- 2 sam 21:1-14 Interesting story here- There is a famine in the land, and David asks why to God and its because Saul was not nice to the Gibeonites. David wants to make it right with them, they say they don’t want gold and sliver- they want to kill 7 of Sauls descendants. David offers up 7, they kill them and then David takes all their bones, with Saul and Jonathans bones and buries them in the family grave of Kish. And then God lifts the famine from the land.
- What? What do we make of this? Where does this story come from and where does it Go?
- There’s a part of this story that really stuck out to me- And it was this idea of burying the bones
- The justification and explanation of the murder of 7 people as a means to appease the Gibeonites and God is not something I want to get into this morning- Honestly, parts of it make sense, and some doesn’t
- The truth is that Saul was wrong and there was a blood penalty that needed to be executed to be made right- There was a covenant that Saul was supposed to keep that he didn’t and years after his death it still needed to be made right
- here’s where I got caught up- The bones. Why bury the bones? Why honor the dead? Why?
- David wasn’t going to let circumstances change who he was- he was going to Honor God
- Saul had done wrong- and the Gibeonites had been slighted- but David was going to be David
- He had already decided way back in 1 Samuel 26:24 And indeed, as your life was valued much this day in my eyes, so let my life be valued much in the eyes of the Lord, and let Him deliver me out of all tribulation.”
- That he wasn’t going to Kill or dishonor Saul- God had chosen Saul, who had chosen David and David was going to come along side what God was doing- he wasn’t going to live for himself.
- And years after Saul was decapitated, burned and buried with his sons at Jabesh, David went and Got his bones and took them to the family plot of Kish in Benjamin Zelah.
- It takes a special type of person to have the grit to bury the bones- make it right
1. David wanted to do what was right
- It was right to bury the bones because it would bring peace in Israel- The fighting needed to stop. The nation needed to move on. Things needed to be made right.
- It was right because it honored Saul- It brought him to his rightful resting place with his father.
- David- No one else will, I will. Everyone will think something bout me- that’s fine. I’ll bury the bones. Ill do the right thing because no one else will- but I will. I will bury the bones.
- It is the right and honorable thing to bury the bones- and even if those around me don’t understand it- I will do it because I am a man who follows YHWH. I will do it for him
- You will notice- no one told David to bury the bones- He did it himself.
- James 4:17 Therefore, to him who knows to do good and does not do it, to him it is sin.
- Often times when you do the right thing its to an audience of one- Sure this made it into scripture- but there wasn’t any fanfare of adulation from the masses- It was unto God..
- What does it mean to you?
- Do you desire righteousness in your life only when others are watching, or do you live unto the lord? What “bones” do you need to bury to move on in your life?
- Sure, David had to bury literal bones- think about this- 1 sam 31 talks about Sauls death- and he was decapitated, burned and buried and David had to go dig up those bones- by himself
- It was the right thing to do, but it wasn’t easy- we gloss over- but he was diggin it up!
- But if you’re going to do the right thing- its going to be messy and you wont want to do it
- Do it anyway. Go dig up the rotting bones and bury them in their rightful place. Its right.
- I get it- Its hard being a Christian. Its hard doing the right thing all the time.
- 2 Peter 2:21 For it would have been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than having known it, to turn from the holy commandment delivered to them.
- Sometimes I think it would have been better to not have known- “can I get a day off?”
- John 15:22 If I had not come and spoken to them, they would have no sin, but now they have no excuse for their sin.
- John 13:17 If you know these things, blessed are you if you do them.
- You will be blessed if you do the right thing- Go and forgive that person. Go and serve.
- I cannot describe to you the amount of private conversations I’ve had about forgiveness
- Luke 12:47-48READ
2. Bury the bones In faith
- There’s a handful of bone stories in the Bible. This is one of them. Also Ezekiel
- There’s another bone story- Joseph back in Genesis 50:24-26 Where Joseph told his brethren- he was going to die. Bury him in Egypt, but when you get to the promised land- bring up my bones
- Hebrews 11:22 By faith Joseph, when he was dying, made mention of the departure of the children of Israel, and gave instructions concerning his bones.
- Its important to understand that the bones have symbolism in all of the stories- and the symbolism of the bones is a future establishment. Joseph- In the future you will no longer be in bondage- bring up my bones. Ezekiel- You will no longer be dead- you will live.
- Sauls bones were buried in faith, josephs bones buried in faith, ezekiels bones spoken to in faith
- In all of these bone stories- there is an element of faith- expectancy- I don’t know what God is going to do- but he is going to do something.
- God will do something with these bones- Joseph- these bones will speak- Ezekiel- these bones will live. Saul- These bones will do something-
- As God did something with Joseph, and the promise of deliverance from Egypt to Canaan God will do something here- We bury bones because we know that God does something with it
- You may not know it at the time- but you do it anyway in faith- You just bury the bones
- Why? Because we serve a God who resurrects dead things. He brings them to life.
- We are a resurrection believing people- and so when something seems to be dead we bury it and hope that God will do something with it one day
- The bones of Joseph encouraged Israel that one day God would bring them to the promised land-they did 400 years later- And these bones moved the hand of God to end the famine
- What does it mean to you
- We serve a God of the living not of the dead Luke 20:38 For He is not the God of the dead but of the living, for all live to Him.”
- What dies a natural death will have a spiritual resurrection- It will come back in God’s time
- 1 cor 15:50-54 READ
- David may not have understood the resurrection fully- but he knew it somewhat- Psalm 16:10 For You will not leave my soul in Sheol, Nor will You allow Your Holy One to see corruption.
- And so he buried the bones in faith- believing that God would do something with it
- Romans 4:17 (as it is written, “I have made you a father of many nations”) in the presence of Him whom he believed—God, who gives life to the dead and calls those things which do not exist as though they did;
- That’s the nature and character of God- he raises dead things to life in his time- our Job is bury the bones in faith- and wait on God to do his part- Just have faith as you do it
3. Bury the bones because God will bless it
- It wasn’t until David did the right, honorable, unifying thing that God broke the famine in the land.
- V 14 And after that God heeded the prayer for the land.
- All the different pieces coming together to make it right are not fully fathomable- death of the 7, burying of the bones, etc. All not clear- but it is clear- Bones went in- Famine dropeed.
- Sometimes God will allow things to continue long enough to get his outcomes, and sometimes, you are just obedient because you know that God blesses obedience.
- Did David know that burying the bones would end the famine? Probably not. He just was being faithful to what was in front of him- Doing the right thing. Doing the faithful thing and God shows up.
- Proverbs 28:20a A faithful man will abound with blessings
- David has a bending road- and its not always clear what God is doing in Davids life- but in this instance- God shows up and breaks the famine in the land after David buries the bones.
- Proverbs 3:3-4 Let not mercy and truth forsake you; Bind them around your neck, Write them on the tablet of your heart, 4 And so find favor and [a]high esteem In the sight of God and man.
- What does it mean to you
- If you will be faithful and obedient to God- he will show up eventually and do great things. But sometimes you got to do the work and bury the bones. No one else is going to do it for youl
- Matthew 24:45-47READ Jesus talked about Faithfulness and what it produces.
- How can you expect God to do great things if you can’t even do some work?
- There are bones that need to be buried. It’s a nasty, dirty, thankless job but who else is going to do it? Who else? God has given you a mission and mandate and you know what it is
- We all have different bones. There are things we know we are supposed to do that we don’t
- Something you’re supposed to start doing, or stop doing, a relationship that needs to be mended- but you aren’t being faithful- you’re under dereliction of Duty-
- You’re expecting God to be faithful- when you aren’t be- and it doesn’t work that way
- Luke 16:10-12 READ
- Faithfulness takes WORK iT takes putting your hand to the plow- doing what you are supposed to do.
- 2 Corinthians 5:7 For we walk by faith, not by sight.
- And that means that you do what needs to be done even tho you don’t know what it is going to end up doing
- Do you think David knew what was going to happen or if he was just being faithful?
- 1 Corinthians 4:2 Moreover it is required in stewards that one be found faithful.
- Be found being faithful. Bury the bones
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