Spiritual Famine — Roy Hession

Well, Pam and I are very happy to be with you for these days, and we expect we shall get to know lots of you, if only your smiling faces, from this end of the chapel. It's amazing how accustomed one becomes to the same group of people, smiling back at one and responding to the message of grace, and one only knows how much one has appreciated and come to enjoy, let alone love, that group.

When one goes to the next church, and we've got nine churches to go to on this tour, this is but about five or six in the number, we only know how much we've come to enjoy and love those people when we go to the next church, and we find another group looking up at it.

And it doesn't seem right. That seat there should be occupied by the face we've been looking at for a whole week, and so on, and we have to begin again to get used to another bunch of the Lord's people.

And we do trust, I'm sure you will be coming as much as possible, make it every night if you possibly can, we're going to make it every night, we promise you we're not going to stay home and look at any television program, we're going to be here.

And for more reasons than one we suggest that. I suppose the most important one is that whereas we do not come with themes selected and prepared beforehand, but rather take each day as it comes and allow the Lord to guide us to the next theme, we do find, however, that at the end of a series there's been a sequence.

God has led us in a sequence, and obviously those who come through most of the series will get the most complete picture which God has been giving us. And some nights can be tremendously important to your understanding of the message of grace for us Christians, and we do trust then you won't be too disappointed.

Well, however I put it, you know what I mean, we want your help, and I know you don't need much persuading. And another pin-off from these meetings, if you come to the whole series, at the end you may be speaking with an English accent yourself.

And people will say, where'd you learn that? Oh, I was at those meetings. Or it may be, of course, by the end of our two-month trip over here, we shall be speaking with an American accent, which is quite likely.

Of course, you wouldn't call it an American accent, you would still call it English. But when we go home, we have been told you're speaking a little differently, and it lasts a week or two. And we pick up, no, not the full accent, but some of the intonation that every accent has, and some of the very pungent good expressions that you use, I like them.

They put it much more pungently than we do in our more sober English. Amen. Now let's bow our heads for a word of prayer. Lord Jesus, we come to Thee with open hearts and open Bibles, and we thank Thee for that open heaven from which the Holy Spirit has come, from Thee on the throne.

May He take of the things that are Thine, Lord Jesus, and powerfully reveal them to us. We ask it in His name. Amen. Now I want to turn you this evening to the second book of Samuel, chapter 21. The second book of Samuel, chapter 21.

Revival Illustrated by David’s Famine

Now I'm, I hazard the guess that we shall read an Old Testament incident which is fairly unfamiliar to you, and that you haven't perhaps seldom heard referred to, even, or expounded. But this incident is a wonderful illustration of the ways of God in revival.

It's a strange thing that for myself, I find more stories, incidents, that illustrate revival than I do, in the Old Testament, than I do in the New. In the New you have the doctrines of the Gospel in all its fullness.

But as you look at God's deep dealings with His ancient people, and how often they're in great need, and in need of renewal, we see in it a wonderful picture of God's people today, and there are seasons when there's been decline, and when the fire has gone low, when God needs to revive His people again.

And this is one of those incidents which can be taken as a great picture of the ways of God in revival. It's an incident in the days of David. David at this point, at long last, has come to the throne.

Saul, his predecessor, has been slain in battle, and at last he's on the throne. And at last God has got a man on the throne, whose ear He knows He can catch. It wasn't much use, God trying to talk to Saul.

He was dead. He'd got right away going His own way. But here was a man, whose ear God could catch. And there were certain matters about which the Lord wanted to catch His ear. All right then, here it is, just quietly listen, take it in, and see if you can see the main emphasis for us in this passage, even before I try to explain something of it.

Then there was a famine in the days of David, three years, year after year. And David inquired of the Lord. Yes, invariably that's what David did when there was something that puzzled him. When he needed instruction, he inquired of the Lord.

And the Lord answered, it is for Saul and for his bloody house, because he slew the Gibeonites. And the king called the Gibeonites and said unto them, now the Gibeonites, you remember that incident in the book of Joshua, now the Gibeonites were not of the children of Israel, but of the remnant of the Amorites.

And the children of Israel had sworn unto them. And Saul sought to slay them in his zeal to the children of Israel and Judah. Do you remember the story of the Gibeonites? When under Joshua Israel were coming in so victoriously into the land, and all the nations in their immediate path knew that they were doomed, those were far, well Israel might well make some treaty with them, but not those in their path, they were destined to destruction.

And a little nation, a little tribe I suppose it was, the Gibeonites, living around those paths, right in Israel's path, thought of the route of sending messengers with old clothes and broken down shoes and food that they were supposed to have been taking with them for the journey, all dry and mouldy, as if they had come from a far distance asking for some form of a treaty.

And Israel did not inquire of the Lord, they just took them at their face value and said well there's no reason why we shouldn't make a treaty with them, they're a long way away, they're going to be no threat to us at all.

And so they did. And they discovered they were their neighbours. And because they'd made that treaty, and given that little group an oath that they would spare them, they didn't kill them. They did however make them hewers of wood and draughts of water, you remember that incident.

And the people murmured at their leaders, they'd been so foolish, but they said we swore unto them by the Lord and we must stand by that. That was at least honorable. And that's how it continued. But apparently, we're not told anywhere else what happened, Saul, when he was king, in his zeal for the children of Israel, had massacred a whole number of those people and doubtless taken their farm for Israel.

And the incident had passed, they were powerless to do anything about it, but they'd suffered a deep wrong. And not even God did anything about it, for the simple reason he knew he'd got a king on the throne who wouldn't listen if he did speak.

But now that Saul's gone, and David is on the throne, God speaks to David, and does so by sending a strange unaccountable family. The rain failed. The crop failed. It happened one year. Well, it does happen, you know, David, sometimes, that's how it is.

It happened a second year, the rain failed. It's strange, we'd have it two years running, just like that, and then, if you please, it happened a third year. And David realized this was God. And this explains what he did.

Realizing here was a situation that had come from God, if it was God speaking, he inquires of the Lord the reason for this famine. And the Lord tells him, it is for Saul, and for his bloody house, because he flew the Gibeonites.

And the king called the Gibeonites and said unto them, Wherefore, verse 3, David said unto the Gibeonites, What shall I do for you? And wherewith shall I make the atonement, that ye may bless the inheritance of the Lord?

Because of that wrong done before. And the Gibeonites said unto him, We will have no silver, nor gold, or salt, nor of this house, neither for us shalt thou kill any man in Israel. And he said, What ye shall say, that will I do for you.

And they answered the king, The man that consumed us, and that devised against us, that we should be destroyed from remaining in any of the coasts of Israel, let seven men of his sons be delivered unto us.

And we will hang them up unto the Lord in Gibeon of Saul, whom the Lord did choose. And the king said, I will give them. It really is a bit gory, this story. Terrible. But that's the story, this is what happened.

And David had little or no option. They just couldn't go on with the heavens as round. And if this act of restitution was the only way by which then legitimate grievance could be met, by which God himself could be impeded, then he had to do it.

So he took seven of Saul's descendants to give to the Gibeonites. But the king spared Mephibosheth, the son of Jonathan, the son of Saul, because of the Lord's oath that was between them, between David and Jonathan, the son of Saul.

But the king took the two sons of Rister, the daughter of Aiah, whom she bare unto Saul, Armoni and Mephibosheth, and the five sons of Michael, the daughter of Saul, whom she brought up for Adriel, the son of Baal-zilei, the Maholophite.

And he delivered them into the hands of the Gibeonites. And they hanged them in the hill before the Lord. And they fell all seven together and were put to death in the days of harvest, in the first days, in the beginning of barley harvest.

And Rister, the daughter of Aiah, took sackcloth and spread it for her upon the rock from the beginning of harvest until water dropped upon them out of heaven and suffered neither the birds of the air to rest on them by day nor the beasts of the field by night.

They were hung up on trees before the Lord. And it was told David what Rister, the concubine of Saul, had done. And David went and took the bones of Saul and the bones of Jonathan, his son, from the men of Jabesh-gilead, which had stolen them from the street of Beshan, where the Philistines had hanged them, where the Philistines had slain Saul in Gilboa.

And he brought up from thence the bones of Saul and the bones of Jonathan, his son. And they gathered the bones of them that were hanged. While he was dealing with the burial of those that were hanged, he reminded himself of Saul and Jonathan, who hadn't been given a proper burial either.

But the main purpose at this time was to deal with those bodies of those seven men hanging on the tree. And the bones of Saul and his son Jonathan buried they in the country of Benjamin in the sepulchre of Kish's father.

And they performed all that the king commanded and their ancestors. After that, after that, God was entreated for the land. So there's our incident. And I take it to be an amazing picture of how things can happen amongst the children of God, of how us children of God may have a time of famine, even as David.

As I suggested, the fact that there was a famine for one year didn't disturb David too much. He accounted for it on natural grounds. But when it happened three years in a row, David began to take this seriously and to ask for what reason this might have happened.

And he inquired of the Lord. I suppose the reason why God spoke to his people in the Old Testament often by sending them famine, which he did, was because they were never led to expect famine in that land.

It was a land of milk and honey. They were promised a land of mountains, valleys and rivers where they would eat bread. They were told without scarcity. And when they came into that promised land, they found it even so.

But there were occasions when God, for reasons best known to himself, shut up heaven, that there was no rain. And there became a terrible famine in that land, which normally produced food without any scarcity.

And the reason for which God would shut up heaven was when his people departed from the law and turned to other gods or infringed his holy, beneficent commandment, as in this case. And then it might well be that if he shut up heaven, that there wasn't any rain.

Then if his people who were called by his name would humble themselves and pray and turn from their wicked way, he would hear their prayer. He would forgive their sin and he would heal their land. And so this is really quite Old Testament, quite usual in the history of God's people in the Old Testament.

Recognizing Spiritual Famine

What I mean to say, we're really in an atmosphere. This is something extraordinary. They were dependent on heaven's rain. And it wasn't unusual for God to speak to his people through withholding that rain.

Now, with us, with regard to ourselves, we were told, promised by the Lord himself that he that came to him would never hunger, that he that believed on him would never thirst. Our experience in Christ was to be an experience of a land that flowed with milk and honey.

We were promised that the water that he would give us, if we drank of it, we'd never thirst. It would become in us a spring of water leaping up into everlasting life. And frankly, if you've been born of God's spirit, I'm suggesting to you that you found that to be exactly the case.

You have found that the blessings of the gospel have not been overstated. In those moments of proximity to Jesus, which you've known, you found the hunger of your soul satisfied. You found yourself rejoicing in him.

But there are times when perhaps you've discovered that there seems to be a famine in the land. A famine that isn't just one that's a matter of your notions changing. Oh dear me, I'm a bit, had a late night the other night, I'm not rejoicing much today.

Maybe after a good night's rest I'll feel different. But this is persistent. And you may well have found there's a famine in your soul. You may well have found yourself in an experience where the Bible hasn't been speaking to you very vividly.

If you've been reading your portion, whatever system of daily Bible reading you have, you've been doing it very much as a chore. It hasn't meant very much to you. You haven't heard from heaven lately.

And the chances are that you will very soon quit spending time over a book that isn't living to you. And maybe laterally there's been a famine in your soul. Amos talks about the famine that God would say.

Even in Old Testament times, not a famine of want of water or want of bread, but a famine he says, of hearing the words of the Lord. And that's a famine indeed. You may come to church, you may partake of the means of grace but be unmoved by them.

Others are praising, others are melting. There might be a tear or two that others are shedding, but you are untouched. And I've known experiences like that. My heart is cold and it's dry. And when the word of God is not living to me and I'm not being touched.

It may be that we've been finding prayer not meaningful. It has been worse. And as a result you've largely become prayerless. It isn't merely that you are negligent in keeping up with these important matters, but it is that when you did pray you didn't get anywhere.

You tried again and got nowhere and you began bit by bit to quit. And once again it was because of this famine that had come and settled down in yourself. It may be in the matter of witness and concern for others.

We haven't really been sharing Jesus with other people. We haven't really been looking for opportunities so to do. And I believe it's because we feel we've got so little to give. We know the way of salvation.

We can mouth the words, but there's nothing of reality there. But this hasn't always been our experience. Perhaps latterly there's been a famine in our hearts and as persistent as was that in the days of David.

It could be a famine, in David's case, for three years, year after year. It could be as long as that. Or it could be a famine for three months, month after month. Or it could be a famine for three weeks, week after week.

Or it could be a famine for three days, year after, day after day. And I ask you, are we prepared to tolerate famine if only for three days in our souls? Well, David was not prepared for this state of things to continue and bless his dear heart.

He did this sweet thing that was characteristic of him. You can't help but love David for all his failures and faults. I love him. And when he was in this state, and in other situations he did it, he inquired of the Lord.

And you know, quick as night, he got the answer back. It is for Saul and for his bloody house, because he slew the gibbons. That little minority tribe had suffered a wrong at the hands of David's predecessor.

Out of zeal for the children of Israel, he put some of them to the sword and appropriated their land. The incident had passed into history, but it had not been forgotten by God. And now that David, that God had got a king, whose heir he could get, he spoke to him.

Spoke to him by sending the famine, knowing that he had inquired of him, and sending him the answer. And very often it's much the same with us. I wonder, however, if we're really concerned enough at the famine to inquire of the Lord.

It could be that that goes on so long that you could think, well, that's the normal Christian life, there's nothing more to it than that. So you do sometimes feel, as if Jesus paid rather too much, for a salvation which is so thin and lacking as what you're experiencing, that you couldn't get to the faith, you feel so useless.

But others of us aren't. God help us not to be. And we need to do what David did. We need to inquire of the Lord. For what cause is there this famine? The famine may take all sorts of further forms. It may be difficult situations blow up.

And God's trying to get our attention through those. We may have some hard times with relationships with others. And my, we're not at all in a happy state because of this, that and the other. And oh, happy the dear child of God, who knows in that situation to be humble enough to inquire of the Lord.

And I want to tell you, you'll be surprised at the lucidity with which he would tell you. But what cause, he says, the famine. Now it's quite impossible to be dogmatic what it'll be. All I know it may well be something that will be an absolute stunning revelation to you.

Something you've never seen as likely to cause any such famine. It may be not some tremendous dramatic sin. It may be something that's much too subtle that you would never guess it. You've been rationalizing something in your life for so long.

It'll only be the Holy Spirit himself. Who'll be able to point it to us. And so we need to inquire of the Lord even as David did. And the Lord will show us in his own way and time. Sometimes much quicker than we think.

And very often it could be rather of this Lord of someone who's been wronged. They've got a complaint against you. And when there's a situation like that, I sometimes say to the party involved, who complain of the antagonistic attitude of another.

Tell me, if they were here on their own and I asked them about you, what would they say? Oh, you may not think they're right, they're true. But what would you say? What do you think they'd say? Tell me.

And so slowly I encourage them to tell me what they think. Their opponents, whoever it is, would say. Well, I suppose you'd say this and that. Is there any truth in that? Come on, any truth? And you may well know that someone's attitude to you is all due to something in which they feel themselves to have been wronged.

To have been hurt. As did these gibbonites. You know, the Lord's very compassionate towards those who've been wronged. Jesus has a wonderful name, especially in the book of Revelation. He's called the Lamb.

Because it describes his disposition. He's always called the Lamb. It speaks of his humility, his willingness to come down, to not to insist upon his rights. A Lamb, you know, is a meekness of preachers.

You can do what you like to a Lamb. You can kick it, but it won't turn round and snap at you. It's meek, so to speak, and lowly in heart. That's why Jesus bears this wonderful title. There's another reason too, because the Lamb is the antitype of that Lamb that was slain on the Passover night.

But I think mainly because this describes his character. But there's a very strange phrase in the book of Revelation. He talks about the wrath of the Lamb. If he's so meek and mewly, if he humbled himself, if this name speaks of his beneficence to all and his gentleness towards sinners, how come do you have this phrase, the wrath of the Lamb?

It looks like a contradiction. Oh no, it isn't. It's because he is the Lamb that there is wrath. Because he is concerned for the poor and the needy and the oppressed that he takes up an attitude of judgment towards those who oppress the poor and needy and make them poor and needy.

It's just because he is the Lamb, he cannot but censure and deal with and have, so to speak, on the carpet before him any child of his who wrongs another. And thus it says you have this extraordinary phrase, the wrath of the Lamb.

It's because he is loved for that one. He cannot but have dealings and talk to you when you are dealing with them harshly, wrongly, giving them cause for pain and cause to complain. And oh, maybe many people never thought it didn't matter about those gibbonites.

They were an alien group in any case. We never should have made that promise to them way back and their lands are very desirable. This is how Saul reasoned. And so he slew them and took their land. And the people didn't think too much of it, but God had heard their cries.

The voice of their blood was crying unto him from the ground. And when at last he got a man who was here, he spoke to David about it. True, David hadn't been involved. True, David wasn't guilty of that deed.

He didn't perpetrate the act, but he was now in a position to put it right. And it could be sometimes happened that sometimes God does back thought of it. Sometimes there's been trouble between families.

It was your dad or your mum who was involved with that other family. You didn't do it. But although perhaps you didn't do it, you may be in a position now to put it right. And sometimes God might speak to us about something like that.

And here am I in my time of panic. I'm concerned that God's smile doesn't seem to be upon me these days. And I inquire of the Lord and he could be very clear and very specific about the reason for which this has taken place.

As I say, it's quite a revelation sometimes. Only the revelation of the Holy Spirit can show that reason for which he has seen fit to shut up heaven that there isn't any rain. The reason being to bring you to inquire.

And he shows us what it is he wants to speak to us about. And so David has no option but to go to these diplomats. And he found what he'd been told. They were indeed still bitter about that thing. David might have said, oh, it's all in the past.

They've forgotten it. They had done nothing of the sort. He was shocked at the extent of how strongly they felt. There's no possibility of doing anything about it. But God had acted on their behalf. And here comes this king to them, recognizing that a grievous wrong had been done against them.

And they were happy, perhaps surprised at this turn of events. And he said, what must we do for you? Wherewith shall I make atonement, reconciliation, that you may bless the inheritance of the Lord? Because this wrong has been spoiling our inheritance.

It's been cursing the inheritance of the Lord. What must we do? What will satisfy you? And they said, we will have no silver or gold and salt. Neither shall thou kill any man in Israel, except that you give us seven of the descendants, seven of the sons of the man who perpetrated this thing for us.

And we will hang them up before the Lord in Gibeah, where Saul used to live. And so David had to do it. And he selected the sons from the descendants with a big thing, when these seven prisoners were handed over.

It's pretty gory. It's almost like a western. When men were hung up on trees, even in those days, it was a western. This is how it happened. And it's a picture to us that God wants us to inquire with him.

And we've got to be willing to repent. We've got to be willing to call those things sin. It won't be such a gory restitution in our case. It may be a simple apology, but that can be very costly. To admit that the other person was right and you were wrong.

That's very costly. You lose your righteousness. It's a death to die, even over small matters. And sometimes we may find we may go back quite a way, or it may be some day-to-day sin that we need to call sin and acknowledge.

The Curse Borne on the Tree

Now the thing that interests me is the fact that these men were hung up on trees in Gibeah. And especially that it was only after they were ultimately buried that God was intreated for the land and the rains came.

Now bringing, putting those men on trees can be regarded as bringing our sins to Calvary, to Jesus. It's very interesting to note that, whereas normally Jesus is said to have been crucified on a cross, in five places at least in the New Testament, Jesus is said to have been put on a tree.

A cross was a Roman punishment for criminals. But the tree was something peculiarly for the Hebrews. As we shall see in a moment, I'll turn you to the passage. It says, Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree.

And a man who was hung on a tree was seen to be a curse of God. And so whereas the Romans saw one whom they regarded as a criminal on a cross, the Hebrews saw one who inasmuch as he was hung on a tree, according to the book of Deuteronomy, was a curse of God.

And therefore is a much awesome thing, a much more shameful thing to the Hebrews than to the Romans. And these men were hung on trees. And it pictures the fact that Jesus was hung on a tree, to his own self, there out in his own body on the tree.

Now I want to turn you to Deuteronomy 21, where this passage is referred to. Deuteronomy chapter 21. And this matter of Jesus said to be hung on a tree is based entirely on these two verses. And the Hebrews took it very seriously.

And if a man hath committed a sin worthy of death, and he be put to death, and thou hang him on a tree, his body shall not remain all night upon the tree, but thou shalt in any wise bury him that day.

For he that is hanged is a curse of God, that thy land be not defiled, which the Lord thy God giveth thee for an inheritance. Now it says there, if you, there's a criminal put to death, and you hang him on a tree, presumably as a warning to others, there his body hangs, dangling from the tree.

And these seven men were hung on seven trees. And if you do that as a warning to others, his body is not to remain all night upon the tree. It's right to hang that body on the tree. It's a warning. But that hanging on the tree means, according to the law of Moses, that that man, that criminal is a curse to God.

But in hanging him on the tree, that curse has been pronounced of God and has been finished. Don't let that body remain on the tree beyond the day. That crime needs to be exposed. It needs to be seen as being under the curse of God.

But that exposure is enough. And by the going down of the sun, you must bring down that body and give that body a decent burial. And it's over. Now this is laid back of something very interesting in this passage.

But first of all, let us see how it applies to Jesus. Will you turn to 1 Peter 2, 24. To his own self there are sins in his own body on the tree. Isn't that strange? Just so strange. Who, his own self, there are sins in his body on the tree.

Now, literally, and the revised, I think, helps us. One of the revisions does. It is this way. Who his own self carried up are sins in his own body to the tree. Our sins need to be exposed to the curse of God to be shown what they were.

That's right. That's proper. And that's what Jesus did. He carried up our sins to that tree as a symbolic act of showing that our sins were under the curse. But the beautiful thing is this. It says, who his own self did it.

It wasn't some angelic garbage man that took this foul mess to the garbage pile and had it exposed to the curse of God. It might well have been given this distasteful task to someone less than the son of God, but it was his own self did it.

He carried up our sins, his own self, to the tree. And then it says he didn't only do it as something outside of himself, but who his own self, who his own self in his own body, carried up our sins to the tree.

He allowed himself to be made an effigy of this thing that God is nothing but judgment. And he became an effigy of this thing. And he carried up his own self in his own body, our sins, to that place of the curse.

And he was made a curse for us that you might never bear that curse. Thou hast fulfilled the law and we are justified so to him. Ours is the blessing, thine the curse. We live, for thou hast done, it touches me, his own self in his own body.

Carried up our sins to the tree. And there our sins were given their due exposure to the curse of God. But that exposure was enough. That curse had been fulfilled, therefore he had to be brought down.

And that's why the Jews were so concerned that he should be brought down. They knew the Lord of Moses. Although they were doing a dastardly deed, they were scrupulous still about the minutiae of the Lord of Moses.

And they were concerned that his body should not be on the tree, beyond the setting of the sun. And it was convenient that Joseph of Arimathea was wanting to bury him. But the deep meaning is this. That exposure of our sins to the curse was enough.

It doesn't need to go on and on. Hanging up there he was buried. Now come back to this story. And this has a great deal of meaning for us when it comes to this matter of revival. Now you would have thought that if they had repented, if David and the nation repented of that for which God sent the famine, and they had carried out this solemn act of restitution, and the Gibeonites were satisfied, that that would have been the end of the matter.

And the rains would have begun to come again. But they didn't. Day after day those bodies swung from the trees. And the mother of one of the boys whose body was there, took a rug and she sat on the rock to protect those bodies from the vultures.

She was all the time protecting them, protecting them, poor thing. And it went on and on. And the rains hadn't come. And David knew that there were things still not right. And when he heard the pathetic story of that mother protecting the bodies from the vultures and the birds of prey, he realised what he failed to do.

He had not obeyed the law of men. And so he took down those bodies and their bones and buried them. This should have been done after the first day. He realised what he failed to do. He had not obeyed the law of men.

And so he took down those bodies and their bones and buried them. This should have been done after the first day. But it was done at last. And after that, God was intreated for the last. Now, what does this mean to us?

It's not enough to acknowledge sin. It's not enough even to go to that other person and say, brother, I want you to forgive me for the wrong I did. It's not enough. It's not enough to hang that thing up on the tree.

And have it dangling over your head. That sounds very humble. Never to forget it. Always to be chastening yourself. But that's not revival. You've got to see it. I've got to see that that exposure that was accomplished in Jesus, that exposure of my sins that happened in Jesus at Calvary is enough.

It was accomplished. His body was taken down. And I've got to believe the same. And I've got to, so to speak, cut down that body and give it a decent burial. It's already had its curse. There's no need for it to dangle there any longer.

And it's only when that takes place in experience, when you come out of being haunted forever by that failure, when you dare to believe that Jesus did it all, it was a finished work and you needn't thrash yourself any longer, that then joy comes and peace.

And when the Lord sees us at last at rest about those things that have caused the famine and rejoicing in his forgiveness, that then he's entreated for the land and the blessing and the rain return again.