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Rizpah: the quiet campaigner
If you ask most people if they have heard of Rizpah, they say ‘Who?’ Yet she is one of my very favourite Bible characters. She lived in Israel in an era very different from ours. King David, believing a famine in Israel was caused by a wrong done to the neighbouring tribe, the Gibeonites, asked them how to make amends. They asked for seven of the relatives of David’s predecessor, King Saul, to be handed over to them. They killed them and left their bodies on a hillside, exposed to the elements, something which was very dishonouring in their culture. The seven men included Rizpah’s sons, as she had been Saul’s concubine (a kind of second wife but with no rights). This remarkable woman stayed four months on the hillside protecting the bodies from the birds and animals. It must have been terrifying. My guess is she might have had help with food, but for a woman alone to do that was remarkable. In time, King David heard and was shamed into action, giving the seven men, and also Saul and Jonathan, an honourable burial.
Her silent vigil was out of love for her sons, but the effect of it did not stop there. This woman, in the most extraordinary way, was a campaigner for justice.
It is not hard to see the huge injustices in our world and feel powerless. Anything we do can feel so small. There were other injustices in Rizpah’s day, but this was the one she felt passionate about taking action on, and it worked. The injustice was put right.
Reflect: It is so easy to feel helpless in the face of so much that is wrong in our world, yet God causes us to seek justice and show mercy. Is there something you are being called to do? Someone you can speak up for, or write a letter about? A cause you can highlight on social media?
Prayer: Merciful God, in the face of so much in the world that causes You pain, help me to know what I can do. Where are You calling me to seek justice and show mercy? Help me to have the courage to do what You are asking of me. Amen
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Sometimes we are familiar with the well-known Biblical characters such as Abraham, Moses and Mary - and they have some fantastic lessons to teach us - but what about the often overlooked characters, if you mention their name, people say ‘Who?’ What might they have to show us?
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