Scripture 2 Samuel 9:1-13
[
TEACHING: Use Easel Pads and Markers to
list main characters.]
PEOPLE:
Saul – 1st King of
Israel
Saul married
Ahinoam,
& they had 4 sons (
Jonathan,
Abinadab,
Malchishua and
Ish-bosheth)
and two daughters (
Merab and
Michal).
Saul also had a
concubine named
Rizpah,
and they had 2 sons, (
That is important to our story and we will
return to her two sons later.)
Armoni and Mephibosheth.
Jonathan – Saul’s eldest son
and a great warrior
Becomes best friends with another
great warrior, David, who they both hope one day will be king.
Saul wanted Jonathan’s help to
kill David because he was jealous of him and Jonathan refused and saved David’s
life from his own father. Because David was married to Saul’s daughter, Michal,
that means David and Jonathan were also brothers-in-law. Jonathan is the father
of one son (
also important later in the story).
David – Son-in-law of Saul,
Friend of Jonathan, would become the 2nd king of Israel.
In a battle
against the Philistines, King Saul falls on his own sword knowing he will be killed,
and Johnathan and two brothers are killed in that same battle. David becomes
king after being contested by Saul’s one remaining son, Ish-bosheth who was
eventually murdered.
DAVID a former
shepherd was known for his passion for God, his meaningful-beautiful psalms
and musical abilities, his inspiring courage and expertise in
warfare, his good looks
and illicit relationship with Bathsheba. Born around 1000 BC, like King Saul
and King
Solomon,
David reigned for 40 years. Although just as flawed or sinful as the kings who
preceded and followed him, in
Judaism and
Christianity,
King David is
presented as a model king of piety, repentance, and submission as well a
forerunner to the Messiah-Jesus.
So
far we only have 3 main people in our story (Saul, Jonathan, and David). There
is one more person whose name is largely unknown but whose place in God’s story
is of great importance to understand how God views us. When we first meet him,
he is a normal healthy 5-year-old boy, grandson of the king, and son of
Jonathan. Being the son of royalty, he has a nanny, in this case, a nurse who
takes care of him. When news reached his nurse that Saul and Jonathan had been
killed in battle, his life was about to change forever…
2 Samuel 4:4
(
Jonathan’s
son 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 in both feet. His name was Mephibosheth.) = “from the mouth
of shame”
Imagine being 5 years old –
healthy and happy, the son of royalty and in one day you lose 2 uncles, your
grandfather, your father, and you become crippled – unable to walk for the rest
of your life.
Why did the
nanny run? In that part of the world at that time, the descendants of one king
would be killed when another king took the throne. For that reason or for the
reason of him being crippled and now put at the lowest state in society because
there is little work he would be able to do, he was taken from the royalty of Jerusalem
– plush yards and gardens to a place called Lo-debar (no pasture) the desert.
This is where he grew up and eventually became a father, having a young son of
his own but socially and economically having nothing.
It’s
at this point in scripture that we see Mephibosheth again.
2 Samuel 9:1-13
David asked,
"Is there anyone still left of the house of
Saul to whom I can show kindness for Jonathan's sake?"
2 Now there was a servant of Saul's household
named Ziba. They called him to appear before David, and the king said to him,
"Are you Ziba?" "Your servant," he replied. 3
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." 4 "Where is he?" the king asked. Ziba answered,
"He is at the house of Makir son of Ammiel in
Lo Debar."
5 So King David had him brought from Lo
Debar, from the house of Makir son of Ammiel. 6 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. 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.
12 Mephibosheth had a young son named Mica,
and all the members of Ziba's household were servants of Mephibosheth. 13
And Mephibosheth lived in Jerusalem because he always ate at the king's table,
and he was crippled in both feet.
David
had built this new kingdom in a new place and was experiencing peace in the
land and turned to old business. Previously,
1 Sam 20:15
Jonathan said to David, “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.”
1 Sam 20:42
Jonathan said to David, "Go in peace, for we have sworn friendship with each other
in the name of the Lord, saying, 'The Lord is witness between you and me, and
between your descendants and my descendants forever.'"
We were created
perfect in God’s eyes – like a 5-year-old child – so young and innocent but old
enough to begin thinking for ourselves and having developed personality and
also old enough to begin making some of our own choices. Once we do that, we
find that our perfection-our innocence is removed – and we become spiritually
crippled in both feet. We no longer walk in the way God designed us to walk –
no matter how hard we try there is no way we will walk right again. It is at
that point we are also sent to Lo-Debar – the spiritual desert – far from God
and when God finds us, our end will be death because we are no longer in the
king’s household, but rather the household of the enemy – the devil. When God
searches and finds us and calls us before Him we come trembling knowing that
death is what we deserve and what we expect – out of nowhere, he emphatically
calls us by name “Mephibosheth!” When we bow before him, recognize his kingship
and our unworthiness to even be in his presence, he then raises us up, restores
to us, all the fruit this world has to offer provides others to tend it on our
behalf and greatest of all insists that we eat daily at the king’s table, not
as a guest, but s one of His sons.
Ephesians 2:1-7
As for you,
you were dead in your transgressions and sins, in which you used to live when
you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air,
the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient. All of us also
lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our sinful nature and
following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature objects of
wrath. But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us
alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions — it is by grace you
have been saved. And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the
heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, in order that in the coming ages he might show
the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ
Jesus.
Let’s Pray:
Your blood has washed away my sin - Jesus,
thank You
The Father’s wrath completely
satisfied - Jesus, thank You
Once Your enemy, now seated at
Your table - Jesus, thank You
No comments:
Post a Comment