Scripture Daily

Context No. 1128 of 4322 · 2 Samuel

Context · Reflection

2 Samuel 9:7-13: in context

7David said to him, “Don’t be afraid, for I will surely show you kindness for Jonathan your father’s sake, and will restore to you all the land of Saul your father. You will eat bread at my table continually.” 8He bowed down, and said, “What is your servant, that you should look at such a dead dog as I am?” 9Then the king called to Ziba, Saul’s servant, and said to him, “All that belonged to Saul and to all his house I have given to your master’s son. 10Till the land for him—you, your sons, and your servants. Bring in the harvest, that your master’s son may have bread to eat; but Mephibosheth your master’s son will always eat bread at my table.” Now Ziba had fifteen sons and twenty servants. 11Then Ziba said to the king, “According to all that my lord the king commands his servant, so your servant will do.” So Mephibosheth ate at the king’s table like one of the king’s sons. 12Mephibosheth had a young son, whose name was Mica. All who lived in Ziba’s house were servants to Mephibosheth. 13So Mephibosheth lived in Jerusalem, for he ate continually at the king’s table. He was lame in both his feet.

David, now secure on the throne, asks whether anyone is left of Saul's house to whom he can show kindness for the sake of his beloved friend Jonathan. There is one: Mephibosheth, Jonathan's son, crippled in both feet, hiding in obscurity, expecting nothing but death from the new king who replaced his grandfather's dynasty. David sends for him and instead of harm gives him grace: do not be afraid; I will show you kindness for Jonathan's sake, restore all of Saul's land to you, and you will eat at my table always. Mephibosheth, stunned, calls himself a dead dog, and from then on eats at the king's table like one of the king's own sons.

This is one of the clear pictures of grace in the Old Testament. Mephibosheth had nothing to offer, was lame in both feet, was the natural rival whom kings usually eliminated, and he expected nothing but judgment. What he received instead was undeserved, total kindness: his lost inheritance restored, and a permanent place at the king's table, treated as a son. And notice the ground of it: David shows him kindness not for anything Mephibosheth did, but for Jonathan's sake, because of a covenant of love with someone else. That is exactly the shape of the gospel. We come to God lame and hiding, expecting judgment, with nothing to commend us, and he seats us at his table as sons and daughters, not for our own sake but for the sake of another, the beloved Son with whom he has made covenant. And the tender final note, repeated, is that Mephibosheth ate at the king's table, and he was lame in both his feet; the disability never went away, but at the table, seated with the sons, his feet were under the table and no one saw. Grace does not require you to be whole first; it seats you as you are.

Do I come to God like Mephibosheth, expecting judgment and offering nothing, and can I believe he seats me at his table as a son, not for my sake but for the sake of his beloved Son?

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