2 Samuel 9:1-13
When a person works an eight-hour day and receives a
fair day’s pay for his time, that is a wage.
When a person competes with an opponent and receives
a trophy for his performance, that is a prize.
When a person receives appropriate recognition for his
long service or high achievements, that is an award.
But when a person is not capable of earning a wage, can
win no prize, and deserves no award–yet receives such a
gift anyway–that is a good picture of God’s unmerited
favor. This is what we mean when we talk about the
grace of God.
Donald Barnhouse described grace this way. “Love that
goes upward is worship; love that goes outward is
affection; love that stoops is grace.”
You might be surprised to know that Jesus never said the
word grace. But He most definitely taught it and more
importantly He lived it.
The word grace comes from the Hebrew root word Hayne
(chen). It means to bend, to stoop. Over time it came
to mean condescending favor.
Condescending meaning God stooping down and caring
for His people.
Alan Carr, in a sermon called ‘No Wonder It’s Called
Amazing, said “Grace recognizes our wretched
condition; pays our debt and gives us more than we
could ever have imagined. No wonder it’s called
amazing!
2 Samuel 9:1-5
David and Jonathan were best friends. During their
friendship, David made a covenant with Jonathan. They
promised to take care of one another’s family forever.
You can find that covenant in 1 Samuel 20:42.
Now, David must have been thinking of Jonathan on this
day and his mind went back to this covenant.
So, he sets out to see if Jonathan has any family left.
David went looking for a grace recipient.
David asks in v. 1 if there is anyone he can show
kindness to.
That was purely his motivation. He found Ziba, a servant
of Saul, and called him to come talk to David. He asked
him if there was anyone still alive in the house of Saul.
Most of Saul’s grandsons had been executed early on in
David’s reign. But one remained.
David didn’t have any harmful intentions for this potential
heir to the throne.
This was interesting, because most kings would seek out
potential heirs and kill them. It’s what Saul would have
done.
Not David, his goal was to show God’s grace. v.3 says he
wanted to show the kindness of God to the heir.
Ziba wasn’t sure of David’s intentions, so when he told
David about Mephibosheth, he made sure to mention that
he was crippled in both feet. He can’t really do anything.
He can’t work. He certainly can’t rule a nation.
Take it easy on him.
Mephibosheth was crippled when he was only 5 years old.
2 Samuel 4:4 tells us how it happened.
The news had just been delivered that Saul and Jonathan
had both died. The nurse grabs the boy and they begin
running to safety. He falls and breaks both legs. It is
possible that the nurse fell on him when he fell.
Now, David wants to meet this descendant of Jonathan.
He asks where he is staying. Ziba tells him that he is
staying in Lo-debar. Lo-debar means “no pasture”. It
was a dry and barren land.
Isn’t it interesting? Mephibosheth is lame, and he is
living in a dry and barren land and
David seeks him out to show him grace.
What a reminder that God seeks us out because of His
great love for us.
Romans 5:8 “But God shows his love for us in that
while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”
2 Samuel 9:6-8
Here Mephibosheth had a choice. He could either accept
or reject the grace that David was giving him.
Mephibosheth Receives David’s Grace
Take a moment to consider what was happening.
Mephibosheth has just been summoned by the king.
Remember, most kings would seek out every living
relative of the previous king and kill them. They didn’t
want anyone trying to take over their kingdom.
Mephibosheth must have been riddled with fear.
Notice how he responded?
With humility – he fell on his face and prostrated himself
before the king.
When David calls his name, he responds by saying, “here
is your servant!”
Mephibosheth also refers to himself as a dead dog.
He had really low self esteem. He couldn’t walk, couldn’t
work, had to depend on someone else to take care of
him. How could he possibly be worthy of this grace?
That’s the point. He wasn’t. And neither are any of us.
Remember my illustration from earlier?
None of us have worked to earn grace
None of us have competed against someone and earned
grace
None of us have achieved enough to earn grace
Grace is getting a reward you don’t deserve.
David reassures Mephibosheth and tells him not to fear.
He is going to take care of him.
I want to go back and read verse 7 again as we finish
reading the rest of the chapter.
Verse 7 gives us an overview of the grace/kindness that
David plans on bestowing in Mephibosheth.
2 Samuel 9:7-13
Here we see the:
The Benefits of David’s Grace to Mephibosheth
After David told Mephibosheth not to fear he listed 3
benefits of the grace he was about to give him.
1. Kindness – “I will surely show kindness to you”
David showed kindness by not killing him.
David showed kindness by remembering the covenant
that was made with Jonathan.
David’s promise was forever. Even after the death of his
friend. David showed kindness by seeking out a recipient.
When he found him, he showered him with grace.
2.Land and Servants – “will restore to you all the land
of your grandfather Saul”
What a gift. Everything that belonged to the former king.
That must have been a fortune.
He was about to go from taking handouts to being the
master of 35 people.
Ziba had 15 sons and 20 servants.
They would all report to Mephibosheth now.
The land would produce much food and income for him.
The benefit of this grace extends even to Ziba. Since
Ziba, his family and his servants would be taking care of
the land, they would be recipients of the bounty that the
land produced.
Not only would the land meet the needs of Mephibosheth
and his son, it would provide for everyone that lived
there.
And Mephibosheth wouldn’t have many expenses would
he? He was going to eat dinner with David and his family
at the king’s house.
That leads me to the third benefit of this grace:
3.Adopted as Family – “You shall eat at my table
regularly”
This was quite an honor. David was recalling the
relationship he had with Jonathan. They were very close.
He promised to take care of his family until death. So
now, Mephibosheth has been adopted by the king.
He wasn’t flesh and blood family, but now he was part of
the family with full benefits of the royal kingdom.
This reminds me of a passage in Luke where Jesus is
talking to His disciples. They had just been arguing over
who was the greatest besides Jesus.
He has this to say to them in
Luke 22:28-30, “You are those who have stayed
with me in my trials, and I assign to you, as my
Father assigned to me, a kingdom, that you may
eat and drink at my table in my kingdom and sit on
thrones judging the twelve tribes of Israel.”
What an honor to be able to eat at the table with Jesus.
No wonder we like to eat so much here…we are
practicing for the day when we get to eat at the table of
our king Jesus.
Those of us that are believers will also eat with Jesus one
day. Isn’t that a great thought?
We are adopted as sons and daughters of God. We are
part of His family. We will share in the inheritance of
eternal life.
All because of God’s grace.
Application
Our application is to consider these 2 questions.
Will you receive God’s grace?
This is a question for those who have never turned from
their sin and accepted God’s forgiveness.
Ephesians 2:8 “For by grace you have been saved
through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift
of God.”
He has already prepared the gift. Will you accept it?
Will you share God’s grace with others?
As believers, we have received grace and forgiveness.
Now, we should model it just like Christ did.
Think about how you treat others. Do people see Christ
in you?
It’s easy to be kind to those you love, but what about the
unlovely? What about the unloveable?
God calls us to give love to even the least of these.
We all have a choice.
Will you share grace and kindness this week?