EXTENDING GOD’S KINDNESS

2 Samuel 9:1-7 NET.

¹ Then David asked, “Is anyone still left from the family of Saul, so that I may extend kindness to him for the sake of Jonathan?” ² Now there was a servant from Saul’s house named Ziba, so he was summoned to David. The king asked him, “Are you Ziba?” He replied, “At your service.” ³ The king asked, “Is there not someone left from Saul’s family, that I may extend God’s kindness to him?” Ziba said to the king, “One of Jonathan’s sons is left; both of his feet are crippled.” ⁴ The king asked him, “Where is he?” Ziba told the king, “He is at the house of Makir son of Ammiel in Lo Debar. ⁵ So King David had him brought from the house of Makir son of Ammiel in Lo Debar. ⁶ When Mephibosheth son of Jonathan, the son of Saul, came to David, he bowed low with his face toward the ground. David said, “Mephibosheth?” He replied, “Yes, at your service.” ⁷ David said to him, “Don’t be afraid, because I will certainly extend kindness to you for the sake of Jonathan, your father. You will be a regular guest at my table.”

We are reading through the Bible, two chapters a day, and our calendars have brought us to the story of Mephibosheth. This is a fantastic story from the Bible, and it is so relevant for us.  I have prayed that God would give me the ability to open this story to reveal all its significance because, as we read the text, it is possible to recognize some of what is going on but miss so much.

The story of Mephibosheth

The story begins when King David asks if there are any members of Saul’s family left. That question was not unusual for a king to ask. In that period, when a new king gained the throne, one of the first things he did was to seek out all the family members and supporters of the previous king and put them to death. No one would have been surprised if David had asked that question for that purpose. It would have been the politically appropriate choice for David in that position. He had spent a significant portion of his life being pursued by Saul. The former king had been envious of David and fearful of him, and that led to Saul taking aim at David and seeking to destroy him on numerous occasions.

There were even some occasions when it appeared that God had miraculously handed Saul over to David. We read about one such time when David and his men were sitting in the recesses of a cave. Saul had taken three thousand soldiers and set off to capture David. They had come to the sheepfolds by the road, and Saul had to relieve himself, so he decided to duck into this cave. David and his men were watching. The men told David that this was a fulfillment of God’s promise to give his enemy into his hand. But all David did was sneak in and cut off the edge of Saul’s robe.

That was one such incident, and there was another later on. Saul was again out with his 3,000-soldier army seeking to kill David. He and his men set up camp on a hill. David and one of his men (Abishai) came into the camp and found everyone sleeping. So they went all the way up the hill to the top, and there, in the center of the camp, they found Saul sleeping, with his commanding general Abner at his side. Abishai said, “Today God has delivered your enemy into your hands. Now let me drive the spear right through him into the ground with one swift jab! A second jab won’t be necessary!” But David would not do it. It wasn’t because David was afraid of Saul. It was because David knew that he did not have to be the one to destroy his enemy. He trusted God to do that.

That fateful day for Saul came during a battle with the Philistines at Mount Gilboa. Saul was severely wounded and chose to take his own life by falling on his sword. His sons, including Jonathan, also died in that battle. Jonathan had been a very close friend of David. He had protected and defended David.

Mephibosheth was five years old on the day his father, Jonathan, and grandfather, Saul, died. When they heard the news of that tragic battle, the members of Jonathan’s household panicked. His nanny picked him up and started to run. But she tripped, and Mephibosheth was injured in the fall. From that day on, Mephibosheth was disabled. He would live the rest of his life that way.

Our text indicates that Mephibosheth was living in hiding. He escaped destruction only by keeping his whereabouts secret. He did not announce his family history. Only a few knew where he was hiding. David interviews Ziba to find out. Ziba had been one of Saul’s slaves, but he had made a good life for himself after the death of his master. Ziba knew the secret, but he was reluctant to tell anyone. You get the sense that he was not exactly trusting David’s motivation. He reveals the fact that the man is disabled and where he is living, but he does not tell David his name.

David’s men find Mephibosheth at he house of Makir in Lo Debar. He is brought before the king, and he bows low with his face to the ground. He had every reason to expect to be put to death that day. But David says to him, “Don’t be afraid, because I will certainly extend kindness to you for the sake of Jonathan, your father. You will be a regular guest at my table.”

David showed kindness to Mephibosheth for three reasons. First, as the text says, David wanted to repay Jonathan’s kindness. He misses his friend and wants to bless Jonathan’s family.

Second, David had promised Saul that he would not eliminate all of Saul’s family when he gained the throne. David was being faithful to Saul even though Saul had not been kind to him. David was acting with integrity.

But David chose to bless Mephibosheth for a third reason, which is also in today’s text. Look more closely at verse 3, where David asks Ziba, “Is there not someone left from Saul’s family, that I may extend God’s kindness to him?” The word for “kindness” in Hebrew is very significant in the Old Testament.  It is the word חֶסֶד, a word that suggests loyalty to a covenant, mercy, and loving faithfulness.

• It was the word Lot used to explain why God had mercifully saved him from the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah (Genesis 19:19).
• It was the word that Abraham’s servant used when he prayed that God would be loyal to Abraham by blessing him with a daughter-in-law (Genesis 24:12).
• It was the word Jacob used when he praised God for all his faithful love (Genesis 32:10).
• When the LORD passed by Moses, he proclaimed his own identity by giving himself this title: “The LORD, the LORD, the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, and abounding in חֶסֶד and faithfulness, keeping חֶסֶד for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin.”

David learned that one thing is always true of God: He is always faithful to his covenant. That attribute made it possible always to approach God and get forgiveness when needed. David knew failure, but he also knew forgiveness. He knew that he could trust God to correct any of his failures. He knew that he had a friend in heaven who would never turn him away.

What David wanted to do for Mephibosheth was to bless him with the same kind of faithful love that God had blessed him with. That is why David said that he wanted to extend God’s kindness to this young man. He did not know Mephibosheth. The man had never done anything to deserve his kindness. David wanted to bless him because God had blessed David.

We can learn some things from how Mephibosheth was blessed by David. Mephibosheth is an example of How to Receive God’s Kindness.

The man is damaged goods, and he knows it. Someone made a mistake, and he has spent his whole life paying for that mistake. His grandfather was a king, but he never felt like a king. His legacy was failure. Saul failed at being a king. He failed in battle. He failed God. He failed his family. Mephibosheth was alive, but he was not intact. He was a broken man.

The man had lived his entire adult life in hiding. He was the son of Adam and Eve, who thought that they would find freedom by transgressing God’s commandment. But as soon as they sinned, they came to know that their sin did not bring them glory, but shame. So, they hid. By one act, we are all forced to be separated from the source of life.

The man was weak. He did not function properly. He needed others to do for him because he could not manage his protection and provision.

The man was poor. He had lost all his resources, and the means to correct his poverty were out of his reach.

Mephibosheth is forced to receive David’s kindness passively, and every one of us who has come to Christ came to him the same way. We could not save ourselves, bless ourselves, or rescue ourselves.

Nothing in my hands I bring,
Simply to Thy cross I cling;
Naked, come to Thee for dress,
Helpless, look to Thee for grace:
Foul, I to the fountain fly,
Wash me, Savior, or I die.[1]

Receiving God’s kindness and forgiveness is not difficult. However, it does require letting go of one’s pride and sense of accomplishment. Repentance happens when we realize that we are like Mephibosheth—our greatness is nonexistent, our power is weakness, and our wealth is poverty.

If you are listening to my voice today and you have not come to God for forgiveness, you may think you have a life, but you are missing out. Mephibosheth was ready to give up his life in hiding because he stood to gain a life at the king’s table. A life of blessing awaits all those who humbly come to God and receive his kindness.

We also learn some things from David’s actions in today’s story. He had been a recipient of God’s kindness, and he chose to extend that kindness to Mephibosheth. He showed us How to Extend God’s Kindness.

David was blessed, and he decided to be a blessing. This was not an arbitrary decision. He chose to bless Mephibosheth because he knew that God expected him to extend the kindness he received to others. When we were studying the commands of Christ, we learned that. We learned that Jesus taught his disciples how to live, not because they needed to do those things in order to be saved. They were already saved because they had put their faith in Christ. No, Jesus began his sermon on the mount by pronouncing a blessing on his apostles. He blessed them because they were already the light of the world. Then he taught them how to shine. They were not to shine in order to become the light of the world. They were to shine in order to bless others so that they could know salvation as well. They were not to be obedient in order to get saved. They were to be obedient so that others could get saved.

So, Jesus taught us to love our enemies and do good to those who abuse us. By so doing, we extend God’s kindness to them, and it might result in their recognizing their need for God’s salvation in Christ. The Apostle Paul wrote to the Roman Christians, “If your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him a drink; … Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good” (Romans 12:20-21). The Apostle Peter wrote, “Do not return evil for evil or insult for insult, but instead bless others” (1 Peter 3:9). The Apostle John wrote that “love is from God, and God has fathered everyone who loves and knows God. The person who does not love does not know God, because God is love” (1 John 4:7-8).

This theme, revealed in the story of David and Mephibosheth, reverberates throughout the entire Bible. It tells us that people who are saved will pass on the blessing of their relationship with God by blessing others so that they also have an opportunity to be blessed. That is extending God’s kindness because it all began with a loving God who decided to save sinners by his grace when we all deserved his wrath.

My challenge to you, brothers and sisters, is to extend God’s kindness. If we do so, miracles will happen, but they might not be the miracles we expect. David blessed Mephibosheth, but he remained disabled all his life. The miracles in that story happened in the hearts of both David and Mephibosheth.

We can extend God’s kindness by reacting to hurt and being agents of healing, helping the needy when we are able, and befriending the people that everybody else ignores. We can extend God’s kindness by taking down some of the walls that we have built to protect ourselves from other people’s problems. Our Lord himself is the master at doing this. He told his disciples to spread his gospel to every nation. There are Mephibosheths everywhere. It won’t be hard to find them. The hard part will be loving them out of hiding and giving them a place at our dinner tables. That will take a kindness greater than any natural inclination. It will take the supernatural blessing that David called “God’s Kindness.”

---

[1] Rock of Ages, cleft for me