Well, take your Bible and turn to 2 Samuel. We're returning to our study in 2 Samuel chapter 9. Or in 2 Samuel, we're in chapter 9 this morning. This is really a transitional point in the book. So David now has his kingdom established, and there are highs, and unfortunately, there are some lows that we are coming up upon in David's life, but they have much to teach us as well. This morning, though, our passage is 2 Samuel 9, and I'll begin reading in verse 1. And David said, is there still anyone left of the house of Saul that I may show him kindness for Jonathan's sake? Now, there was a servant of the house of Saul whose name was Ziba, and they called him to David. The king said to him, are you Ziba? And he said, I am your servant. And the king said, is there not still someone of the house of Saul that I may show the kindness of God to him? Ziba said to the king, there is still a son of Jonathan. He is crippled in his feet. The king said to him, where is he? And Ziba said to the king, he is in the house of Makir, the son of Amiel at Lodivar. Then King David sent and brought him from the house of Machir the son of Amiel at Lodabar. 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. 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. And he paid homage and said, What is your servant that you should show regard for a dead dog such as I? Then the king called Ziba, Saul's servant, and said to him, All that belong to Saul and to all his house I have given to your master's grandson. 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 15 sons and 20 servants. And Ziba said to the king, according to all that my lord the king commands his servant, so will your servant do. So Mephibosheth ate at David's table like one of the king's sons. And Mephibosheth had a young son whose name was Micah, and all who lived in Ziba's house became Mephibosheth's servants. So Mephibosheth lived in Jerusalem, for he ate always at the king's table. Now he was lame in both his feet. A couple of years ago, we were out at the baseball fields about this time of year. And one of my kids ran up to me laughing. They wanted to tell me something. And apparently there was a story circulating around some of the players that if you went over to this particular dugout on this particular field, that you would have a chance to see the pastors bare legs. My kids, of course, found this hilarious. But I was not at the baseball fields in my suit and tie like they were accustomed to seeing me. And one of the kids even came up to thank me. And they said that it was so cool to see the pastor wearing shorts. It was just so cool. They felt like they were so privileged that day. Sometimes you get to see a side of someone that you never knew existed. You just never imagined it. And I imagine that some people may have thought that about King David, especially if they had been familiar with the events that are recorded in the chapter that precedes this morning's text in 2 Samuel 8. Last week we saw David going forth in victory, didn't we? We saw him vanquishing his enemies, striking down and subduing all of his foes. But then we turn the page and we look at chapter nine and suddenly we find David openly longing to show kindness, not just to anyone, but to someone from the house of Saul, the house of his deceased rival, the house of his persecutor and enemy. If ever David had had an enemy in his life, it was in the house of Saul. And I won't recount all of the chapters at the end of 1 Samuel that we studied and looked at that record those details. Saul, along with his house, was David's enemy. So what has come over King David? What was he thinking here? There's one word that might suffice to explain the reason for this strong desire That we see in the king and that word is covenant covenant The word itself doesn't appear in our text, but it courses through the chapter in principle beginning at the very outset. If you look at chapter 9 verse 1 in your Bible, you see David saying, is there still anyone left of the house of Saul that I may show him kindness for Jonathan's sake? There are a couple of words here that deserve our attention, or at least a word and a phrase. First, we see the grounds of David's yearning. His motivation to act in this way, to show kindness, is for Jonathan's sake. Now, Jonathan is no longer with us at this point. He died at Mount Gilboa along with his father Saul. But that phrase, for Jonathan's sake, is a reference to a very old promise, a promise that was made between friends in a desperate hour and a season of shifting and upheaval in Israel's history. This is during the time when Saul's jealousy of David was beginning to come to a head. You remember how after David struck down Goliath in chapter 17, then all of Israel joins in. They fight against the Philistines. They are victorious and they come home to this welcoming party where the women sing, Saul has struck down his thousands and David his ten thousands. And Saul receives those words like a dagger straight into his heart. And over the years, he began to nurse that offense. He began to nurse that bitterness and that resentment until it gave way into full-blown murderous intention against young David. Well, as this became clear, Jonathan found himself caught. He was caught in the middle. He had his father, Saul, on the one hand acting in this way. He had his best friend, David, as the object of Saul's hatred and envy. Well, it was in the midst of all of this upheaval that Jonathan decided to ally himself not with his father, But with a man of God's choosing, with a man after God's own heart, he decided to ally himself with his friend David. And the Bible says that their souls were knit together. They loved one another as they loved their own soul. And over the course of time, Jonathan risked his life for David. Jonathan warned David when Saul was plotting harm against him. Eventually, Jonathan even relinquished his position. as the rightful heir to the throne. He voluntarily stripped off his robe. He took off his armor and he gave them over to David, symbolically ceding that right. He was recognizing that God had chosen David and not himself to sit upon the throne. And so he throws his support really to the word of God, to the will of God. knowing all the while that if God's Word proves true, when it proves true, the consequences were going to be disastrous for Saul and for his house. He knew that that potential was there. And so in 1 Samuel 20, we see Jonathan making this very heartfelt appeal to David. Just as David is about to be driven off into the wilderness Jonathan goes to to David and he says this is a very important background to our passage today for Samuel 2014 to 17 if I am still alive Show me the steadfast love of the Lord That I may not die and do not cut off your steadfast love From my house forever when the Lord cuts off every one of the enemies of David from the face of the earth 24 And Jonathan made a covenant with the house of David, saying, May the Lord take vengeance on David's enemies. 25 And Jonathan made David swear again by his love for him, for he loved him as he loved his own soul. This ceremony in chapter 20 of 1 Samuel forms the backdrop to that question that David asks at the beginning of our passage today. These two men cut a covenant between them and they swore that Yahweh would be between them and between their offspring forever. Now last week, we saw the way this, what Jonathan anticipates here in chapter 20 is fulfilled. The Lord has gone forth. He's shown his favor to David by cutting off all his enemies. So now it's time for David to step up. It's time for David to make good on his promise. So there's a covenant compulsion here. That he is compelled by the word that he spoke. This drive issues out of a sworn word. Now, this isn't to say that the way we see David acting here issues out of a cold, exacting sort of a feeling of obligation toward the duties of the covenant. Sometimes we act that way. Sometimes we act that way in human relationship. We give someone our word, we make a commitment to someone, and later, if we are honest, we find ourselves thinking, I gave him my word and I said I would do this thing, so now I've got to do it. I've got to keep my word. But our heart really isn't in it. There's no monkey on David's back here. Kindness is what he longs to show. Kindness is his great desire. That's the other significant word in that opening verse. In fact, it appears three times. Verse one is, there's still anyone left in the house of Saul that I may show him kindness. For Jonathan's sake, verse 3, is there not still someone in the house of Saul that I may show the kindness of God to him? Verse 7, do not fear for I will show you kindness for the sake of your father Jonathan. The word here in the original is chesed. It's that word that we've seen a few other times in our study already in Samuel. It's a word that is really ubiquitous to the biblical text. It means faithful love, loyal love, or loving kindness. It's the word that God himself used in chapter 7 when he made his promise to David and to David's offspring. He said in chapter 7, verse 14, when he commits iniquity, referring especially of Solomon, I will discipline him with the rod of men, with the stripes of the sons of men, but my steadfast love will not depart from him as I took it from Saul, whom I put away from before you. Sometimes this word is translated as mercy or goodness in the scriptures. It's the heartbeat of that refrain in Psalm 118 and Psalm 136. His steadfast love endures forever. And that that that that quality of love that endures is such a significant aspect of this word. Hased, or loyal love, or faithful love. It's an enduring, unrelenting, won't-let-go kind of love. It's covenant love. That's what stood behind the covenant that David and Jonathan made together. They loved each other, and then they cut the covenant. The covenant was nothing but a reflection of the love that they had for one another. And of course, it's solemnized by sacred covenant. There's a seriousness to this commitment. What does it mean, though, really, to be the object of this kind of love? What does it mean to be the recipient of faithful love? There are some things in life and some things in the scriptures that are more aptly illustrated than they are described. And I tend to think that's the case here. A young man and a young woman can listen to a lecture on marriage. They can read books, and there's value in that. There certainly is. But they can also sit down on a weekly basis with a couple who's been married for 40 or 50 years, and they can observe. They can watch the way that they interact with one another. They can listen to them talk about the way they've weathered the highs and the lows of life. You can spend all day trying to define words like grace in the Scriptures or this steadfast love, or you can wade into the pages of Scripture and get to know the love of God in all its variety of expressions and forms. That's what 2 Samuel 9 is like. It has a Romans 5 kind of quality. God demonstrates His love for us in this, that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. God's word says that you can look at the cross of Jesus Christ and you can see the love that God has for sinners. It's demonstrated there. Calvary is where the curtain is pulled back and the window is thrown open on divine love, faithful love in all its glory. The costliness of this love, its sacrifice, the lengths that it will go for the sake of another. But in a similar way, 2 Samuel chapter nine is like that. It demonstrates loyal love. It shows us what it's like to be the object of a faithful love, an enduring love, a merciful love, a won't let go kind of love. So let's look at it together. David makes contact through one of Saul's servants, a man named Ziba. He comes to tell David that there is in fact someone left in the house of Saul. Look in your Bibles at verse 3. Ziba said to the king, there is still a son of Jonathan. He is crippled in his feet. The king said to him, where is he? And Ziba said to the king, he is in the house of Machir, the son of Amiel at Lodibar. And just notice as you look at this introduction that at the moment we don't even know his name. His name is not even mentioned. Even the name of his town, Lodobar, literally means nothing. How would you like to live in a town that just means nothing? So the son of Jonathan, both literally and figuratively, is living a life of obscurity. It's interesting to think that even David's own wife, Michael, or Michal, she would have been Mephibosheth's aunt, appears to be unaware of his existence. That gives you some indication of what it's like to lead a life as the grandson of the disgraced king. and nevertheless david says bring him to me he calls for him now i want you to place yourself in the finish of shoes for just a moment a summons to appear at the royal court it that would be a daunting thing for anybody wouldn't and the finish at isn't just anybody his grandfather spent years hunting david like a dog he had spent years and years of his life a devoted almost entirely to railing against the divine promise of the Lord. Now, Mephibosheth was too young to have learned much of anything about David from his father, Jonathan. Remember, he was only five years old when his father, Jonathan, was slain on Mount Gilboa. And there's a hint here in our passage that suggests Some time has elapsed since that time. You look at Mephibosheth in verse 11 or 12, tells us that he actually has a son now. Mephibosheth, despite his condition, is a father. Now, if you take into account the fact that David reigned at Hebron over just Judah for seven and a half years, you account for some time where he would have been working to establish the kingdom and drive out his enemies. Probably 15 to 20 years has now passed since Saul and Jonathan lie slain. on Mount Gilboa. So you have Mephibosheth now, and he is being summoned into the royal court. Why would David want to see me now? He must have thought. He cannot know that after all these years, his actions are being constrained by covenant love toward a nobody, toward an outcast. And verses 6-9 is the pivotal passage. This is where we see loyal love spring into action. Mephibosheth comes before David. He falls on his face when he comes before the king. And there are three things David does that are significant. First, he tells Mephibosheth, do not fear. Do not fear. Those words are easy for us to overlook. But what a balm they must have been to Mephibosheth's ears. What relief must have washed over this man to know that he need not tremble. He need not fear to come before the presence of the king. Notice how we are reminded in verse six that Mephibosheth, the son of John, that he is called Mephibosheth, the son of Jonathan, son of Saul, came to David. That description is no accident. It's no accident that he was described that way. The ordinary cultural expectation of the day would have dictated that the incoming king would wipe out all of the outgoing line. He would act quickly to stave off any possibility of an uprising. And you only have to survey the Book of Kings to see this sort of pattern in action. In 1 Kings 15, Baasha comes into power. Immediately he wipes out the house of Jeroboam, his predecessor. You turn the page, it's Zimri who's coming into power. In a bloody coup, immediately he wipes out the house of Baasha, 1 Kings 16, 11. When he began to reign, as soon as he had seated himself on the throne, he struck down all the house of Baasha. He did not leave him a single male of his relatives or his friends. You stamp out every threat. You quell any possibility of an uprising. That is simply the pattern. That is simply the expectation ruling in the day. But it is to this son of Saul that David looks at him and he says, do not be afraid. You can come near. You can draw near before me. You don't have to fear. Secondly, he says that he will restore all the land of Saul, your father. Saul had spent most of his time as king living in Gibeah. That's just about three miles north of Jerusalem, not far at all from where David now is. And the Bible doesn't tell us specifically how the house of Saul came to lose their land, but we know that they have on some level. We might assume that much of that would have been absorbed by David as he came into The kingship. Well, all of this, David says, will be transferred back to the hand of Mephibosheth. Now he has an inheritance. He has a place. He has a home. He doesn't have to hide in obscurity. And then thirdly, and this is the greatest surprise, David says, you shall eat at my table always. From that day forward, Mephibosheth would be welcome. Welcome at the royal table. And this isn't just a matter of food. This isn't just a matter of finding three square meals a day, though that is certainly included. If bodily provision was all that David was concerned with here, he could have just as easily given Mephibosheth a stipend, couldn't he? or he could have brought him into his servant's quarters and let him eat the leftovers. But mere sustenance, bodily provision, is only the barest aspect of what is in view here. To be at the king's table is to have a place of privilege. It's to be granted a place of honor. It speaks to an access that Mephibosheth was afforded before the king. Are you connecting the parallels spiritually that just flow out of this passage? In the span of just one verse, Mephibosheth experiences total reversal. Total transformation. Not only did David spare his life, but he showered him with blessing upon blessing, grace upon grace. His life was transformed. Beloved, what a parable we have here of God's kindness to us, of God's kindness in salvation. That's not something I'm making up. That's not my own idea. Where did David come by this kind of loyal love? Look at verse 3. Is there not still someone of the house of Saul that I may show the kindness of God to him? The kindness of God. In some way, those words may be the most important words in this chapter. It wasn't David's love, in a sense. It's the kindness of God. It was the unfailing love of the Lord that took Mephibosheth from being an enemy to being this recipient of amazing grace. It was the kindness of God that turned him from being a stranger into a son. Look at verse 11. Mephibosheth ate at David's table like one of the king's sons. He wasn't relegated to the servants' quarters. He wasn't sequestered off in a corner where no one would see him and where the king wouldn't be embarrassed by his presence. Mephibosheth was able, in effect, to look at David as both a king and a father. So it is with the people of God. Romans 814 says for all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you receive the spirit of adoption as sons by whom we cry Abba Father. Amen. Romans chapter 9 Paul. He quotes the prophet Isaiah. He says those who are not my people I will call my people and her who was not beloved I will call beloved. And in the very place where it was said to them, you are not my people, there they will be called sons of the living God. So church, if you marvel at the kindness of David to Mephibosheth, marvel still more at the kindness of God in salvation, how his loyal love has been displayed to sinners like you and like me. Not only has God given mercy, Not only has he come in the cross of Jesus Christ and canceled the record of debt that stood against us, but he has made us sons. He has surrounded us with loving kindness and given us a seat at his table from his fullness. John says we have all received grace upon grace. If God did not spare his son for us, how will he not also graciously give us all things? Grace upon grace given to us in Jesus Christ. He brought me to his banqueting table and his banner over us is love. This is our Savior. This is the one who has come to reconcile us to the Lord himself. That's what it means, brothers and sisters, to be the object of loyal love. Now, we've looked at David's steadfast love toward Mephibosheth, but I want you to look a little more closely at Mephibosheth himself. Two things that I think are worth underscoring here, Mephibosheth's response to David and then his condition. How does Mephibosheth respond once he has heard what David is going to do for him, the kindness that he's going to show? Verse eight describes that. Mephibosheth paid homage and said, what is your servant that you should show regard for a dead dog such as I? No doubt you have heard it said that to identify yourself with a dog in Jewish culture was to take on an image of extreme unworthiness and uncleanness. Well, Mephibosheth goes one step further here. He calls himself a dead dog. And so this is an expression of severe self-abasement, of severe self-reproach before David. Mephibosheth knows that he is as unlikely a candidate to receive what he has now received from King David as they come, to find himself sitting at the table of the king. Who am I? What is your servant that you would show such regard for a dead dog such as I? Do you know what it is to to experience some sense of that wonder as you consider the cross of Jesus Christ, as you consider the price that was paid to ransom your soul from death, that amazing grace? Does your heart rejoice in that? Do you know that that kind of joy? I love the opening verse of Samuel Crossman's old hymn. He says, my my song is love unknown. My savior's love to me, love to the loveless shown that they might lovely be. Oh, who am I that for my sake, the Lord should take frail flesh and die? What claim do we have? What claim do we have on the Lord's kindness? We deserve to be cut off. We deserve to be separated from Him forever. But Christ the King has come and bid us come to Him. He said, Come to Me, all ye who weary and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Christ has condescended, He has sought us out, and He has called us, everyone, to Himself. If you're a child of God, it is because Christ has sought you out. He knows His sheep and He calls them by name. Ephesians 2, verse 4 says, God being rich in mercy because of the great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ. By grace you have been saved and raised us up with Him and seated us with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages He might show the immeasurable riches of His grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. Amen. So when you hear King David look at Mephibosheth and he says, I will, I'll show you kindness for Jonathan's sake. It's in the gospel that we hear the Lord saying, I will show you kindness in Christ. I will show you kindness because of Christ and for Christ. Now look at his condition with me. It seems that God's word here is especially at pains to say, here is loyal love in its most lavish form. And not only that, but loyal love to the most unlikely of sorts. Those of you that are parents, you teach your children not to stare at people who are different than us, and rightly so. It's not kind to make a spectacle out of someone just because they look different or have some kind of disability. But it seems as if the text here purposefully breaks that rule. If you look at verse 3, the Bible says, There is still a son of Jonathan, he is crippled in his feet. Verse 13, he was lame in both his feet. Back in chapter 4, Jonathan, the son of Saul, he had a son who was crippled in his feet. You remember how that happened, the story. The Philistines had decimated Israel on Mount Gilboa. 1 Samuel 31 records that story. Saul and three of his sons were killed. Those that remained in Saul's house could be assured that the Philistines would come and they would pillage what was left. in the family and in the house. And in the aftermath, Mephibosheth's nurse grabbed him or scooped him up or pulled him by the arm. We don't know exactly how it happened, but somehow Mephibosheth fell and he became lame. And it was tragedy heaped on top of a tragic day. 20 years later, it still seems that his identity cannot be detached from his condition. It can't be untangled from the condition he finds himself in. As if to make our sense of awe even more pronounced, the text invites us to look squarely at Mephibosheth, lame, disenfranchised, living in hopeless obscurity in all of his pitiable condition and then stand back and watch all grace abound to him. And so it is with us. Mephibosheth's usefulness was not a part of the equation. What he could do for David didn't factor into what David did for Mephibosheth. The anointed king sought out a nobody because of covenant love. Because of the love of God. Brothers and sisters, this is how Christ has called his people to act. This sort of selfless, self-sacrificing love is how the Lord Jesus Christ commands his church to pattern their own lives. In Luke chapter 14, Jesus urges his disciples in this way. He says, when you give a dinner or a banquet, don't invite your friends. Don't invite your relatives. Don't invite your rich neighbors. Those are the people that are going to repay you. They're going to invite you back and you'll be repaid. Instead, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind, and you will be blessed because they cannot repay you for you will be repaid at the resurrection of the just, the resurrection of the righteous when the Lord Jesus Christ returns. Now, he goes on to explain that this way of living among the people of God and the church of God is emblematic of God's own ways. We're to pattern ourselves in this way because this is the way of Christ. This is God's own manner of dealing with mankind. Luke 14, verse 16. Jesus says, a man once gave a great banquet and invited many. At the time for the banquet, he sent his servants to say to those who had been invited, come, for everything is now ready. But they all alike began to make excuses. And the first said to him, I have bought a field and I must go out and see it. Please have me excused. Another said, I have bought five yoke of oxen and I go to examine them. Please have me excused. And another said, I've married a wife and therefore I cannot come. So the servant came and reported these things to the master. Then the master of the house became angry and said to his servant, Go out quickly to the streets and lanes of the city and bring in the poor and crippled and blind and lame. And the servant said, Sir, what you have commanded has been done and still there is room. And the master said to the servant, go out to the highways and hedges and compel people to come in that my house may be filled for I tell you, none of those men who were invited shall taste my banquet. Now this is something that those of you who are not yet Christians, those of you who are not yet believers and the Lord Jesus Christ need to understand about the Lord. Many people hesitate to come to Christ because they feel that they are unworthy. They feel that they cannot measure up. They feel that they'll wait. They'll wait till they get themselves cleaned up. But the hope of the gospel is that sinners may come to Jesus Christ just as they are, but also with the promise that Jesus Christ will not leave us as we are, but that he will cleanse us, he will clothe us with his righteousness, and he will grant us a place at his table, a place of honor, a place of privilege, a place of access to the king. Psalm 136 says, It is He who remembered us in our low estate, for His steadfast love endures forever, and rescued us from our foes, for His steadfast love endures forever, for He gives food to all His flesh. Will you say it with me? For His steadfast love endures forever. Give thanks to the God of heaven, for His steadfast love endures forever. not because we are worthy, but because he is gracious. Let's pray.