The back story is in 2 Sam. 21. There is a famine in the land for 3 years, David asks God what to do about it and He tells them it is "on account of Saul and his blood-stained house; it is because he put the Gibeonites to death." David then asks the Gibeonites what he would have them to do for them and they ask for 7 of Saul's descendants to be put to death and exposed on a hill. Rizpah is the mother of two of them. She spreads sackcloth on a rock "from the beginning of harvest until the rain poured down from heaven on the bodies, she did not let the birds touch them by day or the wild animals by night." When David hears about it, he gets the bones of Saul (the father of her children) and Jonathan as well as gathering up the bones of these 7 men and buries them for her.
The interplay of justice and mercy in this story is incredible. The extent of discomfort to which this woman would place herself for those she loved (and they were dead) is impressive. Sackcloth is pretty rough... I like my cotton sheets... on a rock... I like my soft bed... day and night... I like my sleep....
I also find David's compassion here very beautiful. He is the one who has ordered this be done, but he also is moved by her grief and responds by not only burying those she is tending, but going to recover the bones of her family so that they can all be "laid to rest."
All of this for Saul's family after David had suffered so much at the hand of Saul.
These extremes make an impression for me... I so rarely allow myself to feel discomfort for those who are living with me in the present moment....
I wonder at what I am being called to embrace here?
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