Very little is sacred in our modern day, and anything that resembles a covenant certainly shares that same fate. Treaties between nations are bent and broken if it is convenient for one party or another. Some view marriages as contracts of convenience, not solemn vows before God not quickly and easily broken. It is a shame, because it makes 2 Samuel 9 harder to understand for the modern reader.
David’s house may have triumphed over Saul’s, but that didn’t mean that every descendant of Saul had to be erased from history. David also made a covenant with Jonathan, and he intended to keep it. In this passage, David shows the depths of covenant loyalty, that looks past dynastic conflict and the physical frailty of the recipient, to show David’s covenant love for Jonathan. And in this event, we see the covenant love of God for us.
King David had firmly established his rule over Israel. God had given him victory over the enemy nations which surrounded Israel, and riches and tribute had flooded into Israel. God’s People were also well organised and ruled, and not left alone while David ran around the Middle East engaging in armed conflict.
With the situation at home and abroad settled, King David turned to more personal matters. He asked his advisors “Is there still anyone left of the house of Saul, that I may show him kindness for Jonathan’s sake?” (v.1).
Many years may have passed (perhaps almost as many as twenty years), but David had not forgotten Jonathan and the covenant they had made together. David had made promises (1 Samuel 20:15) and he intended to keep them.
The advisors found one of Saul’s household staffers, Ziba, who revealed that a son of Jonathan remained alive, with crippled feet even (vv.2-3). Ziba gave up the location of Jonathan’s son (v.4).
Perhaps Ziba expected an execution squad to be quickly dispatched. We do not know. However, David was not thinking of knocking off a rival (even if a cripple), but fulfilling his covenant promises.
David had Jonathan’s son brought before him, from the location he had been hiding for many years (v.5, cf. 2 Samuel 4:4).
Mephibosheth, Jonathan’s son, came before David (v.6). No doubt fearful for his own safety and that of his family, “Mephibosheth the son of Jonathan, son of Saul, came to David and fell on his face and paid homage” and professed his servant status (v.6). Perhaps if he grovelled enough, he might keep his head.
To this fear, David offered love far beyond anything Mephibosheth could have expected. Not because David had a soft spot for cripples, but because of his loyalty to a covenant made decades before.
He offered Mephibosheth protection, saying “I will show you kindness for the sake of your father Jonathan” (v.7). He offered him provision, by “restor[ing] to you all the land of Saul your father” so Mephibosheth had an income stream to rely on. And he offered him a position “at my table always” (v.7), just like one of David’s sons.
Mephibosheth was astounded! (v.8) But David was serious. Ziba and his fifteen sons and twenty servants were tasked with working Mephibosheth’s lands (vv.9-11). Mephibosheth ate at David’s table (v.12), enjoying David’s company and concern. His son, Mica, enjoyed the benefits of David’s grace to Mephibosheth too (v.13).
And Ziba and his servants toiled away, while Mephibosheth enjoyed the position of a favoured son, not a servant (v.13).
David went far beyond what even the most generous of his fellow kings might have done. Regime change usually meant the end of the previous rulers’ family. No challengers, no challenge. Even a merciful ruler, recognising a lame-footed potential rival was hardly a rallying point for a revolution, would not have been so generous.
Yet David was generous. He gave protection, provision, and position to one that on its face was his enemy. One who was expecting an execution for his grandfather’s sins.
If this sounds slightly familiar, it should. It is how God treats us. We are by nature God’s enemies, because our far-off grandfather Adam rebelled against God. He made us enemies with God by his actions. He made us helpless to save ourselves.
And yet. “While we were still weak [helpless], at the right time Christ died for the ungodly” (Romans 5:6). God showed “his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us (Ro 5:8). Through Christ’s death we have been “saved by him from the wrath of God” (Ro 5:9). And “while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life” (Ro 5:10).
Weak and enemies, we deserve death. We receive salvation (protection), provision in Christ’s sacrifice and the inheritance of all things, and position as God’s adopted sons. Because God takes his promises, his covenants, seriously.
All because of the depths of God’s covenant loyalty.
