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We're in 2 Samuel 21 and these last few chapters of the Bible are definitely, at least this one's kind of like wrapping up and just kind of giving some concluding thoughts. The Bible does say in verse number one, then there was a famine in the days of David three years year after year and David inquired of the Lord. So it just, it doesn't really give us an exact timeline of when this is happening, but it's just kind of towards the latter end of David's reign at some point in time there's this famine. Now we know some things for certain about the timeline of this chapter in the sense that Saul has already perished and some of those things, but as far as the exact timeline of this chapter, we don't know exactly, but it's not necessarily as important exactly when it is, but it's just kind of giving a conclusion because we can even see at the end of the chapter, David is kind of getting to the point where he can't fight and battle as well as he used to. He gets tired more quickly and his soldiers and his men, his chief rulers and princes don't want him to keep going out there and fighting because he could quench that light that is there in Israel. So this is definitely the latter portion of David's life, but at some point in time there's been a famine for three years and that just simply means just a lack of food. Really it's usually as a result of drought. So a drought is usually what's causing a famine in the land and so that's kind of where we see the Bible starting and that's important to kind of understand the context of a lot of these other verses. It says in verse number 2, and the king called the Gibeonites and said unto them, Now the Gibeonites were not of the children of Israel, but of the remnant of the Amorites, and the children of Israel had sworn unto them, and Saul sought to slay them in his zeal to the children of Israel and Judah. So there's been a famine. The Lord told David that it is for Saul and for his bloody house because he slew the Gibeonites. Now this is not a recent thing, which is kind of interesting because if you understand how God actually works is God often has delayed judgment in the sense that judgment's not always just the second that you do the crime. There's sometimes a lengthy period of time upon which that judgment will then finally be realized or actually happen, but be sure that your sins will find you out, as the Bible says, and be sure that the Lord will judge every single sin. And so this sin of Saul, even though Saul doesn't even experience it, those after him experience it. This is something that you have to realize in the Bible is many times the children will suffer for the father's sins. Now humanly speaking, the Bible has certain laws in the Old Testament that talk about how a criminal government should be set up and how we should govern ourselves, and humanly speaking we're not allowed to put sons to death for the sins of the father. The Bible constantly reiterates that. It talks about if some father kills someone or is a murderer, you wouldn't put his sons to death for that particular crime. So there's definitely that understanding in Scripture, but when it comes to God, God will often visit the sins of a father unto the children, and not even the first generation, but under the third and the fourth generation of them that hate me, as the Bible describes. And in fact, sometimes it's like a snowball where one person commits a sin and then the next generation commits that sin, and it's like God's wrath gets angrier, and then the third generation it's like even angrier, and then by the time it hits the fourth generation, man, it is a whirlwind of pain that the Lord delivers unto those people because of their hatred for God. And so don't think that just because your generation doesn't necessarily suffer all the consequences of its actions, that God's not going to end up rewarding even the next generation with far worse. That's why it's so important that we strive to be right in God's sight and limit our sin and try to ask forgiveness of our sin so as to not doom or damn the next generation or make the next generation have to suffer all the consequences of our actions. It's hard to explain this to people because they're so shortsighted, but certain sins have a lifelong consequence to children. One of the most prevalent would be that of divorce. Divorce is not a sin that only affects the parents, it even affects the children. And especially if you divorce once you already have children, that experience, especially if they're old enough to know, it's going to have lifelong consequences, lifelong memories for these children, and it's going to affect them in a certain way. Not only do you have two different sets of parents potentially raising these children, you could have step parents raising the children, they get passed around. Sometimes the children feel unwanted. Sometimes the children feel like a burden because children are always a burden, but when you have these two parents fighting over the children and passing them back and forth and there's all this tension, it causes children to feel unloved, to feel like a pawn and not even really like a person or really someone that's valued and loved. And so just divorce is just so devastating on children. In fact, it's also very devastating because a child, they kind of just naturally love both parents. They love their mom and their dad. So they're constantly in this situation where one side hates the other and they just feel like they have to be this mediator to just an ugly, devastating kind of situation. And so really, divorce is one of those things where it's not like you get saved and all the consequences of your previous divorce have just been eradicated and no longer is there any negative consequences for your children. No, no, of course, your children are still going to suffer the consequences of that ugly, nasty divorce. You know, tattoos, that's a lifelong consequence that you're going to experience. The father being an alcoholic, that's going to affect the children. There's all kinds of decisions, there's all kinds of sins that parents put on their children and they make their children bear that burden. How about parents just not taking their kids to church? Not taking your children to church for their entire childhood and their youth and their upbringing, it's going to have a major impact on them. Because people that never went to church as a child often never want to go to church as an adult. It's very difficult for them, they're not as interested into it, whereas the children in this room that grow up going to church three times a week every single year for decades, it's going to be hard for those children to not want to go to church. They're going to love church, it's such an important thing to them and they're going to want to do that. And so there's always positive and negative. All of the decisions that you make are going to dramatically affect your children. You say, well my children, I want the best for their future. Sometimes that means you have to sacrifice for yourself and you have to make sure that the decisions you're making are positive towards them. Slaying the Gibeonites was a really negative decision for Saul and his children. Who are the Gibeonites? Keep your finger here, we're coming back, go to Joshua 9 in the Old Testament, go back to Joshua. Let's figure out who the Gibeonites are and what's going on here in this story. Joshua chapter number 9, look at verse number 3, it says that when the inhabitants of Gibeon heard what Joshua had done unto Jericho and the Ai, they did work wily and went and made as if they had been ambassadors and took old sacks upon their asses and wine bottles old and red and bound up and old shoes and clouded upon their feet and old garments upon them and all the bread of their provisions was dry and moldy and they went to Joshua under the camp at Gilgal and said unto him, and to the men of Israel, we have come from a far country, now therefore make ye a league with us. So when the children of Israel finally get into the Promised Land, they've conquered Jericho and the inhabitants of the land realize we're doomed, we're going to get destroyed by the children of Israel. Some of them, meaning the inhabitants of Gibeon, kind of did this little trick, they dressed up as if they had been from somewhere really far and they traveled all this distance, even though they were traveling like five minutes away. It would be like putting California plates and showing up at church tonight, but you really were just down the street. It's like they show up and they act like they're from this far country and they say, hey, be peaceful in us, make a promise, make an oath unto us that you won't hurt us, that we can live with you, we came to serve you guys. Now you should be skeptical when someone just comes out of the blue and just says we love you and want to serve you and you're like, I don't even know who you are. That's kind of a dangerous situation. But look at verse 14, what did Joshua do? And the men took of their vittles and asked not counsel the mouth of the Lord. And Joshua made peace with them and made a league with them to let them live and the princes of the congregation swear unto them. So they get tricked, Joshua makes a league with them. Now what's interesting about this story is that Joshua didn't really make this promise based on all the information or even accurate information. They were lying to them and being deceitful or withholding certain information like we came really far. I guess that's relative, huh? But it wasn't really that far and they didn't really let on that they were the inhabitants of Gibeon. But because Joshua had made this oath, now they're stuck living with these people and God doesn't want them to kill the Gibeonites. That's what happens in the scripture. Now according to the Old Testament, they were destined to destruction. They were supposed to be slain. Skip forward two chapters to chapter 11 and look at verse 19. There's another name that the inhabitants of Gibeon go by. Chapter 11, look at verse 19, there was not a city that made peace with the children of Israel save the Hivites, the inhabitants of Gibeon, all others they took in battle. So when it's kind of talking about what the children of Israel did in their conquest, they ended up destroying all of the inhabitants that were supposed to be destroyed in the relative area except for the Hivites. Go to Deuteronomy chapter 7, Deuteronomy chapter 7. The reason why I make mention of that is so you can compare Hivites with another mention of Hivites in the scripture. Now, from my understanding, it appears that some of these groups are kind of being described as like from a broad perspective and then down to like a really local perspective. So in America we have citizens of the United States, right, we would be Americans. But also since we live in Texas, we'd be known as Texans. And then beyond that, we could be the inhabitants of Fort Worth or the inhabitants of Dallas. So we kind of have that like narrowing down of scope as far as who we're in reference to. I believe when we kind of look at this from the inhabitants of Gibeon, the inhabitants of Gibeon is kind of like Dallas-Fort Worth, your inhabitants of Dallas-Fort Worth. Hivites is kind of like Texas, it's kind of like the second broad. And then even broader is like Amorite, and so Amorite is kind of like American. And so they kind of have a lot of these different names that they could be called, but we're still talking about the exact same people. And look what it says in Deuteronomy chapter 7 verse 1. When the Lord thy God shall bring thee into the land whither thou goest to possess it, and hath cast out many nations before thee, the Hightites and the Girgashites and the Amorites and the Canaanites and the Perizzites and the Hivites and the Jebusites, seven nations greater and mightier than thou. So in here it does make a distinction between Amorites and Hivites, but specifically the Hivites are mentioned and that is who the inhabitants of Gibeon were. Now if we go back to 2 Samuel chapter number 21, go back to 2 Samuel chapter 21, the Bible again is making it clear that because he slew these Gibeonites that there's supposed to be restitution. Look at verse number 2 again. It says, and the king called the Gibeonites and said unto them, Now the Gibeonites were not of the children of Israel, but of the remnant of the Amorites and the children of Israel had sworn unto them. So again, it uses the Amorites here, but I believe it's just simply because the Amorites is just a bigger, broader grouping of the Hivites specifically, but we know for a fact that the Gibeonites are the ones that made the oath with Joshua and they were supposed to be preserved. Now I also use this specific story to help understand things about what I call, you know, a second oath. So you kind of have situations where people put themselves in a bad situation and they have a kind of like a second oath and this is where I picture divorce, okay? In the sense of, according to the scripture, it's a sin to divorce your spouse, okay? So the Bible says don't divorce, but what happens when you do divorce, right? Let's say you do divorce and then you end up remarrying. You marry some other person and then afterwards you end up realizing it's wrong. So your scenario is you're married, you got divorced, then you got remarried. Now you realize it's wrong. The question is, what do I do? Well, this is now in a situation where you're kind of in your second oath phase of life. Meaning that you don't then divorce and then go back to the first one or something like that. In fact, the Bible even says that that's a sin. So you're not supposed to go back to the previous spouse after you've already been divorced and remarried. Additionally, you made another oath to this person to be married to them and so you're supposed to honor that vow. So it's kind of either a second oath or more like the most recent oath type of a scenario. So if you've made a promise, you know, to love me, to love me not, you know, you kind of go back and forth. If you've done it a hundred times, whichever was the most recent one is the one that God wants you to honor, basically, is what we're talking about, right? So in Deuteronomy chapter number seven, they were supposed to kill the inhabitants of the land. They're supposed to kill the Hivites. They're supposed to kill the Gibeonites. But they made an oath, should have done it. So then here's the question. Well, that was wrong. We should have done that. So should we honor the first thing that God told us and slay you? Or should we honor our oath which we made afterwards saying that we weren't going to slay you? And that's where you kind of see that conflict, right? But what does God end up wanting them to do? Well, this story illustrates for us the clear instructions of God that whatever your most recent oath is or whatever your most recent proclamation is the one that then God wants you to now honor, okay? So this could be a lot of scenarios. There could be a lot of different life situations where people kind of find themselves in this. But essentially, if you flip-flopped and you're a double-minded man and you've gone and made all these bad decisions, God kind of just expects you to live in your current paradigm, you know, in your current oath, your current situation. But he still takes that seriously that he wants you to honor that oath. Why would God cause a famine on the land for them killing the Gibeonites if he didn't end up taking their oath very seriously that they had made about promising them peace? So that tells me this, trashing your second marriage, God is going to take very seriously even though it's your second marriage, right? Oh, I shouldn't have gotten remarried. Okay, but you did. Let's put that behind you and live in the present and say, you know what? This is a really important marriage. God wants me to do the best with this marriage. And even though it may not be God's perfect will, it's my second plan. I'm on plan B. You know, I'm still supposed to go on plan B as best I can. You know, if you're Elizabeth Taylor, you're on plan F or whatever, but, you know, you just keep going on whatever plan you're on. You know, the woman that's living with a boyfriend, the woman at the well that Jesus Christ talked to, she had like five husbands and several of the ones now recently is not, it's like, it's not like, what do I do? It's like, stick with the one you got now, you know, why don't you make an honest man or honest woman out of yourself in the current situation since you're not even married, you're shacked up with some dude and then at least just like stay committed to that relationship, right? You know, don't just sit here and just continually going on a bender and just keep sinning and keep doing evil and keep breaking your oath. You know, there's always a time to just get right. You can lie a thousand times, but don't lie a thousand and one, don't lie a thousand and two. You know, you commit adultery a hundred times, never do it again. You know, you drink alcohol a hundred days in a row, never drink again. You know, don't just let this fallacy of like, well, I've already screwed up, I've already sinned before, you know, let's just go ahead and do whatever. Another thing is when you've made a decision to make peace with someone, even if you don't like them after the words, you still have to keep that honor, right? Maybe Saul didn't like the Gibeonites, it's kind of stupid for them to even make that rule or to make that vow, but then you just honor it. I kind of liken it onto business situations. You know, maybe you're working with someone and they offer you a car, but it was a bad deal, it was a bad price, but you said yes, then you just pay the bad price, you do the bad deal, and you just go on, right? Whatever it is, God expects us to keep our oaths, to keep our promises, and you know, there's been situations in my life where I'm saying, man, I should have never said yes to that, and now I have to do it anyways, and I don't really want to do it necessarily, but you just do it, you just, if you say you're going to do it, you do it, and this is what it helps you. When you honor a bad promise, it helps you realize that you're not going to make promises so willy-nilly in the future, whereas if you keep breaking your promise, what ends up happening is you never learn a real lesson, and you end up getting no character out of the situation, and then you just are a type of person where no one can trust your word. No one believes anything that you say, and honestly, that's the society we live in today. The society we live in today, nobody honors their word, nobody keeps their promises, and I'll even say this, you know, parents that have gone through a divorce or a bad situation, you know, the Bible gives clear instructions of what you're supposed to do now, and you know, by you suffering, it could actually still cause your children to take their life seriously. You know, if they see their parents just constantly divorcing or marrying and divorcing or marrying and just going through this hodgepodge and bring all these people in and sinning, well, you could take your kids to church and tell them, well, you shouldn't do that, but then when they see your parents doing it, they're just like, oh, well, wink, wink, nod, nod, it's not a big deal. Yeah, I know, it's what you're supposed to do, but we're all sinners, not a big deal, we'll just live our way, and whenever you act so carefree about God's commandments and about God's law, then don't be surprised when your children do the same. Don't be surprised when everything just rolls downhill for you and your family. You know, God expects us to keep our word and keep our promises, and God literally plagues the children of Israel for three whole years with famine as a result of slaying the Gibeonites. Also tells me, don't attack the wrong people. You know, isn't it funny? This is what I think is interesting, okay? In this story, God is mad at the children of Israel for attacking the Gibeonites, who are not good people, they're not godly, but he just made a peace agreement with them, and then you have in the New Testament, you'll have people in today's age, you'll have churches attacking other churches. Think about that. And I'm not talking about someone that's unsaved. I'm not talking about someone that's a false prophet. I'm not talking about some issue that has to be called out publicly. I'm saying they just get mad at and attack and falsely accuse and slander and rail and go against and attack brethren, and I'm thinking, like, how much more would God be mad at you attacking brethren, at attacking God's people when you're not supposed to, in your zeal for the Lord, when these people are attacking the Gibeonites and God's mad about it? You need to be careful who you open fire towards, right? Friendly fire is a big deal, and according to the Bible, not even just friendly fire, just fire towards anyone that's not supposed to be fired at, God takes seriously. We shouldn't just take our guns out there, spinning them, and a rule when it comes to firearms is you never point it at anything you don't want to destroy. If you're not willing to shoot it at something, that's why in the Christian life you should also have the same philosophy of, I'm not going to attack people that I don't want to destroy. I've called out some people that I don't necessarily want destroyed, but just to kind of defend myself or explain a particular situation, sometimes you have to warn about negative people, but you know what? I wasn't taking out my gun and pointing it at them. I was being gracious about it. The people, though, that I want destroyed, no holds barred, but I've seen people attack saved Christians, believers, in a way that it appears like you want them destroyed. You want them just demolished. That is a wicked attitude, and you know what? God doesn't take that kindly, and you might say, well, nothing bad happened to me today. Just wait. Just wait. It's coming down the pike, and it may not even affect you. It might affect your church later, affect your children later, or whatever the situation is, but you know what? Don't just go after people willy-nilly. Don't act like it's not a big deal. God takes this stuff very seriously, and God ends up punishing the children of Israel and specifically Saul's house for this egregious error. Look at verse 3. Wherefore David said unto the Gibeonites, What shall I do for you? And wherewith shall I make the atonement, that ye may bless the inheritance of the Lord? And the Gibeonites said unto him, We will have no silver nor gold of Saul, nor of his house, neither for us shall thou kill any man in Israel. And he said, What ye shall say, that will I do for you? And they answered the king, The man that consumed us, and that devised against us, that we should be destroyed from remaining in any that coast of Israel, let seven men of his sons be delivered unto us, and we will hang them up unto the Lord in Gibeah of Saul. Then the Lord did choose, and the king said, I will give them. So we have here the reward or the recompense of Saul's sin is that seven of his sons are to be put to death. In the instructions from the Gibeonites, they kind of say a few different things. I find this kind of interesting, and really there's a lot of spiritual pictures here that we can kind of draw from. But number one, they say in verse number four, Neither for us shalt thou kill any man in Israel. Now, that just really stuck out to me, just based on the next statement, it's like, kill these guys. And you're just like, what? That didn't really make a lot of sense to me, but if you kind of slow down and think about the exact wording, it does make sense. Now, sons being put to death who did not commit any sin, who does that remind you of? The Lord Jesus Christ, right? The Lord Jesus Christ is the son of God, he's put to death, and he didn't do anything wrong. These sons didn't do anything wrong. So in fact, they actually give a picture of the sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ. When you read stories like this and you feel like, man, that's not fair, it's supposed to remind you of the fact that that's what Jesus did for you. Don't get mad at Saul, get mad at yourself. Get mad at the sin that you did because the sons of Saul weren't even half the man that Jesus Christ is, and he had to suffer for us. So constantly these pictures of innocent people being put to death for the sins of someone else is a picture of none other than the Lord Jesus Christ being put to death for us. Now they don't want David to put the sons to death. So who's going to put them to death, though? They are. So in fact, that actually makes sense. The statement isn't that they don't want anybody put to death. He's saying, you don't put anybody to death, we will put them to death. Now think about this. Who does David in the picture often represent? Just Judah. He's the tribe of Judah, he's Jerusalem, he's the inhabitants of Jerusalem. And so who put Jesus Christ to death? Well, if you think about it, obviously the Jews were the primary cause, they're the ones that delivered Jesus up, but who ended up killing him was the Romans, which is the Gentiles in essence. And in essence here we have, what, the inhabitants of Gibeon putting to death the sons of Saul as kind of the picture of the Romans putting Jesus Christ to death, where you have David delivering them, you have the Jews delivering Jesus, and they put the sons to death. So there's another spiritual picture that we have, and that actually then makes sense of why they're saying, you don't put them to death, we'll put them to death. Another thing, the manner in which they're put to death, what do they do? They hang them up. This is, again, different than how the Jews put people to death, because the Jews put people to death through stoning. So the fact that these men are hung up is a completely different kind of death penalty, and it also symbolizes that Jesus Christ would die a certain death, not being stoned, not being stoned by his own people, delivered to the Romans and hung up, and fulfilling the biblical prophecy of being cursed because he's hung on a tree. So being hung is the symbol of being cursed, the curse of the law, and how he's hung up for the children of Israel. So there's a lot of pictures, and we're going to get more, okay? This chapter is just really just chock full of spiritual pictures, but look at verse number seven. But the king spared Mephibosheth, the son of Jonathan, the son of Saul, because of the Lord's oath that was between them, between David and Jonathan, the son of Saul. So here's another thing. Those who have this promise from David aren't put to death. What is that picture? The promise of eternal life. Those who believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, even though they deserve death, even though they're on the chopping block, they get spared, and they're not put to death. Why? Because those who believe on the Lord Jesus Christ have eternal life, and the promise of the Father, he can't go back on that promise. And so we see that mercy, we see that grace given to Mephibosheth, and again, Mephibosheth is one who's lame, you know, one who can't save himself, one who is incapable of his own salvation. Like we, we're lame, we're incapable of our salvation, and the only thing that grants us that salvation is the promise that was given to us. It's not Mephibosheth was this great guy, Mephibosheth didn't repent of his sins, Mephibosheth didn't get baptized, Mephibosheth didn't go to some particular church, Mephibosheth did nothing good, not by works of righteousness which we have done, but by his mercy he saved us. Okay? And so we have a picture here, again, of the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, saving people based on his promise alone, based on nothing else, he is completely spared, even though he's the number one person on the chopping block. And you know, even though we're the number one people on the chopping block, we get spared as well. Isn't that amazing? Verse eight, but the king took the two sons of Respa, the daughter of Ahiah, whom she bare unto Saul, or Monai, and Mephibosheth, apparently is a common name, and the five sons of Michal, the daughter of Saul, whom she brought up for Adriel, the son of Barzillai, the Melothite, and delivered them in the hands of the Gibeonites, and they hanged them in the hill before the Lord, and they fell all seven together, and were put to death in the days of harvest, and the first days in the beginning of barley harvest. So notice that the sons of a concubine, they don't make it out, the consequences of marrying a whore, the consequences of sleeping around, these kids don't end up getting saved, these kids aren't being spared like Mephibosheth. Now of course, I'm not saying in the literal picture that these kids couldn't have been saved, or this lady couldn't have been saved, because in fact she has a pretty interesting spiritual picture, maybe she is. But I think just the pictures of them dying is kind of a symbol of, you know, you live in this world, the consequences of your sin are going to often lead to death. Now we have seven sons, two from Rizpah, and five from Adriel. Now the Bible does say the five sons of Michal, the daughter of Saul, but it says this, whom she brought up for Adriel, the son of Barzillai. I believe I've already explained this in previous sermons, so I'm not necessarily going to explain it in detail again, but Michal is described as having no child under the day of her death. Yet here it says in scripture that the five sons of her, right, but I believe the language here where it says she brought up clarifies this point, because in fact Michal was not the original wife of Adriel, she was the second wife, because the first wife was her sister Merab. So Merab was promised unto David, and Merab ended up getting married to Adriel, so it stands to reason that these are five sons of Merab, something at some point in time caused Merab to probably die, and so Michal just ended up helping raise her nephews for Adriel. Which makes a lot of sense, because if you die, who's most likely to raise your children? Probably your sister, or an aunt, or someone of close kin, and so I believe, and of course if they're really young, you know, if, God forbid, some mother dies, and her sister raises those children, and they were raised at a very young age, they're going to be considered like her sons, they're going to call you mom, they're going to, you know, it's basically going to seem like you're their parent in a sense. So it makes sense that it's like the five sons of Michal, but then why is it saying that she brought them up for Adriel, because it wasn't really her kids, and of course, you know, a woman that can't give birth, she's usually going to be the number one prime candidate to raise someone else's children. Again, why that would make sense that she's raising someone else's kids, because everyone else is busy with their kids, you don't want to throw another five onto the lot, makes sense the lady that can't even have kids, one stepping in, it's the sister, it's a perfect fit, so there is no contradiction in the Bible, that's just atheists that hate the Bible, okay. They are delivered, and they all seven fall together. Now, notice in verse nine, says, they were put to death the first days in the beginning of barley harvest. Now, interestingly enough, barley is a crop that's sown in the fall, and harvest when? In the spring, okay. Now, what is essentially the beginning of the calendar for the Jews? It's the spring, okay, and you have the Passover right there at the beginning of that harvest. When is the first fruits offering of harvest? It is of this barley type harvest, would be this right timeline, and that was the resurrection day of Christ. So if we kind of think about this timeline, when they're being put to death, is like the exact same timeline in essence of the Passover of when Christ would have been put to death, okay. So this is again another picture of how the exact same timeline as to when Christ is going to be put to death is around that barley harvest time, that initial harvest time, is the same days. That's why it's specific to mention that it says, and they were put to death in the days of harvest, in the first days, in the beginning of barley harvest. So again, kind of signifying that timeline of exactly when Christ is going to be crucified. It says in verse 10, and Rizpah the daughter of Ayah took sackcloth and spread it forward upon the rock from the beginning of harvest until water dropped upon them out of heaven and suffered neither the birds of the air to rest on them by day nor the beasts of the field by night. Now this verse, I want to spend a few minutes on this verse, it's a really interesting verse in the Bible, right? We've already seen a lot of pictures of Christ, we've seen a lot of spiritual things, makes sense that we're going to see even more. You know, when I read these stories, I just think like, this is weird, okay, I'm just being honest. Like I read them like this is bizarre, it makes no sense. But then I also think there's something to this though, because nothing in the Bible is accidental, coincidental, incidental, anything is. So now that we've already got a lot of these pictures, it's going to help us. Number one, we have the same timeline as Christ. Number two, we have the innocent for the guilty. Number three, we have the sons being put to death. Number four, we have David putting them to death, which kind of pictures Judah. So what is this lady kind of picturing here in this story? Well, Rizpah is the mother of these sons, okay, she's the mother. Now keep your finger here, let's go to Mark chapter 15 for a moment, we're going to Mark chapter 15 in a minute. There's another person in the Bible who is present at the death of her son and very influential in the latter portions of his death, Jesus Christ's mother. Now look at Mark chapter 15 and look at verse 46. And he bought fine linen, and took him down and wrapped him in the linen, and laid him in a sepulcher which was hewn out of a rock, and rolled a stone under the door of the sepulcher. Now let's talk about Joseph of Arimathea, also in other parallel passages of the Bible, talks about Nicodemus. So Nicodemus, the one who we know in John chapter number three, and Joseph of Arimathea, they're the ones that take Jesus off the cross, wrap his body in a linen cloth, take it under the tomb, but there's women there present, look at verse 47, and Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother of Joseph beheld where he was laid. So we have Christ's mother and we have Mary Magdalene, they're at the burial site where he's being wrapped in linen and they're paying attention to all of this because they immediately go out and buy spices which they're going to take and bring back on the resurrection day to anoint the body. What's the point of the anointing spices and the oils and stuff like that to preserve the body and to kind of, you know, it's part of the burial process in essence, okay? Now in our chapter, we had Rizpah spreading a sackcloth upon a rock which I believe kind of is in symbol of the covering here, Christ has got the linen, he's being covered, right? And it's kind of the rock of suit, Jesus Christ, right? So we have this cloth kind of going over and covering, picturing what, the burial, picturing him being wrapped in the linen, okay, and she's covering this for a period of time. It's said from the beginning of the harvest until water had dropped. And while she's doing this, she's not suffering any birds or any beasts to come. Now, what is it really talking about? Kind of read between the lines, it's talking about the bodies themselves, like when these men were hung, they're just bodies are cast out, okay, and she's sitting on a rock and protecting the bodies. So she's watching over the bodies because they haven't been buried. Now, there's some significance here when it comes to Christ. What is the big significance about Christ's burial? We'll go into Acts chapter number two for a moment, go to Acts chapter number two. What would a bird and what would the beasts of the field do if they saw a dead body? They would eat it. Remember Jezebel? Jezebel falls and the dogs come and eat the entire body because dogs are so gross they'll eat anything. I mean, they'll even eat Jezebel, okay? So there's nothing a dog won't eat and they're disgusting, they're filthy, mangy type creatures. Then they'll vomit it all up and eat it again, so I mean, that's how disgusting they are. And that's why some humans are considered dogs, which really even physical dogs are still cleaner than those beasts. So it's just to give you a semblance of how disgusting and defiling these type of animals and creatures are. But look what it says in verse number 26, therefore did my heart rejoice and my tongue was glad and moreover also my flesh shall rest in hope because that will not leave my soul in hell, neither wilt thou suffer thine holy one to see corruption. Now the corruption in the Bible, that's describing your body rotting or decaying or something happening to it that causes it to deteriorate. And the Bible's saying that it saw no corruption and in essence it's kind of signifying this risk bus sitting there watching the bodies, making sure that the bodies see what? No corruption. That there's no birds or there's beasts. That's what she's doing in kind of this symbolistic type picture. She's watching over and of course Mary is very involved in this process of preserving the body of Jesus Christ. It's no coincidence that we have the mother of these sons caring about the corruption of the body just like Mary, the mother of Jesus, is also caring about the corruption of the body of her son Jesus Christ. She was there at the death, she's there at the burial, she wants to be there for the resurrection. Another thing is, if we go back, we'll see how David responds to hearing this news. It says in verse number 11, So they end up finally burying all of the houses of Saul together. I think again we get some more pictures here. We get the burial picture, we get the importance of the burial and Christ was not slain and then just left to rot on the cross. His body was buried, yet it saw no corruption. Other significance is here, think about Saul and Jonathan and some of these other men. They're buried and then they come out of the grave, almost signifying some level of a resurrection. Even at Christ's own resurrection a lot of bodies came out of the tombs and a lot of people showed themselves unto the disciples and unto many. So you have a lot of pictures here. Also just in general, they're all gathered together which can signify a lot of things. Signify the fact that everyone who's died in the Lord is together in heaven. They're all gathered together. You know the Bible often uses what I call this euphemism that he slept with his fathers and that euphemism I believe is always signifying someone who's saved because if you die you're not technically dead, you're asleep. Now we can use the word death and it can still have meaning even to a saved believer because death can simply mean that the body and the spirit are absent from one another. The body without the spirit is dead. So your body could be considered dead but your spirit will never die. So the new man inside of you shall never taste death, you'll never see death. The only part of you that will ever die is your physical body will die. Now when your physical body dies though at some point it will be resurrected and it will be reunited with that spirit and then at that point that new body will never die. So the only real death you're ever going to have is the shedding of this flesh. Now for some of you that could be considered a pretty positive thing especially when you get older as this flesh gets a little more decrepit, as it has a few more problems. It's like eventually you're just going to shed it anyways. You're going to get rid of this physical body at some point and it's like praise God the new one's going to be better. The new one's not going to have corruption, the new one's not going to have as many issues and that spirit person inside of you is still the same. It's funny when you talk to certain old people they'll say I still feel like a kid just trapped in an old man's body and it's because in your new man it's not as old, it's not that old. It's just that old, it's like your old person, this is old, your flesh gets old and your back hurts and your neck hurts and everything hurts. But inside your spirit guy he's alive and kicking. He's ready to go and run with the lions, but you just need that new body. And one day you'll get it. One day we'll have it and we'll be rejoicing and we'll be singing praises with God. But it's interesting that finally with the burial of these men you get the satisfaction or the entreatment of the Lord as it describes in verse 14. Notice this is after that God was entreated for the land. Go to Romans chapter number 5, go to Romans chapter number 5. And let's look at verse number 10. The Bible says, for if when we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of His Son, much more being reconciled we shall be saved by His life. So according to the Bible what gave God the final satisfaction was the death of His Son. Because eventually after three days and three nights what happens? The Lord is finally at peace, He raises His Son back up from the dead, His Son returns glory as the Son takes the blood and puts it on the mercy seat and we have eternal redemption forever. We kind of have the low point is the death and then from then on it's just all positive. It's all the resurrection and the joy and the satisfaction and the appeasement of God. But it's that death that gives us that favor with God. It's that death that gives us that reconciliation. It's that death that gives us that redemption. It's that death that satisfies the sin. And of course Christ had to die, Christ died. It wasn't that He just hurt on the cross, it's that He died. The cross is a major symbol and the cross is very important to scripture, it fulfills so much prophecy. But it wasn't that Christ was tortured, it was that Christ died. He had to die. It was the shedding of blood, it was the death that gives us that true appeasement from God. Not only did He die physically but His soul descended into hell as the Bible describes. And so for three days and three nights Christ was dead. There was no spirit in the body. As the body without the spirit is dead, so Christ's body was without spirit. It was a lifeless body in the grave doing nothing but just waiting for the spirit to return. And the spirit was in hell for three days and three nights suffering. But in that process, that event, God was appeased, God was entreated for our sin. And at some point God decides to be satisfied and to resurrect the Son, bring the Son's soul and spirit back into His body. He comes out of the grave, out of the tomb, sins up into heaven, sprinkles blood on the mercy seat. But it was the death that brought us that. Look at chapter 6 verse 10, for in that He died, He died unto sin once, but in that He liveth, He liveth unto God. So again, Christ died one time. It wasn't something that He had to do ever again. There's only been one death that satisfies all sin. There only will be one sin, or one death. There's only one time in all of history, of all of mankind, of all of the universe, of everything. There's only one death that counts. All the other deaths are meaningless. The only death that matters in all of history is Christ's death, the one-time death. And yet He lives forevermore. So He had to go through that one experience, you know, He was alive, and then He was dead, and then He's alive forevermore. And so we have that crucial, just central point in all of history, Christ's death. And that's what gives us that satisfaction, or gives God satisfaction for us. Go to Hebrews chapter 9 for our sin, Hebrews chapter 9. What an amazing event that God could use one event like that to reconcile all the sin of all time, past, present, and future sin. Bible reiterates this. Look at Hebrews chapter 9 and look at verse 15. And for this cause, He is the mediator of the New Testament, talking about Christ, that by means of death, for the redemption of the transgressions that were under the first testament, they which are called might receive the promise of internal inheritance. So notice that we get that redemption of our transgressions through His death. So just like God was entreated for the sins of Saul, for the sins of slaying the Gibeonites, through what? Through the death of the sons of Saul. And then He's entreated. So what's going to happen if there's been a famine, what's the famine kind of a result of? The drought. So at what point does Rizpah end up stop watching over the bodies until the rain descends, which shows what? The satisfaction, the redemption, the renewing of being right with God is that rain coming. And so we see why she was there waiting, signifying that it wasn't until that death and burial that we're going to have that redemption, right? Christ's body just hanging there floating and seeing corruption wasn't going to do it and needed to get buried. And through the death, that's how we get that true redemption. And then God's satisfied. We get the rain, which signifies all kinds of things. Something new. New blessings, new spring, new crop, new joy, and of course just blessing. Rain is a blessing. And we get that from the gospel, right? The gospel is what? New. The New Testament. The mediator of a New Testament, a new era, blessings, redemption, hope, and of course a new crop, a new harvest, a new everything, which is kind of there in the symbolism of that rain of the situation we have in the story. So go back, if you would, to 2 Samuel 21. A lot of spiritual pictures here that we could kind of draw from. And really, it's amazing to me how every chapter just seems to almost have so much symbolism of Christ, the gospel. So many facets of the New Testament, just clearly articulated even in the Old Testament, tells me that, of course, the men of the Old Testament could have easily understood so much about the New Testament. You know, I don't think we give them very much credit for how much they actually knew or understood. And thinking about some of the verses that we've been memorizing for John, chapter 1, think about how excited these guys are. You know, Philip findeth Nathanael and saith unto him, we have found the Messiahs. Why would he say that if they weren't thinking about that all the time, if they hadn't been anticipating it? You know, hey, he's been written in the law, and he's been written by Moses, and he was written by the prophets. And it's like, hey, all that stuff that they said in the Bible about this coming Messiahs, here he is. I mean, that would be amazing. That would be cool. It's not much different than how today we read so much in Revelation. We read so much about Christ's coming. We read so much about those events that when it actually happens, we'll all be just like, he's here, you know. We're being raptured. You know, we won't have enough time to say that because in the twinkling of an eye we'll be caught up. If it was a process of 30 years like theirs was, of actually walking with Jesus, I mean, it was really like three years, I guess, because no one really knew who he was yet. But once he kind of revealed himself, it was a little bit slower process where you could be excited. You could be like, you know, we found the Messiahs, you know, he's here, and they're all excited about all the Bible they've been reading their whole life. It's the same Bible, it's the same Gospel, it's the same stories. You know, you read Romans, chapter number four, and it's like, we're talking about Abraham's faith, we're talking about David's faith. You know, it's not like the Apostle Paul's bringing these things up about these revelations of salvation being my faith that David and Abraham had figured out, but they didn't actually figure them out. It's like, no, hey, Abraham figured this out. Abraham found this. Abraham found salvation by faith. Hey, David was the one that was saying, blessed is the man in whom, you know, I'm sorry, I'm misquoting this in my mind. Blessed is the man in whom his transgressors were forgiven without works, right? So it's like, without works. They're found in Romans, chapter number four, by David, it's not like, oh, well, you know, they didn't know about salvation by faith, they didn't know about the Messiah, they believed in works in the Old Testament, no, no. Same Gospel, same Messiah, same stories, same events, same everything. Now let's keep reading. It says in verse 15, moreover, the Philistines had yet war again with Israel, and David went down and the servants with him, and fought against the Philistines, and David waxed faint. Now, you know, you know, it's like you just finally got right with God again, and then just more war. It's just like, you know why? Because it's just our life is just an ever battle. It makes me think of this. It's like, oh, we finally got in the New Testament, now we don't have to deal with any problems anymore. And it's like, battle. Right? I mean, wouldn't you think like, okay, we've got Jesus, we've just ended the Old Testament, we've got restitution, and then it's like in the New Testament, the Apostle Paul is being hunted down, and everybody's attacking him, and they're dragging him through court, and it's just like this vicious attack. And you think like, okay, when is that going to end? It's never going to end until Christ comes. And then we get the millennial reign. And then he gets to set it down, all power and authority and rule. I've been reading a lot through Esther recently, because I've been preaching that at Pure Words. And it's like, it's not until Mordecai is finally in charge, it's like peaceful again, you know? And it's like, you know, things are going well, and it's kind of like, it's not until Christ is in charge, it's not until that's been resolved, until Haman's been killed, okay, that you can kind of have some semblance of peace and have a peaceful life, and the earth can be enjoyed the way it's supposed to be intended. It's a lot of war. It's a lot of fighting. And you've got to fight the Philistines every year. And there's always a new Goliath, and there's always a new challenge. And for David, though, he's not going to live forever. And this is what we have to also realize, is that you are not going to live forever. You can't always fight Goliath. You kind of have to raise the next generation to fight for you. And if you don't raise the next generation to fight for you, you're going to be destroyed. This is something that seems like America is very short-sighted on, is the sense that it's like, hey, let's just ruin our youth and not realize that when we're old, like, they're going to be the ones running the country. Can you imagine these woke TikTokers running our country? They won't be running anything, folks. Best case scenario, they'll be alive. I mean, but they'll be the servants of China or something. I mean, we'll all be the servants of China or something, and you'll be wondering, like, what happened? Because we raised a bunch of libtards to run this nation. You know, if you don't raise the next generation, what kind of church do you think you're going to go to when you don't actually teach your children to love church? Welcome to the old IFB, where it's just, it's a joke, it's just a bunch of old people doing a bunch of old things, it seems dead in there, no real life to it, no real zeal, the kids aren't sticking around. Why? Because they didn't raise the next generation to actually continue forth and carry that torch of church, so you don't even have a good church to go to. You know, you actually have to teach your children why you have the church you have, why you believe the things that you believe, why you fight the battles that you're going to fight, so that then you can also enjoy those benefits later. You know, if you want to enjoy great grandchildren, you have to raise great children because if you give up and you raise terrible children, you'll have horrible grandchildren to inherit. And it's like you reap what you sow, and the reaping and sowing is not necessarily even a one-day principle, this is a lifelong principle. You're going to reap the decades that you've sown in your life. Your first, I mean, if you're 30 years old, you're going to reap the 30 decades that you've already lived. You're reaping that. If you're 40, 40, 50, 50, 60, I mean, you're going to reap all those decades. That's why as a youth, you start serving God now, because you're going to start reaping all of that. It's like, well, I only want to reap the last three years. No, no, no, you're going to reap the last 33 years. You're going to reap the last 40 years, period. Whatever you think, it's going to happen. That's why it's so important to serve God. And if you don't fight the Goliaths of this world, they're going to inherit the land. So it's like, well, I don't want to fight, you're just going to let people take over. Not fighting is the same logic as opening your front door and putting a sign on it that says take anything you want. And people just walk in, and when they walk in, it's just like, hey, don't close the door, leave it open for the next guy. They're like, well, I want to take the chair you're sitting on. Oh, don't mind, I'll get up. Do you want me to help move the chair into your truck? I mean, this is like the attitude of so many people today. It's like, no, you've got to fight, or you're going to have no house to live in. You're going to have no stuff to have. You're going to have nothing. We've got to fight for church. If we don't fight for church, we're going to have the house church to go to. And you know what you won't find in there? A King James Bible. You know what you won't find in there? A pastor that's a manly. You know what you won't find in there? You know, anything that resembles Christianity, you know what you will find in there? Fornication, heresy. It would be hard to even realize if there's any Christianity over there anymore. Well, how do you get that kind of church? People stop fighting for church. People stop, well, I don't really... You know, let's stop fighting about the King James issue. That's not as big a deal. I heard this from somebody. You know what's so funny? I talked to a guy that's an expert, like triple expert, on the history of the King James Bible, on all Bibles, on all the issues surrounding the King James issue, on all the modern Bibles, on all the differences between all the Bibles. He knows all of it, more than any of us in this room combined. And I'm talking to this person, I'm talking about the importance, and he says, you know, the difference between the Bible, not important, we need to worry about other things. And I'm thinking, like, the irony of somebody spending their whole life focused on this, to then tell me that it doesn't even matter, that it's not even a big deal. It's like you highlighted this in a book and sold it to people, and then I asked you about the importance of it, and you're like, not a big deal. It's like, what? It's like, well, what is a big... Like, why wouldn't you give your life to something that's important then? I mean, imagine someone going soul-wanting for four decades, and you say like, hey, you know, I think soul-wanting's important, and they're like, no, don't waste your time on that. It's like, well, why were you doing it for the last four decades then? And of course, when you go to those churches, and you talk to the pastor, you bring up King James onlyism, oh, that's not important. That's why they don't use a King James, because it's not important. Say, hey, what about the differences in this? I don't have time to look at this. I don't want to fight. I don't want to go down that road. We need to fight other battles. What battle is more important than the battle right now over which Bible to use? I mean, which Goliaths are you slaying over there? Show me the non-denominational church that's slaying Goliaths right now. How are they combating the LGBT, besides welcoming them in? I didn't think that... Oh, they're getting them saved. No, they haven't. They haven't gotten a single one saved yet. I mean, are they taking the task alcohol? Are they taking the task drugs? Are they taking the task the politics of our world today? They taking the evil government? Are they taking the scripture argument? Are they championing salvation by faith? Are they a soul-winning army? I mean, what are they doing? They're a do-nothing, just nobody. What is the majority of churches in this world today is just a do-nothing, fight no one, and just collect as much money as you can. You know what? Let's spend it all and fight it all. Who cares? You know, I'm not interested in building some palace for us all kind of in joy with people we somewhat tolerate. That's what I find in these other churches, too. Their fellowship is about as shallow as the preaching. And I mean, most of the church, you know what they have fellowship over? Football. You know what their fellowship is over? Soccer. Youth soccer, or fashion, or just some carnal thing, because there's no other unity to even get along with people there. At the non-denominational church, you have such a wide array of views. I mean, I've gone to Bible studies, because I grew up in these churches, so maybe it's pet peeve. I'm parking for a second. I grew up in these churches. I would go to Bible studies, and I kid you not, you would come in there, you would have guys that were King James only in the Bible study. And then you'd have guys using the message. And then you'd have Freemasons over here, not even wanting to use a Bible. And then you'd have women talking. And then you'd have just a smorgasbord. You'd have unsaved, atheist, I mean, it was basically just grabbing like 30 people off of the street and bringing them in to just talk about whatever. This is nonsense. And it never went anywhere. Everybody talked in circles. It was just, everyone just shared their own idea that's all contradictory and nothing even makes sense. And then we just all leave, and we enjoyed the coffee. If you like coffee, I don't even like coffee, so I just hate all of it. Because I don't even know why I'm coming for this thing. I mean, it just didn't even matter. You're doing nothing, but this is how everybody leaves. They think, like, I made some good points tonight. Maybe next week, you know, I'll get to make another couple good points or something like that. But it's accomplishing nothing. They weren't fighting Goliath. You know, and then whenever you get in a little bit of a heated discussion, it's like, well, calm down. You know, we're all brethren here. It's just like, yeah, well, some of us aren't brethren in this room. The Freemason, this guy, I mean, that guy's not my brother. This guy believes in baptizing infants. This chick is a Wiccan still. You know, it's like, what are you bringing into this church? You know, that's the kind of Christianity that exists in America today is one that won't fight Goliath. You know, I'd rather have the other kind where the old man is still fighting. The old man is out there championing and trying to get so fired up and kill people and they're like, we need to calm, calm me down, buddy. You know, I don't know if you can handle this anymore, but we don't want you to pass, we don't want you to go because if David passes away, then the whole fight is going to be squashed. Again, you know what I like is the children of Israel always seem to realize how important leadership is. When do they ever think like, oh, Dave is replaceable. We could just replace him tomorrow. You know what? Leadership is not easily replaceable. And I know this for a fact because it's just like I've had tons of leaders in my church and sometimes when I lose one or something that doesn't work out, it's hard to get another person in there. And it's hard to have high quality individuals. Right now, I have lots of people in my life that are irreplaceable in my mind. I have people like Brother Tana Fur, the evangelist there in Oklahoma. I mean, this guy's a godsend. Without him, I would be up a creek without a paddle in Oklahoma. And you guys don't even realize probably as much as I do, but it's just like him is just a huge benefit and he's not a replaceable person. You know, of all the people in my church, he stands out the most. He's like the only person that's even close to being ordained as a pastor any time soon. And I hope that people will encourage someone like him because he's not just easily replaceable. I can't just, oh, Tana Fur goes down, we'll just grab someone off the street. We'll go have a homeless Joe and just plug and play. I mean, how many people want to be in Oklahoma City and pastor a church there and have to be attached to me and all my issues? Okay. I mean, you know, we got Brother Duncan going down to Pure Words. I mean, I've been driving down to Pure Words for like three years every Thursday hoping for a leader. Talk about not easily replaceable, you know, to find someone that's willing to just be down there, willing to preach. You know, and there's been plenty of people over the years that have told me like, I'm on fire, I want to preach, I'm ready to put me in, coach. You put them in and then like two weeks go by and they're like, I can't preach this much. They're just like, what? You put them in, it's like, well, this isn't what I thought. You put them in and it's like, well, I got issues, you know, and then you got to start all the wagons again. And it's like, look, leadership is a hard position, but it's also very hard to replace. Our soul winning captains in this church are not easily replaceable. You know, we have those men in those positions because they are great men that would be really hard to swap out for another person and they're really valuable for this organization. And we don't want to just pretend like leadership's not a big deal, I'll just plug in the next guy. Just plug in the next visitor or whatever. You know, guys that help me with preaching, guys that help me with a lot of things. You know, there's a lot of people in our organization, you know, our Baptist bias has a very specific person in production. We cannot replace them. It's just not even possible. It's like, replace this person. It would never happen. We would be screwed. Okay. The show would never go on. It would be like, you know, they said in the moon landing, like we lost the technology and we can't go back. It's like the Baptist bias. We lost the technology. We can't go back. I mean, it's only in the minds of certain individuals. Okay. And, and at least the children of Israel, they understand that we can't just lose David. This is not a person that can be lost. It's too valuable. And, you know, sometimes you just have to realize that about certain image. You know, my pastor friends, I look at these guys and I'm thinking like, you know, these guys are irreplaceable and I don't know what we would do without them. You know, even just as my friend or as my help, help and guidance or in counseling or, you know, just in all areas, not even just alone, their church, their family. You know, we need to be having a feeling of high respect and love and adoration for those in leadership and, and taking their lives as being very valuable and not just, ah, whatever. You know, I, even me, I try to look at my leadership and I try to make sure that I'm not overburdening them or, or causing them to be burnt out or have issues because frankly they're irreplaceable. So sometimes it's like, you know, whatever we got to do to just keep you alive, you're getting a little weak, you're getting a little faint. Okay. I'll come in there and, you know, tag team, I'll lift up your, your harms or we'll send in reinforcements or do whatever because it's just like, we can't let you go down. And sometimes you got to realize in the battle, there's certain people you just can't let go down and you got to step in there and sometimes you got to lift their hands up. Sometimes you got to pick them up and carry them. You know, in battle you get shot and you can't run on those legs, you pick up your buddy on your, on your back and you just carry them back to base because then maybe he heals up and the next time in battle you get shot and he picks you up and carries you back out of there. You know, this is that picture of, you know, two are better than one, you know, because one stumble, the other can lift the other one up, you know, taught in the Ecclesiastes. And we have these great warriors going to battle, but they realize the importance of David and we have to realize that some people are just not replaceable. And if you're in a position where you're in some level of leadership, you know, even just the leadership in your home, many families in this room without the dad, without the husband, that family would be in a bad situation. Just frankly speaking, the dad is irreplaceable in that situation. And so, you know, we got to preserve them. You know, as wives, you got to support your husband, you know, as children, you got to help dad, you got to help the family because they are in many cases irreplaceable. As we keep reading, it says in verse 16, Ish-bi-binab, which is of the sons of the giant, the weight of whose spear weighed three hundred shekels of brass and weight, he being girded with a new sword, thought to have slain David. The Abishai, the son of Zeruiah, suckered him and smote the Philistine and killed him. Then the men of David swear on him, saying, Thou shalt go no more out with us to battle, that thou quench not the light of Israel. And it came to pass unto this that there was again in a battle with the Philistines at G-d. Then Sibakai the Hushathite slew Sath, which is of the sons of the giant, and there was again a battle in G-d with the Philistines, where a hand of the son of Jehorghim, a Bethlehemite, slew the brother of Goliath Gittite, the staff of whose spear was like a weaver's beam. And there was yet a battle in Gath, where was a man of great stature, that had on every hand six fingers, and on every foot six toes, four and twenty in number, and he also was born of the giant. And when he defied Israel, Jonathan the son of Shemaiah, the brother of David, slew him. These four were born of the giant in Gath, and fell by the hand of David, and by the hand of the servants. So you know, when you see a freak like that, you just slay him, okay? But go to Proverbs 13, this is the last verse I'm going to have you turn to real quick. I'm already out of time, but you knew that anyway, so. You know, I think the essence of this chapter is just the importance of honoring Thy word, and specifically also following God's commandments, which always is a major impact, but sometimes there's more chapters that highlight that consequence of not following the commandments. Because by not honoring Your word, breaking Your oath and breaking God's commandments and slaying the Gibeonites, look at all the devastation it caused to those sons, and specifically the giants are symbolic of that which is wicked, ungodly, the world, and how they don't follow God's commandments. They're not interested in the ways of the Lord, yet they're the most physically strong people on the planet, meaning it doesn't really matter how physically strong, how much money, how much smarts you have. When you go against the Lord, the Lord can destroy you, and we're reading about generations that are coming from the children of Israel, and we in fact ourselves are physical descendants of them in many cases. I guarantee probably all of us, if we trace back our lineage, there's probably an Israelite somewhere. It's not just the black Hebrew Israelites, okay? In fact, you know, it's funny, I was reading a book on King James Bible, and in the early Renaissance period, or kind of after the King James Bible is translated, somewhere in that timeline, there was a group called the British Hebrew Israelites, and they believed that they were the descendants of the children of David, and so they had, you know, so it's not just a black thing, okay? Even the British, you know, thought that they were somehow special, and there were these kind of Israelites. But you know, the reality is we probably all are physical descendants. You know who we're not physical descendants of? The giant. We're not. And I mean, Pastor Thompson, he's not, okay? You might think it, but he's not, okay? So look what it says in Proverbs 13, verse 13. Who so despised of the word shall be destroyed, that he that fear the commandment shall be rewarded. You know what? Generations are rewarded for following God's commandments, and generations that don't are destroyed. Saul, his family tree shrunk, destroyed for not following God's commandments. The giant's family tree, withered, plucked up by the roots, and cast in the fire. David's children are among us today. And that's not a coincidence, again. Those who follow God's, you know, these liberal, these libtards are going to be destroyed. The Sodomite agenda, they're not producing children. They're going to be destroyed. Their lineage, their family tree is going to be plucked up and thrown in the fire. You know, us that serve God and follow his commandments, our children, children, children are going to be the children of the future. It's not the weirdos and the freaks and the six finger people, okay? It's going to be us. All right, let's close in prayer. Thank you, Heavenly Father, for giving us the word of God. Thank you for giving us the benefit of following your commandments, and not just for our own benefit, but even for our children. I pray that we wouldn't be short-sighted in the decisions that we make, but rather we would care enough for our children, we'd care enough for our community, we'd care enough for our church, that we would stick to our oaths, we would keep our promises, and we would make sure that we would not take lightly the commandments of God. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.