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A beautiful and touching portrait of the sinner, likened to Mephibosheth, brought into blessing and into the presence of the king!
Excerpt: Very early one morning, many years ago, I was reading the ninth chapter of 2 Samuel. After reading it once, I thought, “What a strange chapter, about a young man lame on both his feet.” I read it again, and still I could see nothing in it. After going through it a third time, my eye rested on these words, “I will surely show thee kindness, for Jonathan, thy father’s sake” (2 Sam. 9:7). The thought suddenly flashed upon my mind, “Ah! there is a picture of the kindness of God, through Jesus Christ.” What a picture now lay before me, like some lovely landscape, at the break of morn. As years have rolled on, the beauty of this picture has only, to my mind, increased. Many times have I been led to preach Christ from it, and seldom without souls being converted to God. This encourages me, in faith, to trace over this interesting portion of the Word of God with my readers; trusting that God will use it in blessing to many souls.
In this picture, then, of the kindness of God, there are two characters — Mephibosheth, the child of grace; and Ziba, the self-righteous man. The condition of Mephibosheth, strikingly illustrates the state of a sinner when he is brought to God.
If you turn to the fourth chapter and fourth verse of this same book, you will find he was the son of Jonathan, the son of Saul, both now dead; that he had fallen, and become lame; and that since his fall he had been hid, lame on both his feet, in Lo-debar; which Hebrew word means, a place of no pasture. Being of the house of Saul, the enemy of David, he concluded, no doubt, that David would be his enemy; and therefore hid away from his presence.
How very strikingly this illustrates the condition of fallen man. No sooner had sin blinded the mind of Adam, than we read he “hid himself from the presence of the Lord God, amongst the trees of the garden” (see Gen. 3:8). And is not this man’s very condition, to the present hour? Why is that one hurrying off to the theater, or the alehouse? Ah! he knows not God. Being at enmity with God, he concludes that God is his enemy, and he dreads His presence. The thought of going this day into the presence of God would be terrifying. Does the thought give you alarm, my reader? Ah! it is because you know not God. Perhaps you may say, “I have sinned, and that makes me afraid of God.” True, you have sinned; and I have sinned; and all have sinned. But if you knew the price He has given, that He spared not His own dear Son, then you would see that God is the only one to whom you can go, as a sinner — and be assured, “The blood of Jesus Christ, His Son, cleanseth from all sin (see 1 John 1:7). But let us now go on with the chapter. “David said, Is there not yet any of the house of Saul, that I may show the kindness of God unto him?” (2 Sam. 9:3).
And is not this the present work of the Spirit of God? Is there not yet any of the fallen sons and daughters of Adam to whom I may show the kindness of God? No matter how deeply fallen, utterly lame, lame on both feet, and truly in the place of no pasture. For, poor, fallen sinner, wherever thou art trying to hide from God, there is nothing, in this world of misery and sin, that can make thee happy. Is there, now? Have you pursued the phantoms of Satan, or put your trust in the world’s fair promises, until your poor heart is broken with bitter disappointment, and all is a dismal void? Then, listen, I will tell you of One that will not serve thee so.
Ziba, the self-righteous man, informed the king, that Jonathan had still a son, who was lame on his feet, in the house of Machir, the son of Ammiel, in Lo-debar. “Then King David sent and fetched him” (2 Sam. 9:5). Now, this fetching is very beautiful. It tells out a grace so entirely of God. Man shows kindness to those who, as he thinks, deserve it. Or he expects to get something worth the kindness in return — not so with God. Mephibosheth had not done one thing to merit the kindness He had not to do his part first, as some say. No! GRACE went to fetch him from Lo-debar, the very place where he was. And did not the Son of God come to poor sinners, just where they were? He came to fetch them, and He found them dead in trespasses and sins. And did he not take that very place, and die, the just for the unjust, to bring us to God? Eternal shame on every proud Pharisee, who, after this, will say, “Man must do his part first.”
Mephibosheth was too lame to do his part first. He had to be fetched. And He who knows both man’s utter lameness, and this fetching-grace, has said, “No man can come to Me, except the Father, which hath sent Me, draw him: and I will raise Him up at the last day” (John 6:44). And again, “All that the Father giveth Me shall come to Me; and him that cometh to Me I will in no wise cast out” (John 6:37). Ah! if it had not been for this fetching-grace, we should have all perished, in our wretched strivings to hide away from God. “And now, when Mephibosheth was come unto David, he fell on his face” (2 Sam. 9:6). What a picture of dread and fear. As the son of Saul, the hunter of the life of David, what had he to expect? The next moment the voice of stern justice might demand his life. There he lies — a picture of a trembling sinner, brought into the presence of God, with the fearful load of guilt and sin; he knows not God — he knows not what to expect.