This Invitation Goes Out to All the Dead Dogs
[6] And Mephibosheth the son of Jonathan, son of Saul, came to David and fell on his face and paid homage. And David said, “Mephibosheth!” And he answered, “Behold, I am your servant.” [7] And David said to him, “Do not fear, for I will show you kindness for the sake of your father Jonathan, and I will restore to you all the land of Saul your father, and you shall eat at my table always.” [8] And he paid homage and said, “What is your servant, that you should show regard for a dead dog such as I?”
[9] Then the king called 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 grandson. [10] And you and your sons and your servants shall till the land for him and shall bring in the produce, that your master’s grandson may have bread to eat. But Mephibosheth your master’s grandson shall always eat at my table.” Now Ziba had fifteen sons and twenty servants. (ESV)
2 Samuel 9:6–10 ESV Read More
When Mephibosheth was 5, his household was struck with fear that he and all of his family would be killed. Saul, his grandpa, and Johnathan, his father, were killed in war and David, the new king, was taking over. Mephi was picked up and dropped by a nanny and his legs were permanently damaged in the fall. He would grow up to be crippled, living in another person’s house, unable to provide for himself. He had a wife, and a child, but remained poor and partially hidden for years.
King David basically has all of the power in the world. He can have people killed, order women to his bed, take over land because he likes the yard and conquer entire kingdoms as he wishes. We really love David when he is obviously acting in response to God. When he does that, we can see it and we are drawn to it.
That nanny took Mephibosheth’s good life away.
Nope.
Those evil people coming to kill all the descendants of Saul were responsible for his disability.
Nope.
The Apostle Paul explained ”For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places. (Ephesians 6:12 ESV)
A spirit of fear, believed and acted upon by the people around him, is to blame for his disability. The nanny wasn’t wicked, she just believed something that made her act and be clumsy. All of those men killing of Ish-bosheth and the rest might not have been evil, they just believed that violence and murder would advance their cause of self-promotion.
Whatever the cause, God’s Spirit, when He is followed, expresses victory over evil in us. David was compelled by the generosity and grace of God upon him to overflow that generosity and grace to someone else. He didn’t wait around to see who would come along, he pursued it.
So often we have a passive intent to make someone ask or earn something from us, but David reflected God when he instigated a search for a recipient of grace. Even while we were sinners, Jesus died for us. He did not passively wait for us to come to faith in Him; He desired and pursued us.
Every one of us is a dead dog from LoDebar. The problem is we typically stop there in thinking about ourselves. If we are going to claim our affinity to Mephibosheth in LoDebar, we need to claim our affinity to him at the king’s table too. God has sought us out. God has done the research and found us needy and ready for salvation.
Notice that the King blows away fear and the effects of fear. He doesn’t heal those broken legs. Instead, he blows away all of the hardship and stigma brought on by the broken legs. Mephibosheth’s heart is more important than his legs, and that is what God, through David, seeks to transform.
Let us pay attention to the Spirit that gives life, and receive the invitation to dinner delivered to us by the Son of God Himself.
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