2 Samuel 9:1-13

2 Samuel 9:1-13
Theme: Knowing Identity as a Child of the New Covenant

Introduction
Emerson said, “The ancestor of every action is a thought.”

I ministered to a Karen refugee family who arrived in Vancouver just before Christmas a few years ago. Tragically, while they were at the welcome house being processed, their 9 year old son died from the flu. It was devastating for the family. I really struggled with the right words to comfort them during the memorial service, but what do you say?

Later they told me that their son had become ill during the time it took to travel to Bangkok from the refugee camp in the jungle up in the north. But what finally sealed his fate was the night that they stayed in the Hotel before flying out of Bangkok; they said it was the coldest they had ever felt.

Their comment about the coldness of the hotel room didn’t cross my mind again until I was in a hotel room in Bangkok last November two years ago. I realized that considering it was the cool season (the same as when the Karen family had come through) the room was actually quite hot- even for the Thai’s. So I turned on the air conditioner and made it as cold as possible.

I realized that the only reason it was so cold for the Karen family was because the air conditioner was on and they either did not know how to turn it off, or else they did not know that they could turn it off.

My heart broke at the realization that their son might have survived the flu if his parents had known their entitlement. The boy might have died because his parents didn’t know (or understand) their rights and privileges as paying customers of the hotel. They were so used to being refugees and being told what they could and could not do by someone in authority (usually with a gun). They had physically left the camp, but mentally, they were still in captivity.

Someone once said, “It’s hard to fight and enemy who has outposts in your head.” (Sally Kempton).

The refugees illustrate the point that I want to make from the story of David’s kindness to Jonathan’s son Mephibosheth. Read 2 Sam 9:1-13.

The story begins at the height of David’s reign. God has blessed him by giving him victory over all of his enemies (both from outside the nation and from within); God has made him King over his chosen people and promised David a dynasty that would become the lineage of the Messiah.

In ancient times (and right up into modern history), whenever a king would ascend to the throne- his first act of business was usually to kill or imprison all other contenders to the throne (Usually brothers and cousins). The coronation of a new king always resulted in a bloodbath. Even David’s own sons killed their brothers (or attempted to) in order to secure their thrones.

So you would think that it would have been justifiable (even humane) for David to commit genocide against the house of Saul in order to spare Israel a civil war. But up until this point in the reign of David that has not occurred. In fact, David has paid Saul’s family little attention up until now. But verse 1 says that David asked “Is there still anyone who is left of the house of Saul, that I may show him kindness for Jonathan’s sake?”

In other words, David remembered the kindness of his friend Jonathan.

If you’ve read this story, you’ll remember that Jonathan was the son of the King Saul. Saul was bent on destroying David because of his jealousy over David’s success in war and winning the hearts of the people.

David was a simple shepherd-boy-soldier while Jonathon was next in line to become King. When you think about it, David was just an inconvenience to Saul’s reign but he was a major threat to Jonathan’s succession as King. If anyone would benefit from Saul’s desire to kill David, it was Jonathon.

But Jonathan was a noble man of character, integrity and faith; he loved David like a brother and knew that it was the will of God that David should become King. Jonathan even protected David and risked death by hiding David from his father. Jonathon’s kindness toward David ensured that Jonathan would never be king. But Jonathan was untainted by ambition and personal gain and submitted to the will of God; he made a covenant with David (1 Sam 20:42):
42 Then Jonathan said to David, “Go in peace, since we have both sworn in the name of the LORD, saying, ‘May the LORD be between you and me, and between your descendants and my descendants, forever.’ ” So he arose and departed, and Jonathan went into the city.

Unfortunately David and Jonathan would never see each other again; many years later Jonathan died at his father’s side rightfully defending the kingdom from the Philistines. That’s the kind of man he was.

Now in chapter 9, David has finally remembered Jonathan’s kindness and so he’s resolved to show favour to his descendants just as Jonathan would have done for David.

David found Mephibosheth in a place called Lo Debar. 2 Samuel 4:4 tells the story of Mephibosheth:
4…He was five years old when the news about Saul and Jonathan came from Jezreel; and his nurse took him up and fled. And it happened, as she made haste to flee, that he fell and became lame.

Mephibosheth’s nurse was charged with caring for the young child. But she either had no knowledge of Jonathan and David’s covenant or she was uncertain whether or not David had the character to honor it.

Her decision to take this child and hide him away demonstrates the way that we can allow people (no matter how well-meaning) to affect our lives in a negative way. Sometimes people can have the best intentions and offer us advice or somehow influence the outcome of things related to us that end up crippling us or sending us into obscurity; we can become like that five year old boy- helpless to stop them because of a well intended but misguided caretakers.
Last week I talked about how Israel was perched on the edge of the Promised Land and ready to enter into the land of milk and honey, but instead of taking their possession, they believed the negativity of the ten spies: there were spies in the land. Israel chose to think of themselves as grasshoppers and cried out to return to the familiarity of their bondage in Egypt instead of taking their inheritance. They failed because they allowed others to choose how they thought about themselves instead of believing that God was able to bring them into the land just as He promised He would.

The Nurse is like those ten spies: She saw the world according human wisdom rather than the wisdom of God. Her thinking was shaped by fear rather than faith. She took Mephibosheth away from his inheritance into captivity in the house of Machir in a place called Lo Debar.

It may only be a coincidence, but the Hebrew name Machir means “sold” and Lo Debar means “nothing”. The grand son of the king (Jonathan’s son) has been taken in spite of the covenant of peace between Jonathan and David and sold into- or sold for nothing. Others have determined his fate and there he remained in obscurity, lame and robbed of his inheritance- sold into nothing. Until David remembered his covenant with Jonathan.

Application
And that’s what happens when Christians choose to live defeated lives.

Let me show how this applies to the Christian life: as Christians we are also under a covenant- one that is greater than the covenant between David and Jonathan. It’s greater because unlike their covenant which was between two fallen men, our covenant is between us and the immutable all powerful beginning-from-the-end-knowing God who is also our heavenly Father. And that means our covenant is not week or changing or terminating –its permanent and all pervasive. Nor is it between two equal parties- it’s between helpless children and a loving Father. It won’t go for years, like that of David and Jonathan, without effect. It was ratified the minute we believed!

Let me ask you: are you living like an adoptee in the family of God with Jesus as your brother or have you believed the negativity that pervades the world and sold yourself into Lo Debar.

The Many Forms of Nothing
Lo Debar can come in many forms; it can be a negative self image; you’ve had it since childhood. And it constantly sabotages your success in trying to better your life. Maybe every time you try to finish your education you get discouraged before you finish the first semester and end up dropping out. Or you put together a résumé so that you can apply for a better job but then you tell yourself you don’t qualify for a better job so you never apply.

Maybe every time to tried to get out of debt. So you put together a budget, but it only lasted a week before you gave into the negative self-talk that told you “you will never get out of debt, so why bother trying?”

Maybe Lo Debar for you is failure in your relationships: marriages fail, friendship fall apart, loved ones disappoint you and it seems like its just your lot in life to be lonely.

Lo Debar could be an addiction: smoking, junk food, internet pornography, or soap opera’s or celebrity gossip.

For some, Lo Debar could be theological over-correction. We looked at one theological over-correction last week where people can react to the heresy of the prosperity gospel by creating a self-flagellating poverty gospel that is just as spiritually damaging as the prosperity gospel.

Another over correction can come from being so fixated on the doctrine of total depravity and human sin to that you actually profane the image of God in you and rob it of any dignity.

Yes humans are sinners; yes humans are totally depraved and born into sin because of Adam’s sin. But As Christians we are born again. Jesus didn’t just die for our justification, but also for our sanctification and our victory is not just in the life to come, it’s also in this life! He has made us new men and new women (the true temple of God) and the image of God is being restored to us from within as He chooses to make His dwelling in us.

It bears repeating the story of the little girl who remarked that the horses must be Christians because of their long faces.

I think that’s what happened to Mephibosheth. His thinking was the thinking that came from being sold for nothing by misguided caretakers who judged their situation by circumstances rather than faith (grasshopper thinking).

Look what Mephibosheth says about himself in verse 8 after David has just offered him his rightful inheritance and a place at his table: “What is your servant, that you should look upon such a dead dog as I?”

In Hebrew, Mephibosheth means “From my mouth comes shame”. His own words are his shame. He’s not a Dead dog. He’s the living son of a prince and a child in the image of God. How much more the Christian who has been redeemed by the blood of the Lamb?

Mephibosheth’s thinking is out of sync with who he is and it likely comes from someone else. It’s probably the message he’s been hearing since he was five years old and became a cripple depending upon the benevolence of strangers in a place called nothing.


Conclusion
So let me conclude by tying this into New Years. Maybe you’ve made some New Years resolutions and there are some things in your life that you want to change because they’re Lo Debar. There’s a good chance that you will fail. Because your mind keeps telling you that you are a dead dog and a grasshopper and you will return to Lo Debar and your bondage in Egypt because of your thinking. “Rule your mind or it will rule you.” Horace

But this New Years is going to be different. Because every time you find yourself falling back into those old traps and sins and habits and patterns, your going to remind yourself that you are a covenant child of God and you will have the victory because Christ has given you victory.

You’ve been redeemed and the one who paid the price to buy you out of sin does not like it when you sell yourself for nothing. There are blessings and privileges that come along with being king’s kids; not the least of which is joy! But also hope, liberty, and love.

If Christ has blessed us with every spiritual blessing, why would we live in a place called nothing uttering shameful things?

Jesus has made us accepted in the beloved. Knowing that ought to produce overwhelming confidence in our ability to overcome the lies that have been sold to us since our childhood and sold us for nothing. This year is going to be a year of victory.