DOCSLIB.ORG

The Lectionary Which Determines Our Scripture Readings Follows a Three-Year Cycle

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
The Lectionary Which Determines Our Scripture Readings Follows a Three-Year Cycle “Rizpah: Prophet without Words” January 4, 2015 Second Sunday after Christmas First Congregational UCC Judy Goodrow 2 Samuel 21:1-14 Psalm 51:10-17 The lectionary which determines our scripture readings follows a three-year cycle. If you attend worship each Sunday for three years, you will hear much of the biblical story. But you won’t hear about Rizpah. The story we heard Pastor Deb read today is not included in the 3 year lectionary cycle. Rizpah’s story is part of a collection of odds & ends which was tacked on the backside of the David narrative in I and II Samuel. If you remove those four chapters, II Samuel flows smoothly into I Kings. But someone thought the story of Rizpah needed to be included in the narrative. The story begins with famine. For three years there has been a famine in the land of Israel. King David inquires of the Lord to find out why. At this time, it was believed that the gods controlled the weather and sent famine and drought as punishment for wrongdoing. The text tells us that the Lord told David that bloodguilt from King Saul was the cause of the famine. Apparently the prior king had attacked the Gibeonites, with whom Israel had a peace treaty. The alleged attack is recorded nowhere in the text. David decided that expiation must be made to atone for the sin, and so he asked the Gibeonites what they would require to make things right. After some pressure, the Gibeonites said they would accept a human sacrifice of seven of Saul’s male descendants. David agrees, and hands over the five sons of Saul’s daughter Merab and the two sons of Saul’s concubine Rizpah. The Gibeonites “impaled them before the Lord” which was probably an early form of crucifixion. They all died together, and their bodies were left hanging on the crosses, the ultimate disgrace. But Rizpah would not leave; she stayed near the crosses, and chased birds away from the bodies by day and wild animals by night. She stayed at her post for weeks. But even after the sacrifice, it did not rain; the famine did not end. There are two ways to interpret this story. One view is of David as a righteous king, a reluctant hero, who has to do the dirty work of keeping the peace and ending the famine. But another way we can interpret the story of Rizpah is as a piece of protest literature, which views David as a self-serving king who systematically kills off any potential threats to his throne, while making a barbaric statement to the nation: this is what happens to those who oppose the king. 1 Let’s consider the key players in the text. The Deuteronomist who recorded I and II Samuel was favorable to David. In all the preceding chapters, David is presented as a national hero and a friend of God and the people. He does what must be done. He rights wrongs and supports justice. If we read the story with this view, we could imagine that possibly the young men he chose for execution were actually guilty of some crime. The Gibeonites appear to be pawns in David’s power play. Rather than asking God what God would require for expiation, David pressures the Gibeonites, who at first say that this isn’t a matter of silver or gold, and no one’s blood should be shed. But when David asks them a second time, they decide that blood will in fact do nicely. The Gibeonites really don’t have a choice: if they refuse David’s offer, the Israelites will blame the continuing famine on them, and they will die. By agreeing to the execution, the Gibeonites will conveniently remove seven potential threats to David’s throne. The seven young men who are chosen for human sacrifice are five sons of Merab - Saul’s grandsons, and two sons of Rizpah, who was Saul’s concubine. I suspect that they were chosen for specific reasons. If we read back in earlier chapters of I & II Samuel, we’ll find that King Saul had promised his daughter Merab to David as his wife not once, but twice … and Saul failed to keep his word both times. Breaking a promise in the ancient Near East was a serious crime often punished by death. David could reason that if Merab had been married to him, as planned, her sons would be David’s own. Any sons she now had would not exist. In executing these young men, David portrays Saul as a deal-breaker, and himself as the one who rights wrongs. The execution effectively erases Merab’s marriage. Rizpah’s sons were chosen, I believe, for a different reason. Again, if we read back through earlier chapters of II Samuel, we’ll find out why. David had made a promise to Saul that he would not wipe out his descendants. Yet this is exactly what he was doing. How can David execute Saul’s descendants and still keep his promise? The answer lies in Rizpah’s history. The paternity of her sons was questionable. She was included in Saul’s harem, but when Abner, the commander of the army, tried to seize the throne after Saul’s death, he raped the women in Saul’s harem. This was one way to solidify a quest for rule. Rizpah had been abused by Abner, and David could reason that possibly these boys were not Saul’s sons at all. Of course, David could justify the execution by blaming it on Saul himself, or on the Gibeonites, or on Yahweh. The only thing we know for certain about Rizpah’s sons are their names: Armoni and Mephibosheth. 2 David had everything planned to work to his advantage: he would appease God, make peace with the Gibeonites, eliminate royal competition, show his power, and right the wrongs of the past administration … and he would look good doing it. But David didn’t count on Rizpah. Rizpah is the heroine of this story. She was no fool; she was the king’s concubine and she was familiar with power. She had been a pawn in a business deal between her father and King Saul. As a result, she was powerless, a sexual slave without the protection of a husband. Her name means “live coal”; this word is found in Isaiah 6:6 when the angel touched a hot coal to the prophet’s lips to remove his guilt and blot out his sin. Rizpah was a live coal who stood with the victims of power to bring shame on David and force him to act. She knew she was powerless to stop the execution of her sons, but she would do all in her power to protest. Rizpah placed her sackcloth, the sign of her mourning, on the rock. Here the storyteller gives us a clue that Rizpah will be the voice of God in this story. Isaiah refers to God as a rock, dependable, strong, unchanging; many of us grew up singing “rock of ages, cleft for me,” and “Jesus is the rock of my salvation.” Jesus said to build your house not on the sand, but on the rock. Rizpah places herself upon the rock. As the bodies melt in the elements, decomposing and releasing fluids and gases, she fights off birds and wild animals. She lived on that rock, possibly for weeks, from the beginning of the barley harvest until the fall rains. Her actions cry out, this should not have happened. This is wrong. What happened here was evil. David claimed the Lord was responsible; God demanded expiation. But no one except David, and perhaps one priest (who understood the king’s power), was privy to this message. Rizpah countered David with a different message from God; she knew that the Hebrew God was never in favor of human sacrifice. Her God opposed all violence, and children should never be made to pay the price for their parents’ sins. Rizpah, a victim, does not act like a victim. Walter Brueggemann called her a “jolt to our expectations” who shakes the foundations of David’s political power. Her story should be read as a resistance narrative, placed clearly at the end of the official narrative of the king. 3 Psalm 51 echoes Rizpah’s message. This psalm clearly states that God does not require sacrifice but a “broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.” “Deliver me from bloodshed!” Psalm 51 is often believed to be written by David, but it was not. This Psalm was written later, long after the monarchic period, but its message is still important; the Hebrew God does not ask for sacrifices like the other gods; this God is a god of compassion, mercy and grace. If you only remember one thing about this story, remember this: Rizpah protects not only her own two sons, but all seven victims. The statement she makes is this: “Only two children on those crosses are mine, but I don’t care; every child on a cross is my child. As long as there is one single child on the cross of pain, and indignity … I will stand up and I will fight for that child – a crucified child is my child.” This is the power of Rizpah for today. The children dying in Somalia and Palestine and Ferguson are our children. The 70,000 Chinese children who are abducted each year are our children. Those suffering and dying from Ebola are our children.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Rizpah Mourns Her Sons
    What happens when our world falls apart? How do we press onward when our tightly-knit plans unravel into loose ends? What do we become when our identity—or the path we’re on—comes undone? What if all this is not the end we fear it will be? In our unraveling, sometimes life surprises us with unexpected joy, love, and hope—with a new beginning we couldn’t have imagined. Sometimes we need God to unravel us, for we long to be changed. Throughout the summer we will explore biblical stories of unraveled shame, identity, fear, grief, dreams, and expectations. There are stories where God meets us in the spiraling, unraveling our plans—and us—into something new. 2 Samuel 3:7; 21:1-14 – Rizpah Mourns Her Sons: Public Grief That Inspires Action The story of Rizpah is unfamiliar to many of us, perhaps because it never appears in the Revised Common Lectionary and because it is a very disturbing story! It is set in a time of Israel’s history when there was great turmoil and transition. The great leaders like Moses, who led the Exodus, and Joshua, who led the settlement in Canaan, are gone. The movement from a collection of tribes ruled judges to a centralized monarchy under King David was long, hard, and often violent, involving threats from rival nations and from within Israel itself. Saul, the first legitimate king, has died and what amounts to a civil war ensues between David and the heirs and followers of Saul, and the most venerable members of their households, their wives and children, become tools in the conflict.
    [Show full text]
  • Rizpah's Children
    Ri zpah ’s Children By REV. dR. MARIlyN P. TuRNER AMERICAN BAPTIST HOME MISSION SOCIETIES Scripture quotations are from the New Revised Standard Version. Ri zpah ’s Children Adapted from a sermon presented at a meeting of the General Board of American Baptist Churches USA in June 2006 2 Samuel 21:3-10 David said to the Gibeonites, “What shall I do for you? How shall I make expiation, that you may bless the heritage of the Lord?” The Gibeonites said to him, “It is not a matter of sil - ver or gold between us and Saul or his house; neither is it for us to put anyone to death in Israel.” He said, “What do you say that I should do for you?” They said to the king, “The man who consumed us and planned to destroy us, so that we should have no place in all the territory of Israel — let seven of his sons be handed over to us, and we will impale them before the Lord at Gibeon on the mountain of the Lord.” The king said, “I will hand them over.” But the king spared Mephibosheth, the son of Saul’s son Jonathan, because of the oath of the Lord that was between them, between David and Jonathan son of Saul. The king took the two sons of Rizpah daughter of Aiah, whom she bore to Saul, Armoni and Mephibosheth; and the five sons of Merab daughter of Saul, whom she bore to Adriel son of Barzillai the Meholathite; he gave them into the hands of the Gibeonites, and they impaled them on the mountain before the Lord.
    [Show full text]
  • Rizpah: the Influence of Faithfulness Lesson #9 for November 27, 2010 Scriptures: Deuteronomy 30:19; 2 Samuel 3:6-11; 21:1-9; Mark 13:13
    Background Characters in the Old Testament Rizpah: The Influence of Faithfulness Lesson #9 for November 27, 2010 Scriptures: Deuteronomy 30:19; 2 Samuel 3:6-11; 21:1-9; Mark 13:13. 1. Our background character for this lesson, Rizpah, lived in a time of transition in the government of Israel. Saul was dead. His three older sons were dead. And his fourth son, Ishbosheth, trying to establish his kingdom on the other side of the Jordan River at Mahanaim, was trying to pull together the 10 northern tribes in opposition to David who ruled over the tribes of Judah and Benjamin (and portions of Simeon and Levi) in the south. 2. There are only two passages in Scripture which tell us about Rizpah: 2 Samuel 3:6-11 and 2 Samuel 21:1-14. Rizpah was a concubine of King Saul. She bore him two sons. We do not know exactly what her status was in the government or what the status of her two sons was. We do not even know exactly what her relationship was with King Saul. 3. The normal custom in the days of Saul and David was for the new king to take the wives of the former king as his wives or concubines. (2 Samuel 16:21,22; 20:3; 1 Kings 2:21,22) 4. Apparently, Ishbosheth was following that tradition and was taking some responsibility for Rizpah. We do not know if she became his concubine. We first read about Rizpah when Ishbosheth accused Abner, the general of the army of the northern ten tribes, of sleeping with her.
    [Show full text]
  • The English Poets' “Rizpah”
    THE ENGLISH POETS’ “RITZPAH” RAYMOND APPLE The Second Book of Samuel (chapters 3 and 21) tells the story of Ritzpah, an 11th century BCE Israelite woman whose despair at the death of her sons is a paradigm of motherly love and devotion. Several English-language poets utilize the story as a framework for their own treatment of a mother’s fierce defense of her children, at the same time adding to our understanding of the story itself and enhancing the woman’s role in biblical events. It is this sec- ond aspect which the present paper addresses. It does not imply that the Tanakh lacks dynamic women, especially in the period before Ritzpah, but it may be that the image of women had declined and the poets’ treatment of Ritzpah indicates its rehabilitation. THE BIBLICAL STORY There are two – interconnected - stages in the story, connecting Ritzpah’s private emotions with political developments. STAGE 1 II Samuel 3:7 introduces to us Ritzpah the daughter of Ayah. She is a pi- legesh, a royal concubine: pilegesh can also mean a legal though secondary wife (it possibly derives from the Biblical Hebrew p-l-g, “part” or “half”). After the death of King Saul on Mount Gilboa, Ritzpah seems to have resided with Ishboshet, a son of Saul. Scandal and drama ensue when Ishboshet ac- cuses Avner the son of Ner, Saul’s cousin and army commander, of having lain with Ritzpah for not only romantic but political purposes (verse 7). The protest against Avner implies that marriage with a dead king’s concubine is tantamount to a claim to the throne (cf.
    [Show full text]
  • Rizpah – Lessons for Everyday Life 2 Samuel 3:7-10, 21:1-14
    Rizpah – Lessons for Everyday Life 2 Samuel 3:7-10, 21:1-14 Introduction: 1. There is a lady in our text by the name of Rizpah who, on the surface, seems like a rather insignificant character in the Bible. She was a concubine of King Saul. Concubines were wives, but not united by the usual ceremonies and were considered inferior. 2. Rizpah bore Saul two sons, Armoni and Mephibosheth (not the same one as Jonathon’s son – Saul’s grandson). 3. Though Rizpah was insignificant in her status as a concubine and is only mentioned a couple of times in Scripture, she played a major role in two very significant events in the life of the nation of Israel. 4. There are two incredible lessons for everyday life that we learn from Rizpah. Rumors kill and destroy – 2 Samuel 3:7-10 1. After Saul died, the commander of Saul’s army (Abner) placed Saul’s son, Ish-bosheth, on the throne of Israel, and united the ten northern tribes of Israel under his leadership. 2. Two tribes followed David as King and they began to win victories over Abner’s armies. But then came the fatal blow, and it involved this lady, Rizpah. 3:7-10 3. A rumor began to circulate concerning Abner and Rizpah. There is no indication in the text that the allegations were true; they were simply rumors. Ish-bosheth was upset by the rumor, and naturally Abner was furious. 4. This led Abner to take his support to David and led to the total destruction and demise of the northern kingdom of Israel.
    [Show full text]
  • Rizpah Mourns Her Sons WELCOME and ANNOUNCEMENTS CALL TO
    Reprint & Podcast/Streaming under OneLicense.net #A709489 FIRST EVANGELICAL LUTHERAN CHURCH – KENYON Sixth Sunday after Pentecost Rizpah Mourns Her Sons WELCOME AND ANNOUNCEMENTS CALL TO WORSHIP L: When we come to this space, we bring all of ourselves. All: We bring joy and hope, L: Dreams and prayers, All: Grief and doubt, L: Memories and heartache. All: God meets us here. L: God hears our prayers and sees our scars. All: With open hearts and authenticity, Let us worship good and gracious God. PRAYER OF THE DAY & CONFESSION P: God of creation, C: Humanity is capable of such evil. Stories in scripture alongside stories on the news remind us of that truth all the time. For the moments when we choose violence over peace, exclusion over inclusion, and fear over hope — forgive us. When we choose pride over what is right, and comfort over justice — show us mercy. And when we numb our pain instead of leaning into empathy— unravel us, for we long to be changed. Gratefully we pray. Amen. READINGS 1 | P a g e PSALM 51:1-12 L: Have mercy on me, O God, according to your steadfast love; C. according to your abundant mercy blot out my transgressions. L: Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin. C. For I know my transgressions, and my sin is ever before me. L. Against you, you alone, have I sinned, and done what is evil in your sight, C. so that you are justified in your sentence and blameless when you pass judgment.
    [Show full text]
  • She Is Called Women of the Bible Study Series a Building God’S Church Together Resource
    VOLUME 1 SHE IS CALLED WOMEN OF THE BIBLE STUDY SERIES A BUILDING GOD’S CHURCH TOGETHER RESOURCE Palm of Deborah A resource created by RCA Women’s Transformation and Leadership. We’d love to hear from you. Please contact us at [email protected]. Photos taken on the She is Called Holy Land trip, November 2019. 2 PREFACE This first volume of the She Is Called Women of the Bible Study Series was released in advance of Women in Ministry Sunday on May 17, 2020. The stories we tell shape and transform us. They remind us of who we are and urge us to become the people we want to be. The Bible is full of stories, and when we gather together as a community, we retell these beloved stories to knit us together as a body, to remind us of who we are, and to inspire us to continue in our walks with Christ. One of the primary ways God chose to share with us was through stories. These stories reveal to us who God is and who God created us to be. They invite us to see our stories—our very lives—as part of God’s unfolding story. Psalm 107 begins with these words, “Give thanks to the LORD, for he is good; his love endures forever. Let the redeemed of the LORD tell their story—those he redeemed from the hand of the foe” (NIV). As we read Scripture, we are telling our story, and we are opening ourselves to the possibility of being transformed as we tell it.
    [Show full text]
  • “Claiming Her Dignity Introduces Us to Fourteen Biblical Women Who
    “Claiming Her Dignity introduces us to fourteen biblical women who bravely responded to the violent evils of war, rape, systemic injustice, and poverty in seemingly small but effective and creative acts of nonviolent resistance and in the process retained their dignity and agency as full human beings. Claassens brilliantly demonstrates how the complex, realistic, and hopeful accounts of these ancient biblical women continue to reverberate in the stories of women and other marginalized people in our world today. Highly recommended!” — Dennis Olson Charles T. Haley Professor of Old Testament Theology Princeton Theological Seminary “This is a superb resource for those seeking to engage oppression, precarity, and trauma in biblical texts and in contemporary communities. Using the stories of Jephthah’s daughter, Abigail, Ruth, Susannah, and more, Claassens highlights women’s creativity and resilience in situations of systemic inequity and interpersonal brutality. Sophisticated gender analysis is combined here with unflinching attention to violence in its many forms. Claassens’s exploration of strategies of resistance makes this book essential reading for those interested in biblical ethics and feminist approaches to Scripture.” — The Rev. Dr. Carolyn J. Sharp Professor of Hebrew Scriptures Yale Divinity School “In this volume Juliana Claassens has once again applied her careful exegetical eye and her deep theological insight to texts that illumine the experience and witness of women in the Old Testament. The result in every chapter in this collection brings voices and stories of women, usually confined to the margins of biblical interpretation, into our consciousness with fresh perspectives that enrich the humanity of us all.” — Bruce C.
    [Show full text]
  • Who Can Take in the Depth of the Pain of a Grieving Mother Like the Campfire to Scare Them Away
    This is a (very long!) sermon we found on Rizpah, by David Now I have found in my research, looking at this character, Legge. Jenny has highlighted some interesting parts. You that a lot of poetry has been written about this dear lady. can listen to it if you would rather here: Alfred Tennyson, Lord Alfred Tennyson, wrote a poem called https://www.preachtheword.com/sermon/women04.shtml. 'Rizpah', and it wasn't specifically about this character, but It comes from an evangelical standpoint. many feel that behind the scenes of his thoughts he was thinking of this biblical lady. One of the lines in his poem goes Now if you've been with us in this series looking at 'Little like this: 'But the night has crept into my heart and began to Women', learning lessons from lesser known women of the darken my eyes'. That was Rizpah's experience, and tonight Bible, you will remember that we began in our first week with we're going to look deep into the dark, damp eyes of this the character of Rahab. We felt, at least I did anyway, that mother as she keeps a vigil at Gibeah's hill where her son's there was a hint of espionage in that particular story. The corpses have been left to rot. Despite a law that said that their following week we looked at Abigail, and of course all you burial should take place before sunset, there they are, there ladies enjoyed the romance that was in that tale. Then the she is.
    [Show full text]
  • Lesson 5 - 2Nd Samuel 3 & 4
    Lesson 5 - 2nd Samuel 3 & 4 2ND SAMUEL Week 5, chapters 3 and 4 A corner is about to be turned in the history of Israel. 2nd Samuel chapter 3 records the story of the final stage of David’s rise to power as the first king of a fully united Israel. Last week we saw that Abner, the military commander and real power behind the throne of Ishbosheth, used a somewhat contrived crisis to make a move to depose Ishbosheth and turn the northern kingdom over to David. The crisis was that Abner went into Ishbosheth’s harem (that he inherited from his father, Saul) and had sexual relations with Rizpah, perhaps the most prominent woman in the harem. In this era such a thing was done to show total disrespect for the current leadership and to indicate that a new leader had arisen to usurp the old. In other words there is no doubt that Abner created an excuse to have a confrontation with Ishbosheth (by means of cavorting with Rizpah) so that he could do just what he did: transfer Saul’s old kingdom from Ishbosheth to David. There were several motivations for Abner to do such a thing even though the one he spoke about actually seemed to be righteous in nature. Abner says that the reason he is going to hand the kingdom over to David is because God had made it publically known that David was to be the king over all Israel, and therefore Abner was merely acting in obedience to the divine decree.
    [Show full text]
  • Weapons Upon Her Body: the Female Heroic in the Hebrew Bible
    WEAPONS UPON HER BODY: THE FEMALE HEROIC IN THE HEBREW BIBLE by Sandra Ladick Collins B.A., University of Pittsburgh, 1981 M.A., Pittsburgh Theological Seminary, 1987 M.L.S., University of Pittsburgh, 1987 Submitted to the Graduate Faculty of Arts and Sciences in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy University of Pittsburgh 2009 UNIVERSITY OF PITTSBURGH School of Arts and Sciences This dissertation was presented by Sandra Ladick Collins It was defended on May 18, 2009 and approved by Paula M. Kane, Associate Professor, Department of Religious Studies H. David Brumble, Professor, Department of English Andrew Gross, Assistant Professor of Semitics, Catholic University of America Dissertation Advisor: Adam Shear, Assistant Professor, Department of Religious Studies ii Copyright © by Sandra Ladick Collins 2009 iii WEAPONS UPON HER BODY: THE FEMALE HEROIC IN THE HEBREW BIBLE Sandra Ladick Collins, Ph.D. University of Pittsburgh, 2009 The established interpretations of four biblical narratives—Lot’s daughters, Tamar, Ruth and Bathsheba—often reduce the women to stock characters who inform our ideas about biblical Israel (Rendsburg; Frymer-Kensky) or the line of David (Menn). When read for their gender information, however, one finds women who employ individual strategies of deception and trickery, motivated by self-interest, to successfully maneuver within the system to their benefit. Such initiative is valorous: they save themselves through their own pluck and ingenuity. The title of this dissertation evokes an argument that heroic biblical women carry their essential weapons upon and within themselves. This study begins by considering the historiographical background to the Hebrew Bible.
    [Show full text]
  • The Sad, Yet Heroic Story of Rizpah
    Christchurch Baptist Fellowship August 28, 2016 THE SAD, YET HEROIC STORY OF RIZPAH There are two places in Scripture that we read of Rizpah. The first place is found in II Samuel 3. David was in the place of power after the death of Saul. Under God’s design, David was now fulfilling his role as the king of Israel, although only Judah was recognizing this thus far. Some in the house of Saul did not want to relinquish their rights to the throne, specifically, Ishbosheth, son of Saul. Abner was the “king-maker” having pushed for Ishbosheth to be king. The Bible tells us in II Samuel 3:1 that the house of David became stronger and stronger while the house of Saul became weaker and weaker. In II Samuel 3:6 the Bible says that Abner made himself strong for the house of Saul. It appears that Ishbosheth now sees himself as the puppet king of Abner and wanting no more of it, so in II Samuel 3: 7 Ishbosheth accuses Abner of developing intimate relations with Rizpeh, his father’s concubine. Abner is incensed that he would receive such an accusation and moves his manipulative heart in David’s direction. The rest of his story is short-lived due to the fact that Joab, David’s equally manipulative general, soon murders Abner, his perceived competition. It is not clear whether a relationship between Abner and the former concubine of the late King Saul ever took place. What we do know is that in the Bible narrative, she was not able to speak out for herself and no one spoke out for her.
    [Show full text]