RIZPAH


A. "AND RIZPAH THE DAUGHTER OF AIAH TOOK SACKCLOTH, AND SPREAD IT FOR HER UPON THE ROCK, AND FROM THERE BEGINNING OF HARVEST UNTIL WATER DROPPED UPON THEM FROM HEAVEN, AND SUFFERED NOT THE BIRDS OF THE AIR OT REST ON THEM BY DAY NOR THE BEAST OF THE FIELD BY NIGHT" - 2 SAMUEL 2:1-11
  1. The story of Rizpah standing guard day and night over the bodies of her dead sons ranks among the most heart-touching stories to be found in the bible:
    1. It portrays the love of a mother
    2. It indicates how mothers' love cannot be extinguished by sorrow or sacrifice
  2. The act of Rizpah became an immortal expression of true and abiding love:
    1. She that loved her sons in love - loved them in death
    2. She feared neither man or beast, but protected even the dead bodies as long as she could
B. NOTE A THREEFOLD PORTRAIT OF THIS MOST COURAGEOUS WOMAN
  1. She was a victim of vengeance:
    1. Like millions of women through the centuries, Rizpah, caught up in the holocaust of national strife and war, found herself bereft of her husband and children
    2. The background to this bereavement is in Saul fighting against the Gibeonites breaking the covenant Joshua had made with them
    3. After Saul's death the B8ibeonites sought revenge on the family of Saul and they got it seven sons of Saul lost their lives - 2 Sam. 21:1-11
  2. She was the defender of the dead; as indicated in our opening text:
    1. She had no power to prevent the murder of her sons; but she did stand guard over their dead bodies
    2. Not for an hour, or a day or a day and night, but until after the harvest; she saw those bodies molding but that made no difference to that mother
    3. That was a famine in the land at the time and Rizpah stood guard over the bodies of her sons - until rain came - "God was entreated for land"
C. WHAT A LESSON OF A MOTHER'S LOVE
  1. Rizpah demonstrated the words of the Bible:
    1. "Love is strong as death;" - S.S. 8:6
    2. Said Paul to his sorrowing friends, "neither count I my life dear unto myself" - Acts 20:24
    3. In this the love of a mother is symbolic of the love of God - "Can a woman forget her sucking child, that she should not have compassion on the son of her womb? yea, they may forget, yet will I not forget thee" - Is. 49:15
  2. Rizpah typified the gloom of Golgatha:
    1. Some writers compare Rizpah watching over her dead sons to Mary standing beside the tree where her son was hanged. In the "hill before the Lord" - 2 Sam. 21:9 we have a shadow of Golgatha
    2. Rizpah's sons bore the curse for a broken oath, "for cursed is everyone that hangeth on a tree" and those trees on the hill of Gibeah foreshadowed the cross on which the Son of God was hanged - Gal. 3:13
    3. By His death on the tree Jesus satisfied His Father's justice and righteousness; He paid the price of the broken law of God
  3. There is a striking similarity between Rizpah and Mary Magdalene:
    1. Rizpah could not forget the sons of her love that is why she watched over their dead bodies
    2. Mary Magdalene could not forget what the Saviour did for her and she set there watching the place where her Lord was buried
  4. Oh the depth of God's love so beautifully portrayed in the love of both Rizpah to her sons and Mary Magdalene's love for her Lord and Saviour:
    1. Mothers in Israel can you match the love of Rizpah for her sons and the love of Mary Magdalene for her Saviour?
    2. But this question is not limited to the mothers in Israel; it belongs to all professed followers of Christ - John 21:15-18


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