2 Samuel 9--David's Kindness to Mephibosheth

2 Samuel 9
English Standard Version

​David's Kindness to Mephibosheth
9 And David said, “Is there still 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 And the king said, “Is there not still someone of the house of Saul, that I may show the kindness of God to him?” Ziba said to the king, “There is still a son of Jonathan; he is crippled in his feet.” 4 The king said to him, “Where is he?” And Ziba said to the king, “He is in the house of Machir the son of Ammiel, at Lo-debar.” 5 Then King David sent and brought him from the house of Machir the son of Ammiel, at Lo-debar. 6 And Mephibosheth the son of Jonathan, son of Saul, came to David and fell on his face and paid homage. And David said, “Mephibosheth!” And he answered, “Behold, I am your servant.” 7 And David said to him, “Do not fear, for I will show you kindness for the sake of your father Jonathan, and I will restore to you all the land of Saul your father, and you shall eat at my table always.” 8 And he paid homage and said, “What is your servant, that you should show regard for a dead dog such as I?”

9 Then the king called Ziba, Saul's servant, and said to him, “All that belonged to Saul and to all his house I have given to your master's grandson. 10 And you and your sons and your servants shall till the land for him and shall bring in the produce, that your master's grandson may have bread to eat. But Mephibosheth your master's grandson shall always eat at my table.” Now Ziba had fifteen sons and twenty servants. 11 Then Ziba said to the king, “According to all that my lord the king commands his servant, so will your servant do.” So Mephibosheth ate at David's table, like one of the king's sons. 12 And Mephibosheth had a young son, whose name was Mica. And all who lived in Ziba's house became Mephibosheth's servants. 13 So Mephibosheth lived in Jerusalem, for he ate always at the king's table. Now he was lame in both his feet.

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I've been talking about the kindness of David to Mephibosheth for a while now because it such a great image of the gospel of Jesus Christ in the Old Testament.  It may only give us just a glimpse of one facet of the gospel, but seeing that facet makes us appreciate the beauty of it all the more and understand it a little better.  Mephibosheth was the last remaining male heir of the kingdom of Saul (a kingdom which would be at enmity with the kingdom of the LORD who had established David on the throne as His prince over all of Israel (the LORD does not call David "king" for He Himself remains their King, but David has been established as a "prince").  Yet those who were "far off" and "at enmity" with God have been "brought near" and been made both "sons" and "heirs" by "the Spirit of adoption" so that we sit at the King's table one day in the Marriage Supper of the Lamb, just like Mephibosheth here who was poor, disabled, and unable to provide for himself was brought near to David for the sake of the covenant that David made with Jonathan (and Saul, but mostly with Jonathan) and David treated Mephibosheth like his own son.  Do you not see the gospel here?  It is such a wonderful picture of us, and of God, and of the work that Christ has done to reconcile us, adopt us, and to lavish His blessings on us with grace upon grace.

Now that you have a good idea with what "eyes" I want you to see today's passage, let's go ahead and examine it verse by verse here like we typically do.  First, we see that the enemy nations have been defeated or subjugated like we studied last time.  The very next thing on David's mind is if there is someone left from the house of Saul that he can show kindness to for Jonathan's sake.  I would imagine that he wished to be able to celebrate these victories with his best friend and that even the victories the LORD provided to him brought some sadness because he couldn't share them with the one he wanted to.  So, he wishes to find some other person in Saul's family to be kind to and probably wanted to both celebrate and grieve together, as it would be hard to find anyone outside of Saul's family that would understand David's sadness that these victories brought.

David calls one of Saul's servants to himself named Ziba to ask Ziba if there were still any living relatives of Saul so that David could show mercy to them.  It would be a dangerous thing to answer this for most kings because it would mean that they would be looking to eliminate potential threats to their throne, but Ziba seems to know this is not the case and he answers that there is but one son of Jonathan left, a crippled man by the name of Mephibosheth.  David asks, "Where is he?" and he gets a very detailed answer, "He is in the house of Machir the son of Ammiel, at Lo-debar."  There is no mistaking that Ziba wants David to find Mephibosheth because giving him the city, family and individual is as good as giving a mailing address to someone today that has city, street name and house number included.

David immediately sent men to bring Mephibosheth to himself (remember that Mephibosheth was crippled and could not walk, so they would have probably needed to provided some kind of transportation for him or maybe even a way to carry him).  Mephibosheth came into the presence of David and payed homage to him by bowing and saying "I am your servant" (the typical greeting for a king), but David, probably seeing the fear in his eyes, and imagining the thoughts that must be going through his head that David might have brought him there to kill him says, “Do not fear, for I will show you kindness for the sake of your father Jonathan, and I will restore to you all the land of Saul your father, and you shall eat at my table always.”  Mephibosheth responds correctly because he is an "enemy" and a cripple which in many ways makes him just as unclean as the wild dogs which is why he says to David, "What is your servant, that you should show regard for a dead dog such as I?”​  That is truly how he saw himself, and probably how everyone else saw him too.  It is really how the LORD should see us if He didn't look at us through the finished work of Christ on the cross.  Jesus took away all our uncleanliness and purified us and clothed us in the garments of His own righteousness so that we are now justified (put in right standing with God), sanctified (made pure and holy), and will one day be glorified to be made into the very likeness of Jesus and be made one with Him.  David looked at Mephibosheth through these kinds of eyes and through the eyes of the covenant that he made with Jonathan, and when he saw Mephibosheth, he saw Jonathan and loved him in the same way that he loved Jonathan, even though Mephibosheth had done nothing to deserve that love.  This is much like how the Father looks at us and see His Son and loves us like He would love His Son, even though we have done nothing to deserve that love.