Mephibosheth

Who are you when you read the Bible? You know what i mean. Are you Paul, riding off into the sunset to plant another church. Are you Peter, overcoming past sins to commit your whole life to God? Are you Ruth, trusting God in the face of overwhelming circumstance?

I don't know about you, but i've never been Mephibosheth. Who was Mephibosheth? He was the grandson of Saul, which was a problem when the new king came to town. IN those days, particularly when the throne passed from one house to another, the new king was perfectly within his rights to round up, and at the very least, exile or kill the descendants of the old king. That's why verse 1 of 2 Samuel 9 is such a shocking verse. Is there anyone left of the house of Saul that i might (kill them? Finish them off? Chase them from the land?) show him kindness for Jonathan's sake? David and Jonathan had promised to show kindness to each other's descendants, should the Lord give them a chance, and here is David, fulfilling that promise.

In verse 10 we see this kindness fleshed out. Mephibosheth is given all of Saul's land, his servants, and will eat and drink at David's table. That's some kindness to show to the lame grandson of a former king! What has Mephibosheth to offer David? Nothing! Not insight on the enemy, they've been vanquished. Not strength in battle, he's lame. Not prestige to add to David's house, in a day when defects were attributed to the punishment of God. No wonder Mephibosheth is amazed in verse 8; 'what is your servant, that you should show regard for such a dead dog as i?'

Why does David do it then? You can answer that question by saying, 'for the glory of David's name, for the glory of his love.' Who knew about the pact between David and Jonathan? Not many people, it certainly doesn't seem to be part of Jonathan's family lore, if Mephibosheth's reaction is anything to go by. For the sake of his name, David shows kindness to Mephibosheth even though he has nothing to offer him.

Let's digress for a minute. What are 95% of the worlds relationships based upon? The fulfilling of mutual needs? Why are divorce rates so high? Because many marriages are based on one party meeting the needs of another. Why do some people never get married? Because they don't want to find themselves tied to a person who one day may not meet their needs. What do we mean when we say 'i love you.' Often times we mean 'you, at this moment in space and time, meet my needs.' It is this view of marriage that has so devalued marriage. If met needs + attraction = marriage, then why shouldn't a man marry a man, or woman a woman?

This is not what David means by love is it? It can't be. There are no needs that Mephibosheth is meeting for David. When David says love he means, 'i have set my steadfast favour on you, and you can not fall out of my favour.' It's from incidences like this that we understand how Jesus is King David's greater Son, and King David's Lord.

You and I are Mephobisheth. In the past we stood against God, but he sought us out to do us good. Why did David find a descendant of Jonathan? To keep his promise to do them good. Why does Jesus seek us out? To do us good. What sort of good? Life, and land and prosperity forever. There's even a feast in 2 Samuel 9, just like there is at the end of time. Jesus finds us, brings us into our house, and sits us down to eat and drink with Him.

Why?

Not because He needs us. How does that make you feel, that God doesn't need you? More loved or less loved? More secure, or less secure? If Jesus loves us because He needs us, first of all, He's not much of a God, much less of a Saviour, and we should be wary about laying all our trust on Him. More to the point, what happens when He doesn't need us? Imagine though, Jesus loves you because He loves you! He has set His face on you to do you good, and nothing can convince Him otherwise! We did nothing to earn our salvation, and, as we're faithful to the end, we won't forfeit God's favour. This is tremendous, life giving news.

What sort of life should this produce? Well, look again at Mephibosheth. Verse 8 shows us a picture of humility. None of us want to portray ourselves as a 'dead dog,' but that humility would do us good. It produced a life of favour. Mephibosheth ate at the kings table 'always.' He had constant access to David, as we, through Christ, have constant access to God the Father. I would imagine that all the tea in China wouldn't have stopped Mephibosheth from telling the story of David's kindness to him. Are we as vocal in telling the story of Christ's kindness to us? I wonder how the promise of David effected the way Mephibosheth lived his life. I doubt very much that the fact there was always going to be food waiting for him at the King's table and a kind word from David at the end of the day made him lazy, or complacent. I would imagine faith in this future grace of David made him determined to live in a way that pleased David, and confident that when he failed, there would be grace.

All the Bible testifies to Jesus, and sometimes we're in there two. We're in the Bible as the totally undeserving recipients of sovereign grace. Nothing in our hand we bring, simply to His cross we cling...