Good morning. It is a wonderful privilege to be here with you today. This church is so special to our family. You have been, over the years, so loving and kind to us, and it always is a great homecoming to be with you. And it's an honor for me to bring the Word of God to you this morning. We will focus for the sermon on 2 Samuel 21, verses 1 through 14, which is what we will read first before we read the New Testament lesson. Second, Samuel chapter 21, verses 1 through 14. That is on page 347 in the Pew Bibles, if we're using those. Beginning in verse 1. Now there was a famine in the days of David for three years, year after year. And David sought the face of the Lord. And the Lord said, there is blood guilt on Saul and on his house, because he put the Gibeonites to death. So the king called the Gibeonites and spoke to them. Now the Gibeonites were not of the people of Israel, but the remnants of the Amorites. Although the people of Israel had sworn to spare them, Saul had sought to strike them down in his zeal for the people of Israel and Judah. And David said to the Gibeonites, what shall I do for you? And how shall I make atonement that you may bless the heritage of the Lord? The Gibeonites said to him, it is not a matter of silver or gold between us and Saul or his house. Neither is it for us to put any man to death in Israel. And he said, "'What do you say that I shall do for you?' They said to the king, "'The man who consumed us and planned to destroy us "'so that we should have no place "'in all the territory of Israel, "'let seven of his sons be given to us "'so that we may hang them before the Lord "'at Gibeah of Saul, the chosen of the Lord.' "'And the king said, "'I will give them.'" But the king spared Mephibosheth, the son of Saul's son Jonathan, because of the oath of the Lord that was between them, between David and Jonathan, the son of Saul. The king took the two sons of Rizpah, the daughter of Aiah, whom she bore to Saul, Armoni and Mephibosheth, and the five sons of Merib, the daughter of Saul, whom she bore to Adriel, the son of Barzillai the Maholothite, and he gave them into the hands of the Gibeonites. and they hanged them on the mountain before the Lord, and the seven of them perished together. They were put to death in the first days of harvest, at the beginning of barley harvest. Then Rizpah the daughter of Aiah took sackcloth and spread it for herself on the rock, from the beginning of harvest until rain fell upon them from the heavens. And she did not allow the birds of the air to come upon them by day, or the beasts of the field by night. When David was told what Rizpah, the daughter of Aiah, the concubine of Saul, had done, David went and took the bones of Saul and the bones of his son Jonathan from the men of Jabesh-gilead, who had stolen them from the public square of Beth-shan, where the Philistines had hanged them on the day the Philistines killed Saul on Gilboa. And he brought up from there the bones of Saul and the bones of his son Jonathan, and they gathered the bones of those who were hanged. And they buried the bones of Saul and his son, Jonathan, in the land of Benjamin, in Zila, in the tomb of Kish, his father. And they did all that the king commanded. And after that, God responded to the plea for the land. And please turn to the epistle to the Hebrews, the letter to the Hebrews chapter 10, beginning in verse 11, that's on page 1,282 of your Purivals. Hebrews chapter 10, beginning at verse 11, reading through verse 23. And every priest stands daily at his service, offering repeatedly the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins. But when Christ had offered for all time a single sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God, waiting from that time until his enemy should be made a footstool for his feet. For by a single offering, he has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified. And the Holy Spirit also bears witness to us, for after saying, this is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, declares the Lord, I will put my laws on their hearts and write them on their minds, then he adds, I will remember their sins and their lawless deeds no more. Where there is forgiveness of these, there is no longer any offering for sin. Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the holy places by the blood of Jesus, by the new and living way that He opened for us through the curtain, that is, through His flesh, and since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful." This is the word of the Lord. Let's pray together. Heavenly Father, we come to You now asking for Your help Your blessing on Your word. We thank You that we have Your eternal truth with us and that You still speak to us through it today. May You speak through me, dear Lord. May You help me to speak clearly and precisely and with the power of Your Spirit. And may Your Spirit open the doors of our hearts so that we can receive Your reign, Your mercy, Your goodness on the parched land of our souls. We pray this in the name of Jesus Christ, amen. We all live with the consequences of other people's decisions. During the 17th century, I'm told, some of my ancestors on my dad's side decided to move from France to the Netherlands. Others on my mom's side during the same century moved from the Netherlands to the southern tip of Africa. It seems that my ancestors moved a lot. Because of my predecessors, I grew up in Africa, which had a significant effect on my formation and my understanding of the world. Each of you, as well, was born in a particular place because of the decisions made by others without your participation. And those decisions determine the environment in which you grew up and influence the formation of your values, your worldview, and to a significant extent also your character. Every person on this planet is dependent on others. Other people often act or make decisions on our behalf. I don't know how many of you would be fans of soccer, know who Manchester City is, but if you're a fan of the Denver Nuggets, then you have done a lot of rejoicing over the past few days. Miami Heat fans, however, have not been so happy. When your team wins, you win. When they lose, you also feel down. We understand this concept of connection to others also through our government, which makes many important decisions that affect all of us and signs binding international agreements on our behalf. We do not live in isolation. Every day we rejoice or suffer as a result of other people's actions. The passage we are studying today is about such consequences. People suffer because of their king's lack of faithfulness. Children and grandchildren are held responsible for their father and grandfather's actions long after his death. Now it's clearly stated in the Bible that fathers shall not be put to death because of their children, nor shall children be put to death because of their fathers. Each one shall be put to death for his own sin. However, in the case of Israel's priests and kings, their children are, under certain circumstances, held responsible for the sins of their fathers. And the Bible also speaks of national guilt. for particular dreadful deeds. For example, in the books of Exodus and Deuteronomy, we read about a certain nation, the Amalekites, who attacked vulnerable Israelite women and children after the Israelites leave Egypt and travel through the desert. Following a great battle against them, God tells Moses that the Amalekites are cursed forever, that they will eventually be completely destroyed. And when someone represents all of us, as Adam, the first man, did, then we all suffer because of his actions. The idea of representation is central to the story which we are thinking about today as well. This story from 2 Samuel is very unpleasant. It's a little like certain relatives with whom we don't want to spend a lot of time or whom we don't want to introduce to other people because we are ashamed of them. Maybe you're thinking that I've chosen this unusual graphic passage for today's sermon this morning because I've spent a little too much time in a war zone, and that may be true. But it really is worth our while to take a deeper look into this story, because there are important things that God is saying to us through it. So please do listen carefully. The main idea that I want to focus your attention on this morning is the following. Thank God for His faithfulness. Thank God for His faithfulness. In particular, we will look at five aspects of God's faithfulness and goodness for which we can thank Him. I know I'm not supposed to have five points. I'm supposed to have three. Five is a lot, but they're simple, and you have pen and paper. You can write them down if you so choose. So five aspects of God's faithfulness and goodness for which we can thank Him. In the first place, thank God because He speaks to us. Thank God because He speaks to us. The last four chapters of Samuel, as you may know, form a completely different part of the book that is not chronologically organized. In these final chapters, which are masterfully structured, the author shares different events from David's life and even two of his psalms. We do not know exactly when the events described in chapter 21 took place. The author simply writes that there was a three-year-long famine sometime during King David's rule. So this means that over the course of three years, there was very little rain. The crops on the field didn't grow. The cattle was sick and starving or already dead. People were malnourished, very short on food. And so David prays to God to discover the reason for this unusual famine. And somehow, probably through a prophet, God gives David a clear answer. It's easy to miss the obvious point here, but it is very important. The great creator of the universe speaks to David. Israel's king does not have to make up his own explanation for the famine. He discovers exactly what the problem is. Historians who study the ancient world tell us that the gods of other nations did not speak to them in this way. For example, in one text from ancient Babylon, the author, who was suffering from a disease, prays to a whole range of gods, ones he knows, ones he doesn't know, because he doesn't understand which god or goddess has afflicted him. So he complains in this text about the fact that people never know whether they are pleasing the gods or not, because nobody knows the will of the gods. And, says the Babylonian author, all of humanity suffers from this problem. But this is not what the true God is like. Yes, God does not reveal His hidden will to us, where we will work in the future, whom we will marry, when the war in Ukraine will end, how long we will live. But our good Creator does reveal His moral will to us. In the Bible, He tells us very clearly how we should live. Love God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength. Love your neighbor as yourself. The Ten Commandments tell us how to love God and love others. And in many other parts of the Bible, such as the Sermon on the Mount, we read specifically how to live out the Ten Commandments in daily life. When God created Adam and Eve, He spoke to them. He entered into a special relationship with them. He told them very clearly why they were created and how they should live. Even after Adam and Eve's rebellion against him, God did not stop speaking to certain people and, through them, to everyone who was willing to listen. When we celebrate Christmas every year, we remember the fact that the second member of the Trinity became a human being. God came to us so that we would know Him, know His will even better, and know the unique solution to our greatest problem. God became one of us and spoke to us just the way that I'm speaking to you now, using simple human speech. God exists, and he is not silent. The problem is just that we often do not want to hear his voice. We do not want to know his will because we don't like what he is saying. But he does speak to us. In particular, he speaks to us through his word, through the Bible. So do you listen to his voice? Do you read His word? Do you listen to His voice? Thank God because He speaks to us. In the second place, thank God because He punishes unfaithfulness. Thank God because He punishes unfaithfulness. David asks God why the people are suffering from hunger, and the Lord answers that it is because of a certain sin of the previous king, Saul. We do not know why God is punishing the people now, after the reign of Saul, when he is already dead. We do not know all the plans and intentions of God Almighty. But what is it that Saul did? He committed genocide. Saul tried to destroy the Gibeonites. Do you remember who they were? We read about them in the ninth chapter of the book of Joshua. God told the Israelites that he would expel certain nations from the land of Canaan so that the Israelites could live there in peace and in fulfillment of God's will. The Israelites therefore had to drive out those nations from the land. One of those peoples was the Gibeonites. The Gibeonites were afraid of the Israelites, and they came up with a cunning plan. They came to Joshua, the leader of the Israelites, pretending that they were from a distant country. They were dressed in old clothes and had very old dry bread with them. Now, thinking that they were people from a distant country, Joshua made a peace agreement with the Gibeonites. Such agreements or covenants were binding on both parties and called for the death of anyone who broke the agreement. This particular covenant applied to all of Israel and to all of their descendants as well. Later, when the Israelites learned that the Gibeonites were, in fact, their neighbors, they could no longer attack them because they had made a binding agreement, a covenant. Nonetheless, King Saul, for some reason, decided that it was necessary to destroy these Gibeonites who lived, by the way, on the land of his tribe, the tribe of Benjamin. You may remember that sometime earlier, Saul did not destroy the cursed Amalekites, who during the time of Moses attacked the people in the desert. At that time, Saul directly violated God's command. Yet Saul destroyed almost all of the Gibeonites, breaking Israel's binding covenant with them. Well, King Saul obviously did not act according to God's word, but according to his own heart. He simply did what he wanted to, and the human heart, as a rule, does not desire what God wants. King Saul's brazen violation of the covenant will be punished. God's people represent Him. When the Israelites do not fulfill their covenants with other nations, they soil God's name, His reputation, His glory. The agreement with the Gibeonites bound the entire nation. So when the king of Israel breaks his covenant, the whole nation eventually suffers from God's punishment, because Saul was the people's king, their representative. And so that's why this famine affects everyone. Now, the Gibeonites are not God's people. Nonetheless, they're a good and just creator honors the covenant that Israel made with them. Do you notice that? God defends the rights of the Gibeonites by punishing those who attack them. So when David finds out what the problem is, he turns to the Gibeonites. What should he do to remove the curse for the actions of King Saul, the representative of God's people? The Gibeonites do not give him a clear answer at first, but eventually they state their terms. They demand the execution of seven of King Saul's descendants. Why seven? Probably because seven represents perfection, completeness. Such an execution will be sufficient to pay for the murder perpetrated by King Saul. David agrees to their terms. Instead of the whole nation suffering, instead of many people dying of hunger, David agrees to the execution of seven of Saul's descendants. God is faithful. He is a faithful judge. He protects even the Gibeonites. He punishes all evil and every sin. In this case, such punishment applies to the house of wicked Saul, who for many years did the will of Satan, trying to kill God's anointed king, David. God punishes those who break their promises. He takes our promises very seriously, whether it is our marriage vows, our church membership vows, or any binding contracts we enter into at work. Think about what you promised to each other. Don't take your words lightly. At the same time, thank God that He is just and that He punishes all human unfaithfulness because we all suffer from each other's infidelity. God will not leave the guilty unpunished, and He cares for the victims. In the third place, thank God that we are safe because of His covenant of grace. It's easy to rejoice that God punishes guilty people who do not keep their word until we remember that we also are unfaithful. We also break our promises. We are cunning people who deceive each other, whose lives overflow with infidelity. Ukrainians often complain about the corruption of government officials, and there's a lot to complain about. In recent months in Ukraine, the State Security Service has initiated many criminal cases prosecuting people for rampant corruption. They are arresting different officials left and right. I don't know what all the reasons for this is, but it seems like a good thing. However, we know that the problem of corruption in Ukraine is much bigger than just government officials, because it's not only officials who are corrupt, but corruption lurks in the heart of common citizens as well. And this is also true in the United States, of course. People do not suddenly become corrupt when they get into government. Yes, a bad system and other people make things worse, but corruption comes from the heart of each of us. Many government officials are corrupt because they represent us. Unfaithfulness, deception, selfishness, rebellion are in the heart of each of us. And that's why we all desperately need protection from God's justice, from His punishment. We need to be protected from Him, from His justice. And this is what we have in the covenant of grace. What do I mean? For many of you, this term is very familiar. For others, perhaps not so much. God said to Adam and Eve, keep my commandments and you will live. Break them and you will die. We call this the covenant of works or the covenant of creation. But after Adam and Eve violated God's decrees, He, in essence, made the following promise to His people. You have violated My law, and for that I will be punished. I take responsibility for your rebellion. If you hide under My hand, I will protect you from punishment. Trust in My mercy. You are safe in it. We call this the covenant of grace. David agrees to have Saul's two sons and five grandsons executed. But he protects Mephibosheth, Jonathan's son and Saul's grandson, from death. You may remember that David had previously promised his friend Jonathan, while he was still alive, that he will love Jonathan and all his descendants as long as he lives. And that is why now, again, David shows true love to Jonathan's disabled son. David protects Mephibosheth from execution for his grandfather's sin. There's another grandson of Saul who is also named Mephibosheth. That Mephibosheth is executed. But Jonathan's son is protected by David's promise and his faithfulness. When discussing David's defense of Mephibosheth, one commentator mentions the story of the resourceful Gerd Buchwald, a German teacher who lived during World War II. Soviet troops known for looting and raping captured his district of Berlin in 1945. One evening, several drunken Soviet soldiers appeared outside Buchwald's apartment, shouting, Frau! Frau! Woman! Woman! Buchwald was forced to open the door. He tried to smile kindly and said with a sad gesture, Frau kaputt. They seemed to understand. His wife was dead. But the drunken soldiers decided to search his apartment anyway. Buchwald sat on the couch while the soldiers looked around his apartment. They took two pairs of his suspenders with them and disappeared. When the soldiers finally left, Buchwald closed and locked the door. And then, moving the couch aside, he helped Elsa, his wife, out of the small hole he had dug in the concrete floor. Elsa had a shelter. Her husband had made provisions to keep Elsa safe. In a similar way, God protects from eternal death everyone who hides under the shelter of His hand. Our Creator promises that He will never give the deserved punishment to those who believe in His Son, who love Him. This is His covenant of grace, His commitment. This is the covenant that protects every sinner who seeks forgiveness, refuge, protection under the hands of a just and merciful God. So thank God that we are safe because of His covenant of grace. In the fourth place, thank God because He is not silent about pain. Thank God because He is not silent about pain. After David hands over the seven relatives of Saul to the Gibeonites, the events become pretty horrific. David rescues Mephibosheth, but Saul's seven sons and grandsons are executed. Their bodies were most likely hanged or impaled on wooden poles, which was the custom in the ancient world. Among them are the bodies of the two sons of Rizpah, Saul's concubine. However, Rispa does not leave her sons' bodies unprotected. It seems that she makes some kind of a canopy out of burlap to protect the bodies of all the executed men as best as she can. During the day, Rispa drives away the vultures and other birds of prey, and at night she fights off hungry predators and scavengers. She could not save her sons from death. but she tries at least to protect their bodies from even greater shame. And so day after day, week after week, Risba tries with all her might to defend the bodies of the sons to whom she gave birth, the sons whom she loved. And why does the author of 2 Samuel include this story? And do so in the final climactic chapters of the book, Why are such gory, tragic stories in the Bible at all? Rizpa protecting her son's bodies must be one of the most haunting images in the Bible. Her actions are at the same time both tragic and an expression of deep, faithful love. How can we apply the faithfulness and love of this woman in our lives? But maybe applying her example is not the point. Maybe God just wants us to grieve because of the horror of this picture of a mother who keeps vultures away from the bodies of her sons and their nephews. Sometimes the appropriate response is just to cry. I'm sure Jesus of Nazareth laughed a lot We know from scripture that God has a very good sense of humor. However, we read several times in the Gospels not about Jesus' laughter but about His tears. When He sees the tears of His friends at the tomb of Lazarus, Jesus cries with them. Later, when He enters Jerusalem, we read that Jesus weeps, knowing in advance what total destruction awaits Jerusalem and the people in it. And in the epistle to the Hebrews, we read that Jesus often prayed to his heavenly father with tears. There are many different stereotypes of Christians. Some people think that being a Christian means that you should always be cheerful, always smiling. That's not true. There is a time to cry as well. We read the following famous words in the book of Ecclesiastes. For everything, there is a season and a time for every matter under heaven. A time to be born, and a time to die. A time to weep, and a time to laugh. A time to mourn, and a time to dance. A time to love, and a time to hate. A time for war, and a time for peace. During the past 16 months, as you know, in Ukraine we've been living with a full-scale invasion and war. All the members of our congregation have family members, friends, or relatives who are in the military, many of whom are fighting on the front lines as we speak. War calls us to be strong, brave, unbroken. But it is also important to cry. To cry about the thousands of men, women, and children who were killed in the southern city of Mariupol. About the rapes and murders in the towns of Bucha and Irpin near Kiev. About the destruction of whole eastern and southern towns and villages such as Bakhmut, which has become famous, and many others. To cry about children who were forcibly taken from their parents. About family members, friends who gave their lives to save others. to cry about the horrors of war, to cry about the curse of sin. And there's much in this country that calls for mourning and tears, for God's people to come to their father in simple prayer with tears and broken hearts. I hope we haven't lost the ability to mourn and cry over sin and its effects in our world. Life is more than just fun and entertainment. Many of you have experienced tragedy and deep pain in your life. It's okay to cry. There is a place for tears. And we are not the only ones who cry about the effects of sin in this world. Jesus understands our mourning. He knows much more than we do what it means to experience searing pain. Thank God because He is not silent about our pain. He sees, He knows, He cares. And lastly, thank God because He breaks the curse. When David hears about Rispa's incredible love and loyalty, he realizes that he needs to bury the bodies of all the executed men, but he also gets the remains of Saul and Jonathan, who never received a proper burial after the war against the Philistines. Along with their bones, David also buries the remains of Saul's executed sons and grandsons in the family tomb of Saul's father, Kish. And then, finally, God sends rain. And sin is paid for. The curse is broken. Brothers and sisters, you and I were all born under a different curse, a spiritual famine that reigns on earth because of Adam's rebellion and also because of the brazen insurrection and the disobedience of each one of us, you and me, all of us. We feel this famine everywhere in our world, in our thirsting, starving, dissatisfied hearts, in broken relationships, in sickness and death. in a very polarized, broken society. So where can we get food for hungry souls, water for our thirsty hearts? Jesus of Nazareth said, I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst. He said, if anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water. And why can the sinless God-man, Jesus Christ, satisfy our spiritual hunger? Because he, like King Saul's seven descendants, was executed for the sins of others. On the cross, Jesus represented us. He experienced unimaginable physical pain and torture. He hung for hours on a wooden stake. Even all of nature reflected, with three hours of darkness, the sheer horror of the fact. The perfect Son of God became guilty, taking upon Himself the sins of millions of people. Nobody protected Him as His holy blood flowed freely into the parched Palestinian sand. But with His voluntary sacrifice and with His Resurrection from the dead, Jesus broke the curse. God's mercy and love now rain down on us. He protects us from eternal punishment. We are safe under His arms. Our Messiah died and rose again so that we may have true life. And that, brothers and sisters, is why we can be strong and unbroken. That is why we can be brave. That is why we can live with deep hope and joy, which in time overcome even the deepest sadness. That is God's promise to us in the book of Revelation about the return of Jesus and our eternal life with Him. Revelation 21, verse 4. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more. Neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away. Thank God for His faithfulness. He is not silent, but speaks to us. He is not passive, but punishes unfaithfulness. When we believe in Christ, we are safe because of God's covenant of grace. God is not indifferent to our pain. He will end the famine and completely break the curse. Amen. Let's pray together. Our dear Almighty Heavenly Father, this is our only hope. You break the curse. We have been bound by chains of sin, but You break those chains with the power of the cross and the power of the resurrection of Your Son. We thank You for the blood of Jesus Christ. that paid for our guilt and sin, for our unfaithfulness. We thank you that we can be in Jesus, in Christ. We can be hidden by him. We are safe under his arms, under his outstretched arms that paid the price for our sins. We thank you, Lord, that we can be honest in life. We can laugh and we can cry. We thank you that you understand our pain. Most of all, we thank you that you will wipe away every tear from our eyes. Please help us to be thankful for the great salvation that we have in you. Lord, give us strength every day to trust in you. Help us to cry over evil, to mourn over what is wrong, and to rejoice in your love and your mercy. in the rain that you send on the parched land of our hearts. We pray these things in the name of our dear Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen.