“The woman who serves unnoticed and un-thanked is a woman who loves God
more than she desires the praise of others.”
Wendy Pope
Go on! Get away from here!
Shew.
Day and night I am outside with the bugs, birds and animals. I never leave. I’m here 24/7. What I’m doing is NOT glamorous by any stretch of the imagination. As a matter of fact, I’m so filthy. There are times the stench is so strong, I vomit. I can’t look at them. The sight of them would cause most to have nightmares, and the smell would prevent most from eating for weeks.
But here I am, and I’m not leaving. I couldn’t protect my sons while they were living, but I’m doing my best to protect them now.
So many people think that living in the palace or being the son of a king is so fantastic. They never consider the cost. My sons were executed for something the king did. I couldn’t even call the king my husband because he wasn’t. I was his concubine. I was a glorified prostitute at his beck and call. I just happened to give him two sons, so I had a little more favor than the other concubines but not much.
Regardless, my sons along with five other sons were hung because the king had attempted to wipe another people group off the map. They took my sons. There was nothing I could do. And they hung them on a hill the first day of the harvest season.
From now until the day I die, I’ll dread the first day of harvest season.
My grief was so intense. I thought I’d suffocate, but then I realized they were going to leave my babies hanging in the tree. I wasn’t permitted to get their bodies and bury them. They may have been grown men, but they were my babies. I gave birth to those beautiful beings. I was there when they entered this world, and I was there when they left it. And I was going to be there until the very end.
I grabbed a sack cloth and spread it on the rock. I didn’t want people dessicrating my sons’ bodies any more than they already had. I didn’t want the birds to pluck their hair or eyes. I didn’t want wild animals tearing their skin and pulling their bodies apart. That would be more than I could bear.
I was so torn. I wanted to see my babies, but I didn’t want to see them like this. I wanted to touch and hold them and talk to them. I wanted to hear their voices once more no matter how loud. But that wouldn’t happen.
At first when I wasn’t shewing away the birds, I was crying. At night, I’d have a fire to try to keep the wild animals away. I used whatever weapon I had handy. Sometimes in my anger, I slammed sticks together and screamed at the top of my lungs to scare the animals away. I would just scream at them using the anger that was in me.
Then the bodies began to bloat with gases and erupt. I thought the smell would rot the inside of my nose. I tried wearing a veil or scarf around my nose and mouth, but let’s face it, seven rotting bodies let off a lot of odor, and absolutely nothing could mask it. But I stayed. I didn’t abandon them. I didn’t leave them once. I protected them the best I could. I should have been scared, but I was so angry and depressed, I just wished the animals would kill me and get it over with.
I guess because the bodies were exposed to the elements of the high heat and drought, they decayed so quickly.
I saw my babies’ bones. No mother should ever have to see their babies die. No mother should ever have to watch their babies’ bodies fall apart in decay. No mother should ever have to experience any of this. As a matter of fact, the mothers of the other boys didn’t come. I don’t blame them. I just knew I had to come.
After it began to rain, David heard about Saul’s sons hanging in this tree and about how I wasn’t leaving them. He sent men to collect the bones of Saul and Jonathan and of Saul’s 7 sons who hung. David took my sons’ bones and gave them a proper burial. I don’t know if he would have done that if he hadn’t heard that I was there and not leaving.
The story of Rizpah can be found in 2 Samuel 3:6-8, 21:8-14.
I recently lead a women’s retreat on service. I selected five women in the Bible with different stories of service, and Rizpah was one of them. I divided the women into groups. They read the Scripture, did a little research, and strapped on her sandals. The women who had Rizpah came back to the group talking about “Rizzie.” It’s amazing how personal women in the Bible can become when we slip on their sandals and walk their path while thinking about what she may have seen, heard, smelled and thought.
Rizpah served from a place of great heart ache. She served faithfully day and night in a position that was not desirable in the least. She puts to shame the Christians today in America who make every excuse as to why they can’t serve the body of Christ.
Ephesians 6:7-8, “Serve with a good attitude, as to the Lord and not to men, knowing that whatever good each one does, slave or free, he will receive this back from the Lord.
In Her Sandals is my attempt to slip on the sandals of women in the Bible and walk the path they’ve walked. It is not my intention to add to Scripture or take away from it, but to help women today to see women of the Bible as real relatable people and how God worked and used them. If God can work and use those in the Bible, then He can use you.