WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:07.759 We'll turn back to the passage we read a little while ago, 2 Samuel chapter 9. 00:00:07.759 --> 00:00:13.720 This is one of the great stories from the Old Testament. 00:00:13.720 --> 00:00:18.920 If you read commentators on 2 Samuel 9, they'll often say that this is actually perhaps King 00:00:18.920 --> 00:00:25.160 David at his best in all of the Davidic story. 00:00:25.160 --> 00:00:30.399 Because one commentator puts it, the moral climax of his entire kingship. 00:00:30.399 --> 00:00:34.240 Part of the reason for that is that it comes in a surprising place. 00:00:34.240 --> 00:00:39.039 On the front side of this passage and on the back side of this passage, David's at war 00:00:39.039 --> 00:00:45.640 and David is triumphing over his enemies and sending out his mighty men and really establishing 00:00:45.640 --> 00:00:49.560 his kingdom through violence and through war. 00:00:49.560 --> 00:00:55.160 Even in the midst of that, you have the story that we read about David and Mephibosheth in 00:00:55.160 --> 00:00:59.040 2 Samuel chapter 9. 00:00:59.040 --> 00:01:05.520 But for even a bigger reason than that, Christians for 20 centuries now have come to the David's 00:01:05.520 --> 00:01:15.200 story and known that David is so important in so many ways at so many different levels, 00:01:15.200 --> 00:01:18.760 the very first presentation of Jesus' identity. 00:01:18.760 --> 00:01:23.040 When you flip the page from Old Testament to New Testament and you come to Matthew 00:01:23.040 --> 00:01:28.160 1,1, the very first thing it says about Jesus Christ is Son of David. 00:01:28.160 --> 00:01:32.200 It doesn't say Son of Abraham first, it doesn't say Son of Adam or Son of God first, but Son 00:01:32.200 --> 00:01:34.200 of David. 00:01:34.200 --> 00:01:40.480 That's because David's importance for the whole of redemption history, for the identity 00:01:40.480 --> 00:01:48.480 of Jesus is not just about bloodline, but David is a particular type. 00:01:48.480 --> 00:01:55.280 He is a shadow, he is something that we are being called in God's sacred weaving of history 00:01:55.280 --> 00:02:00.640 together to look at and say, this is what I need to be looking for, this is what true 00:02:00.640 --> 00:02:06.159 kingship is supposed to look like, and 2 Samuel 9 is that place. 00:02:06.159 --> 00:02:11.120 It's the key place where many, many pastors and theologians and commentators have said, 00:02:11.120 --> 00:02:18.199 this is where to go to see the real shadow of the true king in the David story. 00:02:18.199 --> 00:02:26.679 In fact, in the Hebrew Bible, Chronicles was originally the very last book. 00:02:26.679 --> 00:02:31.519 In Jesus' own time, the very last book of the Bible you would read is Chronicles and 00:02:31.519 --> 00:02:39.719 six times in Chronicles a narrative ends by saying, the Son of David, the king of Israel. 00:02:39.719 --> 00:02:45.719 You turn the page to Matthew 1 and it's connecting Chronicles to Matthew and saying, the Son 00:02:45.719 --> 00:02:47.079 of David, Jesus Christ. 00:02:47.080 --> 00:02:57.160 This is his genealogy and even Jesus in Matthew 22, 42, he asked the Pharisees, who do you 00:02:57.160 --> 00:03:00.600 think the Christ is supposed to be? 00:03:00.600 --> 00:03:06.439 And the Pharisees said to him, he must be the Son of David. 00:03:06.439 --> 00:03:07.439 Everybody knew it. 00:03:07.439 --> 00:03:12.760 Everybody knew that David, it was more than bloodline, that there was something in David 00:03:12.759 --> 00:03:19.759 that was imaging forth the hope of the nations and that means that 2 Samuel 9 is a glimpse 00:03:19.759 --> 00:03:21.840 of true kingship. 00:03:21.840 --> 00:03:24.079 So we're going to see two things this morning. 00:03:24.079 --> 00:03:28.919 First, the kindness of the king and then secondly, the mercy of the king. 00:03:28.919 --> 00:03:30.959 So let's dive in and look at that. 00:03:30.959 --> 00:03:34.120 The first thing here is the kindness of the king. 00:03:34.120 --> 00:03:41.699 If you have a Bible, you'll see in verse one, David wants to give a gift and that gift we 00:03:41.699 --> 00:03:45.659 learn in verse one is the gift of kindness. 00:03:45.659 --> 00:03:51.799 And then it repeats it in verse three and verse seven, but also in verse one, you have 00:03:51.799 --> 00:03:56.000 the reason why he wants to give the gift and says he wants to give the gift of kindness 00:03:56.000 --> 00:03:58.799 for Jonathan's sake. 00:03:58.799 --> 00:04:04.120 And that means that there's a back story to what's going on here and it's a very common 00:04:04.120 --> 00:04:09.079 story but Saul, right, was the king of Israel. 00:04:09.080 --> 00:04:16.120 And Jonathan was Saul's son, the rightful heir of the bloodline lineage of the kingship. 00:04:16.120 --> 00:04:18.439 He was to be the next king. 00:04:18.439 --> 00:04:23.920 But God had come down and God had said, no, David, the son of Jesse is going to be the 00:04:23.920 --> 00:04:24.920 next king. 00:04:24.920 --> 00:04:29.920 And so Saul, remember, he absolutely hates David for this. 00:04:29.920 --> 00:04:36.040 And in fact, he says at one point, if you want to know why was Saul so after David, 00:04:36.040 --> 00:04:37.160 why did he want to murder David? 00:04:37.160 --> 00:04:42.480 This is what Saul says to his son, for as long as the son of Jesse lives on the earth, 00:04:42.480 --> 00:04:46.360 neither you Jonathan nor your kingdom can be established. 00:04:46.360 --> 00:04:53.960 And so he wants David to die so that his blood lineage can be dynastic, he can be the king 00:04:53.960 --> 00:04:56.640 forever through his sons. 00:04:56.640 --> 00:05:01.440 And in the midst of all this, Jonathan loves David. 00:05:01.440 --> 00:05:05.080 And it says he loves him so much, he loves him as he loves his own self. 00:05:05.079 --> 00:05:13.159 And 1 Samuel 18, Jonathan, who is to be the rightful king, the bloodline of the royal lineage, 00:05:13.159 --> 00:05:18.560 it says that he made a covenant with David by taking off his royal robe, taking off his 00:05:18.560 --> 00:05:24.360 tunic, even his sword, his bow and his belt, the text says, and he knelt before David and 00:05:24.360 --> 00:05:28.959 gave David his royal robe and his royal sword. 00:05:28.959 --> 00:05:32.039 And you see what's happening in that moment. 00:05:32.040 --> 00:05:41.240 This is the son of the king, the rightful king shedding his royalty, stripping himself 00:05:41.240 --> 00:05:46.640 of what was owed to him at the point of the threat of death from his own father for the 00:05:46.640 --> 00:05:51.439 sake of a covenant bond that he had made with David because he loved him all the way to 00:05:51.439 --> 00:05:52.439 the bottom. 00:05:52.439 --> 00:05:54.120 He loved him as he loved himself. 00:05:54.120 --> 00:05:57.960 And so there was words exchanged there between David and Jonathan. 00:05:57.959 --> 00:06:05.799 And Jonathan says this to David, David, do not cut off your kindness to my house forever. 00:06:05.799 --> 00:06:10.759 So he said, he takes off his royal robe and he says, David, my one request, my one condition 00:06:10.759 --> 00:06:17.279 in this covenant, do not cut off your kindness from my house, from my family. 00:06:17.279 --> 00:06:23.959 And here it is, the years later, 2 Samuel 9, verse 1, David is, remembers, and he wants 00:06:23.959 --> 00:06:32.839 to give the gift of kindness that he had promised to his beloved friend Jonathan so long ago. 00:06:32.839 --> 00:06:39.159 Kindness here is at the very center of what it means to make a covenant. 00:06:39.159 --> 00:06:45.799 And it's saying, I will be for you no matter what. 00:06:45.799 --> 00:06:52.079 But at the same time, the word kindness is not heavy enough and it's not weighty enough 00:06:52.079 --> 00:06:56.800 and it doesn't capture all of what is happening in this moment. 00:06:56.800 --> 00:07:03.680 Because if there is one Hebrew word that's worth knowing, it is the word that stands 00:07:03.680 --> 00:07:05.279 behind the word kindness here. 00:07:05.279 --> 00:07:08.360 It's the very famous word, hesed, in Hebrew. 00:07:08.360 --> 00:07:11.879 It's H-E-S-E-D in English. 00:07:11.879 --> 00:07:17.279 And it's so famous because this is the word that the Old Testament uses over and over 00:07:17.279 --> 00:07:25.519 again to demarcate the quality of God's love for people that he's chasing after. 00:07:25.519 --> 00:07:30.879 This is the one word that the Old Testament chooses every time to say, what is the quality 00:07:30.879 --> 00:07:34.799 of God's love for human beings who have rebelled against him? 00:07:34.799 --> 00:07:37.000 And it's the word hesed every single time. 00:07:37.000 --> 00:07:43.199 It normally is translated as steadfast loyalty or loving kindness. 00:07:43.199 --> 00:07:48.240 In the New Testament, many commentators will say the equivalent phrase is the mercy of 00:07:48.240 --> 00:07:54.159 God because it is a love that God extends in covenant to a humanity that doesn't even 00:07:54.159 --> 00:07:55.519 want him. 00:07:55.519 --> 00:07:57.560 And so in the New Testament, it's the mercy of God. 00:07:57.560 --> 00:07:59.319 In the Old Testament, it's hesed. 00:07:59.319 --> 00:08:01.719 And that's the word that David shows right here. 00:08:01.719 --> 00:08:07.079 In fact, in verse three, you'll see that he says, I want to show someone the hesed of 00:08:07.079 --> 00:08:08.319 God. 00:08:08.319 --> 00:08:14.719 So he even says, I want to show the quality of God's love to somebody in Jonathan's family. 00:08:14.719 --> 00:08:20.199 David knows that this is how God loves and this is how I want to love. 00:08:20.199 --> 00:08:28.279 And the quality marker of God's love for the world hesed, David is saying to us here, can 00:08:28.279 --> 00:08:35.279 be, it is possible for a human being to extend that type of love to another person. 00:08:35.279 --> 00:08:41.879 That it's possible as the image of God, to image God by loving with hesed love like God 00:08:41.879 --> 00:08:44.959 unconditionally loves his covenant people. 00:08:44.959 --> 00:08:47.879 And so that's what David wants to do here. 00:08:47.879 --> 00:08:51.879 Now, if you ask a little bit more, what is it? 00:08:51.879 --> 00:08:57.559 The point has been made by so many pastors and so many sociologists and social commentators 00:08:57.559 --> 00:09:04.959 the past 20 years that there are so many different types of relationships that we as modern 00:09:04.960 --> 00:09:07.320 people enter into all the time. 00:09:07.320 --> 00:09:12.040 But by far and away, the most common relationship that every single one of us has with anybody 00:09:12.040 --> 00:09:20.160 in our lives is the modern retail relationship, the market relationship, the consumer relationship. 00:09:20.160 --> 00:09:26.759 Every single time you take a good from somewhere in any store and you bring it to the counter 00:09:26.759 --> 00:09:34.800 and you attempt to pay for it, you've immediately entered into a market retail contract. 00:09:34.799 --> 00:09:37.879 It's very short lived, it's very fast. 00:09:37.879 --> 00:09:42.479 But in that type of relationship, you know how it works. 00:09:42.479 --> 00:09:48.159 If this person, if this company, if this individual does not meet my needs, if there's a better 00:09:48.159 --> 00:09:53.639 price down the road, if there's a better opportunity down the road, then I can go, I can leave, 00:09:53.639 --> 00:09:58.679 I can get out, I can drop this, I can search for something else. 00:09:58.679 --> 00:10:03.120 Those relationships are so good when they are in the place that they're supposed to 00:10:03.120 --> 00:10:04.679 be. 00:10:04.679 --> 00:10:09.599 Retail relationships are so necessary when we enter into a place where we need a contractual 00:10:09.599 --> 00:10:10.599 relationship. 00:10:10.599 --> 00:10:17.199 But HECID or covenant relationships are in some sense the polar opposite of the market 00:10:17.199 --> 00:10:21.519 relationship, of the retail relationship, of the consumer relationship in the modern 00:10:21.519 --> 00:10:22.519 world. 00:10:22.519 --> 00:10:24.759 They're not need based. 00:10:24.759 --> 00:10:30.000 They're not anything like a market relationship in that individuals in them are not looking 00:10:30.000 --> 00:10:36.679 for a transaction of goods, an exchange of goods for the sake of mutual benefit. 00:10:36.679 --> 00:10:42.039 And instead, this is how one commentator puts covenant relationships like this, like David 00:10:42.039 --> 00:10:43.159 is calling for here. 00:10:43.159 --> 00:10:49.960 He says, HECID, covenant relationship is love that is willing to deeply commit itself to 00:10:49.960 --> 00:10:57.440 another person by making a solemn or sacred promise all the way to the point of great 00:10:57.440 --> 00:10:58.440 loss. 00:10:58.440 --> 00:11:07.080 He writes, who finds freedom in sacrifice, who finds deep freedom in being human, in 00:11:07.080 --> 00:11:09.800 being self-sacrificial for the sake of another. 00:11:09.800 --> 00:11:13.480 And another one writes it like this, this is the love of deep commitment. 00:11:13.480 --> 00:11:19.440 It's the love that does not leave when needs are not being met, but will lose in sacrifice 00:11:19.440 --> 00:11:22.320 for the sake of the relationship. 00:11:22.320 --> 00:11:31.600 Now one pastor says it like this, market relationships, we all know this, market relationships have 00:11:31.600 --> 00:11:36.600 crept into the covenant relationships that we have as modern people. 00:11:36.600 --> 00:11:42.560 Throughout the 20th and 21st century, it is not uncommon for us that market relationships 00:11:42.560 --> 00:11:50.360 creep in to the relationships that are meant to be covenantal, that are meant to be HECID, 00:11:50.360 --> 00:11:55.639 non-retail, non-consumeristic type relationships. 00:11:55.639 --> 00:12:03.279 And that goes from friendship to family to marriage into the church community sometimes 00:12:03.279 --> 00:12:08.279 even and all the way to the point of our relationship even with God. 00:12:08.279 --> 00:12:13.560 That as modern people, we're always being tempted as individualists that if we do not 00:12:13.560 --> 00:12:18.159 get what we need from a relationship, we can get out. 00:12:18.159 --> 00:12:24.519 These HECID covenant communities and HECID covenant relationships are ones that stick 00:12:24.519 --> 00:12:26.240 together. 00:12:26.240 --> 00:12:33.799 And this is such a great point on a first sermon back here, this being with you guys 00:12:33.799 --> 00:12:39.439 to offer because I tell people all the time when they ask about St. Columbus in the States, 00:12:39.439 --> 00:12:42.319 they ask, you know, what's St. Columbus like? 00:12:42.320 --> 00:12:48.960 And I say every time, St. Columbus is a place that has a whole lot of covenant love. 00:12:48.960 --> 00:12:55.120 It's a place where people really stick together and where you see HECID covenant kindness 00:12:55.120 --> 00:13:03.360 that's living and active in a way that looks like an Acts 2.42 to 47 type church. 00:13:03.360 --> 00:13:08.720 And it's unusual even though it shouldn't be in the life of the church and St. Columbus 00:13:08.720 --> 00:13:14.960 has it, and it's a gift of the spirit in the midst of this community and at the same time 00:13:14.960 --> 00:13:18.120 we're all sinners. 00:13:18.120 --> 00:13:23.840 And so all of us as a community and as individuals always have to be coming back and asking the 00:13:23.840 --> 00:13:31.840 question, as a modern person, has the retail consumeristic mentality of modernity crept 00:13:31.840 --> 00:13:37.040 into the crevices of the relationships in my life that I'm called to deeply covenant 00:13:37.039 --> 00:13:38.799 in. 00:13:38.799 --> 00:13:45.039 And you know, one example of this is friendship, the seriousness in the Bible and in the book 00:13:45.039 --> 00:13:47.439 of Proverbs of friendship. 00:13:47.439 --> 00:13:52.279 You know the difference in covenant friendship and retail friendship. 00:13:52.279 --> 00:13:59.519 Covenant friendship is marked off by, well as one person put it recently, covenant friendship 00:13:59.519 --> 00:14:03.599 is when you can get stabbed in the front and not in the back. 00:14:03.600 --> 00:14:12.120 It's when your friend can speak the truth to you, can stab you in the front with words 00:14:12.120 --> 00:14:16.960 that wound for the sake of your soul, for the sake of bringing you back, for the sake 00:14:16.960 --> 00:14:22.879 of saying you're going down the wrong direction and it's okay, it doesn't break the relationship, 00:14:22.879 --> 00:14:27.440 it doesn't destroy the relationship, it falls underneath the Pauline paradigm of speaking 00:14:27.440 --> 00:14:29.320 the truth in love. 00:14:29.320 --> 00:14:36.000 Because truth without love is harshness and it breaks relationships, but love without 00:14:36.000 --> 00:14:41.760 truth is superficial flattery and real friendship is being able to speak, covenant friendship 00:14:41.760 --> 00:14:46.800 is being able to speak truth and love, it's being able to even stab somebody in the front 00:14:46.800 --> 00:14:52.800 and never in the back because you really love them and want them to grow. 00:14:52.800 --> 00:14:57.360 It's not impossible for us to have these types of relationships, but it's never been harder 00:14:57.360 --> 00:15:02.759 than in the 21st century, than in the world of consumerism and individualism and the retail 00:15:02.759 --> 00:15:07.480 market relationships that we exist in day in and day out. 00:15:07.480 --> 00:15:15.720 Now let me close this point by asking this question, how can David love like this? 00:15:15.720 --> 00:15:20.399 How does David, where are the resources in David's life to be able, the David that we 00:15:20.399 --> 00:15:26.639 know, the rest of the story of David, the David of David and Bathsheba and David and Uriah 00:15:26.639 --> 00:15:31.080 and all the struggles that David, where can, how can David get the resources to love like 00:15:31.080 --> 00:15:32.080 this? 00:15:32.080 --> 00:15:38.199 And one of the ways to say it I think is the first time Hesed pops up in the Bible is 00:15:38.199 --> 00:15:40.360 in the Abraham story. 00:15:40.360 --> 00:15:45.039 And in the Abraham story, God comes down and says, I'm going to covenant with you, I'm 00:15:45.039 --> 00:15:48.879 going to, you will be my people no matter what. 00:15:48.879 --> 00:15:56.159 And when it comes time to establish that covenant in Genesis 15, God enacts a covenant ceremony 00:15:56.159 --> 00:16:03.959 like David and Jonathan had enacted when Jonathan took off his royal robe and God tells Abraham, 00:16:03.959 --> 00:16:09.079 cut the turtle dove and the pigeon and the heifer into pieces and divide them like a 00:16:09.079 --> 00:16:11.039 middle isle. 00:16:11.039 --> 00:16:13.879 And at the right time we will each pass through them. 00:16:13.879 --> 00:16:16.839 And theologians call this the oath of malifaction. 00:16:16.839 --> 00:16:24.679 It's a promise where you are saying, if I break the conditions of this covenant relationship, 00:16:24.679 --> 00:16:32.039 may I become like these animals cut in half, destroyed, broken, may I be cursed. 00:16:32.039 --> 00:16:38.519 And remember in Genesis 15, when it comes time for the relationship to be established, 00:16:38.519 --> 00:16:43.599 God puts Abraham to sleep and he passes between the pieces twice. 00:16:43.599 --> 00:16:49.199 And God is, what is God is saying in Hesed love, I know what you are Abraham. 00:16:49.199 --> 00:16:50.240 I know that you're a sinner. 00:16:50.240 --> 00:16:55.560 I know that you cannot fulfill the conditions of this covenant and I'm passing through for 00:16:55.560 --> 00:16:57.960 me and for you. 00:16:57.960 --> 00:17:00.120 God is saying I will curse myself. 00:17:00.120 --> 00:17:05.359 If Abraham breaks the covenant, then may I be cursed on behalf of Abraham. 00:17:05.359 --> 00:17:12.480 That is the beginning, the historical moment where Hesed love erupts into human history. 00:17:12.480 --> 00:17:15.920 And then in the David story, how can he do this? 00:17:15.920 --> 00:17:20.200 And it's not because David was just trying to be a nice guy. 00:17:20.200 --> 00:17:21.680 That's not the resource here. 00:17:21.680 --> 00:17:26.000 The resource is that David had seen, remember what David had seen. 00:17:26.000 --> 00:17:35.640 David had seen the true king of Israel, the bloodline king, Jonathan, stripped of his 00:17:35.640 --> 00:17:44.840 royalty saying, David, I will give up my kingship to the point of death because I want to call 00:17:44.840 --> 00:17:47.720 you brother. 00:17:47.720 --> 00:17:56.600 David had seen in his life what it looks like for the son of the king to humiliate himself 00:17:56.600 --> 00:18:01.160 by stripping himself of his royalty to the point of death. 00:18:01.160 --> 00:18:09.240 And David is not the first shadow of the true king and of the gospel in this story. 00:18:09.240 --> 00:18:14.759 The only reason that David can show this type of love is because he had seen a glimpse, 00:18:14.759 --> 00:18:24.119 an image, a shadow of what it would look like one day for the son to be stripped, to be 00:18:24.119 --> 00:18:31.559 stripped naked and put upon, lifted up in royalty upon the cross, giving up his divine 00:18:31.559 --> 00:18:36.599 right of exaltation and ultimate humiliation because he said, I want to covenant with you 00:18:36.599 --> 00:18:39.160 as brother forever. 00:18:39.160 --> 00:18:43.640 And that is where David got the power to love like this. 00:18:43.640 --> 00:18:49.400 Now, let's ask how we can get the power to love like this. 00:18:49.400 --> 00:18:55.000 By seeing the second thing, the mercy of the king, secondly and finally, we'll look at 00:18:55.000 --> 00:18:56.400 the rest of the story more closely. 00:18:56.400 --> 00:19:00.640 So far we have covered verse one. 00:19:00.640 --> 00:19:04.800 And so now we're going to verse two, but we will not treat every verse like that. 00:19:04.800 --> 00:19:09.240 We will knock the rest out all in this second point. 00:19:09.240 --> 00:19:15.400 The rest of the passage is about how David loves and it's about the mercy of the king. 00:19:15.400 --> 00:19:18.039 King David wants to give a gift, right? 00:19:18.039 --> 00:19:23.279 He wants to give has had love, kindness, and he wants to give it for Jonathan's sake, 00:19:23.279 --> 00:19:24.599 but who does he want to give it to? 00:19:24.599 --> 00:19:25.759 That's the question here. 00:19:25.759 --> 00:19:31.960 And the answer we're told is a man named Mophibosheth. 00:19:31.960 --> 00:19:38.359 And in the ancient Near East, it's very important to note that in the ancient Near East, a 00:19:38.359 --> 00:19:43.199 man's, their CV is in some ways more important than for us today. 00:19:43.199 --> 00:19:48.359 You know, today, if you want to get a job in the 21st century, you need a CV that's 00:19:48.359 --> 00:19:53.439 got marketable skills that you can be hired for the job that you're chasing after. 00:19:53.439 --> 00:19:57.799 In the ancient Near East, there was also a version of this, a CV that you had to have 00:19:57.799 --> 00:19:59.879 put together to succeed. 00:19:59.879 --> 00:20:01.319 But it wasn't anything like ours. 00:20:01.319 --> 00:20:08.319 It was based on blood lineage, who your father, who your grandfather was, the amount of land, 00:20:08.319 --> 00:20:10.720 that you inherited. 00:20:10.720 --> 00:20:14.919 If any of those things were out of place, then it was probably going to be the case that 00:20:14.919 --> 00:20:18.079 you lived a life of utter poverty. 00:20:18.079 --> 00:20:28.000 And just notice in the text in 2 Samuel 9, the CV of Mophibosheth, his name. 00:20:28.000 --> 00:20:31.039 Names are so important in the Hebrew Bible, in ancient Near East. 00:20:31.039 --> 00:20:37.480 Mophibosheth, the core of his name is Ibo-sheh, which means in Hebrew, shame. 00:20:37.480 --> 00:20:42.960 And a lot of the commentators will say that Mophibosheth means out of the house of shame, 00:20:42.960 --> 00:20:45.279 or from the mouth of shame. 00:20:45.279 --> 00:20:49.440 So his name is shame, his public name is shame. 00:20:49.440 --> 00:20:56.200 His bloodline, he's the grandson of Saul, son of Jonathan, the disgraced lineage, the 00:20:56.200 --> 00:21:00.319 cursed lineage in the book of 2 Samuel. 00:21:00.319 --> 00:21:04.960 And the place, it says here that he lives in a place called Lo Debar. 00:21:04.960 --> 00:21:08.880 And Lo Debar in Hebrew literally means nowhere. 00:21:08.880 --> 00:21:11.880 Debar means nowhere, and Lo means nothing. 00:21:11.880 --> 00:21:17.720 And so a lot of people will say that he comes from Nowhereville, and his name is out of the 00:21:17.720 --> 00:21:25.559 mouth of shame, and he is of the disgraced lineage of the cursed king. 00:21:25.559 --> 00:21:29.799 And when you come to the description of who he is, it says twice, in fact. 00:21:29.799 --> 00:21:34.559 It highlights this at the beginning and end that he's disabled, that both of his feet 00:21:34.559 --> 00:21:35.559 have been disabled. 00:21:35.559 --> 00:21:43.720 And in the ancient Near East, having a disability was an incredibly, incredibly difficult thing. 00:21:43.720 --> 00:21:50.639 It typically meant that you would be homeless and poor for your entire life, that the disabled 00:21:50.639 --> 00:21:55.039 were not taken care of in ways that we would expect. 00:21:55.039 --> 00:22:00.240 And so it's very likely actually, because it says he lives in the house of Makir, who 00:22:00.240 --> 00:22:05.960 was a David supporter, that he's a slave in the house of Makir. 00:22:05.960 --> 00:22:09.759 And he's disabled, he cannot walk in both of his feet. 00:22:09.759 --> 00:22:17.440 The way that happened actually was in 2 Samuel 4, he became disabled because he was running 00:22:17.440 --> 00:22:19.279 from David's army. 00:22:19.279 --> 00:22:22.880 When David's army came to kill David's enemies. 00:22:22.880 --> 00:22:28.839 And in 2 Samuel 4, the nurse, when he was only a small child, took him up to run from 00:22:28.839 --> 00:22:32.839 the army and fell on him and broke both of his legs. 00:22:32.839 --> 00:22:36.439 And he never recovered from that. 00:22:36.439 --> 00:22:38.319 Even more than all of that. 00:22:38.319 --> 00:22:39.319 That's his CV. 00:22:39.319 --> 00:22:43.119 But even more, in verse 6, you'll see it. 00:22:43.119 --> 00:22:49.039 When he gets to David, it says that he falls on his face prostrate before David. 00:22:49.039 --> 00:22:52.399 And David has to turn to him and say, fear not. 00:22:52.399 --> 00:22:54.279 And there's a specific reason for that. 00:22:54.279 --> 00:23:01.920 The reason is that Mephibosheth knows exactly what this moment is. 00:23:01.920 --> 00:23:07.720 Mephibosheth comes in, and as one commentator puts it, when a new regime or a dynasty comes 00:23:07.720 --> 00:23:13.039 to power in the ancient world, the name of the game is Purge. 00:23:13.039 --> 00:23:16.559 You needn't go wandering into the ancient Near East to confirm this. 00:23:16.559 --> 00:23:21.160 You can stay within the pages of biblical history and watch Ba'ashah in 1 Kings 15, 00:23:21.160 --> 00:23:30.120 1 Kings 16, Jehu 2 Kings 10 to find out what happens to the remnants of the previous king. 00:23:30.120 --> 00:23:34.080 The new king always needs to solidify his position. 00:23:34.080 --> 00:23:40.440 It was conventional political policy, solidification by liquidation. 00:23:40.440 --> 00:23:44.040 Everybody in the former regime must die. 00:23:44.040 --> 00:23:45.200 Everybody knew it. 00:23:45.200 --> 00:23:47.480 Every country practiced it. 00:23:47.480 --> 00:23:49.400 Everybody believed in it. 00:23:49.400 --> 00:23:55.759 And so when Mephibosheth, the only blood lineage of King Saul, comes before David, he knows 00:23:55.759 --> 00:23:58.200 what's going to happen. 00:23:58.200 --> 00:24:01.960 Because in the ancient Near East, the king holds two offices. 00:24:01.960 --> 00:24:07.680 Unlike today, a king in the ancient world is both the ruler of the land and also holds 00:24:07.680 --> 00:24:09.200 the office of judge. 00:24:09.200 --> 00:24:10.880 He is the supreme court of the land. 00:24:10.880 --> 00:24:12.360 His word is final. 00:24:12.360 --> 00:24:15.480 He issues the sentences and the punishments. 00:24:15.480 --> 00:24:20.480 And so he knows that he's standing before the judge himself, and he knows as an enemy 00:24:20.480 --> 00:24:24.319 of the state that he is before the judge in order to be judged. 00:24:24.319 --> 00:24:26.759 He is going to be judged by the judge. 00:24:26.759 --> 00:24:37.839 And that's why people in this moment say that this is David, King David, the type of the 00:24:37.839 --> 00:24:41.079 true king at his best, at his climax. 00:24:41.079 --> 00:24:48.519 Because the judge himself to the one who everybody expects to be ultimately judged, finally judged, 00:24:48.519 --> 00:24:56.039 cursed unto death Mephibosheth, the man whose name is shame, who comes from Nowhereville, 00:24:56.039 --> 00:25:04.559 who is an enemy of the state, who is a slave, who cannot walk in a place where that is incredibly 00:25:04.559 --> 00:25:05.559 difficult. 00:25:05.559 --> 00:25:10.759 David, at the point where Mephibosheth is waiting for the sword upon his neck, feels the 00:25:10.759 --> 00:25:13.799 hand of the king upon his shoulder. 00:25:13.799 --> 00:25:21.240 And David says, fear not, you were once my enemy and now you are my son. 00:25:21.240 --> 00:25:26.640 And he says, every day from here out, you will eat at the king's table. 00:25:26.640 --> 00:25:33.819 And this is the word of the gospel. 00:25:33.819 --> 00:25:39.799 This is the hasted love that's been woven into the whole of sacred history by God the 00:25:39.799 --> 00:25:47.159 Father pointing forward to the king himself who would come down and strip himself of his 00:25:47.159 --> 00:25:49.079 royalty like Jonathan. 00:25:49.079 --> 00:25:54.240 But like David, he would stand up and he would put his hand upon your shoulder and he would 00:25:54.240 --> 00:26:00.680 say your name and he would say, you were once my enemy and now I call you son. 00:26:00.680 --> 00:26:02.399 I call you daughter. 00:26:02.399 --> 00:26:05.039 And from here out, you will eat at my table. 00:26:05.039 --> 00:26:07.799 You will eat at the table of the king. 00:26:07.799 --> 00:26:13.559 Because God has been preaching this gospel to us from thousands of years before Jesus 00:26:13.559 --> 00:26:15.799 Christ would ever enter the world. 00:26:15.799 --> 00:26:21.639 And this is the good news of the Old Testament that screams to us. 00:26:21.639 --> 00:26:27.559 Believe the love of God in the gospel of the New Covenant, of the true king of Jesus Christ, 00:26:27.559 --> 00:26:32.359 where the true king says your name and says, take and eat. 00:26:32.359 --> 00:26:36.159 You can come to my table for the rest of your days. 00:26:36.160 --> 00:26:44.560 The power to love like God loves, which God says to us in the Bible is possible to have 00:26:44.560 --> 00:26:49.800 friendship like this and to have family relationships like this and to have church covenant community 00:26:49.800 --> 00:26:54.360 like this and to have a relationship with God like this that it is possible, but it's 00:26:54.360 --> 00:26:55.680 not from the recent. 00:26:55.680 --> 00:26:59.920 We don't look deep within and we don't go and try to build up the courage and build 00:26:59.920 --> 00:27:00.920 up the ability. 00:27:00.920 --> 00:27:11.480 It comes from having experienced one who would be stripped and exalted unto death for me, 00:27:11.480 --> 00:27:12.480 for you, for us. 00:27:12.480 --> 00:27:19.279 It comes from the, this is an invitation to know the the hessed love of King Jesus for 00:27:19.279 --> 00:27:22.560 you that came in the middle of human history. 00:27:22.560 --> 00:27:30.680 While we were enemies of God, he came to us in Jesus Christ and offered us the food of 00:27:30.680 --> 00:27:31.680 his table. 00:27:31.680 --> 00:27:36.039 Now, we'll close with this. 00:27:36.039 --> 00:27:40.880 This has been pointed out before I first heard Derek Thomas mention this some years ago and 00:27:40.880 --> 00:27:42.320 commentators will point this out. 00:27:42.320 --> 00:27:50.039 But if you, as we close, if you just, if you think about this story and who was at the 00:27:50.039 --> 00:27:55.680 table that Mephibosheth would come to every single week, every single day, you know, David 00:27:55.680 --> 00:28:00.519 said, you will eat at my table, you will have an inheritance and you will come and dine 00:28:00.519 --> 00:28:02.880 with me. 00:28:02.880 --> 00:28:04.960 Who was at David's table? 00:28:04.960 --> 00:28:08.279 Who ate at David's table day in and day out? 00:28:08.279 --> 00:28:13.080 And if you, if you search through the books of Samuel, you can put it together. 00:28:13.080 --> 00:28:20.519 The ones that we know about are Amnon, who was David's true eldest son, who was named 00:28:20.519 --> 00:28:23.039 a mighty man of valor. 00:28:23.039 --> 00:28:27.720 He was a Hercules in figure in David's world. 00:28:27.720 --> 00:28:31.039 And the other is Tamar. 00:28:31.039 --> 00:28:34.639 And if you've read through the books of Samuel, you'll know that it says of Tamar that she 00:28:34.639 --> 00:28:39.240 was the most beautiful woman in all of Israel. 00:28:39.240 --> 00:28:40.559 And who else? 00:28:40.559 --> 00:28:42.960 Absalom, his other son. 00:28:42.960 --> 00:28:48.599 And it says that there was not a blemish on Absalom from the crown of his head to the 00:28:48.599 --> 00:28:51.079 bottom of his feet. 00:28:51.079 --> 00:28:57.599 And Joab, the captain of David's army, who was the leader of David's mighty man, the 00:28:57.599 --> 00:29:04.879 bravest, the strongest, the best warrior, and lastly Solomon, the future king of Israel, 00:29:04.879 --> 00:29:11.039 who would become the wisest and wealthiest man in the whole world. 00:29:11.039 --> 00:29:17.199 Just imagine it, you know, every single day someone would have to carry Mephibosheth to 00:29:17.200 --> 00:29:21.799 the table of King David and the most beautiful people in the world and the strongest and 00:29:21.799 --> 00:29:27.600 the mightiest and the wisest in all of history, perhaps, were there and every single one of 00:29:27.600 --> 00:29:36.840 them would have said, there's Mephibosheth, the man who was once called shame from nowhere, 00:29:36.840 --> 00:29:41.840 who was an enemy of the king, and now he is a son. 00:29:41.840 --> 00:29:43.200 He is a brother. 00:29:43.200 --> 00:29:44.200 He is one of us. 00:29:44.200 --> 00:29:52.039 And that is the gospel message for every single one of us who would come to faith and believe 00:29:52.039 --> 00:29:53.039 on Jesus Christ. 00:29:53.039 --> 00:29:59.200 Whether you've done that for 50 and 70 and 80 years or this may be day one and you're 00:29:59.200 --> 00:30:05.640 searching for hope, this is an invitation today on this Sabbath renewal covenant day 00:30:05.640 --> 00:30:10.519 to believe again that Jesus Christ has come for you and said, come and eat at my table 00:30:10.519 --> 00:30:19.279 and love in the ways that I love because what you once were, you are no longer in Jesus 00:30:19.279 --> 00:30:20.279 Christ. 00:30:20.279 --> 00:30:23.319 So come today and rest in his mercy. 00:30:23.319 --> 00:30:24.799 Let's pray together. 00:30:24.799 --> 00:30:32.680 Father, we give thanks for your gospel and we give thanks for how you have woven all 00:30:32.680 --> 00:30:37.639 of history together so that we can see the beauty of the gospel in the David story. 00:30:37.640 --> 00:30:44.680 And so we ask today that you would wake us up to know our status before you, that we 00:30:44.680 --> 00:30:49.880 are enemies apart from Jesus, but that in Christ we are sons and daughters. 00:30:49.880 --> 00:30:57.280 And so we rest today in that fact of history, the fact of the death and resurrection of 00:30:57.280 --> 00:30:58.720 the Son. 00:30:58.720 --> 00:31:03.360 And we long and ask today that you would make us people so shaped by this gospel with that 00:31:03.359 --> 00:31:09.240 we would love in surprising ways, love that comes from the power of the Holy Spirit alone 00:31:09.240 --> 00:31:11.359 that we cannot get from our own resources. 00:31:11.359 --> 00:31:17.599 And so we ask for this heart and these hopes, Lord, this morning for each of us and as a 00:31:17.599 --> 00:31:21.039 community in Christ's name, we ask it. 00:31:21.039 --> 00:31:34.559 Amen.