11.13.23 - II Samuel 21:14
As you imagine expanding your world beyond your horizons, what do you need to honor, weep over, and care for today?
They interred the bones of Saul and Jonathan his son in the land of Benjamin at Zela, in the tomb of Kish, his father. They did everything that the king commanded. After that God was entreated regarding the land.
Rizpah was a mother whose sons were traded in an atonement ritual; there was nothing she could say to her king that would prevent their murder. All she could do was guard their bodies.
Was David too removed and calculated in handing over lives to feed his people? Was the lesson of atonement lost on him? Maybe Rizpah experienced something David missed: a lament for irreplaceable lives.
Saul attempted to ethnically cleanse the Gibeonites -- they lost countless sons. And to atone, David was asked to sacrifice in return and so he handed over other people's sons. And after doing what was asked, the Creator was silent.
Only when a mourning mother moved David to bury the bones of the hanged Israelites did the Creator receive prayer for the land.
David shows us it's possible to do everything right and still get it wrong. Rizpah shows us that every sacrifice should be honored.
Sacrifice and atonement are tough to imagine, much less understand in practice. We're rarely called into such situations in our lives (at least most of us in America).
However, we are called to honor and weep and care. As you imagine expanding your world beyond your horizons, what do you need to honor, weep over, and care for today?
-- Katelin Champion