or even in some cases, earthquakes, that God did it, they would wonder why a loving, kind, merciful God would allow innocent children, innocent people to suffer devastating consequences.

But you must understand that God is in absolute control of everything. He is sovereign. Nothing happens and God says, I can't believe that that happened today.

Where was I when the tornado struck Oklahoma City? Where was I when the earthquake took place? How did that happen? When as you read to the Bible, it says very clearly that God is the creator of calamity that comes forth from God, both good and ill, that comes forth from God, all the plagues in Egypt. So on the heels of that, you must ask the question, why would God even do something like that? Why would God cause something like that to happen? And the Bible tells you, the Bible explains these things to you.

Over in Psalm 107, it says these words, Psalm 107, verse number 28, it says, then they cried to the Lord in their trouble, and he brought them out of their distresses. Do you know why God causes calamity? Because he is wanting people to cry out to him and to demonstrate how helpless they are without him. And it says that when they cry out to him amidst their helplessness, that God hears them and relieves their distress. God doesn't do something just to do something. He does everything he does with a purpose.

Ultimately, it's to the praise of his glory. Ephesians 1 verses 11 to 14 speak about the fact that God does what he does to the praise of his glory. It's all about the glory of God. How does God become glorified amidst natural disasters? We call them natural disasters. I would call them supernatural interventions, where God himself orchestrates the weather to accomplish his purpose, to cause people to say that they were helpless and to cry out to God and ask and beg for mercy. The Bible says in the book of Ecclesiastes, the third chapter, these words, Ecclesiastes chapter 3, verse number 14, I know that everything God does will remain forever.

In other words, Solomon says, I know that whatever God does cannot be changed. It can't be thwarted. It's concrete. It remains forever. There is nothing to add to it, and there is nothing to take from it. In other words, he says the plan of God is so concrete that you can't add anything to it to make it better. You can't take anything from it to make it better. What happens, happens because God has only one plan. It is plan A. It is the perfect plan, even though in the day of adversity, you better consider what God is doing.

And then he says, for God has worked that men should fear him. God does what he does. He is the author of calamity so that man in the midst of his helplessness will cry out to God and he will relieve him of their distress. God does what he does so that men will learn to fear him. Let me ask you a question.

Does man fear God? Romans 3 says that for the unbeliever, there is no fear of God before his eyes. There is no fear of God before the eye of the unbeliever. So why does God do what he does so that man will learn to fear him? There is forgiveness with thee, Psalm 130, that thou mayest be feared. The only people who fear God are those who have been forgiven. Those who are not forgiven don't fear God. You see, God, and don't think for one moment that people don't understand this. Let me tell you something.

People in the back of their minds know that God is behind the calamity. They might not come out and say it, but they know he is. Let me read to you something from the book of Revelation, sixth chapter, with the sixth seal being broken.

And it looked when he broke the sixth seal, and there was a great earthquake, and the sun became black as sackcloth, made of hair, and the whole moon became like blood. And the stars of the sky fell to the earth as a fig tree cast its unripe figs when shaken by a great wind. And the sky was split apart like a scroll when it was rolled up, and every mountain and island were moved out of their places. Now, imagine that every mountain was moved out of its place. How do you think that in the midst of the tribulation, the meteorologists are going to explain what happens in the sky?

What happens with the earthquakes and every mountain moved? What are they going to say? How are they going to explain all that away? They will try to do that. Verse 15, and the kings of the earth, and the great men, and the commanders, and the rich, and the strong, and every slave and free man hid themselves in the caves among the rocks of the mountains. And they said to the mountains and to the rocks, now get it, you're in the midst of the tribulation, and you have commanders, and kings, and rich people talking to rocks and mountains.

And it says this, and they said to the mountains and to the rocks, fall on us and hide us. Are you ready for this? From the presence of him who sits on the throne and from the wrath of the lamb, for the great day of their wrath has come, and who is able to stand. You see, when push comes to shove, everybody knows that God is behind it all. They might not readily want to admit that. There are no atheists in foxholes. Everybody knows that God is behind it. God wants man to fear him. God wants man to cry out to him.

Sometimes God does what he does simply because he wants to teach us something. John 9, the man born blind, who sinned, this man or his parents. And Christ says it's not about sin, has nothing to do with his sin or his parents' sin.

It has everything to do with the works of God happening on this day. And there was a big lesson that God wanted to teach his disciples and the Pharisees. God does what he does because we need to learn lessons. God does what he does because we need to fear him. God does what he does because we need to cry out to him in helplessness. God does what he does because he wants to warn us of impending death and judgment. That's what Luke 13 is about. When the tower of Siloam would fall over and 18 innocent people died.

And the question was asked, why did this happen? How did God let this happen? And Jesus said, you better watch out. The same thing might happen to you. And then they said, well, before that they said, well, Caesar would mingle these men who went to offer sacrifices for the forgiveness of sins, performing religious duties. Caesar would go and mingle their bodies with their sacrifices. They were innocent people worshiping God, wanting to honor God and Caesar slaughtered them. And Jesus said, you better watch out.

Same thing might happen to you. Repent or you will likewise perish. Now that is not the most compassionate way to talk to people when their loved ones have been slaughtered on the altar or when their loved ones had died because of a natural disaster with a tower falling over on them and killing them. But Jesus does what he does because he wants to warn us of impending judgment. He wants to warn us that if you don't repent, what will be worse for you than a tower falling over on you is hell. What will be worse for you than being cut up to little pieces and being mingled with your sacrifice is to burn in hell forever.

That's worse than anything that can happen on this earth. It's all about perspective. And so he does it to warn us. He does it to teach us. He does it so that we'll cry out to him in our helplessness and he will answer. He does it simply because he wants us to fear him. That's what he wants. And then of course he does it because he's going to judge us. Genesis six, verse number 17, God judged the whole world. He sent a flood, killed everybody except for eight souls because he has to judge. He is the judge.

And that's what he does. And that's why it's imperative that we understand these things. Why? Listen to what Psalm nine says. Psalm nine, verse number 16, the Lord has made himself known through the execution of his judgment. How do you come to best know God in the midst of his judgment? And so God passes judgment upon people because of their sin. The question for us is to realize that when these things happen, what is God doing? Is he teaching us something about himself? Does he want us to cry out for to him in the midst of our helplessness?

Is this happening because we don't fear him and we should fear him? Is this happening because he is judging someone or some group of people? Why is he doing this? And in second Samuel chapter 21, we know what he's doing.

He is judging Israel because of one man's sin. He's made that very clear. And David goes to him and beseeches him and asks him, what are you doing? Because Psalm nine says that God is known by the judgment he executes. God is best known in judgment because he is a holy God. And because he is holy, he cannot stand anything that's unholy. And so through the exercise of his judgment, that's why in the book of revelation, his judgment is at its height because he judges the world and they all come to realize that it's him who's doing it.

That's what we read in revelation chapter six. And here we realize that there was a famine in the land. It had gone on for three years, three years. And David began to pray. The question we ask is how come he didn't pray after year number one?

Why did he wait till year number three to pray? Was there a three-year famine for one year for every decade that had passed? I don't know. But let me ask you a question.

Are you experiencing a famine today? It might not be a physical famine. It might be a spiritual famine. It might be a financial famine, but are you experiencing a famine? Because God is using that famine-like experience to teach you to trust him, to believe in him. The problem is you have yet to cry out to him and you're doing all you can to get your finances in order. And the more you try to do it, the more you lose, the less you have. Maybe there's a spiritual famine. Maybe there's a barrenness of your soul.

The Psalmist said in Psalm 106 verse number 15, that God had given them the desires of the heart and sent barrenness to their souls. Be careful what you ask God for. Sometimes we ask God for something and God gives it so that we experience a dryness in our soul. And ask yourself the question, is there a spiritual barrenness that I'm experiencing in my own life as to why the vibrancy of that relationship is not what it needs to be? Don't wait three years to pray. Don't wait to ask God because once David asked God, guess what?

He got the answer. He didn't have to wait long to get the answer. The answer came immediately. It just took him three years to pray. That's why last Sunday's sermon was so important for you. If you missed it, get the tape. Minute always to pray and not to faint, not to lose heart. If you don't pray, you're going to lose heart. If you're losing heart, it's because you're not praying. And so David goes to the Lord God and prays. You know, God allows famines in our lives. And maybe you're experiencing one.

Psalmist did it this way in Psalm 119. He said these words, Psalm 119 verse number 71. It is good for me that I was afflicted that I may learn thy statutes. Psalmist knew that there was an affliction that led to a famine in his life, but he needed to learn the statutes of God. And unless that affliction came, he would not learn the lessons God wanted him to learn. Folks, this is crucial because what happened in Israel happened because the ruler of Israel sinned against God. There's a biblical principle that we need to understand.

And that is when the rulers in scripture sinned against God, it affected everybody. Everybody. You might want to send that to President Obama or to any king or monarch or ruler of a country. If you sin against God, then it will affect the people you see, oversee, you serve. And for Saul, his sin affected an entire nation after he died. So David goes and says, he beseeches the Lord and asks him what to do. You know, that hymn writer said, well, oh, what peace we often forfeit. Oh, what needless pain we bear all because we do not carry everything to God in prayer.

You know, for three years, David carried this burden of a famine. The people of Israel carry this burden of a famine. And he went to the Lord and asked him and God answered. David says, what's going on? How come there's this famine? And the Lord said, it is for Saul in his bloody house because he put the Gibeonites to death. Wow. Let me tell you something.

David sinned. David sinned against Absalom because he did not confront Absalom on a sin. And Absalom would continue to sin as a result of that 20,000 from Israel died because the leaders, Absalom and David sinned. In second Samuel chapter 24, David will sin again and 70,000 Israelites will die.

70,000. The Bible says very clearly that when Pharaoh sinned, all of Egypt suffered. If you're a leader, you sin, it affects everybody you lead. That's why you got to be careful. You're a father, you sin, it affects your entire family. You're a pastor, you live in sin, it affects your church. You're the president of a country, you sin, it affects your country. That's a principle that goes across the board in scripture. That's why don't many of you seek to be teachers, James says, for with it comes a stricter condemnation.

You want to teach in the church? Think twice. Think three times. Maybe you better not do it because if you sin against God as a teacher, the repercussions are greater than if you don't teach. Leadership comes with it a great price to pay. So make sure you do it God's way and not your way. Saul did it his way. Saul did it his way. God says Saul did this to the Gibeonites.

Now listen, this is nowhere recorded in scripture. The only reason we know what happened is because God never forgot it happened. But it's nowhere recorded in scripture. What's recorded in scripture is Joshua chapter 9 where the Gibeonites had heard about what took place in Jericho. They had heard what took place in Ai and they were afraid. So they ripped their clothes and put ash all over their faces and they looked like they were poor people and they went to David and they said, oh, we're from a, we're from a far country.

And I mean to Joshua and Joshua asked him, are you among the Canaanites? Are you from this land? Oh no, we're from a far country. And they lied and they deceived Joshua. In Joshua chapter 9, Joshua makes a covenant with them. Listen to what he says. Joshua chapter 9, they said, your servants have come from a very far country because of the fame of the Lord, your God, for we have heard the report of him and all that he did in Egypt. Verse 11, we are your servants now, then make a covenant with us.

And Joshua verse 13, made a covenant with them and made a covenant with them, excuse me, Joshua made peace with them and made a covenant with them to let them live. And the leaders of the congregation swore an oath to them. Three days later, they come upon the city of the Gibeonites and they realized that they were tricked. And Joshua was not a happy camper, as you can imagine. And the sons of Israel, what they wanted to do, they wanted to kill the Gibeonites. They wanted to slaughter them. But the leaders of Israel were wise.

They said, no, we're not going to do that because we made an oath and a covenant with our God. They kept their word. We're not going to kill them. Instead, they made the Gibeonites their slaves and the Gibeonites accepted that role. They were afraid of Israel. They didn't want to die. They'd rather serve Israel than die. So they made them their slaves, but they made a covenant that they would not kill them. Saul, this happened 400 years before 2 Samuel chapter 21 with David. This is 400 years ago.

When Saul becomes king, he decides to rid Israel of the Gibeonites. They were a weak people. They were a frail people. God did tell Saul, kill the Amalekites. He didn't do that. God told Saul, kill the Philistines. Didn't do that. God didn't say kill the Gibeonites. And Saul did that because they were weaker. See, that was easier for Saul. And the Bible tells us why he did. Right back to 2 Samuel chapter 21. It says, these words, Saul had sought to kill them in a zeal for the sons of Israel and Judah.

It wasn't because of a zeal for God. Saul never did anything because he had a zeal for God. What he did, he did it for the people. Saul was a people pleaser. He did what he did for Israel. If you go back and you read about his sins, he did it because the people wanted him to do it. That's what he told Samuel. The people wanted it this way. He was a people pleaser. He wasn't a God pleaser. He did what he did because he wanted the admiration of the people. And so he began to kill the Gibeonites and rid them from their occupation in the land.

And David finds this out. David didn't know this. David's just now finding it out. He said, wow, this is amazing. So he goes to the Gibeonites and says, what do you guys want to do? What do you guys want? David goes and says, we've got to make atonement for this. We've got a famine in the land. God's told me what's going on. We've got to get it right. What do you guys want to do? They said, we're not looking for silver and gold. We're not looking for that. We're not looking for any money. We're not looking for any monetary thing.

We're servants. Now, the great thing about this, for all these years, for 30 years, they've said nothing. They've made no complaints. They never went to David and said, David, listen, will you make things right? Because we're your slaves, but you broke a covenant. Saul broke a covenant with us, the covenant that was made with Joshua 400 years ago. It's a covenant and Saul broke it. We should be set free. They never did that. They never complained, never argued, never fought for their rights. Didn't do anything.

They just sat and waited for God to act. Boy, we could learn a lesson for the Gibeonites because we don't, we don't do that. We're offended. Boy, we want it right. We want it right now.

Get it right. You wronged me. Boy, we want to make sure that everybody knows you wronged me. You better get it right. I'm offended. I'm hurt. You hurt me. Really? Listen to the Gibeonites. Never complained, never belly ached, never grumbled because they knew they were servants. They were servants of Israel. See, our problem is we don't see ourselves as servants. We think we're Kings. We think we have rights. We don't see ourselves as slaves and servants. The Gibeonites thought themselves as servants.

The King comes to them and says, okay, we got to get it right. What do you want to see happen? It's up to you guys. Whatever you ask, we'll do. Wow. Can you imagine that? They were like, boy, man, now we can get rich. We can get more money. We can sue for millions. This is great. No, that's not what they did. They just said simply these words, the man who consumed us, that was Saul, and who planned to exterminate us from remaining within any border of Israel. Saul wanted to kill them all. He didn't do it, but he wanted to kill them all.

Let seven men from his sons be given to us. Let me tell you about the wisdom of the Gibeonites. Seven is the number of what? Completion. Perfection. Wasn't six, wasn't eight, wasn't 77. It was seven, just seven men. Seven. Be given to us. We will hang them. Why? Because the book of Deuteronomy says, curse it at everyone who hangs on a tree that demonstrate the curse of the household of Saul. He says, hang them before the Lord, because they recognized that the famine happened by the Lord. And this would be an atonement made to the Lord.

And then he says, in Gibeah of Saul, not in Jerusalem, we're going to hang them up in Saul's hometown, which vindicates David. So no one would think that it was David trying to rid himself of any influence from the house of Saul. They were considered of the king. We're going to do it in Saul's hometown in Gibeah. Then it said the chosen of the Lord, they recognize the sovereignty of God in their affliction. They recognize that Saul was chosen by God. They recognize that God orchestrated the events, even of their massacre.

Boy, we could learn a lot from the Gibeonites because they understood the sovereignty of God. They understood all there needed to know about what God said in his word concerning curse. There's everyone who hangs on a tree. They understood what it meant to represent and to atone for the sins of Saul. Wow. And they said, and the king, and they wanted David to choose the seven. They didn't choose the seven. David, you choose them, which allowed David to protect Mephibosheth because he made a covenant with Jonathan to protect him.

And so God was orchestrating the events of the whole retribution. They chose five, grandsons, two sons, and they hung them. They strung them up and they killed them. Ritzbah, she was the mother of the two boys and she would go out and she would cover them. Notice she did not cut them down, but she would go out and she would cover them with cloth so that the birds and the pestilence could not get to them.

The animals could not get to them. The wolves could not get to them. She did this every day until the rains came. Now notice the text says that they were put to death in the first days of the harvest.

That's April. Know when the rainy season is? October. Does that mean that for six months she went out there? Maybe. I would think that that's probably not the case because once the men were hung, retribution would have been accomplished and the rains would have come in a supernatural special way by the hand of God. But she would go out every day and David would see this poor woman. She recognized that this was right. She recognized her sons needed to die. She recognized that. You say, well, this doesn't seem right.

How can you kill the sons for their father's sin? The book of Deuteronomy speaks against that. You can't just go out and kill the sons of a father because he sinned 30 years ago. Let's know what the text says. Go back up to verse number one.

It is for Saul and his what? Bloody house. They were just as guilty as Saul was. They were just as bloodthirsty as Saul was. So they weren't innocent at all. Speaking of the divine retribution, the justice of God upon mankind, and they hung them up, strung them up, and they died. And boy, I tell you, this was some event in the life of David. And David goes, now remember, something had to happen because their bodies were decaying. So he would go and take the bones of Saul and the bones of Jonathan, gather the bones of these seven sons, and David gave them a proper burial.

Because in Jewish custom, it was the purpose of every Jewish family to be buried together as a family. And David honored that in Saul's life, in Jonathan's life. He saw Ritzpah had compassion upon her and would take those bones and bury them all together. And the Bible says very clearly in verse number 14, and after that, God was moved by entreaty for the land.

God was so good. This appeased God. God wanted this to happen this way. Wow. You read this story and you realize how one man's sin, even though dead for 30 years, can affect, can affect his own family, can affect the whole nation because of the famine in the land. You know, the Bible in 2 Samuel chapter 21 concludes in verses 15 down to the verse number 22. We're not covering that because we've already covered that in an earlier sermon concerning the other three brothers of Goliath. So you understand that the giant had three brothers.

We've already covered that with you. Remember that whole story many, many, many sermons ago. But the unique thing about this part of the story is that David's getting up in years. He goes out to battle. He almost dies. They say, you know what? You need to go back. We want the lamp to go out in Israel. And it tells me that even when you get older, the fight is never over. And David was getting up in years. The battle was still raging. He still had to fight the fight, the good fight of faith. He still had to go to war because he would be a warrior for his entire life.

And, you know, our good friend, Art McLean, who just went on to be with the Lord, his biggest battles were in the last year of his life. His biggest battles. And as he got older, the more intense the battles became. They get easier when he got older, they got harder. They became more intense in his life. It's like it was for David. Just like it is for you and me. There's no furlough from the fight of faith. We need to stand strong. David would. He would stand strong. And in chapter 22, he would write a song of deliverance, a song that would speak to God as a strength and refuge.

And he would write this song that would be a culmination of his life's protection by God. It's a beautiful song. The singer's going to sing in his old age. He's going to write this song about how God is his refuge, how God is his shield, how God is his rock, because he realizes now toward the end of his life, his life is almost over. He realizes that God has been his constant protector and shield through all this, through all the sin, through all the battles, through all the heartache and all the pain.

He recognizes that God was his protector throughout all those years. He writes under the inspiration of the Spirit of God, a beautiful song speaking to God as his refuge and shield, his defender, his protector, because that's who God is. But there are lessons to learn. I read this chapter and realize the ever-increasing responsibility that leaders have to live pure and holy lives. Whether they're leaders of a small group, leaders of a home, leaders of a church, leaders of a nation, God holds them accountable for the sins that they commit.

And therefore, we need to understand what God's doing, that God truly is the author of calamity. The famine didn't just happen. God caused the famine because of one man's sin 30 years ago. And God caused it at this time so that we could learn about the Gibeonites, learn about their humility, learn about their non-grumbling spirit, learn about how they weren't vengeful, how what they said was reasonable, how what they said was truly right on biblically. They were people who had learned from David, they had learned from Israel, they had learned about Israel's God, and they truly understood what it meant to be servants in the kingdom of God, because that's what they were, they were servants.

And we can learn a lesson from the Gibeonites, but we can learn a lesson because God wants to teach us about Him. He's in charge. Nothing happens without Him knowing or orchestrating all that's happened. We serve a great God, and the life of David speaks to us about the sovereign control of the power of Almighty God in the affairs of everyday life. And for that, we can be thankful. Let's pray together. Father, we thank You for today. Truly, we are a blessed people to be able to study Your Word and to understand why it is You do what You do.

Truly, You're a great God. You do what You do for Your glory, for Your honor, for Your praise. It's all leading to that great and glorious day where every knee will bow and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father. Father, those of us who have bent the knee in submission to Your Lordship, may we live truly as You're our King. We are Your subjects. We are Your servants. We are here to serve the living and true God. Thank You for David's life, chance to study it and to learn, help us to apply the things that we've learned today tomorrow for the rest of our lives.

We thank You, Lord, for Your grace and Your mercy. In Jesus' name, amen.