In the dealings of David with Mephibosheth, the only remaining descendant of the house of Saul, we have a most simple and instructive picture of the dealings of God in grace with a sinner. That this touching history also foreshadows, in a special manner, the future dealings of Christ with the remnant of Israel, we quite believe, but with this dispensational aspect of the matter, however deeply interesting and valuable, we shall not now concern ourselves, as our desire is simply to set our reader's soul in the light of the present activities of God's grace in bringing lost sinners to Himself.
David has it in his heart to show "the kindness of God" to one who had no claim whatever on him. To one who indeed, in himself, as linked with the house of Saul, was his enemy, and entitled only to judgment. The spring of goodness is in David's own heart, and it is for the sake of another-of Jonathan, that he seeks this lost one of the house of Saul that he may show him kindness, a kindness not according to human patterns, but divine.
We read of no appeal for mercy or consideration having been sent to David by Mephibosheth that thus stirred David's heart to think of such an one. What kindness could he rightfully expect at the hands of him whom his father's house " had hunted as a partridge on the mountains?" What love could Mephibosheth feel for David whom he regarded as his greatest enemy? Hating him in his own heart, and dreading him as the one now in power as God's anointed king over Israel, he could only hide himself as far as he could from David's presence in Lo-debar, the place of no pasture, as its name reveals. He was a lost and ruined man in Israel, and his circumstances but answered to his personal estate.
It is while in this state, and hidden away in Lo-debar, that David's message of kindness reaches him. A message calculated to gladden his poor, hopeless heart, and one that might well have brought him in quick haste to David's presence, but which for the moment only brought out one more feature of his wretchedness. If the revelation of David's love had touched his heart, and changed his own feelings, so that he could now desire the presence of the one, whom up to now, he had diligently sought to hide from, it did but make him the more fee his misery, for how could one "lame of both feet" do even • the gracious bidding of the one whose clemency he now trusted in.
But David's love had thought of this, and With the revelation of his kind intentions concerning him, he had t' sent the power to bring him to himself concerning read, and "king David sent and fetched him out of the house of Machir, the son of Ammiel in Lo-debar." On the side of Mephibosheth all was wretchedness and helplessness. On the side of David all was goodness and power, in the sovereign exercise of which he brings Mephibosheth to himself.
How strikingly in all this is the condition of the sinner, and God's ways of dealing with him while in this condition sit before the mind. By nature, as well as by practice, man is simply a lost sinner. He has in his natural condition no link with God save that which entitles him to judgment. "It is appointed unto men once to die and after that the judgment." His conscience tells him this, and he hates and fears God in consequence. The natural mind "is enmity against God," how then can he seek God and desire to be with Him. He never does, but hides himself away in the world as far as he can from God. A place which as to his soul is Lo-debar, and painfully significant of the real absence there of all pasture for man, in all that pertains to God and eternity.
And not only is man a " sinner " and "ungodly," but he is "without strength" and utterly unable to ameliorate his condition, or find his way back to God, even when he may have discovered the need of His mercy. "He is lame of both feet," and can only perish if left to himself. Man's side, like that of Mephibosheth's, has not one ray of hope in it. It is simply one of wretchedness and helplessness. But if on the side of man there be only sin, enmity, ruin and no strength, on the side of God there is love, kindness, mercy and power that can bring him out of that state. H man hide himself away from God in Lo-debar, God can see him there in his misery; He can love him, and He can devise methods to bring him to Himself. Yes, He can send His own Son to seek and save the lost, and by virtue of the atoning death of that Son, He can righteously show man His kindness, and bring him to Himself, far removed from all the misery in which His grace finds him.
"Grace reigns, through righteousness, unto eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord," for " Christ has died the just for the unjust to bring us to God," and "God commendeth His love towards us, in that, while we were yet sinners Christ died for us." The Christ who has died for man's offenses has been raised from the dead for his justification, and without his sins, because left behind at the cross of Christ, God brings man to Himself in a risen Christ in righteousness and peace.
In this way has God "sent and fetched'.' the helpless sinner to Himself out of Lo-debar. Love and power in God thus combine to bless, and the sinner has nothing whatever to do with it, save to leave himself, by simple faith, in the hands of divine love and be "fetched."
All this is the work of God for man, in which he has no part but is simply passive, like. Mephibosheth was when 4' lame of both feet" in the hands of those whom David sent to fetch him.
But the power that works for the sinner in this sovereign way, also works in the sinner, and the effect of this grace upon the heart and conscience produces repentance, and-all those godly feelings that accompany true conversion. All this we find in Mephibosheth. He falls on "his face before David" and "does him reverence." David's way of dealing with him, while taking all fear from his heart, completely humbles him, and all he can say, in the presence of such kindness is, " What is thy servant, that thou shouldest look upon such a dead dog as I am"
This is just how the saved soul feels in the presence of God's grace. Like the prodigal felt when he found his father on his neck kissing him,-completely unworthy, but very happy.
But not only did the kindness of David bring Mephibosheth out of a state of misery and want into one of happiness and abundance, but David's heart could only be satisfied by having him eating at his own table. He not only blesses Mephibosheth but he must have him with himself as a companion. So God in His love not only saves a sinner from the consequences of his sins, and brings him into happiness with eternal life, and an eternal inheritance, but He makes him His child, and seats him at His own table, to delight in what delights Himself.
The enjoyment of all this grace is our present position, as believers in His Son, and leaves us nothing to do but to proclaim that " the kindness and love of God our Savior towards man has appeared; not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy He has saved us, by the-washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost; which He shed on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Savior. That, being justified by His grace we should be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life;" and " that in the ages to come He might show the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness towards us through Christ Jesus."
" The kindness of God-" towards us is the exercise of a Sovereign love that satisfies itself in what it does for its Object. "Let us—eat and be merry," says the Father, "For this my son was dead, aid is alive again; He was lost, and is found. And-they began to be merry."