In 2 Samuel 9:5-6 David wanted to show the greatness of God and the goodness of God, but how can you show the world the greatness and goodness of God? Well, you take a person, any person who has been dropped by this world that has left them crippled and afraid. The person that has made their home far away in another person’s house, living in a parched land, all out of fear of being dropped once more and that person you reach out to and love on. Mephibosheth is a picture of all of fallen humanity, dropped by life, living in bareness where not even those close to us care to know where he was.
Listen up as verse 6 says that David sought him out and called out his name, “Mephibosheth”! Oh, I’m sure he had heard his name called many times, but it had been years since he had heard it spoken this way with such love and care. Perhaps Mephibosheth had feared that one day David would come calling and it would mean his life and the life of his family would be killed. Mephibosheth must have thought that things had gone from bad to worse, as he now comes in before the man whom his grandfather had sought to kill and ruin. There are a great many that see God the way Mephibosheth saw David. But what did David see? When Mephibosheth looked at him and spoke, “Oh, how this man reminds me of my friend Jonathan,” David saw in Mephibosheth the resemblance of the man he loved more than a brother. Is that not what God sees when he sees us in our struggle and failure, “Oh, I see that one through the eyes of my son, his voice, oh, how it reminds me of the voice of My Son?”
On this day, when he heard his name, it was from the very one whom he had been hiding from. Do you see the parallel? You have been dropped, and it has left you crippled, and you are held in a dry and bitter place, afraid of the very One who wants to bless you. Do you hear Him call your name? He is not angry. He has not come to take your life. He has come to save your life and to give you back your life. And what did Mephibosheth reply? “Here is your servant… such a dead dog as I.”. Oh, the heaviness of hopelessness, “Dare I trust? I’m crippled and bitter; I’ve been dropped so many times I have nothing to give. What kind of servant can I be, one who cannot walk? What burdens can I bear for a master worthy of saving my life?”
Mephibosheth’s reaction was still uncertain and fearful of David’s intentions, as David tells him not to fear and then gives the reasons why he has no worries.
Is that not the way our Lord treats us? He seeks us out while we were yet lost, then gives us back all that we lost from His inheritance, then invites us to sit at His table forever and provides for the well-being of our future. And all this is for the sake of another because of His love and promise to another.