Date: 25.2.17
Text: 2 Samuel 9:1-13
Place: Rhema
Title: A Kingdom of Kindness
File: 2Samuel5(rhema)
Preacher: Stephen Taylor
Not long ago a man of Middle Eastern appearance walked into a new car showroom & asked to speak with a particular salesperson. The receptionist called for him, the fellow walked to the front, and they greeted each other. The man said, “I’d like to buy some trucks.” Some trucks. That caught the salesman’s attention. “What did you have in mind, sir?”
“I want to buy 750 heavy duty trucks and 250 pickups.” The salesman is stunned. Surely someone is pulling a prank. This cannot be happening. The man pulls out a letter of credit with a huge American bank. It is legitimate. This is the real deal. The salesman says, “Sir, you know you can go to Detroit and buy those trucks at a huge discount.”
The customer said, “Sir, 10 years ago I was a college student in your city. Being from the Middle East made it hard for Americans to befriend me. I soon discovered you have to have a car in America, so I came to you. I picked out a car. You said to me, ‘I can sell you that car and I’ll make a nice commission. But you would not be happy with it. It’s more car than you need.’ So you sold me a smaller car. It was the nicest thing anyone in America had ever done for me. And I decided I would repay you for your kindness when I got a chance. So, I now want to buy one thousand trucks through you.”
The power of kindness. It can be life changing can’t it? At times a small act can have massive implications. But when you think about it, kindness is not something that we really value today. It is a dog eat dog world that we live in and so when we look for leaders we seem to want them to give us strong borders, economic growth, lower taxes. Kindness doesn’t really bring in extra votes. And sometimes the Church can be the same.
We want a Church that preaches the Bible, where there is a strong young people’s work, where there is opportunities for training and service but kindness? That sounds a bit weak doesn’t it. And yet Paul says the fruits of the Spirit are “love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control." Those of us who have experienced God’s kindness in our lives should display that kindness to others.
Well King David has experienced God’s kindness many times throughout his life. He has been protected from the hands of Saul. He has been crowned king of all Israel. Last week we saw that God gave him an extraordinary promise, I will ensure that your kingdom will last forever. So it is now David’s turn to show kindness.
- Kindness Initiated (verses 1-4)
Verse 1. David asked, “Is there anyone still left of the house of Saul to whom I can show kindness for Jonathan’s sake?” Is there anyone left? In those days when a king took over from a rival king there was almost always a purge. A killing off of the rival’s family, a removing of all the previous administrators and leaders. So fresh blood is bought in, rewarding the loyalty of your own supporters. So it would be no surprise for a king once they are established to ask is there anyone left of the old dynasty.
But David asks is there anyone left of the house of Saul to whom I can show kindness for Jonathan’s sake. David remembers the promise, the covenant he cut with his friend Jonathan, the heir to Saul’s throne. Let me remind you of it for it appears in 1 Samuel 20:14. There David promised to show Jonathan unfailing kindness like that of the Lord as long as he lived and especially that he would never cut off his kindness to Jonathan’s family.
Now David was a man who desired to keep his word. Yes he could have conveniently forgotten what he said, it was almost 15 years ago by this time. But because of Jonathan’s kindness to David, because of God’s kindness to David, David saw that keeping his word was important. Especially when it meant showing kindness to someone else.
Some of you might have heard of the Princeton scholar of the early twentieth century BB Warfield. Warfield was a great thinker and theologian who held onto the importance of God’s word in the midst of a rising tide of liberalism. But did you know that on his honeymoon to his bride Annie they got caught in a massive thunderstorm which was such a shock to her that she never really recovered and was an invalid for the rest of her life?
For the next 39 years of his life Warfield only left her for his lecturing duties and was never away for more than 2 hours at a time. One of his students noted when he saw the Warfields out walking together “the gentleness of his manner was striking proof of the loving care with which he surrounded her”. Warfield had made promises to God concerning his wife, he intended to keep his promises.
David wanted to keep his promise to Jonathan and according to v 3 he also wanted to show God’s kindness not just to Jonathan’s family but to anyone who was left in the house of Saul. This is not just a random act of kindness, this is an act of gratitude for God’s kindness to him. Those who have received the mercy of God want to share that mercy with others.
So one of Saul’s servants Ziba is called in and he is asked who is left? “Ziba answered the king, “There is still a son of Jonathan; he is lame in both feet.” Now I want you to imagine the scene. The descendants of Saul have all escaped and all lying low, very low. Ziba is quite a powerful man we are going to find out later that he has fifteen sons and twenty servants himself and really he should be still serving Saul’s descendants, that was his job after all!
There is one who is lame so he’s really not worth much. But as the story goes that will not matter. David wants to show kindness to him because of his promise to Jonathan, because of God’s kindness to him and because that is the sort of king he wants to be. He wants to run a kingdom of kindness.
Now whenever we look at the OT, it is important to see the links with the NT. It it because of God’s promise to his people & the fact that he wants to rule over a kingdom of kindness that God choose sinners like you & me. We aren’t really worth much to him. We can’t be any real use to him but he has kindly sent his only Son Jesus into this world & graciously reached out to us with a mercy that we didn’t deserve. More on that later. Kindness initiated and
- Kindness Doubted (verses 5-8)
So King David had him brought from Lo Debar, from the house of Makir son of Ammiel. 6 When Mephibosheth son of Jonathan, the son of Saul, came to David, he bowed down to pay him honor. David said, “Mephibosheth!” “At your service,” he said
“Don’t be afraid,” David said to him, “for I will surely show you kindness for the sake of your father Jonathan. I will restore to you all the land that belonged to your grandfather Saul, and you will always eat at my table.” 8 Mephibosheth bowed down and said, “What is your servant, that you should notice a dead dog like me?”
Mephibosheth’s name means Son of Shame & he has been living in a place called Lo Debar which literally means “no pasture”. He’s a cripple, the next in line to the throne of his grand father Saul and he is coming to meet the king. No wonder he is terrified. He expected the king’s wrath instead he got the King’s kindness. But here we see it is not because of anything in Mephibosheth himself that earned him this kindness it is because of the promise that David had made to his father. He received God’s grace because of someone else’s promise.
And what grace it was. David promises him protection, provision and position. Firstly protection he has no reason to be afraid anymore. He will not be on his own but will come under the protection of the king himself. And provision, he will receive back all the lands that belonged to his grandfather Saul. Not just that which belonged to his father Jonathan but all the previous king’s private lands. And finally position, he is given a position of honour, he will eat at the table like one of the King’s own sons. He will no longer have to grovel like a servant at the king’s feet he will be able to sit at the table like the King’s sons.
The kindness of the king is astonishing. Unbelievable in fact. He doesn’t just honour his word to Jonathan and do the bare minimum but he heaps goodness and grace on Mephibosheth’s life. He protects his life. He restores his pastures, he saves him from the shadow of death and prepares a table for him. Amazing.
Again let’s look forward to what the Good Shepherd does as he fulfils his OT promises to you & I. We are like dead dogs. Lost in our sin. Crippled emotionally, spiritually. Yet through no merit of our own, only because of the promise that God made through Adam, Abraham, Moses, David, Ezekiel we who expect God’s wrath instead receive the king’s kindness.
We do not need to fear. We can grab hold of what the angels said to the shepherd, “Fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, who is Christ the Lord.” And as David gives Mephibosheth the kindness of God, Paul reminds us in Titus 3:4 that “the goodness and loving kindness of God our Saviour has appeared to us in the form of the Lord Jesus Christ”. Or as he says to the Corinthians “God chose the weak things of this world, the despised things to confound the mighty”. But more on that later as well, kindness initiated, doubted
- Kindness Experienced. (verses 9-13)
For this is not just a promise from a politician which they will retract later when they realise how much it is going to cost. David gets on with it and does something straight away. “Then the king summoned Ziba, Saul’s steward & said to him, “I have given your master’s grandson everything that belonged to Saul and his family. 10 You and your sons and your servants are to farm the land for him and bring in the crops, so that your master’s grandson may be provided for. And Mephibosheth, grandson of your master, will always eat at my table.”
And that was that. Mephibosheth needed help to look after his property and so David supplies him with help. Ziba and his sons and servants will take away all the hassle from his life. And that will enable verse 13, “Mephibosheth to live in Jerusalem, because he always ate at the king’s table; he was lame in both feet”.
So one more time Mephibosheth’s lameness is mentioned. For there is a cost involved in David’s kindness. David picks up the tab. He loses some of his servants. He will provide for Mephibosheth and his young son Mica as well. The grace is freely given but the King absorbs the costs himself. He has effectively adopted Mephibosheth & will treat him as his own son.
For Mephibosheth the transformation is complete. He once lived in the palace then he went to the wilderness but now he has regained favour from the king, is given a place of honour & is now right at the centre of the action. He is no longer on the edge but right in the centre of the halls of power. And once again doesn’t that point us to the New Testament?
The prophet Isaiah years later looked forward to the day when “the lame man will leap like a deer.” Jeremiah says that on the last day the Lord himself will gather a great crowd to himself including the lame. And Jesus, the son of David is the one who brings in this Kingdom. Who reaches out to the lame, who cares for the lame, who even heals the lame. It is Jesus Christ who adopts us as his sons and brings us to the feast of the wedding supper of the lamb. It is Jesus who should have given us wrath but who instead gives us grace. Who could have treated us as we deserve but reaches out to us in loving kindness.
For when you think about it you are the Lord’s Mephibosheth. Me and you should relate to Mephibosheth. There is absolutely no reason why we should eat at the Lord’s table. There is no reason why we should be adopted as his sons and daughters. We are like dead dogs, lost in our sin and our rebellion. Yet God has shown us incredible kindness and amazing grace.
How did the Scottish preacher Robert Murray McCheyne put it? “I once was a stranger to grace to God. I knew not my danger and felt not my load. Through friends spoke in rapture of Christ on the tree. Jehovah Tsidkenu was nothing to me
When free grace awoke me by light from on high. Then legal fears shook me, I trembled to die. No refuge, no safety in self could I see – Jehovah Tsidkenu my Saviour must be.
My terrors all vanished before the sweet name; My guilty fears banished, with boldness I came To drink at the fountain, life giving and free – Jehovah Tsidkenu is all things to me.
Yet the story of Mephibosheth is not over yet, even though the story of 2 Samuel moves onto other issues. Twice again in the book of 2 Samuel we again cross paths with both Ziba and Mephibosheth. And I think that these stories show that David as a king is not going to just show one act of kindness, he wants a kingdom of kindness.
For even when it seems like Methibosheth has let him down, David patiently looks at all the facts, gives each side the benefit of the doubt and continues to give them kindness. He persevered with grace. Because he wants to lead a kingdom of kindness.
Now let’s draw some of these threads together shall we? Don’t we experience God’s
kindness every moment of every day? Every breath we take, every new second we are alive is a gift, a wonderful gift from our creator God. Yet it doesn’t stop there. The food that we eat, the family that surround us, friendships that we experience, the jobs that we have, the beauty of where we live, the access to health and nutrition, all of these things come from the loving hand of our God. And yet how slow we are to give him thanks.
But add to that, that our sin deserves his righteous judgement. That every day we turn our back on the King of Kings and Lord of Lords. We deserve God’s judgement and we deserved to receive it every day of our lives but he is patient with us, he perseveres with us. Each moment that we are spared from God’s wrath shows us the riches of his kindness to us.
But friends do you and I presume on God’s kindness? Do we take it for granted? Do we say to ourselves I just have to set up my family first, I will just achieve these things for myself first, and then then I will start returning the favour. Then I will put God first in my life. Then I will tell everyone of his wondrous grace to me?
Well listen to what the apostle Paul says in Romans 2:4 “Do you show contempt for the riches of his kindness, forbearance and patience, not realizing that God’s kindness is intended to lead you to repentance” Why has God shown you and I kindness? Why did God show dead dogs like you and me mercy? Why did he keep his promises in the past and why is he right now preparing a feast where we will eat with God himself into eternity?
To lead you & I toward repentance. To fill us with gratitude for what God has done that we no longer want to live as if we are the kings of our lives, but Jesus is the king. So that each day we might turn from our normal way of life & put our trust in God’s Holy Spirit that he is placed within us so that over time the fruits of the Spirit “love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, & self-control" become more & more evident in our lives. So that just like David had received God’s kindness and gave it to Mephibosheth so we who have received God’s ultimate kindness in Christ might share it with others.
Friends this place should be filled with kindness. If the preaching of the gospel is taking effect, if our people are being trained for service, if the young people are being modelled the gospel here, the Church should be brimming with kindness. God’s kindness. And we should be known for it in the community around us.
Friends that is the kindness of the kingdom. We have been changed by God’s kindness. We
now have Gods Holy Spirit of kindness. And we look for ways and means where we can be kind to others. Not so that they can scratch our back in return but so that God’s kindness and mercy and grace might be seen by all around us. So that the whole world might acknowledge the kindness of the king. The kindness of King Jesus.