THE CHRISTIAN SOLDIER -- SPRING 2026

2 SAMUEL 9:1-7,13 “And David said, Is there yet any that is left of the house of Saul, that I may shew him kindness for Jonathan's sake? [2]And there was of the house of Saul a servant whose name was Ziba. And when they had called him unto David, the king said unto him, Art thou Ziba? And he said, Thy servant is he. [3]And the king said, Is there not yet any of the house of Saul, that I may shew the kindness of God unto him? And Ziba said unto the king, Jonathan hath yet a son, which is lame on his feet. [4]And the king said unto him, Where is he? And Ziba said unto the king, Behold, he is in the house of Machir, the son of Ammiel, in Lodebar. [5]Then king David sent, and fetched him out of the house of Machir, the son of Ammiel, from Lodebar. [6]Now when Mephibosheth, the son of Jonathan, the son of Saul, was come unto David, he fell on his face, and did reverence. And David said, Mephibosheth. And he answered, Behold thy servant! [7]And David said unto him, Fear not: for I will surely shew thee kindness for Jonathan thy father's sake, and will restore thee all the land of Saul thy father; and thou shalt eat bread at my table continually  . . . [13]So Mephibosheth dwelt in Jerusalem: for he did eat continually at the king's table; and was lame on both his feet.” 

          Any Sunday school child has heard the story of King Saul, the first King of Israel. Israel was never supposed to have a king, but they demanded one anyway so that they could be like the nations all around them. And after talking to the LORD about it, the prophet Samuel gave them a king but solemnly protested that it was a bad idea. And it wasn’t long before Saul showed that to be true. Although he began humble and obedient, very soon he became prideful and disobedient, to the point that the LORD told him that He was taking the kingdom back and giving it to someone else.  That someone was King David. And though it took a few years to before the Word was fulfilled, King Saul and his son Jonathan were killed in battle, and David became king of all Israel. 
          We’ve all heard of King Saul, and we remember that his son Jonathan was best friends with David. But how many times have we considered Saul’s crippled grandson, Jonathan’s boy, Mephibosheth? If you are not so familiar with that Mephibosheth, let me remind you of a few scattered passages that you have read deep in the books of Kings and Chronicles. 

          After the battle that killed Saul and Jonathan, there was chaos and fear everywhere. This always follows the death of a king or a change in government, especially for the family of the former king. A new king doesn’t want any remnants of the old government hanging around threatening and questioning his authority, especially not an heir to the throne like little Mephibosheth, who was only a child at the time. So, when the news of Saul and Jonathan’s death reached his house, the boy’s nurse wanted to escape and hide him. So she picked him up and ran. But as she ran, she dropped him, and this caused him to be crippled on both of his feet. And he remained quiet and hidden for years not knowing really if he had any reason to fear. He lived in a place called LO-DEBAR which literally means “the land of no pasture.”  

          If anybody had a reason to be bitter, Mephibosheth did. He was born an heir to the throne of Israel. He was raised in a royal house, and he was taught to be a good king. He was prepared to inherit wealth and to govern over people and to make the land thrive. But because of the choices and mistakes of other people, he was alone, rejected, destitute, in LO-DEBAR, the land of no pasture. 

          And one day, a group of men from the king’s house showed up at his door. And I can only imagine that fear struck his heart and he probably said to himself, “Well, I was able to hide for a while and have a somewhat peaceful life but that is all over now. They have come for me; they’ve come to kill me because my grandfather was the old king.”  But instead of killing him, they loaded him up and brought him to see the king. Now this was definitely out of the ordinary to bring a handicapped person into the presence of the king. Great effort was taken to shield the king from anything unpleasant, anything that would put him in a bad humor. But in this case, the king was asking for him by name.  And Mephibosheth came before the king, not in anger but in humility, saying “behold thy servant”. I’m sure that his heart was pounding in fear. But what a relief it must have been to realize that King David’s goal was not to kill him but to adopt him. And in disbelief this washed-up has-been crippled man asked the obvious question: “who is thy servant that thou wouldest look upon such a dead dog as I am?” But King David never answered that question. He simply did what he said he was going to do. And I love the way that this story ends: “And he did eat bread at the king’s house continually, and he was lame on both of his feet.” 

          Did you know that you can be great in the kingdom of God even though you are not perfect? You can eat at the king’s table even though you are still lame on both of your feet! And once he sat down at that table, nobody even knew that something was wrong with his feet. 

          I love this story, because it parallels so closely to what every one of us is in the spiritual world. Just like Mephibosheth, mankind made for greatness. We were designed to be leaders, to be overcomers, to be royal, to triumph over the enemy, and to reside in the glorious presence of God. It was never the plan for us to live out our days in LO-DEBAR. But because of the choices and mistakes of other people, we were born in sin and shapen in iniquity. Yes, we are sinners, but more importantly we are born in sin and we are born into a fallen state. Even if we had the greatest desire to be redeemed, without Jesus, there is nothing that we can do. We lived in uncertainty of the future. We lived our lives in spiritual poverty. We were rejected. We were ashamed. We were afraid of the King, who was the only one really who had the power to help us. But then one day, the King sent His messenger to knock on your door. You weren’t expecting it, and you didn’t know how to react. You wanted to panic. You wanted to run. But you decided to obey the messenger. You decided to present yourself to the King: you didn’t try to bargain for your life; you didn’t try to lie about who you were. Lord, behold thy servant. Lord, here I am. This is nothing more or less that what I am. Your attitude was one of complete helplessness: Lord, who am I that thou wouldest look upon such a dead dog as I am? That is not an easy thing to do, because you really didn’t know what would happen next.  But what a relief it was that the King already had a plan in place for "dead dogs" like you and me. Instead of condemning you, instead of throwing you in the trash like you thought He would, He actually forgave you. He restored you to your first position, the one that you had lost. He forgave your sins so completely that even He can’t remember that you ever went astray in the first place. Not only did He forget your former offences, but He invited you to be part of his household; He adopted you into the family of God; you get to eat bread at the King’s table, Mephibosheth, and the Lord’s gonna restore all the lands that you have lost by the way. 

          But even though you’ve been restored to your former place, don’t get too conceited; you’d better keep that humble spirit that you approached the king with, because this act of restoration that He did for you, He didn’t do it because of anything that you have done, but it is all because of somebody else. Do you remember at first, when David first asked the question, "Is there yet any left of the house of Saul that I might bless them for Jonathan’s sake?" He didn’t even know that Mephibosheth existed. He didn’t even know his name. But all that mattered was that he was the son of Jonathan. His love for Jonathan was so great that it overshadowed his disdain for Saul. So much so that he went looking for somebody, anybody of Saul’s house, not so that he could curse them but so that he could bless them. 

          I want to tell you how this works. You are redeemed today from your fallen state to a right relationship with the king. And you can have that regardless of who you are or where you came from or what you’ve done. And if you don’t have that, you can have it today, if you will listen to the messenger of the king. But that redemption is not given for anything that you have: not because you were so good, not because you were so worthy, not because you were so useful to God. It’s all because of somebody else. In essence, I see the Lord saying, "Is there yet any left of the house of Adam that I might show him kindness for Christ Jesus’ sake." 
What an honor it is to be sought out by a king! When you are rejected and hopeless, what an honor it is just to be adopted, much less to be adopted by a king! To be forgiven debts and grudges and wrongdoings that you can never pay the price for (That’s called mercy). And to be granted blessings and wealth and honor that you never earned and could never deserve. (That’s called grace.) As a new convert, we know how good we have it. When we first come to the LORD, when we turn from our sins, and when we are baptized in his name, and when we are baptized in His spirit, we can see very clearly that we don’t deserve His love, and that we instead deserve that eternal punishment that he saved us from. Some of us never forget what we used to be or what he did for us. But over time, some people begin to take His love for granted. They forget where He brought them from and what a great gift He has given them. Some of us begin to grow slack in our service toward Him. Some of us, even though we are in the King’s house, begin to resent some of His people. Some of us begin to act like we earned this, or like we are entitled to this, and we forget that we are adopted into this, only because of somebody else. And that is exactly what Mephibosheth did. 

          Some time later, when David was bickering with his son Absalom; when Absalom rebelled against David and began his own following, it becomes clear that all of Mephibosheth’s loyalty to David was fake. He pretended to be gracious for David’s mercy; he accepted it because it was convenient at the time, but really he was looking for his chance to act against David.  Mephibosheth was saved for the sake of Jonathan. But it turns out that he took more after his grandfather Saul, telling David what he wanted to hear and never staying true to his Word. And Mephibosheth, after all that King David had done for him, turned on him and was caught conspiring against him to help Absalom. And I can only imagine how David felt, but what he did was simply to give all that had been Mephibosheth’s to his servant Ziba. Ziba was a nobody, but Ziba was a loyal nobody! 
          I don’t ever want to forget that I am only here in the King’s house because of somebody else, and that I owe him every thing that I am and that I have. Not just for today, not just for a little while, but until the day I die, I owe him all that I am. Wouldn’t it be ashamed that after all the mercy He showed me, if I were to fail to show mercy to someone else? Wouldn’t it be ashamed that after all the rejection that He endured for me, if I denied Him or was afraid of being rejected for Him? Wouldn’t it be ashamed if after all the pain and discomfort He endured for me, if I turned away from Him to save myself a little bit of pain or discomfort? 

          I rejoice in the adoption that I have experienced with Him!