I was recently studying RIZPAH's story again in 2 Sam. She was Saul's concubine who bore him two sons who were hanged with 5 of Michal's sons, due to Saul's sin against the Gibeonites. Saul had broken a vow made by Joshua to the Gibeonites in slaying 85 of them. So God disallowed the blessing of rain to fall on Israel for three solid years during David's rule after Saul was dead. Once God told David the famine was for Saul's sin against the Giebeonites, he asked the Gibeonites what he could do to alleviate the issue, and bring God's blessing back to Israel. They demanded 7 of Saul's sons be given to them so they could be hanged David acquiesced.
Two of those 7 were Rizpah's boys. And the story goes that she stayed by the hanged dead boys for week after week, and scholars say it went on into the months. She drove away the birds and beasts from eating the corpses, and stayed there and would not leave.
Now, hanging in the bible always hints of the cross. Flags go up in my mind when I read about hanging, since Christ is said to have been "hanged" on the cross. These boys were not hanged by a noose, but rather from their hands on a
gibbet... they were
gibbeted. It's like Jesus hung from his hands on the cross.
After Saul was killed long before in a battle against the Philistines, the Philistines found him and his dead three sons and took them and beheaded him, then
hanged their bodies on the Wall in Bethshan.
So, what was done to Saul in being HANGED was repeated with Saul's seven sons three years after famine struck, long after Saul was dead.
I always consider the hanging of Saul representative of our old man crucified with Christ. Saul's rule indicates the carnal rule of our old existence before the HANGING of the cross. David's rule reminds me of my Christian life.
And it is notable that Saul died the SAME DAY that three of his sons died.
If Saul represents the OLD MAN crucified when we get saved, what would his three sons represent, who died the same day?
1 Samuel 31:6 KJV So Saul died, and his three sons, and his armourbearer, and all his men, that same day together.
I think they can be said to be WORKS OF THE FLESH. Sons of the old man. His offspring. Some of our works of the flesh are taken away from us the same moment our sins are taken away when we got saved. My grandfather is a classic example of one whose legendary alcoholism was totally taken from him the same moment God filled Him with the Holy Ghost! I think something similar happens to us all when we first get saved.
But some of the SONS of the old man can hang onto us and did not die when we got saved. They are like carry-overs from our carnal existences before the hanging of the cross, and they are still around and act up every so often. Bad tempers. Attitudes. Carnality in many forms.
And GOD CANNOT BLESS LIKE HE WANTS when we manifest the works of the flesh after we are saved! Like Saul's seven other "sons", there are works of the flesh that we had before salvation and we still have them after salvation, and they hinder God from blessing us. The rains of God's blessings were held back from Israel because some of the sons of Saul were still alive.
Not only was Saul hanged, but the SAME FORM OF DEATH -- HANGING -- was implemented in order to rid Israel of his seven remaining sons.
In other words, the SAME CROSS that saved us from sin, and SOME of the works of the flesh when we got saved, is the SAME CROSS that will destroy the remaining works of the flesh in our lives since salvation.
Continued...
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