Note: Here are some thoughts drawn from last Sunday’s message on 2 Samuel 9.
“And Ziba said unto the king,
Jonathan hath yet a son, which is
lame on his feet” (2 Samuel 9:3).
“And David said unto him, Fear
not: for I will surely shew thee
kindness for Jonathan thy father’s sake” (2 Samuel 9:7).
In 2 Samuel 9 we learn that David kept his covenant bond to
the house of Jonathan by extending mercy and compassion to Mephibosheth, the
lame son of Jonathan (cf. 1 Samuel 20:14-15; 2 Samuel 4:4). Though it was customary in David’s day for a
new king to see all the descendents of the previous monarch as his enemies (cf.
2 Kings 10:1-9; 11:1), David unexpectedly extended kindess (hesed, covenant mercy) to Mephibosheth.
One things we can learn from 2 Samuel 9 is the importance of
keeping one’s covenant promises, whether they be the foundational covenant
commitment to Christ, the covenant commitment of marriage, or the covenant
commitment of church membership.
On a deeper level, we learn something in 2 Samuel 9 about the
Lord’s dealings with us. We are
spiritually lame men and women. We, as a
race, were once whole but in our infancy, through the fall, we lost all
spiritually ability. We even became the
enemies of Christ. But the Lord sought us; he then sent forth his son in the fullness of time for us; and he has supplied us through Christ with everything
we need for salvation and true godliness.
Dale Ralph Davis closes his exposition of 2 Samuel 9 with
these words:
The first principle for grappling
with the marvel of God’s love is to realize that he has no business—in a
sense—loving whom he loves. What I’m
saying is that we are the Lord’s Mephibosheths, and there is absolutely no
reason why we should be eating continually at the king’s table. And if we have
any sense, we won’t be able to understand it either (2 Samuel, p. 106).
Perhaps the best New Testament passage to place alongside 2
Samuel 9 is this one from Paul:
Romans 5:8 But God commendeth
his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. 9
Much more then, being now justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath
through him. 10 For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the
death of his Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life.
Grace and peace, Pastor Jeff Riddle
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