DAVID’S KINDNESS TO MEPHIBOSHETH
2 Samuel 9:1-13
“Don’t be afraid,” David said to him, “for I will surely show you kindness for the sake of your father Jonathan. I will restore to you all the land that belonged to your grandfather Saul, and you will always eat at my table.” (7)
chapter 9
1. David asked, "Is there anyone still left of the house of Saul to whom I can show kindness for Jonathan’s sake?"
2. Now there was a servant of Saul’s household named Ziba. They summoned him to appear before David, and the king said to him, "Are you Ziba?" "At your service," he replied.
3. The king asked, "Is there no one still alive from the house of Saul to whom I can show God’s kindness?" Ziba answered the king, "There is still a son of Jonathan; he is lame in both feet."
4. "Where is he?" the king asked. Ziba answered, "He is at the house of Makir son of Ammiel in Lo Debar."
5. So King David had him brought from Lo Debar, from the house of Makir son of Ammiel.
6. When Mephibosheth son of Jonathan, the son of Saul, came to David, he bowed down to pay him honor. David said, "Mephibosheth!" "At your service," he replied.
7. "Don’t be afraid," David said to him, "for I will surely show you kindness for the sake of your father Jonathan. I will restore to you all the land that belonged to your grandfather Saul, and you will always eat at my table."
8. Mephibosheth bowed down and said, "What is your servant, that you should notice a dead dog like me?"
9. Then the king summoned Ziba, Saul’s steward, and said to him, "I have given your master’s grandson everything that belonged to Saul and his family.
10. You and your sons and your servants are to farm the land for him and bring in the crops, so that your master’s grandson may be provided for. And Mephibosheth, grandson of your master, will always eat at my table." (Now Ziba had fifteen sons and twenty servants.)
11. Then Ziba said to the king, "Your servant will do whatever my lord the king commands his servant to do." So Mephibosheth ate at David’s table like one of the king’s sons.
12. Mephibosheth had a young son named Mika, and all the members of Ziba’s household were servants of Mephibosheth.
13. And Mephibosheth lived in Jerusalem, because he always ate at the king’s table; he was lame in both feet.
Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV® Copyright ©1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.
1. Some people seek to defend or expand their position. David saw that his position as king gave him the opportunity to show kindness to others. He remembered his covenant with Jonathan and wanted to show kindness to his enemy. Learning the fate of Mephibosheth, David sent for him.
2. We should consider Mephibosheth’s situation. When Saul and Jonathan died, five-year-old Mephibosheth’s life was turned upside down as he fled in terror, leaving him permanently disabled (4:4). He had spent his life hiding in the small town of Lo Debar. Now David, whose conflict with Saul’s family left them devastated, was calling on Mephibosheth. How hard it must have been to leave Lo Debar, the place of comfortable despair.
3. But David greeted him, calling him by name, and told him, “Don’t be afraid!” David restored this crippled man, blessed him beyond his dreams, and kept him close to him the rest of his life. At all David’s banquets, every day, there was crippled Mephibosheth, receiving David’s kindness, and not for anything Mephibosheth did or would do in the future; simply because of David’s covenant and faithfulness to his dead father Jonathan. So too in Jesus does God welcome and bless us.
Prayer: Father, you have shown such kindness to me in Jesus. Grant me faith to leave my Lo Debar and join you at your table of blessing in the church.
One Word: God’s kindness leads us to repentance