You don’t hear a lot of teaching from 2 Samuel 21.
It’s a rough chapter. There’s a famine, bloodshed, and a broken promise from long ago that catches up to the nation. But tucked right in the middle of it all is a mother named Rizpah.
After Saul’s sin against the Gibeonites, seven of his sons and grandsons were taken and hanged to make peace. It was brutal, but it stopped the famine. Most folks would have moved on. But Rizpah didn’t.
The Bible says she took some sackcloth and spread it out on a rock. Then she sat there. Not for a day or a week. For months. From the start of barley harvest until the autumn rains came. All that time, she chased away birds during the day and wild beasts at night. Just so the bodies of her boys wouldn’t be torn apart.
She didn’t preach. She didn’t shout. She didn’t blame. She just stayed. And her quiet stand reached the ears of King David. After hearing about Rizpah, he went and gathered up the bones of those boys — and even Saul and Jonathan — and gave them all a proper burial. And then it says in verse 14, “And after that God was intreated for the land.”
Her love helped heal the land.
You may never be in the spotlight. You might be doing your best to stay faithful in something hard — maybe in your home, your church, or even your prayer life. And it may feel like no one sees. But God sees. He always sees.
Rizpah reminds us that love doesn’t always look loud. Sometimes it looks like staying on the rock, day after day, doing what’s right when no one else will.
The Bible says in Galatians 6:9,
“And let us not be weary in well doing: for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not.”
She didn’t faint. And neither should we.
