May the mumbling commence!
And David remembered the vow that he had made before God with Jonathan. David sought out any living children of Jonathan to bless them. Mephibosheth was the only remaining son of Jonathan left, and Mephibosheth was lame in both feet. He was at the mercy of the compassion of others. David led in this compassion. Read from 2 Samuel 9:6-13 –
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?"
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. 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.)
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. Mephibosheth had a young son named Mica, 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.
Oh, to eat at the table of the king! And a crippled man to boot! Mephibosheth could not enter the sanctuary of the Lord because of his physical condition, but King David welcomed him to the king’s table. Mephibosheth wondered at this invitation. He was probably expecting execution when he was called to the king. He thought he was no better than a dead dog. But the invitation is repeated three times alone in this brief passage.
As if this lifetime invitation to the king’s table were not enough, David also restored the land of Saul to Mephibosheth. David ordered Ziba, the servant of Saul, to work the land to support Mephibosheth. Talk about blessing and honor and wealth – all showered on a man with lame feet. Many people must have wondered at this extravagant benevolence.
The compilers of the chronological Bible that I am reading associate Psalm 8 with this time in David’s life. Mephibosheth was the talk of the town, so it may have made David wonder about the extravagant promise that the Lord had given him and his family. Read from Psalm 8:3-5 –
When I consider your heavens, the work of your fingers,
the moon and the stars, which you have set in place,
what is man that you are mindful of him,
the son of man that you care for him?
You made him a little lower than the heavenly beings
and crowned him with glory and honor.
In the vast beauty of creation, humanity lives – sometimes beautifully and sometimes as a zit on the face of the cosmos. So, what is humanity that God is mindful of us, the children of God that He cares for us? Sometimes I wonder at the fact that God does not decide to erase humanity as a mistake. I am reminded of the oft repeated confession about God. Read it from Psalm 145:8-9 –
The Lord is gracious and compassionate,
slow to anger and rich in love.
The Lord is good to all; he has compassion on all he has made.
Thanks be to God! Enough mumbling for today…
Peace Out
No comments:
Post a Comment