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2 Samuel

2 Samuel 9

David's kindness to Mephibosheth

In the previous chapter we saw the heart of David; the heart of a servant wanting to serve God.  In this chapter, we see David turn to others in an effort to serve men.  So David sought out the descendants of Saul.  The normal thing to do was to have all of the previous king and his family killed so there was no threat to the throne.  While Saul considered David an enemy, David never saw Saul that way.  David saw himself as an Israelite, one of God's chose people; Saul and hose who followed him were also Israelites, fellow countrymen. 

David and Jonathon had made a covenant.  Jonathon recognized that God had ordained David and would make him king.  Jonathon was going to rule alongside and serve David.  With David now on the throne and the success within the country, David was probably missing Jonathon, thinking about how it could have been.

Ziba was a servant of Saul's and announced that there is a son of Jonathon called Mephibosheth who is crippled in both feet.  Mephibosheth had only been five years old when Saul was killed.  The nurse maid who took care of him dropped him as she fled in fear.  This is what crippled him.  It is in 2 Samuel 4:4 that Mephibosheth shows up as a 12-year-old during the reign of Ish-bosheth.  Since he was crippled, there was no way he could rule.  Mephibosheth considered himself a dead dog, useless and without any value.  David gave him Saul's land and a place at his table, treating him like his own son.  This is all a result of the friendship with Jonathon.