2 Samuel chapter 9 and reading
from verse 1. And David said, Is there yet
any that is left of the house of Saul, that I may show him
kindness for Jonathan's sake? And there was of the house of
Saul a servant whose name was Zeba. And when they had called
him unto David, the king said unto him, Art thou Ziba? And
he said, Thy servant is he. And the king said, Is there not
yet any of the house of Saul that I may show the kindness
of God unto him? And Ziba said unto the king,
Jonathan hath yet a son, which is lame on his feet. And the
king said unto him, Where is he? And Ziba said unto the king,
Behold, he is in the house of Makir, the son of Amiel, in Lodibar. Then king David sent and fetched
him out of the house of Makir, the son of Amiel, from Lodibar.
And when Mephibosheth, the son of Jonathan, the son of Saul,
was come unto David, he fell on his face and did reverence.
And David said, Mephibosheth. And he answered, Behold thy servant. And David said unto him, Fear
not, for I will surely show thee kindness for Jonathan thy father's
sake, and will restore thee all the land of Saul thy father,
and thou shalt eat bread at my table continually. And he bowed
himself and said, What is thy servant, that thou shouldst look
upon such a dead dog as I am? Then the king called to Ziba,
Saul's servant, and said unto him, I have given unto thy master's
son all that pertained to Saul, and to all his house. Thou therefore
and thy sons and thy servants shall till the land for him,
and thou shalt bring in the fruits, that thy master's son may have
food to eat. But Mephibosheth thy master's
son shall eat bread all way at my table. Now Ziba had fifteen
sons and twenty servants. Then said Ziba unto the king,
According to all that my lord the king hath commanded his servant,
so shall thy servant do. As for Mephibosheth, said the
king, he shall eat at my table as one of the king's sons. and
Mephibosheth had a young son, whose name was Micah. And all
that dwelt in the house of Zeba were servants unto Mephibosheth.
So Mephibosheth dwelt in Jerusalem, for he did eat continually at
the king's table, and was lame on both his feet. Amen. May the Lord bless to us this
reading from his word. Today, we shall again meet with
Mephibosheth. Mephibosheth actually has a couple
of names in scripture. I tend to know of him and speak
about him as Mephibosheth, principally from this chapter, but he is
also called, also known as Meribbal. Meribbal. We have met Mephibosheth
before. or at least we've heard about
him before. He was grandson to Saul, who
you will remember, of course, was David's implacable foe. And he was nephew to Ish-bosheth,
who was Saul's son who took the throne of Israel when David was
the king of Judah and who were involved in a struggle for the
combined kingdom. So Ishbosheth had claimed the
throne after Saul's death when it really belonged to David.
So both these men were enemies of David. However, Mephibosheth
was also the son of Jonathan, and Jonathan was David's dear
friend. And for Jonathan's sake, David
sought to do Mephibosheth good. Now Mephibosheth was only five
years old when his father and his grandfather were killed in
a battle with the Philistines on Mount Gilboa. These things
we've spoken about in recent weeks and months. Mephibosheth
at the time was being cared for by a nurse, perhaps because his
mother was already dead. But news of Israel's rout on
the battlefield and the death of Saul and the death of Jonathan
and the oncoming army of the Philistines into Israel terrified
the nurse. And in her panic to escape with
the young prince, she dropped him so violently that Mephibosheth
was lamed in both feet for life. So the nurse carried him to Lodibar,
across the River Jordan and into the mountains of Gilead to hide
him. Not only from the Philistines,
but from those who might be his enemies because of Saul's reign. And there he was brought up by
a man called Macher, son of Amiel, and there it seems that he married
because he had a son called Micah by the time that he was brought
to Jerusalem by Ziba at David's request. So when David had settled
his own affairs and subdued his enemies round about that we were
thinking about last week, he turned his thoughts to Saul's
household and to the combined nation. And he turned his thoughts
specifically to inquire whether there were any survivors of Saul's
family to whom he might show kindness, principally for Jonathan's
sake. and now we meet this man called
Zeba, a servant of Saul, though we have to say, not a good man,
as we will discover another day. Zeba tells David of Mephibosheth,
and he is sent to bring the young man to David's court in Jerusalem. Now Mephibosheth is understandably
anxious at coming into David's presence. In truth, he has been
hiding from David all his life, or since he was five. The pattern
in times past was to kill any child or heir, prospective heir
of the previous king who might grow up to challenge the new
king as the rightful successor to the throne. and Mephibosheth
had a claim to that title. Being therefore concerned about
his life, Mephibosheth was humble before David and he calls himself
a dead dog. He says that he is unworthy of
David's attention. He doesn't even need to be noticed
by David and that he is certainly unfit to sit at David's table.
What do you do with a dead dog? Well, at best you bury it. Sometimes
it would just be thrown out as refuse. However, David is pleased
to discover Mephibosheth and he is delighted to be able to
help Mephibosheth and to bless Mephibosheth according to the
promise that he had given to his father, Jonathan. he returns
Saul's extensive lands and property to Mephibosheth. He puts them
all under Mephibosheth's control and he arranges for Ziba and
his sons to be servants to Mephibosheth as they had been to Saul to work
the land and to tend the property while he installs Mephibosheth
in Jerusalem, where the young man will be honoured as a permanent
guest at King David's table. Thus, from being an isolated
man in obscurity, lame and poor, with very few prospects, Mephibosheth
is suddenly elevated to a place of respect in the king's house
and indeed in the kingdom. He is enriched with lands and
cattle. He is honoured for the sake of
his father and the promises made by David long ago. Now, we read all about David's
relationship with Jonathan and the promises that they made to
one another to take care of each other's family if one of them
should die. And it seems clear, even from
that, it was in 1 Samuel 20, verses 14 to 16, it seems clear
that Jonathan knew that he and his father, their kingdom would
wane and would fall and that David would arise and therefore
he asked David, he covenanted with David and he asked David
to make promises for the well-being of his family. So it has transpired. And this is really a lovely episode
from the history of Jerusalem and the story of David's life. David had been some time in settling
his own affairs of coming into the kingdom and then subduing
his enemies round about who were a threat to the nation. But he
didn't forget where he'd come from and he didn't forget the
friends that he had known and loved. He wished to discover
an opportunity to honour the memory of Jonathan. and to do
what good he might for the love that he had for Jonathan and
the covenant that he had made and sworn to preserve his family. And I think that there are a
few lessons that we can take from this passage today. The
first one is this. Mephibosheth is, in a very real
sense, a depiction of sinful man. Mephibosheth's case is a sad
case of a fugitive in hiding, afraid of the king, crippled
in his feet and therefore unable to do anything for himself and
impoverished. And this is what each of us are
like before God. We have fled from the presence
of God. We want nothing to do with him. We are unable to care for ourselves. We are unable to do ourselves
any good because we are like someone who is lame on both our
legs. In our sinful condition, we are
destitute, we are needy and we are sad. Had David not sought out Mephibosheth,
it is certain that this young man would have lived in poverty
and died in oblivion. No more than a beggar sitting
at a roadside telling strange stories to passers-by about what
might have been. Sin in our lives renders us poor
towards God and renders us incapable of helping ourselves spiritually
so that we too are beggars because of a fall, just like Mephibosheth
was. We are beggars because of a fall,
not because a nurse dropped us, but because we have a sinful
nature from the fall of Adam. and that sinful nature together
with our own sin renders us guilty before God and powerless to recover
ourselves or to do ourselves any spiritual good. Such was
poor Mephibosheth and such are we who truly are no better than
dead dogs and fit to be cast out as rubbish. Certainly we
are unfit to be elevated to a position of honour and respect before
God. That is our nature, that is our
state, that is our condition as sinners before a holy God. And that, like Mephibosheth,
is the place that we would stay had not our greater David, David's
greater son, the Lord Jesus Christ, come into this world to get us. Here's another point that we
can learn from this little passage. David did not forget his covenant
with Jonathan. It was now many years since Jonathan
had died, but love for his friend, still remained with David. David
cherished the memory of Jonathan even after all this time and
he was eager for Jonathan's sake to do Mephibosheth good. Now there was much that David
could do for such a poor soul, a poor cripple as Mephibosheth. David could set him up in a nice
home. He could grant him a pension. He could provide him with servants
to carry him about. And he might have done all of
those things and felt that he had done right by him. But you
see, David wanted more, he desired more. He wished to treat Mephibosheth
with the honour and respect that he would have given to his father,
Jonathan, had he still been alive. And this is a lovely picture
of how God deals with his elect people in Christ. God has a people
chosen and set apart in the Lord Jesus Christ whom he loves as
he loves his own dear son. And one of the most amazing truths
in the Word of God, which is full of amazing truth, One of
the most amazing truths in the Word of God, the Bible, is how
God the Father deals with those who trust in him, not as separated
enemies like we deserve, but as friends. More than that, not
merely as friends, but as his own dear children, adopted into
his family, who sit at his table and are heirs of his goodness
and joint heirs with his only begotten son, that are blessed
with riches beyond anything that we can imagine and certainly
more than ever we could earn or deserve. This God has done
for us by promise through his Son, Jesus Christ, in the covenant
of grace and peace. And then, third layer, finally,
Mephibosheth's humility and gratitude is also a lesson for us. Mephibosheth came into David's
presence and he was humble before David and it is commendable in
the man that he was. But we are much more indebted
to our God and to the Lord Jesus Christ than even Mephibosheth
was to David. And we must never think of ourselves
as inherently good or worthy or honourable because we simply
are not. Every one of us is just a poor,
crippled sinner. with no spiritual rights and
no true heavenly hope. Humility before the Lord is a
good quality in us and a proper response for such a one as our
God. And yet in covenant love, our
Saviour has lifted us up out of the dirt, he has cleansed
us from our sin, he has clothed us in royal garments of righteousness
and he has made us to sit at his table in his presence forever
as kings and priests and princes and princesses and precious children
in his sight. We sit in heavenly places in
Christ Jesus. Mephibosheth had had a difficult
and troubled life, but David, in love and mercy, changed all
that when he brought this stranger into his home and placed him
at his table. In grace and mercy, the Lord
Jesus brings us into his presence to eat at a table fitly spread. Today, we eat at a table of goodness
and mercy that is spread with gospel food for our souls. And yet there is more to come
because we look forward in glorious expectation and confidence for
the arrival of that blessed day of God, when our Saviour will
come again and take us home to heaven, the heavenly Jerusalem,
and seat us at His side for all eternity. There it shall be love,
grace and glory, all at once, for those who, being loved by
God, love him in return through the sacrifice of the Lord Jesus
Christ. May the Lord bless these thoughts
to us today. Amen.