God is Kind
II Samuel 9:1-12
David asked, “Is there anyone still left of the house of Saul to whom I can show kindness for Jonathan’s sake?”
Now there was a servant of Saul’s household named Ziba. They summoned him to appear before David, and the king said to him, “Are you Ziba?” “At your service,” he replied. The king asked, “Is there no one still alive from the house of Saul to whom I can show God’s kindness?”
Ziba answered the king, “There is still a son of Jonathan; he is lame in both feet.” “Where is he?” the king asked. Ziba answered, “He is at the house of Makir son of Ammiel in Lo Debar.” So King David had him brought from Lo Debar, from the house of Makir son of Ammiel.
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 replied. “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.”
Mephibosheth bowed down and said, “What is your servant, that you should notice a dead dog like me?” Then the king summoned Ziba, Saul’s steward, and said to him, “I have given your master’s grandson everything that belonged to Saul and his family. 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.” (Now Ziba had fifteen sons and twenty servants.) Then Ziba said to the king, “Your servant will do whatever my lord the king commands his servant to do.” So Mephibosheth ate at David’sa table like one of the king’s sons.
Mephibosheth had a young son named Mika, and all the members of Ziba’s household were servants of Mephibosheth. And Mephibosheth lived in Jerusalem, because he always ate at the king’s table; he was lame in both feet.
God is Kind
II Samuel 9:1-12
Introduction
In describing the attributes of God, there are many characteristics that we could observe; we could look at His love, power and holiness. It is important to note that all these attributes, and many more, belong to God. But none of them describe the completeness of God alone. Herein todays’ focal scriptures, a narrative of God’s servant King David, we find yet another attribute of God: God is full of kindness.
You see, when David was a lot younger he was best friends with Saul’s son (Jonathan). And in
I Samuel chs. 18-20, Jonathan gave up his kingly inheritance to David, knowing that David was God’s choice, and covenants were made with David for David to remember him (to see after Jonathan’s descendants). And hear in II Samuel 9, we find David as king displaying the kindness of God, saying “Is there anyone still left of the house of Saul to whom I can show kindness for Jonathan’s sake?”. Thank God for kindness in a friend who sticks closer than a brother.
In our focal scripture, David is now the reigning King of Israel. The previous King – King Saul and his son Jonathan died in the war with the Philistines. They had a descendant, now an orphan, Mephibosheth. He was lame in both feet. 2 Sam 4:4 tells us why – “Jonathan son of Saul had a son who was lame in both feet. He was five years old when the news about Saul and Jonathan came from Jezreel. His nurse picked him up and fled, but as she hurried to leave, he fell and became crippled. His name was Mephibosheth.” And this crippled man now lives in a place called Lodebar.
Lodebar was a place “out of the way”, in a hilly displaced-hard to reach area, a place where the marginalized due to illnesses reside, people with deformities, fugitives of possibly undue-crimes (such as crimes instigated by poverty), and the societal misfits live there… in Lodebar. Mephiboseth, a lame man, orphaned son of Jonathan, now lives in Lodebar. But God’s kindness functioned through King David, and he was thinking aloud, “Is there anyone still left of the house of Saul to whom I can show kindness for Jonathan’s sake?” And resultantly, Mephiboseth was brought to the king’s palace to live in Jerusalem and eat at the kings table for the rest of his life. In other words, through God’s kindness through David, Mephiboseth was brought from the margins to the mainstream of life with dignity. Thank God for His kindness.
Contemporary Understanding:
If the truth is told, God has brought many of us out the Lodebars of our lives. We now have nice homes. We now have food to eat and clothes on our backs. We now have a place to call home. And although we are crippled in many ways, we yet have transportation and family and a decent form of employment. For many of us we were brought out of the Lodebar of education, and we now have associate, undergraduate and graduate degrees… and certifications and licenses. God has been kind in that he brought us out so that many of us can live with dignity.
Rhetorical Question:
What can we men do today, shewforth God’s kindness unto the Mephiboseths in our Lodebars today? Beloved there are pockets of Lodebar in DC, pockets of Lodebar in Baltimore, pockets of Lodebar in most major cities and towns throughout the United States. Places of people who have been hurt due to unlivable wages and unfair unemployment; places of people who are hurt because of the inability to afford healthcare; places of people who are fugitives who try to avoid being unjustly arrested, or unjustly jailed, and unjustly killed of no causes of their own. Locales of people who the dominant culture would like to call cultural misfits, underserved communities; and recipients of what Paulo Friere calls “banking education”, whereas they are not given the tools to achieve… and thus remain within the citizenship of what social researcher Dr. Ruby Payne call’s generational poverty. Caused to be modern-day Mephiboseths in modern-day Lodebars. What can we men do since we have been brought out of the Lodebars of our lives?
Let’s reflect on God Kindness through David….
I. Exposition: David Remembered where he came from… and asked the question…
David asked, “Is there anyone still left of the house of Saul to whom I can show kindness for Jonathan’s sake?”
A. In the Hebrew language the word kindness is called “chesed” which has many contextual understandings … but always as an implication toward God. The context of kindness in David’s question could hint to us God’s faithfulness.
B. Although the leader (Saul) is gone. And then his son (Jonathan) is gone. And Jonathan’s son is out of sight. It might appear to many that God’s established leadership is gone. But God, showing his kindness in the form of faithfulness, skips the promotion from the expected ones, and sends the kingly office unto “….a man after my own heart; he will do everything I want him to” (I Sam. 13:14; Acts 13:22). God is kind… in the form of faithfulness.
C. Beloved, this is not the first time that God had used kindness in form of faithfulness, in the “sending effect” to ensure the Israelites’ safety.
• In Genesis, God was faithful when He sent a ram in the bush to preserve His promise to Abraham.
• In Exodus, God was faithful when He sent a boy in a basket to preserve the People of God and lead them to their Promise Land.
• In I & II Samuel God was faithful and sent a shepherd boy David, to defeat Goliath and succeed Saul to establish the Israelites from wanderers to property owners.
Beloved, all of us who are saved, sanctified, and filled with the Holy Ghost today can testify to the kindness of God in faithfulness
When humanity was destroying herself, God showed his kindness in faithfulness, and rescued us.
• For God so loved the world that He gave (sent) His only begotten Son, that whosoever believe on him will not perish but will have everlasting life (John 3:16)
• Romans 8:3-4, For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh: That the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.
D. And David, (“…a man after God’s own heart”), made good of the promise that he made his friend Jonathan…. by seeking after someone that he might show the kindness of God in faithfulness to “…remember him when he comes into his kingdom”.
Remember God’s kindness in the form of faithfulness as we remember where we came from.
What can we men do since we have been brought out of the Lodebars of our lives?
II. Exposition: Second, Remember God’s mercy in our pasts.
Now there was a servant of Saul’s household named Ziba. They summoned him to appear before David, and the king said to him, “Are you Ziba?” “At your service,” he replied. The king asked, “Is there no one still alive from the house of Saul to whom I can show God’s kindness?”
A. In this text Ziba realizes that he should not be alive because it was customary that when kingships changed, all of the men and especially previous kings’ sons and male-servants were killed, else they would rise up and attempt and avenge the late-king by killing the new king. But under David’s kingship, Ziba’s life is spared.
1. Thus, in the context of this saying (“Is there noone still alive from the house of Saul to whom I can show God’s kindness?”) the kindness of God can be understood as David desiring “…to show God’s mercy”.
2. See, it was fitting for David himself to readily desire to exude kindness in the form of mercy, because he had found God to continuously shewforth His loving-kindness in the form of mercy throughout his life.
• He (David) remembered that a lion and a bear of David’s childhood could not subdue David as he kept his father’s sheep, because of God’s kindness in the form mercy.
• He (David) remembered that a Philistine giant named Goliath could not defeat David as he battled for the army of the Lord, because of God’s kindness in the form mercy.
• He (David) remembered that a jealous bossman named King Saul could not arrogantly get rid of David as he served the Israelite’s army, because of God’s kindness in the form mercy.
3. Beloved we should all praise God for His kindness in the form of mercy, which has prevented the inevitable from happening in our lives.
• God’s kindness in the form of mercy has prevented the types of bears and lions of in our childhood from subduing us.
• God’s kindness in the form of mercy has prevailed against the Goliath type giants which we had to battle in our lives.
• God’s kindness in the form of mercy has kept us on our jobs, in our marriages, and even his prevenient grace called mercy has delivered us safely here to the House of God.
We should remember that God showed kindness in the form of type mercy! God was merciful to us.
It was so fitting for David to remember God’s kindness in the form of mercy ‘til he penned in the Psalm 23:8 saying The Lord’s “…goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever” (Psalm 23:8).
What can we men do since we have been brought out of the Lodebars of our lives?
Don’t Just sing about it. Don’t Just write about it.
III. Exposition: Third, Remember the grace of God that helped you, and you help someone else along the way.
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.”
Belove, it wasn’t enough to just discuss Mephiboseth’s problem.
• It wasn’t enough to just bring Mephiboseth out of Lodebar.
• It wasn’t enough to just give Mephiboseth his grandfather’s inheritance (a hand out).
• David gave Mephiboseth a seat at the king’s table. Gave him God’s kindness in the form of grace.
We must bestow God's kindness as illustrated by David, unto someone else: not just a hand-out, but empowerment equal as that of our own.
IV. The Gospel Message of Kindness
I hear the gospel message in that… sending Abraham was not enough. God sending Moses was not enough. God sending David was not enough. God sending the Prophets to prophecy about the coming of God was not enough. So God sent his sent his own Son…but him coming was not enough. He healed people…. But that was not enough. So took Jesus and tried him in a kangaroo court… but that was not enough. They beat him all day long… but that was not enough. They hung him on the cross….but that was not enough. They drove nails in his hands and feet… but that was not enough. And They pierced him in side…but that was not enough. And Jesus died on the cross and paid for our sins…. But that was not enough. They put him in kingly tomb… but that was not enough. Jesus staying in the tomb all night Friday and all day Saturday was not enough So early on Sunday morning after Jesus’ death… he rose from the grave. And breathed the Holy Ghost on his disciples…. Empowering them to heal. Empowering them speak on behalf of this sick. And one of these old days, we will sit at the table of King Jesus.
V. Closing: Kindness is Love
Beloved, David’s name mean’s God’s love.
What does that mean for we men today?
Beloved, giving a person a job is not enough, handouts, is not enough. Beloved, giving a person a seat at the table of decision making in their own lives and in their community. Then we will be showing forth the kindness of God.
How can we show the kindness of God?
1. Remember where he came from, testimony.
2. Remember the Kindness of God in mercy.
3. Remember the kindness of God in the form of grace… and help someone else along the way.
Our contemporary believers sing a song, which says:
Faithful. Faithful. Faithful is our God.
Faithful. Faithful. Faithful is our God.
I’m redeeming the harvest God promised me.
Take back what the devil stole from me.
And rejoice today….
I shall recover it all.
