Nexus
nex⋅us [nek-suhs] – noun, plural nex⋅us⋅es, nex⋅us.
1. a means of connection; tie; link.
2. a connected series or group.
3. the core or center, as of a matter or situation.
4. Cell Biology. a specialized area of the cell membrane involved in intercellular communication and adhesion.
In reading second Samuel chapter twenty-one I came across a familiar name – Rizpah. I first saw her in second Samuel chapter three.
One day Ishbosheth, Saul’s son, accused Abner of sleeping with one of his father’s concubines, a woman named Rizpah. – 2 Samuel 3:7
Abner was a faithful righteous man. The accusation offended him so badly that he left Ishbosheth and pledged loyalty to David. It was this event that triggered David’s ascension to rule a unified Israel. Rizpah was at the center of it. She was the nexus.
Today I read that God was withholding rain from the land as punishment for Saul trying to eradicate the Gibeonites. David enquired of God as to what he should do. God instructed him to do whatever the Gibeonites required of him.
What they required was seven male descendants of Saul to pay for his crimes against the Gibeonites – a death sentence.
Two of the men were sons of Rizpah, the same Rizpah who was at the center of David’s receiving the full kingdom.
It is clear that she loved her sons.
Then Rizpah, the mother of two of the men, spread sackcloth on a rock and stayed there the entire harvest season. She prevented vultures from tearing at their bodies during the day and stopped wild animals from eating them at night. – 2 Samuel 21:10
What I found of particular interest was that the rain did not return, God did not stop his chastisement, until after David did the right thing for Rizpah and Saul’s family.
When David learned what Rizpah, Saul’s concubine, had done, he went to the people of Jabesh-gilead and asked for the bones of Saul and his son Jonathan. (When Saul and Jonathan had died in a battle with the Philistines, it was the people of Jabesh-gilead who had retrieved their bodies from the public square of the Philistine city of Beth-shan.) So David brought the bones of Saul and Jonathan, as well as the bones of the men the Gibeonites had executed. He buried them all in the tomb of Kish, Saul’s father, at the town of Zela in the land of Benjamin. After that, God ended the famine in the land of Israel. – 2 Samuel 11 – 14
Twice Rizpah was a nexus in David’s life. Once in establishing his rule, and the second time in ending a famine.
How many nexuses are in my life that I fail to notice? How about you? I suspect there are many more than we’ll ever guess.
Father, may I be mindful of those times when a choice presents itself, those that once taken shape the course of all that is to follow. Please give me eyes to see and wisdom to know the correct path. In Jesus’ name, Amen.
When at a crossroad, stop and pray. Jan
My Journey in God's Word 