The Kindness of God--2 Samuel 9:3
Day 16
I was a little surprised that Nate Picowicz didn’t finish The Kindness of God: Beholding His Goodness in a Cruel World after the chapter on God’s kindness in suffering.
I mean how many more angles to God’s kindness can there be?
But that’s the point, I think, of exploring Scripture through the lens of another’s eyepiece.
There is more to God’s kindness that I’ve never considered, but really should–besides squaring in my mind how my trials and afflictions are God’s kindness.
Plus, I learned about another odd corner of the Bible.
I’ve never heard of Mephibosheth (or Ziba, Saul’s servant, for that matter) although I’m familiar with conflict and jealousy between Saul (Mephibosheth’s grandfather) and David and the bond between David and Mephibosheth’s father, Jonathan.
And there is the super odd detail, mentioned a few times in 2 Samuel 9, that Jonathan’s son, Mephibosheth is crippled in both feet.
2 Samuel 9:3 Then the king said, “Is there no one remaining of the house of Saul to whom I could show the kindness of God?” And Ziba said to the king, “There is still a son of Jonathan, one who is disabled in both feet.”
Mephibosheth was crippled at age 5 after his father, Jonathan, was killed in battle (2 Samuel 4) and fearing that the Philistines would slaughter all of Jonathan’s sons (which they surely would have), Mephibosheth’s nurse scooped him up to flee–but somehow dropped him and crippled him.
Much later, after David has routed Saul and become king, there is NOW opportunity for David to show kindness to one of Saul’s grandsons.
Maybe the detail of Mephibosheth being crippled is crucial to the Scripture to elicit sympathy from David?
Would David have spared Mephibosheth if he had bad acne instead of being crippled?
Pickowicz comments on the deeper level of kindness shown in this Scripture:
“When we consider the plentiful expressions of God’s kindness displayed throughout Scripture, it is hard not to be overwhelmed with gratitude. Beyond this, beholding the kindness of God motivates us to imitate His example. In fact, the only appropriate active response to receiving kindness is to show kindness to others.”
There is the kernel of truth tucked inside this odd story for me!
I should be motivated by God’s kindness in my life to imitate His example.
I know I’ve said a dozen times as Thanksgiving and the Christmas holidays approach that Karen and I have already had our Christmas.
Even though Karen still has recovery to work through and chemotherapy maintenance to start in January, we feel blessed that she is cancer-free.
Anything else positive that happens from here on out is just–gravy.
We feel that God has been kind to us–shouldn’t we give His kindness to others?
David Mathis remarks (from a talk given at the 2023 Godward Life Panel) on David paying God’s kindness forward:
“He’s not just showing him the kindness of David. He’s showing him the kindness of God. God has been kind to David, which has changed David, taken root in David, and he wants to show God’s kindness to Mephibosheth, to someone from Saul’s house. Even though 10 years ago Saul came after him and tried to kill him, he wants to show kindness to Saul’s house.”
No matter how lowly we feel at times, I think most of us have felt victorious in our lives at some point. We have been on top. We have been the righteous ones. We have prevailed.
In today’s parlance, some would consider that straight up privilege and would not connect our successes to anything beyond the circumstances of our birth.
Maybe.
But what have we done with ourselves when we have succeeded–even at a fraction of the success that David achieved?
I know I have accepted God’s kindness in my life and I’m grateful. Have I shown God’s kindness to anyone else? Especially to someone who maybe hasn’t felt the same successes at the same time I have?
Kent Hansen explores this universal feeling in A Word of Grace:
“Jesus Christ was born in the line of David and David’s life pointed 1,000 years ahead to the grace that Jesus would bring to the earth. This is a story for those who have suffered hurtful carelessness and neglect that have left them in dry, seemingly hopeless places of brokenness and shame. This interaction between the victorious king and the terribly wounded and shamed former prince expresses a universal longing for love, reconciliation and peace.”
There’s another puzzling aspect to the David and Mephibosheth story that rings sort of true to me, but it’s a brutal truth.
David spares Mephibosheth and allows him to live in peace and even lets him be part of his court.
But David doesn’t spare 7 other of Saul’s grandsons. He packages them up and sends them off to the Gibeonites to be hung on a hill in vengeance for a previous slaughter of the Gibeonites that Saul authorized.
The brutal truth, for me, is this–we are much kinder to people if we get to know them PERSONALLY. It’s easy to send people we don’t know to their deaths if we just assign them to a group.
I’ve got to be careful with that.
I’m for mass deportations of illegals because I think illegals have damaged our country in several different ways–but what if I knew some of these people who are here illegally? What if I considered them and their families as friends?
Would I feel differently?
David did.
Lord, help us to have hearts like David, eager to show God’s kindness to others. Teach us to recognize those in need of compassion.
Lord, like Mephibosheth, we come before you with nothing to offer, yet you have invited us to Your table. May we never take Your grace for granted.
Amen.