Kindness is a language the dumb can speak, the deaf can hear, and the blind can see (Mark Twain). You don’t have to say it, people know when it is there.
• Kindness is more than just loving people. It is loving people more than they deserve. Kindness is ‘going the extra mile’. It is grace in action.
We are going to see that today in 2 Samuel 9:1-13 [read]
David now enjoys rest from all his enemies. The Kingdom is established. He has capable leaders overseeing the administration (8:16).
• David knows these are the result of God’s grace and blessing in his life.
• While enjoying God’s goodness, David remembers Jonathan, his good friend, and asked (9:1) “Is there anyone still left of the house of Saul to whom I can show kindness for Jonathan's sake?”
David had made a covenant with Jonathan – 1 Sam 20 when Jonathan helped him escape.
• 1 Sam 20:15-17 – Jonathan said, “…do not ever cut off your kindness from my family - not even when the LORD has cut off every one of David's enemies from the face of the earth. 16So Jonathan made a covenant with the house of David, saying, "May the LORD call David's enemies to account." 17And Jonathan had David reaffirm his oath out of love for him, because he loved him as he loved himself.
• It was also a promise David made to Saul, when he spared his life and Saul said (1 Sam 24:21-22): “Now swear to me by the LORD that you will not cut off my descendants or wipe out my name from my father's family." 22So David gave his oath to Saul.
Saul and Jonathan both died in the battle against the Philistines.
• No one is going to hold him accountable but David will honour his word. He took steps to find out if anyone is left in Saul’s household.
• He has only ONE reason for this – to show KINDNESS.
He stated this very clearly. In fact, this reason was said 3 times in this text:
• When he asked the question in the COURT (v.1) – “to whom I can show kindness”,
• To ZIBA Saul’s former servant (v.3) – “to whom I can show God’s kindness”, and
• Finally when MEPHIBOSHETH Saul’s grandson arrived (v.7) 0 “I will surely show you kindness”.
David was determined to SHOW KINDNESS. He initiated it. He wanted it. It was not in response to any need or any call for help.
• It was a promise he had made and he kept to it. No one is going to come after him for this, but this is what a man of integrity will do.
• In fact, David was likely touched by God’s kindness in his own life, because he says to ZIBA he wants to show God’s kindness (v.3).
• “God has been good to me, and I want to share His blessings with Saul’s house.”
INITIATE KINDNESS
We don’t usually initiate acts of kindness. Most people show kindness only in RESPONSE to a need.
• David initiates KINDNESS. He was determined to do that. It flows out of the kindness of God he receives.
Such an act was actually quite exceptional in David’s time.
• In those days, when a regime or dynasty comes into power, the new King would want to solidify his position by purging the dethroned family.
• They would want to remove all possible threats to the throne, like what we often see in Chinese or Korean dramas set in ancient times of the dynasties.
But not so for David. He made an effort to locate the descendants of Saul’s house and found his grandson Mephibosheth, Jonathan’s son.
• We first learnt of him in 2 Sam 4:4 “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.”
• He was crippled, living in obscurity and in poverty (most likely) in a remote place called Lo-Debar (distant East of Jordan, near the edge of Israel’s border).
• And he is lame, not in one foot but both feet (9:3, 13).
There was nothing this man could offer David. He was crippled, not in one foot but both feet. It would not benefit David in anyway, to have him in the palace.
• Mephibosheth himself said, "What is your servant, that you should notice a dead dog like me?" (9:8)
• To call himself a DOG is repulsive enough (for a Jew), but he said, DEAD dog. Unclean, contemptible and quite useless.
• David first words were: “DON’T BE AFRAID.” (9:7), naturally Mephibosheth was. Why would you even want me here?
David said something that stunned him. 3 things David plans to do FOR him:
• (1) “I will restore to you all the land that belonged to your grandfather Saul.
• (2) “You will stay here with me and will always eat at my table.” (9:7)
• And David also instructed ZIBA (9:9) to get his sons (15) and servants (20) and farm the land to provide Mephibosheth the crops he needs.
• To give me (1) is good enough, (2) is very good, but David even prepares for what he needs in (3).
David’s offer is not a token gesture; it is extravagant (ex-travelgen). The sense is, “This is too much! This is overly generous!”
• This was clearly an act of grace. It was lovingkindness (hesed), to a man who did not deserve it and could never earn it and would never be able to repay it.
• That’s the KINDNESS OF GOD. We can identify with Mephibosheth here. We receive from God that which we do not deserve, we cannot earn and we can never repay.
KINDNESS TRANSFORMS
Mephibosheth found grace that day. Or rather, grace found him. Right?
• He did not seek the King; King sought him out. He was a “nobody” but now become a “somebody” in David’s household.
• He would now eat at the King’s table. This is not the occasional BONUS, but a lifetime PENSION the King is giving him.
• For the rest of his life, he would ALWAYS eat at the King’s table. The outcast has become family.
The Scriptures seem to emphasize this.
• V.7 David says to him, “…you will always eat at my table.”
• V.10 he instructs servant ZIBA: “Mephibosheth, grandson of your master, will always eat at my table.”
• V.11 confirms “So Mephibosheth ate at David’s table like one of the king’s sons.”
• And finally, as if we still did not get the message right, the author writes in V.13 “he always ate at the king’s table… and he was crippled in both feet.”
The emphasis is deliberate. Mephibosheth is blessed by the King’s kindness.
• He will always have the King’s ear and his attention, right across the table, enjoying His presence at every meal.
We are all Mephibosheth’s before God. We are crippled by sin. We are like “dead dogs” with nothing to offer except our filthiness.
• But the Lord came to look for us and brought us back. Jesus BOUGHT us with His life.
• We are ushered into His Kingdom, and now can FELLOWSHIP with Him every day.
The kindness of God transforms us. How can we not be grateful? How can we not honour Him and worship Him?
A pastor Richard Ezell shared this testimony. His dad travels frequently to buy shoes for the shoe store that his parents run. On some of his overnight trips, he would take someone with him for company. Sometimes it was one of his children, and sometimes his servant/helper Willie, who is an African-American.
On one overnight trip his dad pulled into a motel to stay the night. They were at the front desk requesting for a room for each, the desk clerk looked up and said, “I can give you a room, but I will not give one to him!” (Pointing to the black man).
It was during those times when racial discrimination was still prevalent.
“If he can’t stay then I won’t stay,” answered my father. They walked out.
Out in the parking lot Willie said, “Mr Ezell, you can stay in that room and I’ll sleep here in the van. I’ll be all right.”
“No,” my dad said. “If they won’t let you stay in that motel, then I won’t stay either. You are like family to me.” They both slept in the van that night.
At his dad’s funeral, Willie related this story to Richard. He said that dad’s words changed his life. For years he had thought of himself as second class and second rate. But when dad said, “You are like family to me,” it raised his esteem and his dignity.
David’s KINDNESS changed Mephibosheth’s life.
• You can say, God’s kindness shown through David, changed Mephibosheth’s life!
The world treasures those who are beautiful, capable, skilful and smart.
• We love high-achievers. We value people by their KPIs (what they can produce).
• I wonder if anyone would want a Mephibosheth, specially highlighted here to us as one who is crippled on both feet – 3 times (2 Sam 4:4, 2 Sam 9:3, 13).
• He could not even come to the King by himself without help. He was likely carried to the palace.
David AFFIRMS his dignity. At first, I thought of saying, David “restores his dignity”, but on second thought, I finds it incorrect. He did not restore his dignity as if he does not have; he affirms it.
• We are all precious in the eyes of God. Valuable and dignified people.
A French Prime Minister was in hospital for a major operation, to be performed by an eminent surgeon. Said the Prime Minister: "You will not, of course, treat me in the same manner as you would treat those poor and ordinary peasants at the hospital."
"Sir," the surgeon replied, "every one of those poor and ordinary people, as your Eminence is pleased to call them, is a Prime Minister in my eyes!"
That’s probably why God wants this story to be placed in the Scriptures, to remind us of some things that are important.
(1) Every life matters. Every life is made in the image of God and precious.
• It has nothing to do with their looks, capabilities, intelligence or achievements.
(2) Every life needs to be touched by God’s kindness.
• What David did was an EXPRESSION of what God did FOR him – bringing him from the pasture to the palace, from being a shepherd to being a King.
• God is good and kind. We are called to be like Him. Kindness is the fruit of the Holy Spirit. Be kind.
• Matt 5:16 “In the same way, let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven.”
Rev Ira Gillett, missionary to Portuguese East Africa, tells the story of a group of natives who made a long journey and walked past a government hospital to come to the mission hospital for treatment. When asked why they had walked the extra distance to reach the mission hospital when the same medicines were available at the government hospital, they replied, "The medicines may be the same, but the hands are different." — Upper Room
Can people see the difference in us?
• If God has been so good to us, then I like to echo David’s words:
Is there anyone to whom we can show God’s kindness?
