Due to his brief appearance in Scripture, Mephibosheth is often overlooked. However, his life calls attention to the goodness of God. While grace allows us all to live, some lives are so profoundly stamped by God’s grace that the impressions are inescapable. The Lord unmistakably imprinted His grace upon the life of Mephibosheth.
While there were two cousins with the name Mephibosheth (2 Samuel 21:7-8), it’s Jonathan’s son that gets our attention today. At the age of 5, Mephibosheth’s father (Jonathan), and grandfather (Saul) were both killed in battle. “When the news about Saul and Jonathan came from Jezreel, and his (Mephibosheth’s) nurse took him up and fled, and as she fled in her haste, he fell and became lame” (2 Samuel 4:4). It should be noted that Jonathan had been a close friend with the soon to be King David
Some years later, “the Lord gave victory to David wherever he went… So David reigned over all Israel, and administered justice and equity to all his people” (2Sa 8:14-15). There came a day, when King David summoned a man by the name of Ziba, who used to be a servant of King Saul. The question was put to him, “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” (2Sa 9:3). David promptly had Mephibosheth brought from Lo-debar where he was living.
2 Samuel 9:6-7 tells of the occasion. “Mephibosheth the son of Jonathan, son of Saul, came to David and fell on his face and paid homage… 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 grandfather, and you shall eat at my table always.’”
“All that belonged to Saul and to all his house,” David gifted to Mephibosheth (2Sa 9:9). King David also assigned Ziba, with his son’s and servants, to farm the land gifted to Mephibosheth as his servants. Although we don’t read of Mrs Mephibosheth, he did have a young son by the name of Mica, who was also included in David’s blessing. “So Mephibosheth lived in Jerusalem, for he ate always at the king’s table” (2Sa 9:13).
Grace, by nature, gifts people with blessings that they neither deserve nor see coming. David deliberately showed kindness to Mephibosheth as an extension of the “kindness of God” (2Sa 9:3). Therefore, it was God who oversaw and orchestrated the implementation of such amazing kindness into the life of Mephibosheth. Through David, God administered what would have been unimagined kindness upon Mephibosheth. Likewise, God’s grace can flow through our lives to others because of Christ.
Paul explained the love of Christ to the Corinthians this way. The life changing exchange of our sin for Christ’s righteousness is not to be kept to yourself. “All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation; 19 that is, in Christ God was …entrusting to us the message of reconciliation. 20 Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us…” (2 Corinthians 5:18-20).
Just as we see God’s grace in Mephibosheth’s life, so believer’s experience God’s grace in Christ. God wants us, like David, to deliver His grace into the lives of others. I encourage you to live out God’s loving grace. Allow others to receive Christ’s blessings and for God to get the glory.
