Hope From the Word

Bill Luebkemann: Sharing the love of God with those who desperately need to hear about it. Next on Hope From the Word. The whole time Mephibosheth was in hiding, he was unaware that there was a covenant between David and his father. Unaware of it. He could have gone to David anytime and said, "I am Jonathan's son. You have a covenant."

He didn't know about the covenant. David probably would have honored the covenant at any time. He didn't know about it. He was separated. He didn't know about the king. He didn't know about his love. So many folks in the world today are separated from our King because they don't know about His love for us.

Guest (Male): It's a hard pill to swallow when the kindness we express to another is met with ingratitude or is under-appreciated. Today on Hope From the Word, we see how David's kindness was responded to shamefully. It's a lesson for us even now for those inevitable times in life when kindness is abused. What is the right way to respond? 2 Samuel 8 through 10 is our point of reference, and that's where we join Pastor Bill Luebkemann.

Bill Luebkemann: Verse 15: "David reigned over all Israel, doing what was just and right for all his people." Let's stop there because that just says it all in a nutshell. He reigned over all Israel, and what did he do? He did what was just and right for all his people. What an idea that is. Today, the politicians do what is just and right for their own pocketbook, what's just and right for the special interest group, what's just and right for getting elected the next time.

You become a senator; you're a senator for six years. So, for six years you're campaigning so that you can run again and win again. Since it costs an average of $6 million to run for Senate last I heard—probably gone up by now; that was a couple years ago—that basically means during the six years you're in the Senate, you have to raise a million bucks a year on average to have $6 million to run for the Senate again.

We wonder in America why our system isn't working well. It's because the only way to get in office is to run a campaign, and the only way to run a campaign is to spend lots of money, and the only way to get lots of money is to do a lot of favors for a lot of different people unless you happen to be one of the few people independently wealthy who could run your own campaign. Like the Governor of New Jersey, for example, who just simply was able to pay for his own campaign out of his own pocket as much as he wanted to. There's not many people who can do that.

The majority of the politicians today, we've got to keep everybody happy so that we can get elected again instead of worrying about what is just and right for all the people. The average person that votes has got the same problem. Everybody votes for what their own interest is. Whatever your interest is, it seems like if you're in favor of this, you vote for this. If you're a teacher, you vote for who's going to give more money to education. If you're retired, you vote for who's going to give more money to retired people. If you're in the military, you vote for whoever's going to support the military.

It seems like when you watch the news and see who they interview, it seems like everybody's voting according to who's going to do the best for their own segment of whatever they're involved in, which just gets back to putting me, myself, and I first. You wonder the greatness that started America 200 years ago when you had guys in Philadelphia who were truly great men who were doing what was right for all the people's best as they could. You wonder where that went.

Here back in this time, you can see David had that quality. He wasn't trying to win a popularity contest. He was trying to do, and he did, what was just and right for all his people. Joab son of Zeruiah was over the army; Jehoshaphat son of Ahilud was recorder; Zadok son of Ahitub and Ahimelek son of Abiathar were priests; Seraiah was secretary; Benaiah son of Jehoiada was over the Kerethites and Pelethites; and David's sons were royal advisers.

You get the idea here that this man David had some kind of a team. He also wasn't a lone ranger. You can't do the whole job yourself. You've got to have people around you under you to work with you, whatever it is you're trying to do. David knew that. Here's an interesting thing: it doesn't really ever say that Saul had such a team. You read back about Saul; you're not really given to believe he had the same kind of quality of people that surrounded him.

I think Saul was always paranoid, wondering who's going to try to bump me off, who's going to try... He was worried about David when David was a teenager. He was trying to kill him because he's worried that a teenager was going to take away his job. He had a lot of insecurities, Saul did. You don't really see the idea there that he had a team anywhere like you do with David. Maybe that contributed also to him being the best king, the greatest king, having the most territory of anybody in the history of Israel.

David asked, "Is there anyone still left of the house of Saul to whom I can show kindness for Jonathan's sake?" Now, there was a servant of Saul's household named Ziba. By the way, that means statue. What a name. They called him to appear before David, and the king said to him, "Are you Ziba?" "Your servant," he replied. The king asked, "Is there no one still left of the house of Saul to whom I can show God's kindness?"

Ziba answered the king, "There is still a son of Jonathan. He is crippled in both feet." "Where is he?" the king asked. Ziba answered, "He is at the house of Makir son of Ammiel in Lo Debar." So, King David had him brought from Lo Debar, from the house of Makir son of Ammiel. Remember from back in 1 Samuel, David had an agreement with Jonathan, who was one of Saul's sons. In 1 Samuel 20, where David was out in the field talking to Jonathan, and in verse 14 or thereabouts, this is Jonathan talking.

"But show me unfailing kindness like that of the Lord as long as I live so that I may not be killed, and do not ever cut off your kindness from my family, not even when the Lord has cut off every one of David's enemies from the face of the earth." So, Jonathan made a covenant with the house of David, saying, "May the Lord call David's enemies to account." And Jonathan had David reaffirm his oath out of love for him because he loved him as he loved himself.

Jonathan said, "My father Saul, he's the king, but I know you're going to be the next king." The way it normally works is when the king dies, his son takes over, starting with the firstborn and working way down in order of seniority. If the son dies, then his son takes over. It's a hereditary thing. Jonathan's saying, "I know you're going to be the king, and my father's going to be out of it." It was customary when a new king took over to kill off anybody that might have been left from the old kingdom so you didn't have to worry about anybody competing for the throne.

In effect, Jonathan's saying, "You've got to promise me someday when you're the king, we're going to be best buddies here, and someday I'm going to support you as the king, and you've got to promise me you're not going to cut off my family." To David's credit, he kept that promise. He was already keeping the promise before he even made the promise in that he never tried to kill Saul. The killing of Saul was not David's doing. The killing of Jonathan was not David's doing.

The killing of his other son, Ish-Bosheth, that outlived all the other sons and who had the throne briefly for a while, David didn't kill him. He didn't kill Jonathan, and he wasn't about to kill Jonathan's son. David was keeping this agreement, and he intended to continue to do so. Now his kingdom's been established far and wide, and what does he think about? What a perfect time to think about yourself. "I'm going to kick back, relax, I'm going to get a bigger pool, I'm going to get a bigger house, I'm going to get more cars."

"I'm going to go do some traveling, take some vacation." Instead, David says, "What can I do for someone else?" He just gets this idea. "I wonder, is there anybody around left from the house of Saul to whom I can show kindness for the sake of my friend Jonathan? I made a deal with him. He's long since dead. Is there anybody here I can do something for, for his sake?" So, they bring in this guy Ziba here, who means statue. He was probably standing out in the town square. They had to wake him up.

"Hey, statue, come in here. The king's calling you there." And the king asked him, "Is there anyone left that I can show God's kindness to?" Not just his own kindness, but God's kindness. "I want to represent the Lord well here," I think is what he's saying. Ziba said, "There is still this one son, and he's crippled in both feet." We read about him back in chapter 4, verse 4, when Ish-Bosheth was murdered. Jonathan son of Saul had a son who was lame in both feet.

He was five years old when the news about Saul and Jonathan came from Jezreel. His nurse picked him up and fled, but as she hurried to leave, he fell and became crippled. His name was Mephibosheth. I don't know if he broke his feet, his legs, whether he fell off a cliff, a building, a ladder, whatever. He was crippled, lame, unable to walk to some degree. David was unaware that this guy was still around. He was five years old when this happened. Now we're going to see he has kids of his own, so some time has gone by here.

Ziba said, "There's this son of Jonathan. He's crippled in both feet." The king says, "Where is he?" "Well, he's living over at this house here." He was hiding, in case you're wondering. He was hiding. Why? Well, the king bumps off everybody. He's probably thinking it's not too safe to be around here. He's probably thinking, "If David finds out about me, I'm going to be a goner there." He's the son of Jonathan. Jonathan's the son of Saul. He could rise up and try to take... In fact, in a few chapters, we're going to see somebody says he does try to steal the power. I don't think he does.

But he would be right to be very nervous. He wouldn't really want to go and introduce himself to King David. So, David had him brought down there. They went down, knocked on his door. "Hey, Mephibosheth live here? The king wants to see you." Now, this had to scare the guy out of his mind. "Oh boy, I've been found out. They discovered me. Man, I am cooked now. My goat is cooked. I am dead meat. I'm a dead dog," he's going to say.

When Mephibosheth son of Jonathan, the son of Saul, came to David, he bowed down to pay him honor. David said, "Mephibosheth." "Your servant," he replied. "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." Mephibosheth bowed down and said, "What is your servant that you should notice a dead dog like me?"

The guy's bowed down. He's nervous. He says, "Your servant." That's kind of a respect thing. David's saying, "Don't be afraid. I'm going to show you kindness because of your father Jonathan. I had this deal, and I'm going to keep the deal. Nobody else even knows about the deal. It was only me and Jonathan that made the deal, and he's dead and I'm not. So, I could do whatever I want. I don't have to keep the deal. Nobody would be the wiser. I could just kill them all. Nobody would know, but God would know."

Too bad he didn't remember this thing with Bathsheba. He wasn't thinking like this. But he's going to keep the deal here. He made the promise. He made the commitment. Mephibosheth here just won the lottery; he didn't even buy a ticket. Which is the only way I figure I'm ever going to win it. I figure my chances are only a little bit less than someone who does buy tickets. "I will restore to you all the land that belonged to your grandfather Saul, and you will always eat at my table."

Man, your grandfather was a king. So, you know what that means? A lot of land. Saul was the king. He had to have some real nice real estate holdings. Now, this guy could have gone out probably at any time and claimed this land. He could have gone out and said, "This is my land. I want it." But he was hiding. If he did that, someone would go tell the king, "Hey, there's some guy down here says he's a descendant from Saul trying to take back his land," and who knows what would happen. He might get killed. Certainly, he's afraid of that.

He didn't claim it. David gave it to him. "It's your inheritance. There's no one else here. Your grandfather had it, your father, all your uncles are all dead, your brothers, they're all dead. You're the only one left. This is only fair. It's your land. I'm going to give it all back to you." And Mephibosheth said, "What is your servant that you should notice a dead dog like me?" Essentially, he was dead because he had to hide. Come out in the open and risk being really dead or being in hiding and pretend to be dead so that he wouldn't be really dead. You can get the point there.

Then the king summoned Ziba, statue, Saul's servant, and said to him, "I have given your master's grandson everything that belonged to Saul and his family. 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 15 sons and 20 servants.

Saul called him in and said, "I'm giving back your master's grandson all this land, and you're going to be his servant. You were Saul's servant. Now here's his grandson. He's going to have the land. You're going to be his servant, and you and your crew, you're going to be in charge of farming all the land, bringing in the crops so that he always has what he needs. But he personally is going to eat at my table. He's going to be part of the royal court."

In other words, his family, his kids, his wife, his descendants, they'll be provided for off this land. But Mephibosheth personally gets to eat with King David at his table. That's a pretty good deal. 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. King David treated this guy just like one of his own. He adopted, in a way, he adopted Jonathan's son out of respect and love for his friend Jonathan.

Mephibosheth had a young son named Mika, and all the members of Ziba's household were servants of Mephibosheth. And Mephibosheth lived in Jerusalem because he always ate at the king's table, and he was crippled in both feet. There's a lot of interesting parallels here between David showing grace to Mephibosheth and the way God shows us grace. I got this handy list off of the internet from a guy who I like to read. These are his parallels between David's grace to Mephibosheth and God's grace to us.

We are hiding: poor, weak, lame, and fearful before our King comes to us. We are separated from our King because of our wicked ancestors. We are separated from our King because of our deliberate actions. Mephibosheth took the action to be in hiding, afraid of what would happen. So oftentimes we take the action to be separated from God, certainly before we're saved, but even after we're saved if we're doing something that maybe He would not approve of.

We separated ourselves from the King because we didn't know Him or His love for us. Here the whole time Mephibosheth was in hiding, he was unaware that there was a covenant between David and his father. Unaware of it. He could have gone to David anytime and said, "I am Jonathan's son. You have a covenant." He didn't know about the covenant. David probably would have honored the covenant at any time. He didn't know about it. He was separated. He didn't know about the king. He didn't know about his love.

So many folks in the world today are separated from our King because they don't know about His love for us. Our King sought us out before we sought Him. He found us. The King's kindness is extended to us for the sake of another. Here it was David extending this kindness to Mephibosheth because of Jonathan. Here the Lord extending His kindness to us because of what Jesus did for us. The kindness here is based on a covenant. David had a covenant with Jonathan; God has a covenant with us.

We must receive the King's kindness in humility. The King returns to us what we lost in hiding from Him. Whatever we lost, He gives us back, even more. The King returns to us more than we lost in hiding from Him. We have the privilege of eating at the King's table. We're received as sons at the King's table. We have access to the King, fellowship with the King. We receive servants from the King.

The King's honor does not immediately take away all our weakness and lameness, but it gives us a favor and standing that overcomes its sting and changes the way we think about ourselves. This guy was still crippled, you know. He ate at the King's table, he had all this land, but he was still crippled. Some amazing parallels there. You almost wonder if God didn't make the story work this way just for the sake of the parallels.

David's grace to Mephibosheth is also a pattern for us in serving and ministering to others. We should seek out our enemies and seek to bless them. We should look for the poor, weak, lame, and hidden to bless them. We should bless others when they don't deserve it and bless them more than they do deserve. We should bless others for the sake of someone else. We must show the kindness of God to others. That's all from David Guzik's commentary, by the way. I don't know how he came up with all that stuff, but there are so many parallels there.

Chapter 10: "In the course of time," time passing by here—didn't happen quickly—the king of the Ammonites died, and his son Hanun succeeded him as king. David thought, "I will show kindness to Hanun son of Nahash, just as his father showed kindness to me." So, David sent a delegation to express his sympathy to Hanun concerning his father. Look, this is what David did. The guy died. The guy had been nice to David. David said, "I'm going to repay the favor. I'm going to send a delegation to the funeral."

We see here David again trying to show kindness. You see what kind of a guy is this guy? He doesn't fight against his own. He didn't kill Saul even though Saul was chasing after him. He leaves things up to God, but he tries to represent the Lord well to these other people. And so, he wants to do something nice for the son of this other king. If you look back in 1 Samuel 11, there is the incident with the city of Jabesh Gilead and the King Nahash the Ammonite.

This was some 60 years earlier. I don't know if this Nahash who died here was really the guy written of back here or maybe it was his father. This guy who died might have been Nahash Jr., if you will. It might have been his father or his grandfather who dealt with the Jews in Jabesh Gilead. Remember that story? Nahash the Ammonite went and besieged the city and said to them, "Make a treaty with us." Well, they said to him, "We'll agree to be subject to you. We don't want to fight."

And the king Nahash the Ammonite said, "Here's what I'll do. I'll make a treaty with you if I get to gouge out the right eye of all of you." To disgrace them and to make them less able to fight in battle. And they called out to Saul for help. Saul came down and rescued them from Nahash the Ammonite. Now, it's hard to believe it's the same Nahash over here. Either the guy had a change of heart, a conversion experience or something, and now he's friendly with David, or enough years have gone by and this is now his descendant who might also be named Nahash.

But it doesn't matter. Either way, David thinks to himself, "I'm going to show kindness to them." The guy's father died. "I'm going to show kindness to him." When David's men came to the land of the Ammonites, the Ammonite nobles said to Hanun their lord, "Do you think David is honoring your father by sending men to you to express sympathy? Hasn't David sent them to you to explore the city and spy it out and overthrow it?"

So, Hanun seized David's men, shaved off half of each man's beard, cut off their garments in the middle at the buttocks, and sent them away. Look, the word here is disgrace. David was trying to be nice and friendly and reach out to someone whose father died, and instead, he was misunderstood. Or worse. I don't know. Did they really doubt David? Did they really think he's up to something, or were they just sneaky? Maybe they wanted to impress their own king.

Guest (Male): You've been listening to Hope From the Word. We're currently in a study of 2 Samuel. You can hear this message or more Hope From the Word with Pastor Bill Luebkemann by going to ccmarlton.org. Pastor Bill's messages can also be found by downloading the Hope FM app on your smartphone or tablet, or if you'd prefer to listen via podcast, go wherever you find your podcasts and sign up there.

We'd love to have you join us at Calvary Chapel of Marlton either in person or online. Our Sunday service begins at 10:00 AM, and there's a Wednesday evening service at 7:00. To catch us online, you can subscribe to our YouTube channel at Calvary Chapel of Marlton or just go to our website for the link at ccmarlton.org.

And if you'd take a moment to write to Pastor Bill, it would be such a blessing to us. We're thankful each and every time we hear what God is doing in our listeners' lives, and we want to pray for you too. Either email us through the website at ccmarlton.org or call 856-983-1662. We'll continue our study in 2 Samuel next time on Hope From the Word with Pastor Bill Luebkemann, a presentation of Calvary Chapel of Marlton.