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Rizpah

by Jerry Ousley  
2/03/2012 / Christian Living

Most of us do not like being treated unfairly but it happens. A few years ago I felt that I was treated unfairly. It was just after I had been discharged from the Army and had taken a sales job with a guy I had known for a long time. He was a Christian man and I was very grateful to get the job. The primary product of the company was insulation. His business was actually that of a manufacturer's rep for a variety of companies making various building supplies. His sales force was paid on a commission schedule with a base salary guaranteed. It wasn't a large salary but if one didn't make the sales needed for the week he would make it up out of the base salary. It was better than nothing at all. I caught on to the process and after a couple of months rarely needed anything out of the base pay.

Eventually I was making straight commission and doubling or tripling the base pay. The day arrived when the owner came to me and explained that he was having a rough time and asked if I would consider taking a fraction of what I had earned and letting the balance accumulate on an account that he would settle with me later. I fully trusted this guy because he was not only a friend but a brother in Christ. Man was I a dope! I kept tract of the money and some weeks he would pay me the full amount while others he would add to what was fast becoming a small fortune to a guy like me. Then he began changing my commission schedule. I kept getting a smaller and smaller commission but somehow the Lord continued to bless my sales and even though my commission was smaller I was still making more money. Over the course of the next year and a half he changed my commission scale ten times. It started getting hard to believe things were as tight as he said when he'd step in the office with the words, "Boys, we've got to tighten our belts a little more," because he was building an addition on his house and installing a swimming pool. I began to wonder if my small fortune was actually paying for that pool. I eventually took another job and folks I never saw a dime of the money he owed me. But God blessed in spite of that.

It hurts when we feel cheated and treated unfairly. It happened to a woman named Rizpah. She was the daughter of Aiah, a descendant of Saul. A famine had come over the land of Israel and it was revealed that it was because of an unjust act Saul had done to the Gibeonites. In a nutshell they were the folks who had pretended to come from a far away land when they heard how God was blessing the Israeli's under Joshua's command. They tricked Joshua into making a deal with them. When Joshua discovered that they only lived a ways up the road he was furious but he had made the deal and was bound by God to honor it. However, during the days of Saul the king was desperate to make good with the people of Israel so he attacked the Gibeonites breaking the covenant Joshua had made with them. This was the cause of the famine.

David wanted to make it right and the price required by the Gibeonites was the death of seven descendants of Saul. Two of those men were the sons of Rizpah. They were hung and left there in disgrace. We read about the deed of Rizpah in 2 Samuel 21:10 which says, "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." In other words she went against the natural instinct of a woman who would have normally been afraid of the wild beasts and the vultures and protected the bodies of her sons all during the time of the scanty crop due to the famine until the rains came.

Rizpah's dedication to her sons was discovered by David who then did the noble thing and had her sons buried honorably. This completed the payment for the wrong done by Saul and God allowed the rains to come and the famine came to an end.

There are times when we, like Rizpah, think we have been treated unfairly. It may seem like our world has come to an end and that God no longer cares for us. Where is He? Why has He let us down? Can't He see the terrible plight we are in? Rest assured that as we drive away the vultures and wild beasts even when it seems fruitless and a lost cause, God will indeed honor our faithfulness and we will see the wrong made right. The wrong is not from God. He isn't punishing us for something we can't understand. In fact God in His infinite wisdom is honing us; making us ready for what He has for us. So be a Rizpah; drive off those wild creatures even in our time of mourning and just wait and see those later rains will soon be pouring down, drenching us with the blessings of God.

Jerry D. Ousley is the author of ?Soul Challenge?, ?Soul Journey?, ?Ordeal?, ?The Spirit Bread Daily Devotional and his first novel ?The Shoe Tree.? Visit our website at spiritbread.com to download these and more completely free of charge.

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