Bryan’s Thoughts

I used to joke that I wanted to give my firstborn son the Biblical name of Mephibosheth Zerubbabel Methuselah Artexerxes Theophilus Ens.  Fortunately for my wife, I was kidding.  I have nothing against giving a child a Biblical name - Joshuah, Mary, David, Ruth…there’s a lot of wonderful names in the Bible to name your kids!  (for the record, I have 2 sons, neither of whom have Biblical names, so I have no problem with Christian parents who choose to pick names elsewhere either).  Another good Biblical name to not name your child is Maher-Shalal-Hash-Baz (the name I threatened to give to my second son!).

This post is not about what to name (or not to name your child).  It is about a real man who lived a long time ago, who just happened to be named Mephibosheth.

Mephibosheth was the grandson of King Saul (son of Saul’s son Jonathon).  He had been crippled in both feet at the age of 5 (2 Sam. 4:4).  By the time we get to 2 Sam 9, David’s reign had been firmly established over all of Israel.  King David was not of the house of Saul.  The dynasty of the House of Saul began with Saul…and ended with Saul.  Saul showed that he had no respect for God, and therefore God chose to start a new dynasty through the House of David.

The fact remained, though, that as long as Saul had any living relatives left, there was a threat to David’s rule.  There might be enough sympathizers with the House of Saul that a coup d’état could topple David’s fledgling kingship in favour of one of Saul’s relatives.  Therefore it was customary for a king of a new dynasty to execute all the survivors of the previous dynasty.

But we see David act completely out of character with the custom of that time period…in 2 Sam 9

David asked, “Is there anyone still left of the house of Saul to whom I can show kindness for Jonathan’s sake?”

Way back in 1 Sam 18, we see a friendship form between King Saul’s son, Prince Jonathan and David.  This was no fair-weather friendship.  Verse 1 of 1 Sam 18 tells us, Jonathan became one in spirit with David, and he loved him as himself.  It seems that the feeling was mutual!  It was because of this great friendship that David wanted to show kindness to a member of the House of Saul.

Undoubtedly, Mephibosheth was terrified when he was called before the new king.  He expected, at best, that his life would be taken quickly…at worst, a slow and painful death by torture.  How surprised he must have been when David said to him, “Don’t be afraid, for I will surely show you kindness for the sake of your father Jonathan. I will restore to you all the land that belonged to your grandfather Saul, and you will always eat at my table.”  (2 Sam 9:7)

It’s an amazing story of love, grace, a promise kept!  David could have completely destroyed the House of Saul - including Mephibosheth.  Instead, he chose to honour Mephibosheth because of his friendship with Jonathan.

(I’m really looking forward to when my Bible reading takes me into the New Testament so that I can write a bit about how deserving of death all of us are because of our sin, but how the Son of God - Jesus Christ - chose to make a way so that all who put their trust in Jesus will be rescued from the damnation that we deserve - and given a place in Heaven (which we can never earn or deserve on our own merits!!)