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Keeping the Buzzards Away
Have you let the buzzards eat the things you love?
Your Biblical Groundwork – 2 Samuel 21
We have discussed this famine before but we are coming back to it for Rizpah’s sake. She is the concubine of Saul and the mother of his two sons, Armoni and Mephibosheth.
There was famine in the land (Israel) for three consecutive years before David enquired of the Lord what the issue was. He told him that the Gibeonites had been killed by Saul (read Joshua 9-10 for more information) and his bloodthirsty ways.
For repayment of Saul’s actions they asked for seven of Saul’s sons so they can hang them. David chose the seven sons of which two were Rizpah’s and five from Michal (whom we discussed in the “Bitterness Grows Deep into on Michal” blog).
Rizpah went to where they hung her sons and spent five months shooing away the birds and the animals from devouring their bodies until finally David came and buried their bones. There was no way Rizpah was going to allow the thing she loved to be devoured by buzzards.
A Biblical Lesson the you can live life to: Even though what you love looks dead, the Lord can revive it.
According to the Bible these men where not brought back to life again but the Lord still looked out for these dead men by sending Rizpah to take care of them. Then, He sent someone to tell David what she was doing so he would bury these loved men where they belong.
Have you spend dozens of hours honing your gifts from God only to be have the work related to those gift ripped right out of your hands?
I can relate to this, if you said yes. I am not sure there is a Christian alive today who can say, “I have always been working in my giftings.” Every woman I know has either ignored their gifting or put their heart and soul into perfecting it only to have it ripped away suddenly.
What is up with that?
Join us LIVE in The Bible Gals Monday 2pm EST to discuss the Biblical Power Tools to keep the buzzards from eating the thing you love.
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The Big Cover-Up that Revealed a Warrior Woman
Biblical Background – 2 Samuel 11:1-12:25
Nathan tells a story about a rich man and a poor man. The rich man, who has everything he needs, betrays the poor man who has only one thing. That one thing is the thing the rich man wanted, so he took it. David listened to this story, only to get angry at the rich man, and demand his death.
David creates a cover up that wasn’t hidden from the Lord. He might have been trying to cover it up from humans but he is unable to hide it from the Lord. Nathan was the Lord’s mouth to David to let him know his actions were not covered as well as he had hoped. The consequence will be family strife, and boy, was there ever family strife.
Approximately 20% of women today experience some sort of sexual harassment by a superior, but I expect it was much higher when David was king. David used his influence to do something despicable. Not just one thing, but two. He knew what he should do, and he knew what he should not do. He was a smart man.
He saw Bathsheba attending to her purification and asked for information about her. He knew well in advance who she was, the daughter of a warrior and the wife of one, but that didn’t stop his plan. She was with powerful men all day long and was used to them but was she used to what David was about to do, using his power and influence?
Bathsheba was in a precarious position. Called by the king. Sexually assaulted by the king. Pregnant by the king. Married to one of his mighty warriors. And plenty more that we just don’t know about but we can feel. The knot in her stomach that will not go away. The fear of being blamed for this whole event and being stoned. Can you feel the tension she is feeling?
A messenger has asked for her, on this day, the worst of them all but there was more to come. The knot, is not just a knot anymore, it is a baby. The kings baby. As she stands in front of the messenger numb, he tells her the message for a second time because her heart pounding in her ears has marred her hearing. He is sorry to inform her that her husband, Uriah, has died in battle. Sorrow and relief hit her at the same time.
Our Biblical Life Lesson: We already have the skills we need to become a warrior woman.
Bathsheba must have been born with, and mastered some character traits of the warriors attitude from her father and husband. In spite of what has happened to her from being used for sexual gratification by the king to that child dying. She would raise king Solomon who would build the most beautiful temple, for God, of all time. Obviously her life did not come to a standstill because of these events.
Not only did she raise the wisest king but she has had Psalm 31’s instructions for men, attributed to her.
Do you want to be more confident that Jesus can and will heal your heart so you can become a warrior women?
Join The Bible Gals Sisterhood here to enjoy the easiest pathways to becoming the fulfilled genuine woman of God you are, while going after your vision from God. Your vision from God is closer than you think.
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The One thing every Crisis Reveals
Are you in a perpetual crisis or maybe you are not in enough crises?
From breaking a fingernail to facing death, you want to be seen as having a sound mind in a crisis.
Our Biblical Ground Work: 1 Samuel 25
There was a man from Maon who had a rich business. His name was Nabal (meaning: fool) and he was married to Abigail (meaning: my father’s joy) who was of good understanding/intelligent/wise/street smart/of sound mind, she just so happened to be beautiful as well. Nabal was hard and evil with his dealings.
David and his men were living in the area so became a wall around them. Nabal benefited from that wall of protection. David sent some men to ask for food supplies, for a feast, from Nabal. He revealed how hard and evil he is to the men who came from the future king. David is about to do David (man of war 1 Chronicles 28:3) when Abigail steps in.
Abigail, after being told about the incident, jumped right into action to make sure her family business would not be destroyed by David. She filled bushels full of food and strapped them to her donkeys. She herself rode a donkey and met up with David. Knowing it would take her some time to prepare, and knowing that David would not take any time to seek revenge, she sent her servant ahead of her to tell David she was coming. She went as quickly as she could and staying out of sight of her husband as well.
She confronts David with the most courageous speech in 1 Samuel 25:24-31. As a result of her intelligent actions her house was saved but she still had to tell her husband what she did. She waited for him to be sober then she told him what she had done. When she was finished talking, the Lord struck Nabal with a seizure, which paralyzed him and then killed him 10 days later.
David sent his servants to retrieve Abigail as his wife. Her reply was, “Here is your maidservant, a servant to wash the feet of the servants of my lord.” As his wife she would be taken captive by the Amalekites (1 Samuel 30). She spend many years with David in hiding and travelled all over the middle east to avoid Saul. She gave birth to David’s second eldest son named Chileab or Daniel (meaning: God is my judge) (1 Chronicles 3:1). As we read about David’s sons causing him grief, we never hear of this one being involved in any of it. I wonder why?
Our Biblical Life Lesson: A Crisis Reveals Character
Life is filled with the minor events that change our lives to the larger events that shape our existence and our direction in life. Each of these are defining moments. They are born out of some kind of crisis, from some event that some one has lost control over.
COVID-19 is a great example of a life event out of control. A pandemic is something no one can control except our Lord. He is controlling it at this moment and will keep controlling it until He is ready to put it to an end.
Abigail, as David’s wife, has seen many things happen from the threat of death to being held hostage by the Amalekites, famine to pandemics, peace and war, running from Saul to running from Absalom. In which of these do you think she lost her head? None I suppose, what about you?
Meet with us in The Bible Gals as we discuss the nature of crisis and how it is meant to reveal our character.
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Bitterness Grows Deep into Michal
When you make a choice, do you plant yourself in the Bible first or do you make it and check later?
We all know it is easier to ask for forgiveness than permission. Michal made her decision regardless of her surroundings and annoyed her daddy who had much to much power over her.
Our Biblical Ground Work: 1 & 2 Samuel
Michal is the younger of Saul’s two daughters. Does she display the younger ones characteristics? Not at the beginning but near the end of our story you will see she does. She got away with deceiving her father and she never had to live up to any standard as her older sister would have to. Although I do have to say that she went through quite a bit because she was used, by her father, as a pawn in his game.
As soon as Saul discovered that David and Michal were in love, the games began. She was offered as reward for battle (1 Samuel 18:27) not thinking that David would succeed where he failed. David and Michal were married, but during their days together Saul was of the mind to kill David. Not knowing what love actually means, Saul was surprised his daughter would save his enemy alive (1 Samuel 19:11-17).
Saul gets angry again at David and gives Michal, his wife, to another man (1 Samuel 25:44). War breaks out between the Philistines and Israel again. Saul is killed and David begins to take ownership of his anointing but before he will take control of Israel he asks for his wife back but he is not getting the same woman back he left.
She moves into the kings castle with all his other wives, going from being the one wife of one man into the harem of wives David has collected (2 Samuel 3:13-14). As she is living in the castle, David is called to bring the Ark into the City of David. She sees him dancing and whirling and despises him in her heart. This would be the end of her life as she knew it (2 Samuel 6:16-23) because he put her away.
O no, that is not all. There was famine in the land so David went to the Lord to inquired about it. Turns out the Gibeonites wanted payment for what Saul had done to them, against their past covenant with the Israelites, and again Michal is thrown under the proverbial bus again (2 Samuel 21:1-14). How much can one queen take?
Our Biblical Life Lesson: Bitterness becomes a deep root because we don’t repent from the very first seed.
There was a lot of things that happened to Michal as you can read rom her story above. Her father taught her well about bitterness. Saul was bitter against David because he stole his accolades. That original weed of bitterness was never repented of, so all the rest of the reasons Saul hated David grew from that one bitter experience.
I can be a Bitter Batilda too. I have had some very nasty stuff happen to me but is that what the Lord wants from me. I say, “NO!” he doesn’t want that for any of His children so He leads you over some pretty big sink holes so when you are at the bottom of one you will realize how deep your bitterness root runs.
Join us in The Bible Gals Sisterhood Wednesday as we discuss the Biblical Power Tools to help you see the root and spray some Weed-X on it.
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Our Weapons for War!
We are going to 1 Samuel 17 today to the story of David and Goliath. We think much about this story and the content of it because David is the hero. We love David because he is the underdog in this story but there is so much more to it for us to learn then just that. We are all underdogs compared to God. David displays that we are nothing in our own power but when God sends us to do a job He equips us to do it the way He wants us, in particular, to do it. He gives us our own weapons to fight His battle.
Saul is King of Israel at this time but God has already left him and anointed David to be His King. David knows he is anointed to be King but has become a servant to the man he would replace. God has positioned David into the kingdom but has not moved him into his anointed position. David had gone home to take care of his fathers flock when Goliath becomes a phenomenon to Israel. He comes out 40 days straight and taunts God’s chosen people who respond by allowing fear to overtake them.
Young David is told to bring goods to his brothers and the supply master by his father to the battlefield. Goliath, the challenger, was almost 10 feet tall and the hero of the Philistines but he is no match for God’s man. He was not a hero to David either because he was defying God. Saul, who should have offered himself up to protect his people only offered up his gear and weapons to the man who would kill this hero of Philistia.
God sent David into his battle with his weapons and He sends us into our battle with our weapons. For ten years I heard that our battle should be on our knees but for just as long I had no understanding of what exactly that means. My number one weapon was not prayer it was problem solving. Yours might very well be something else like love, compassion, nail banging or house building. We take what we have as a weapon and use it to solve problems but mostly in the physical world. Our enemy is in the Spiritual world. Once we become Christians we are given a great vision of the Spiritual world and it doesn’t just include God and the angels but Satan and his demons too.
Saul tried to supply David with his weapons to fight but David said he had not tested them but he knew what he had tested and they were tried and true. God gave him the weapons he was to fight this giant with and he gave Saul his. Saul chose not to use his. God gives us the weapons we are to fight with too and they are perfectly suited for us to fight the giant we are fighting at this moment. We are not to use untested weapons of war we are to recognize and use our own weapons because they are what God has given us to fight with. Up until this year I did not fight my battle with prayer nor did I prevent a fight with prayer but I did fight my battles with the weapons God gave me. He has given me a fantastic memory for Scripture! Those were my weapons but now He is giving me a new weapon. This weapon is mine alone and I intend to practice with it and get so good at it that I will be able to knock down any giant.
What is the weapon that Jesus has given you to fight with right now? Do you use it or do you attempt to use someone else’s? Spend the next day or two answering these questions then own the weapon He has given you right now and perfect it’s use just as David perfected the use of his sling. For the battle you fight is the Lord’s and your weapon is from Him so He can deliver your enemy into your hands.
