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2
Samuel 21
Let me tell
you about Mephibosheth
He was the
son of Jonathan. And Jonathan was the
son of old king Saul.
And Jonathan
and David were best friends.
Here’s
something to remember – Saul was the first king, but David was the
real king.
Now who
remembers this story
Old King Saul
wasn’t able to defeat Goliath. Do
you remember who was?
David beat
Goliath. The first king couldn’t
defeat the giant, but the real king could.
And then the
very next thing that happened in the bible is this:
As soon as he had finished speaking to Saul, the soul of Jonathan
was knit to the soul of David, and Jonathan loved him as his own soul. 2
And Saul took him that day and would not let him return to his father's
house. 3 Then Jonathan made a covenant with David, because he
loved him as his own soul. 4 And Jonathan stripped himself of
the robe that was on him and gave it to David, and his armor, and even
his sword and his bow and his belt.
Interesting
– David wouldn’t wear Saul’s armour, but he does wear Jonathan’s
So David has
made a covenant with Jonathan – which is a special friendship that you
promise you’ll never ever break.
So David has
this covenant with Jonathan. Then
something sad happens. One day in
a battle, both old King Saul and his son Jonathan die. Which made David very sad. And it made Mephibosheth very sad
too. Do you know how old he was
when his dad died? He was only 5.
But as soon
as Saul and Jonathan die, everyone knows that Mephibosheth is in
danger. Because he is on the wrong
side – he’s been born on Saul’s side, and now David is King. So the people taking care of
Mephibosheth rush him away. But
you know what happens? They drop
him and he falls really badly on his feet and he is lame for the rest of
his life. He can’t walk. Poor
Mephibosheth.
Well once
David is King of the Kingdom and everything is in place, David asks in 2
Samuel 9, "Is there anyone
still left of the house of Saul to whom I can show kindness for
Jonathan's sake?"
Well yes
there is. There’s Mephibosheth –
Jonathan’s son.
So Mephibosheth
is brought to David and he’s very nervous. Because Mephibosheth is on the wrong
side. So:
When Mephibosheth son of Jonathan, the son of Saul, came to David,
he bowed down to pay him honour. David said, "Mephibosheth!"
"Your servant," 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
servant, 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.
David shows
kindness to Mephibosheth for the sake of his dad. And what does David’s kindness look
like? That’s an important question
because the kindness of King David will look like the kindness of King
Jesus. David is a mirror image of
Jesus.
Well this is
what the kindness of David looks like – land, provision, eating with the
king, treated like a true son! And
it’s all because of David’s covenant with Jonathan. It’s all because of the friendship that
David had promised to Jonathan.
Well that’s
who Mephibosheth is.
But let me
tell you about another covenant that was made much earlier. In Joshua chapter 9 there were people
called Gibeonites and when everyone else fought against the Israelites,
the Gibeonites decided to make a covenant – to be friends with them.
15 Then Joshua
made a treaty of peace with them to let them live, and the leaders of the
assembly ratified it by oath. 16 Three days after they made
the treaty with the Gibeonites, the Israelites heard that they were
neighbours, living near them. 17 So the Israelites set out and
on the third day came to their cities: Gibeon, Kephirah, Beeroth and
Kiriath Jearim. 18 But the Israelites did not attack them,
because the leaders of the assembly had sworn an oath to them by the
LORD, the God of Israel. The whole assembly grumbled against the leaders,
19 but all the leaders answered, "We have given them our
oath by the LORD, the God of Israel, and we cannot touch them now. 20
This is what we will do to them: We will let them live, so that wrath
will not fall on us for breaking the oath we swore to them."
And so the
Israelites were meant to be friends with the Gibeonites. But unfortunately Saul decided to
forget all about this covenant.
He, with the help of his whole house, tried to kill all the
Gibeonites. Horrible!
But some
Gibeonites survived. And David
realises that God is not happy about the killing of the Gibeonites. There hasn’t been rain for three years. So David asks God and God tells him He
hates the way the Gibeonites were treated.
So David asks
the Gibeonites how they want things put right. They say they want 7 people from the
house of Saul to pay the ultimate price.
Not the whole house of Saul, but 7 of them. And this all happens in the presence of
the LORD, so we know that this is going to be fair, because when God does
it, it’s always fair. And I wonder
whether the Gibeonites knew there were 7 members of the Sail’s family still
alive who had killed Gibeonites.
So this is
what they say. And David says
alright. He hands over the 7 men
from the house of Saul. It’s a bit like when Saddam Hussein was captured
by the Americans. Saddam Hussein
was an old king of Iraq and he had done terrible things especially to a
group of people called the Kurds.
And just as
Saul had killed off the Gibeonites because he had zeal for his country,
so Saddam Hussein killed off the Kurds because he had zeal for his
country.
Now the Americans captured Saddam but they
handed him over to the Iraqis to try him.
And eventually Saddam was put to death for his crimes – he was
hung.
Well these
men in Saul’s family were also hung for crimes against the
Gibeonites. Hung on a hill and
exposed.
But what
happened to Mephibosheth. Do you
think he was hung?
No. It says in verse 7:
The king spared Mephibosheth son of Jonathan, the son of Saul,
because of the oath before the LORD between David and Jonathan son of
Saul.
So how do you
think Mephibosheth felt? Because
he was a member of the house of Saul.
He must have
been hugely grateful for this covenant.
Because he was from the Saul’s family he was in big trouble. But because of David’s love, he was
safe. And He could eat at the
king’s table in the king’s kingdom and he never had to worry again. I think it’d be great to be
Mephibosheth.
But you know
what? Mephibosheth is just like
us. Because this story is a lot
like the big story of the bible.
You see in
the bible there are two families to belong to. There’s Adam’s family and there’s
Jesus’s family.
Now Adam was
the first ruler of the world. He
was the first king. But, like
Saul, he wasn’t a very good king.
Jesus though is the true king.
Now we are
all born into Adam’s family. So
we’re all born into the family of the rubbish king. And you know we keep doing rubbish
things just like Adam our great, great, great, great, great, great
grandfather.
Just like
Adam, we have broken the covenant.
You see Jesus wants to be friends with us, but mostly we just want
to live life for ourselves. We
have broken the covenant.
Now what
happened to Saul’s family when they broke the covenant? Well the punishment was death. They were hung up on trees on a hill
and left to die. It’s a terrible punishment. But do you want to hear some good news?
Jesus saves
us. You know what He does? Jesus comes and He died instead. He was hung up on a cross on top of a
hill and He died the death we deserve to die. He died for our sins.
Isn’t that
amazing? King David didn’t offer
to die for the sins of Saul’s family.
But King Jesus did die for the sins of Adam’s family.
And that
means that we can be like Mephibosheth.
Because Jesus came over to us to pay for our sins, we can go over
to Him and join His family.
And just like
Mephibosheth, we get to be friends with Jesus, to be family with other
friends of Jesus, to have all our sins forgiven and one day to see Jesus
and eat with Him.
Aren’t you
grateful that Jesus died for your sins?
Aren’t you glad He wants you in His family? Aren’t you glad one day you will eat at
His table in His kingdom? If
you’ve put your trust in Jesus all these things are true of you. We are even more blessed than
Mephibosheth.
And you know
what that’s what we need to get us through this week. You don’t need to be told 10 things to
do this week. You know that there
are a thousand things you need to do this week. But before you do any of them, I want
you to remember who you are. You
are like Mephibosheth – you’re weak and if it weren’t for Jesus you’d be
headed straight for judgement. But
because of the love of the King, you have been adopted into God’s own
family, loved as His very own child, forgiven all your sins, you have the
covenant friendship of the King of the Universe and you’re looking
forward to seeing Jesus face to face and eating at His table. Whatever you’re facing this week, you
can face it because you know that you’re a part of this story.
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