Love for Our Children Until the End

The sermon opens with the painful story of Rizpah in 2 Samuel 21, a woman who lost two sons not because of her own fault but because of King Saul's past sin. When Saul massacred the Gibeonites, a people with whom Joshua had made a covenant 400 years earlier, a great famine struck the land. King David had to deliver seven of Saul's descendants, including Rizpah's two sons Armoni and Mephibosheth, to atone for the injustice with the Gibeonites. The pastor emphasizes how profoundly unjust this was—innocent people suffering for the sins of another.

The second section describes how Rizpah faced this tragedy. When her two sons were hanged outside the walls of Gibeah, Rizpah did not choose silence or despair. Instead, she lay on a rock with rough cloth, protecting her sons' corpses day and night from birds and wild beasts for five long months from summer until the rains came. Her maternal love became her only strength to endure such overwhelming grief. She is among the most steadfast and persevering figures in Scripture, and her courageous action moved King David's heart, causing him to change his approach and permit the bones of Rizpah and the seven others to be buried with honor alongside Saul and Jonathan.

The final section applies this message to contemporary life. The pastor reminds the congregation that many parents today lose their children—not only to death but to waywardness and apostasy. He recounts the story of Ruth Graham, wife of evangelist Billy Graham, who wrote about prodigal children. Through Ruth Graham's compassionate question—would a mother not embrace her child even if damaged and torn—the pastor calls the church to become a place that reflects God's love rather than judgment toward parents whose children have gone astray. The sermon concludes with a father's letter to his son, emphasizing the sacred duty of filial piety and the eternal nature of parental love.