Remembering Rizpah

Yesterday I read an amazing and enlightening article in The Sword and the Trowel written by C.H. Spurgeon on Rizpah, Saul's concubine.  The brave deeds of this noble woman impressed King David and are an inspiration to this day.  Masterfully written and powerfully applicable, I highly recommend you to seek out an online copy to read the entire article.  I have read much Spurgeon over the years, and this is the "prince of preachers" at his very best.  This call to vigilance in our walk with Christ and unconquerable love for Him is widely applicable.

He expounds upon a Bible passage found in 2 Samuel 21:10:  "Now Rizpah the daughter of Aiah took sackcloth and spread it for herself on the rock, from the beginning of harvest until the late rains poured on them from heaven. And she did not allow the birds of the air to rest on them by day nor the beasts of the field by night."  For five months this vigilant woman grimly guarded the corpses of her children hanged before the LORD for the atrocities committed against the Gibeonites.  Seizing upon this picture of a mother's love and devotion for her dead children, Spurgeon observes how few of us have ever matched her in devotion to our living Saviour Jesus Christ and how she is a worthy example for us.  Since copies of this article are easily found online, I will only highlight portions of it.  Had there been no copies available, I would have gladly typed it out in its entirety - that's how good it is.

"This woman Rizpah, though a word is used in connection with her which is full of shame, for she was but Saul's "concubine," was yet a woman of noble spirit, for when she found her [two] sons thus put to death, she took sackcloth, making a little tent of it on the brow of the hill, just underneath the seven gallow-trees, and there she watched all through the burning summer, and the fierce autumn heats, till the Lord's mercy sent the rain to cool the sun-burnt earth.  The carrion birds came to feed upon the corpses, but she chased them away with her wild shrieks and cries; and when the jackals and the bears came by night, she, as if she were some fabled destroyer of dragons, and not a poor timid woman, drove them all away.  Neither by night nor by day did she cease from her dreadful task of love until at last, when the scant harvest was sorrowfully housed, the Lord accepted the atonement made, and made the blessed rain to drop from heaven - the rain which had been withheld so long because sin had bound up the bottles of heaven.  Until it was clear that God's wrath was removed, Rizpah stood to her post, protecting as best she could the unburied relics of those who were so dear to her.  It is a ghastly picture..."

Notice this woman in the constancy of her watching.  As, in my solitude, I read of Rizpah's watchfulness, I felt ashamed of myself - so thoroughly ashamed that I thought I heard my Master say to me, "What, could ye not watch with me one hour?"  Here is a woman who watches with the dead, not one hour, nor one day, but weeks and months, while we are so unspiritual and so carnal that a little watching with our Lord soon tires us out!  Even when we draw near to the master's table our thoughts wander.  When our minds should concentrate all their faculties upon the one topic of the Wellbeloved's flowing wounds and purple sweat, his bleeding head, and hands, and feet, our imaginations wickedly ramble abroad, and we cease to keep watch with Jesus; yet here is Rizpah, with undivided heart, faithful to her charge from month to month..."

Emulate Rizpah again, and like her make your watch a loving one.  If any compassionate traveller had saluted her, he might have said, "Woman with the grey hair, have pity on thyself, and go thy way!  Why tarriest thou here alone, on the bleak side of Gibeah's hill?  Why lingerest thou amidst these putrid corpses, which pollute the air?  Go, unhappy woman, where there are friends to shelter thee!  The nightdews will chill thy marrow, and the fierce sun will parch thy soul; have pity on thyself, and leave the dead, lest thou too soon be one of them.  Go home to kinsfolk, who will comfort thee!  There are still some left that love thee.  The fame of thy deed of love, hath won thee hearts that will yield respectful homage to thy griefs.  Go home, thou venerable woman; though like Naomi, thou shouldst say, 'Call me Mara!  for the Almighty hath dealt bitterly with me;' go thy way, and peace be with thee."  Do you not hear her firm reply, "I will not; by the love of God, I will not leave them!  for they are my children, my children - the offspring of my bowels.  Wherefore bid me leave them?  Shall yon vultures tear their flesh, which is my flesh as much as theirs?  Shall the grim wolf devour those who once lay on this bosom?  Wherefore bid me go?  Ye see nothing but ghastliness there, but I see myself in my children yonder.  Would God I had died for them; that I had died for them, and given up this wrinkled form, that their young lives might have been spared to them!  I cannot and I will not leave them.  Till the soft bosom of their mother earth shall give them shelter, their mother's hand shall defend them."  O love, what canst thou not do?  Beloved of the Lord, love is the great force which will keep you close to Jesus.  If you love him with a deep, passionate love, you will abide with him.  If the mere love of nature could keep a woman watching thus, what ought the love of grace to do?  For grace would conquer nature, and gratitude, for countless blessings, should create in us a love more deep and impetuous than the love of women - a love which many waters cannot quench, and which the floods cannot drown..."

"Behold how Rizpah suffered for her dead children's sake, and take heed that thou learn to endure as seeing him who is invisible.  Brethren, if all the world at once should point the finger of scorn at us, if all the devils in hell should hiss at us from their mouths of flame, if God himself for awhile should hide success from us, yet for the wounds of Christ, and for the bloody sweat, and for the precious death of Jesus, we ought still to press on in service and in sacrifice, since Jesus' sacrifice deserves of us all we are, and more than all; deserves our whole being in its most intensely energetic condition; deserves us evermore toiling at the utmost possibility of diligence, or suffering at the highest imaginable degree of resignation.  O come, ye lovers of my Master, come to his cross, and ask him to nail you there, to crucify you with himself.  Ask him that he would make your hearts wholly his.  Ask to be consecrated, spirit, soul, and body, and henceforth to reckon yourselves not your own, but bought with a price.  O Holy Spirit, press these truths upon thy people's hearts, and help them to watch and worship, to watch and suffer, to watch and serve with Jesus, till the rain shall drop from heaven, and thou shalt take them up to dwell with thyself, where they shall see the despised One exalted, the crucified One enthroned, and the buried One for ever living, King of kings, and Lord of lords." (Spurgeon, C. H. C.H. Spurgeon's works as published in his monthly magazine The Sword and the Trowel. Vol. 2. Pasadena, TX: Pilgrim Publications, 1975. Print. pages 69-76)