DETERMINED TO UNDERSTAND
September 16, 2001 am
MF Blume
2 Samuel 21:1-10 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. 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 Aiah, whom she bare unto Saul, Armoni and Mephibosheth; and
the five sons of Michal the daughter of Saul, whom she brought up for Adriel
the son of Barzillai the Meholathite: 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 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.
Hosea 6:1-3 Come, and let us return
unto the LORD: for he hath torn, and he will heal us; he hath smitten, and
he will bind us up. After two days will he revive us: in the third
day he will raise us up, and we shall live in his sight. Then shall
we know, if we follow on to know the LORD: his going forth is prepared as
the morning; and he shall come unto us as the rain, as the latter and former
rain unto the earth.
On June 30 I preached a message entitled DO WE KNOW WE'RE DEAD YET?
- And I noted these verses, and always intended afterwards to concentrate
on them moreso than merely briefly mentioning them that day.
- Let's seek to understand God's word today in these verses.
Last week the tragedy of terrorism threw many people into shock and agony.
- This message deals with what to do when we enter into a state of
pain and sorrow.
- There is strength from God.
This very emotional and sad picture in 2 Samuel 21, in which a mother agonized
to understand the seemingly impossible-to-understand scenario of her own
sons being hanged opens up a profound truth that will help us all in our
own agonizing sorrows of life.
Israel experienced a famine for three entire years, without relief.
- King David prayed to the Lord that he might discover what was wrong.
- Why did God allow this?
The Lord responded telling David that the sin of Saul from years before had
not diminished in guiltiness through the years.
- Justice was never served for his sin.
- The man slew many, many Gibeonites in outright murder.
David then sought the Gibeonites and requested from them how this sin against
their ancestors might be resolved.
- Lest some should think wrongly about the entire reasoning behind
the Gibeonites demands of Israel, for the loss of their people in Saul's
murder, notice that the Gibeonites did not seek gold nor silver from Saul's
wealth, nor anything from his possessions left over after his death.
- And God referred to the descendants of Saul as a "bloody house."
- In other words the children of Saul continued on in Saul's spirit
of wickedness.
So the Gibeonites demanded that seven of Saul's sons be hanged.
- Among those sons were two sons born from their mother Rizpah, who
was a concubine of Saul.
- When they were hanged, this mother proceeded to naturally experience
a struggle.
- These were her boys!
- Like any mother, she was terribly struck with grief unknown to
anybody except another mother whose child has passed away.
- She proceeded to fast and pray, as the custom was when one laid
forth sackcloth and sat upon it.
- She sat before the scene of the hanged boys.
- And she sat there for a very long time... some suggest it was a
period of months!
This mother was determined to understand why.
The sons were hanged at a specific time.
- At the beginning of the barley harvest.
- This informs us that their deaths were regarded as sacrifices for
the sin from which the Gibeonites had suffered.
- The famine caused their lack of harvests.
- And having them hung at the beginning of the harvest was a plea
to God that this judgment would satisfy justice and move God to bless Israel
once again with rain.
- Never question God, church.
- Even though we may not understand, He will be proven to have been
right in the end.
- This act was indeed His will.
It turned out that the period of time until she came to grips with the reality
of the situation occurred simultaneously with the time God became satisfied
that the justice required of this sin was satisfied.
- She stayed there until the rain began to fall upon the ground again.
- Don't think she stopped sitting there because of fear of getting
wet in the rain.
- A mother whose children died and who wanted to understand why would
not allow mere rain to hinder her determination to stay there until she could
finally understand.
- She was in indescribable agony of sorrow!
But by sitting there and staring at the boys' bodies, and most likely praying
with words people could not hear, in her own heart, to God, she came to an
acceptance.
- God came through for her.
The moment she came to understand and accept what occurred, God was also
satisfied and blessed Israel once again with rain.
Determined to understand.
Like Israel, mankind has been cursed due to the sin of Adam and Eve.
Romans 5:12 Wherefore, as by
one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed
upon all men, for that all have sinned:
Romans 5:19 For as by one man's
disobedience many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall many
be made righteous.
And the Bible tells us that anyone who is hanged on a tree is considered
a curse.
Deuteronomy 21:22-23 And
if a man have committed a sin worthy of death, and he be to be put to death,
and thou hang him on a tree: His body shall
not remain all night upon the tree, but thou shalt in any wise bury him that
day; (for he that is hanged is accursed of God;) that thy land be not defiled,
which the LORD thy God giveth thee for an inheritance.
No curse is pleasant to experience.
Notice what Paul the apostle stated about Jesus' hanging on the cross.
Galatians 3:13-14
Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law,
being made a curse for us: for it is written, Cursed is every one
that hangeth on a tree: That the blessing
of Abraham might come on the Gentiles through Jesus Christ;
that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith.
Mankind was cursed, and the Bible teaches that Jesus was hanged on a cross
because He would stand as a curse in order for cursed humanity to be free
and receive the blessing of Abraham.
- Rain is considered a blessing.
Deuteronomy 28:12 The
LORD shall open unto thee his good treasure, the heaven to give the
rain unto thy land in his season, and to bless all
the work of thine hand: and thou shalt lend unto many nations, and thou shalt
not borrow.
So the hanging of the seven sons of Saul, which represented the removal of
ALL of Saul's children (seven implies ALL), satisfied God and He sent the
blessing of rain once again.
- This represents the removal of the curse upon the world
through the hanging of Jesus Christ on the cross.
- And God was satisfied and brought blessing to humanity
once again.
Isaiah 53:10-11
Yet it pleased the LORD to bruise him; he hath put him to grief: when thou
shalt make his soul an offering for sin, he shall see his seed, he shall
prolong his days, and the pleasure of the LORD shall prosper in his hand.
He shall see of the travail of his soul,
and shall be satisfied: by his knowledge shall my righteous servant justify
many; for he shall bear their iniquities.
God looked upon the suffering of Christ and was satisfied.
- Christ did not suffer for his sins.
- He simply never sinned.
- But He was wounded for our transgressions (Isaiah 53:5).
- Transgressions that threw us into a curse and a life
of misery and sorrow and agony were what Jesus died for.
The famine of Israel represents the cursed world who is away from God.
- The sorrow and the suffering that people experience.
- And it can also represent the Christian who once knew
what it was to say they served God and were on fire for the Lord, but drifted
away into a life that can never be anything but sorrow, because once you
knew what it was like to enjoy the fire of God's blessings, you can never
be satisfied outside that realm.
- In both cases, whether you're away from God, having
never known Him, or drifted away from a closer walk with Him, you must RETURN
TO HIM and experience His blessings.
Hosea 6:1-3 Come,
and let us return unto the LORD: for he hath torn, and he will heal us; he
hath smitten, and he will bind us up. After two days will he revive us: in
the third day he will raise us up, and we shall live in his sight. Then shall
we know, if we follow on to know the LORD: his going forth is prepared as
the morning; and he shall come unto us as the rain, as the latter and former
rain unto the earth.
We must RETURN.
- Mankind left God in the Garden.
- We must RETURN.
The torn and smitten references point to Jesus' sufferingsas though he deserved
and experienced what we deserved for our sins.
The sorrow and agony of life beneath a curse is still nothing to be compared
to God's wrath of hell.
- Thank God that Jesus took our just desserts for us.
If you are determined to understand the hanging of Jesus Christ as much as
that grieving mother sought to understand the hanging of her boys, you will
finally receive insight and revelation.
- Your sorrow will be turned to joy.
- It did not bring the boys back, but it gave the woman
a strength from God that she did not have herself.
- It doesn't matter if you've never known God and are
in such sin that you think you can never know Him....
- Or have drifted away from God as a Christian,
and have been so long in a lukewarm condition that you've resolved you will
definitely be spewed out of His mouth, since its too far away you've drifted....
- Your sorrow and lack of blessing from God will not
be removed by using your fragile abilities to return to God again.
- You return in a very special and unique way.
- Through understanding the purpose of the CROSS, God's
power will change you in a moment and set you free.
- But your part is to be determined to understand,
because all you require is FAITH.
Romans 10:14 How
then shall they call on him in whom they have not believed? and how shall
they believe in him of whom they have not heard? and how shall they hear
without a preacher?
You need to listen to the words of the preacher who sheds forth truths from
the Bible that you need in order to live a victorious life for the Lord.
- You have to UNDERSTAND.
- You have to HEAR and then take what you've HEARD
and BELIEVE.
- Have faith in it.
- And takes some determination to understand.
That little mother stayed there until she had it settled in her heart.
- She stayed there until she accepted reality.
- She could go on in life after she resolved everything
in God's ways.
- And we need to gaze at the cross until a truth
hits us so much so that we are never the same again.
We can mentally know the facts that Jesus died to take away the curse, but
until we get a revelation of those facts, and it AFFECTS US TO THE POINT
OF CHANGING US, it can do nothing for us.
- Be determined to understand and receive a revelation.
Hosea said that on the third day WE SHALL BE RAISED.
- A third day resurrection always points to Jesus
Christ's resurrection after three days in the tomb.
- But Hosea said we shall be raised!
- In other words, the revelation God is trying to
get through to us is that WE DIED WITH HIM.
- And whenever we're away from God, victory is found
in one place and one place only.
- LOOKING AT THE CROSS UNTIL YOU GET A REVELATION.
- Its not your efforts to be better that are going
to see you back to God.
- Its your determination to UNDERSTAND the message
of the cross.
- God was satisfied with resolving the problem of
your curse with Christ's death.
No matter how long you've been away from God, you're only a revelation away
from getting back.
Even the sorrow and the agony you experience can be cast upon Christ on the
cross and there be crucified and put away from your life.
No matter how deep into sin you've gone, you're only a revelation away from
getting back.
RETURN!
Look at the cross until you really get the revelation that YOU'RE RAISED
AFTER HIS CRUCIFIXION.
- Until you really get the point that through His
death you get victory.
- So many know this mentally but their hearts beat
upon the basis that we must earn our blessings back from God through our
own goodness and deeds.
- A thousand times no!!
- Keep looking and you'll eventually get it.
- But you've got to be determined to understand.
Any problems you face, after entering Christ's death by baptism, your sorrows
and agonies can all be thrown back 2,000 years by your faith onto Christ
and His cross, and removed from your life.
Hosea said God will come to you in all His blessings like the latter and
former rain together.
- When Rizpah had it all resolved, the rains came
again!
- Resurrection is life coming back.
- The land was alive as the rains fell and nourished
the earth for harvest.
- But it died.
- The rains represent God's Spirit.
- And return of the rains to the earth is a resurrection
of the earth.
- Man is made from the dust of the earth.
- We are earth.
- And as much as earth needs rain and water to allow
it to bring forth life, we need God's Spirit to fall upon us so once again
mankind can bear the fruit of love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness,
goodness, faith, meekness and temperance.
- People like fruit.
- And these things are things that everyone likes!
It should be harvest time.
- We should be enjoying a harvest of barley, but
we are suffering the thorns and thistles of agony and sorrow.
- What we bear is hurting us instead of giving joy.
- When Eve was cursed, she was said to bring forth
children in sorrow and pain.
- And the earth was cursed for Adam's sake, since
he was made from earth, and showed a picture of what THORNS AND THISTLES
Adam's life would bring forth, hurting himself in the process.
When Jacob wrestled with the angel of the Lord, he was in agony of facing
his vengeful brother Esau.
- And he refused to let go of the angel because he
was determined to receive the blessing and get out of his troubles.
Genesis 32:26
And he said, Let me go, for the day breaketh. And he said, I will not let
thee go, except thou bless me.
And he got it.
He fought all night.
- And anyone who holds on through their dark nights
of hardship, refusing to give up the quest to understand regardless of how
long it takes to get it, a new day will definitely dawn for them and the
blessings will return.
People are too impatient nowadays and give up too early.
Rizpah drove away the birds by day and the beasts by night.
- She was determined that the sight she gazed upon
was not to be removed from her.
- She wanted those boys to remain there so she
could look at them until everything was settled.
- Driving the animals away reminds us of another
event.
- They say you have to face what inflicts fears
upon you the most in order to gain victory over it
Genesis 15:8-13
And he said, Lord GOD, whereby shall I know that I shall inherit
it? And he said unto him, Take me an heifer
of three years old, and a she goat of three years old, and a ram of three
years old, and a turtledove, and a young pigeon.
And he took unto him all these, and divided them in the midst, and laid each
piece one against another: but the birds divided he not.
And when the fowls came down upon the carcases, Abram drove them away.
And when the
sun was going down, a deep sleep fell upon Abram; and, lo, an horror of great
darkness fell upon him. And he said unto
Abram, Know of a surety that thy seed shall be a stranger in a land
that is not theirs, and shall serve them; and they shall afflict them four
hundred years;
Abram wanted to know for certain.
- So God told him to lay out a sacrifice.
- This he did, and when the fowls came to devour
it, Abram drove them away.
- And finally God gave the word that he would
then know for certain, and suddenly a vision hit Abram and everything came
together and made sense.
- Like Rizpah, Abram refused to let the fowls
destroy the alleged sacrifice.
What do the fowls represent?
Luke 8:5
A sower went out to sow his seed: and as he sowed, some fell by the way side;
and it was trodden down, and the fowls of the air devoured it
.
Jesus explained the symbols of the story.
Luke 8:12
Those by the way side are they that hear; then cometh the devil, and
taketh away the word out of their hearts, lest they should believe
and be saved.
The fowls speak of the devils who come to steal away the words preached.
- The seeds are the words preached.
- And wayside soil is soil beside the furrowed
rows where the seeds can successfully germinate.
- This soil is the hearts of people who are
not determined to understand, and continue to suffer and agonize in a cursed
existence.
- They hear the word and their hearts are
caught up in the distracting pathways of life.
- The devil can easily come and steal away
the words of truth and keep us in sorrow.
When you are given truths from God, the devil is not going to sit there wand
watch you receive it and enjoy the blessings of deliverance from your sorrows.
- He is going to get you away from those
words any way possible.
- I have seen people get up and walk out
of the church when the word started to germinate in their hearts, so that
it would cease.
- They felt they did not want to experience
that, but in reality the devil did not want them to experience that so he
put all sorts of lies into their minds to keep them away from that experience.
- And some don't run out of the building,
but run away in their minds to any other thought they can think up during
the preaching.
- Anyone who would understand the word of
God would be affected to serve Him.
- So the reason these people keep coming
to church and refusing to serve God is that they don't allow their hearts
to be changed by purposely thinking of something else.
- Anything else!
- With many it is a thought of a past experience
they make into an excuse as to why they will not serve God today.
- But any excuse will never stand before
a God whose ways are perfect and exactly what every one was created to experience.
- And don't point to other christians and
churches as your excuse, because when its all said and done, its only between
you and God, and Him alone do we serve.
If you're determined, the devils will come to throw all sorts of obstructive
thoughts in your mind.
- And the people who seek to get their minds
off the truth in effect ask the devils to lie to them, without realizing
it.
- And he's more than happy to supply any
thoughts you might want to get your mind off God's Word.
- And you'll continue to suffer and be eaten
away with bitterness as you continue to repeat the offense to yourself over
and over again until it drives you madder and madder.
The effort to allow the word of God to affect us demands that we be determined
to understand.
- You look and look at the cross, with what
Eph 1:18 calls "the eyes of your understanding", until revelation hits you.
- It takes time.
- It takes determination.
Rizpah, in effect, drove any devils away from her thoughts that would try
to remove the picture in her mind of the boys hanging there.
- She was determined to resolve the dilemma.
- And her determination to know paid off,
and it was just then that the rain fell!
- The blessing hit!
- Her life was changed and the problems were
solved.
We need to look at the cross no matter what problem we face in life.
- Remember how the bitter waters during the
Exodus were healed by throwing the tree into them.
- Throw the cross into all your bitter experiences.
- It will heal your bitterness.
- Your inclusion in the cross of Jesus needs
to be brought to your attention everytime you enter bitter waters, because
those bitter waters and thoughts of depression are nothing more than enemies
to your soul.
- And you need to overcome those hindrances,
because they will cause you to stop serving God as you should.
- You get caught up in the problem at hand,
but the reality is that there is a broader picture you are not looking at.
- Those problems are succeeding in stopping
you from doing God's work in this world.
- I've seen problems affect entire years
and decades in people's lives.
- All the while the blindfold against cessation
in serving God was upon their eyes as they thought of nothing else other
than how they were cheated and wronged.
- But God sees more than that.
- He also sees how you stopped doing His
will in this world because you became caught up with a personal problem.
- You need to see those wrongs done to you
as tools in the hands of the devil to get you away from doing the more important
work of God's will.
- Did we not give up our self-centeredness
when we were buried with Christ into His death?
- Did we not choose to stop serving self
and self-interest when we gave our lives to Him?
- Sounds to me like somebody revoked their
sacrifice for self interest.
Notice that we need to gaze at the hanging.
- Were we not crucified with Christ?
- Were we not sacrificed with Christ?
- What is a sacrifice?
- It is giving up something very valuable
to us, for a better will of God.
- Whatever you sacrifice to God can never
be better than what He returns to you in blessing.
- So accept the spirit of sacrifice and realize
that, yes, perhaps you were wronged -- however, GOD'S WILL IN YOUR LIFE IS
MORE IMPORTANT THAN YOUR SELF CONCERN AND RIGHTS TO AVENGE YOUR MISTREATMENT.
- AND YOU NEED TO SACRIFICE THAT SELF-FOCUSING
CONCERN OVER YOUR SUFFERINGS FOR THE WILL OF GOD THAT IS MORE IMPORTANT THAN
CONCENTRATING ON WHAT WAS DONE WRONG TO YOU.
- IF YOU HAD A SPIRIT OF SACRIFICE YOU WOULD
NOT BE SO OVERLY CONCERNED OVER BEING WRONGED.
- That is also what looking at the cross
is about.
We get so self-centred and focused that we cannot live with the idea of ANYBODY
thinking or doing or saying wrong against us.
- And there is a bit too much SELF for our
own good we never released to the cross of sacrifice with Christ.
- We serve self and God is just going to
have to suffer without our ministries.
- Look at the cross until you see the whole
point.
- Look at it, also, until you see the power
of God towards you through it.
- It takes meditating upon the word to receive
a revelation because when you're messed up like that in your thinking, that
very fleshliness itself hinders any spiritual insight of God from coming
to you.
The real problem is not our bad experiences, but OUR REACTIONS TO THEM.
- Because the Bible still states that God
will not suffer you to experience any temptation you are not able to bear.
- No matter what you go through, there is
really no excuse to not be able to serve God, because the eternal word states
God will not let such a thing come upon us.
Like Peter's revelation of who Jesus was, flesh and blood cannot reveal this
unto us, but our Father only.
- So everything depends upon your determination
to hear from Him in the Spirit.
- And anyone can hear if they only are determined
enough.
Numbers 21:9
And Moses made a serpent of brass, and put it upon a pole, and it came to
pass, that if a serpent had bitten any man, when he beheld the serpent of
brass, he lived.
John 3:14-15
And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son
of man be lifted up: That whosoever believeth
in him should not perish, but have eternal life.
Jesus took the sting of death for us on the cross that the serpent infected
Adam and Eve with in the Garden.
- He took our curse of receiving the
bite of the serpent.
- He became a curse when a curse was
killing us.
- He became what was destroying us.
- Like the serpent Moses lifted up on
a pole that identified with what was killing the Hebrews, Christ became sin
for us, because sin was killing us.
- And if we only look at Him hanging
there for us, and are determined to understand in order to stop dying, we
will receive the answer!