2 Samuel 9
David’s Kindness to Mephibosheth
1 Then David said, “Is there yet [a]anyone left of the house of Saul, that I may show him kindness for Jonathan’s sake?” 2 Now there was a servant of the house of Saul whose name was Ziba, and they called him to David; and the king said to him, “Are you Ziba?” And he said, “I am your servant.” 3 The king said, “Is there not yet anyone of the house of Saul to whom I may show the kindness of God?” And Ziba said to the king, “There is still a son of Jonathan who is crippled in both feet.” 4 So the king said to him, “Where is he?” And Ziba said to the king, “Behold, he is in the house of Machir the son of Ammiel in Lo-debar.” 5 Then King David sent and brought him from the house of Machir the son of Ammiel, from Lo-debar. 6 Mephibosheth, the son of Jonathan the son of Saul, came to David and fell on his face and prostrated himself. And David said, “Mephibosheth.” And he said, “Here is your servant!” 7 David said to him, “Do not fear, for I will surely show kindness to you for the sake of your father Jonathan, and will restore to you all the [b]land of your [c]grandfather Saul; and you shall [d]eat at my table regularly.” 8 Again he prostrated himself and said, “What is your servant, that you should regard a dead dog like me?”
David wanted to bless Jonathan’s descendants because of what Jonathan had done. He wanted to give them what Jonathan earned, and deserved. He wanted to give them all that belonged to Jonathan. This is our grace covenant with God. If you are In Christ then you get what He earned, what He deserved, what belongs to Him. It’s got nothing to do with whether you deserve it or not, but does He, and you are In Him. Ephesians 1:3 says that we have been blessed with EVERY spiritual blessing in the Heavenly Places In Christ. That’s true for every Christian, whether we take advantage of those blessings or not.
When David inquired about whether there was anyone left of the house of Saul, a former servant of Saul’s named Ziba said that there was still a living son of Jonathan who was loving in Lode-bar.
For some reason, Ziba felt led to identify him as “crippled in both feet”, as if to say, yes there is one descendant but he is pretty messed up, and broken and doesn’t have much value. That’s what the devil tells lots of Christians. He tells them that they are so broken God could never use them, and they can never really be an Overcomer in this life. The name Mephibosheth comes from two Hebrew words. One means “Shattered,” and the other means “A Thing of Shame.” What a name; A Shattered Thing of Shame. He had another name, Meribaal, which means “God Contends.” The word Lode-bar means, “Famine.” This broken person is hiding (which we will talk more about tomorrow) in a place of famine. At least God is still contending with him. No matter how broken we are, and no matter how long we’ve been hiding out in a place of spiritual famine God never stops contending with us, and He never stops pursuing us to bring us into the blessings of Christ that Jesus purchased for us. None of us would have ever sought Him if He hadn’t sought us first.
Have a great day knowing that if You’ve been pursued by someone so magnificent there must be something extraordinarily wonderful about you.