This recording is from Christ Kingdom Church in Avalon Park, Orlando. Visit us online at ChristKingdom.org for our calendar, driving directions, and more audio recordings. That's y'all are wondering, is the bass player gonna preach today? Yes, that's true. If y'all are tired of looking at me, I feel your pain. I get told I can only say it was hard for bass players in it too. You know, we rarely get to come to the front.
If you would, turn your Bibles to the book of 2 Samuel. It's toward the beginning. 2 Samuel, if you have your pamphlet and your insert, I believe it's from the back of that as well. We'll be reading from chapter 9, 2 Samuel, chapter 9. And I invite you to stand as we read God's Word. 2 Samuel, chapter 9, starting in verse 1. Hear the word of God. David asked, is there anyone still left at the house of Saul to whom I can show kindness for Jonathan's sake? Now, there was a servant of Saul's household named Ziba. They summoned him to appear before David and the king said to him, or, you Ziba? At your service, he replied, the king asked, is there no one still left at the house of Saul to whom I can show God's kindness? So you've answered the king, there is still a son of Jonathan. He is lame and both feet. Where is he, the king asked? Ziba answered, he is the house of Makir, son of Amil, and low to bar. So King David had brought him from low to bar from the house of Makir, son of Amil. When the Fibisheth, son of Jonathan, the son of Saul, came to David, he bowed down to pay him honor. David said, Mifibisheth, at your service, he replied, don't be afraid, David said to him, I will surely show you kindness for the sake of your father, Jonathan. The door was stored to you all the land that belonged to your grandfather Saul, and you will always eat at my table. Mifibisheth bowed down and said, what is your servant that you should notice a dead dog like me? Then the king summoned Ziba, Saul steward and said to him, I have given your master's grandson everything that belonged to Saul and his family. You and your sons and your servants sort of farmed the land for him and bring him the crops so that your master's grandson may be provided for. Mifibisheth, grandson of your master, will always eat at my table. Now Ziba had 15 sons and 20 servants. Then Ziba said to the king, your servant will do whatever my lord, the king, commands a servant to do. Some Mifibisheth ate at David's table like one of the king's sons. Mifibisheth had a young son, Namika, and all the servants of Ziba's household were servants of Mifibisheth. And Mifibisheth lived in Jerusalem because he always ate at the king's table. He was lame in both feet. Maybe seated. Let's pray and ask that the lord would add to the reading and the preaching of his word. Heavenly Father, we thank you for your word. We thank you for how it communicates to us through story and revealing who you are, who we are, and how you display your grace to those undeserving of it and how you continue to show kindness for those that need it. So Father, we ask that you would bless the preaching of your word, that even as I teach these here, that I would also be taught, that your Holy Spirit would enlighten our eyes, that we would be more like Christ from our time here. That Christ's kingdom would be a bright light to the greater community, and that those who do not know you here, that you would be so pleased to draw them to yourself. We ask these things for Christ's sake. We ask that in his name. Amen. Well, we come to an Old Testament passage, sometimes an art not pursued a whole lot anymore. And we come to a pretty popular passage in some circles, King David and Mifibisheth. And this is growing to be one of my favorite passages in the Bible. The more I am exposed to the Bible through my seminary training, this passage particularly stands out to me more and more. And there are two reasons why I particularly like this passage. For one, it deals with the subject of eating an unlikely servant at an unlikely place. And for some of you who know me, I am somewhat of a foodie. I like food. I like to cook. I wouldn't mind going to culinary school one of these days and actually learning some real skills. My wife, Faire, is much better than me. She can actually do some things in the kitchen. But I like to eat. And if you think about it, the Bible says a lot about eating. And eating has a lot to do with your lives in general, doesn't it? You just think through the Bible. We start in a garden where as many can eat from these trees, don't eat from this one. We have the Lord suffer, obviously. The children of Israel fed with mana. The idea of eating is a common theme throughout the Bible. And we think about eating. I think Scott said earlier, you are what you eat. And this is somewhat true. When you think about the notion of eating who you eat with, how you eat, the occasion, all these things change depending on the circumstances. When somebody gets married, usually the fine china is brought out for the wedding ceremony. If we're going to eat it, the receptions would be nice. If you're having a tailgate or something, you're probably going to use paper plates. There's all the things that go into eating and why you use what you use. And it's a big deal. There's a lot to it. And a better question is often, who do you eat with? And does that matter? And what shape does that affect us? I'm sure you've heard the statistics that families eat together regularly, usually have better behaved children, they're closer to their parents, things of that nature. So it seems like even who you eat with is a pretty important thing as well. So anyway, eating is one of the reasons why I like this passage because we have an unlikely person at the king's table. And then secondly, David. David is a fascinating figure. And if you know somewhat your history of the Bible, you know that David will go on to write much of the Psalms. He is one of the writers of God's holy word. He is the great, great, great, great, great grandfather of Jesus Christ himself. A very important king, a very important figure in the Old Testament. So these two reasons make this an interesting passage. So where are we going with this? What is going on here? And what does it mean for us? What is a story this long ago have to do with us? What is it trying to show us? Firstly, for those who take notes and there's an outline for it, usually that's my fault. I was a procrastinator this week, like about 48 weeks out of the year. What is going on? Well look at verse 1, David asks, is there anyone still left of the house of Saul to whom I can show kindness for Jonathan's sake? Did you look at verse 3, the king asked, is there no one still left of the house of Saul to whom I can show God's kindness? Now why is that a big deal? This is setting up the rest of the story. These first three verses are letting you know what is going on. Well, why would that be a big deal? Who was the king before David? Saul, right? Did Saul get along with David very well? No, he did not. That's good. And there's some tension here. Saul tried to kill David many times. Saul was the king of Israel. The transition is apparent. David is going to be crowned king next. Saul is jealous of David for many reasons. And Saul tries to take David's life many times. So it's kind of weird that somebody would ask, can I show kindness to this man's sake, someone who tried to kill him? And you can appreciate the tension. Imagine whoever your best friend is. Imagine your dad, his dad, hates you. Not only does he hate you, but it looks like it's promised that he's going to take his job. Be kind of awkward. You know what I mean? That just seems kind of weird that someone who tried to kill David, David was going to try to show kindness to. But why does he do this? Why does David want to show kindness to the house of Saul? Well, the reason is that Saul's son Jonathan was best friends with David. And David made a covenant with Jonathan. David made a covenant with Jonathan that I will be kind to your household. So David is keeping his covenant. This is a very commendable act. You have King David keeping his word. He said he would be kind to Jonathan's sake when he was king. And he is seeking out those who we can show kindness to. And this is important for us. Because if you notice in verse three, when he says, is there anyone still left at the house of Saul to whom I can show God's kindness? Well, God's kindness, that word right there is the Hebrew word, Hesid. And when we say the Hebrew says this, the Greek says this, believe it or not, we're not always trying to show off. But the word Hesid is a very important word in the Bible. That God's Hesid, it is a loaded word that you can unpack. For those of you interested in word studies, Hesid is one of the most loaded words in the Old Testament. But this is a characteristic of God and it's hard to translate and it's hard to define because it's God's persistent loving kindness. Now God keeps coming back to those he loves and this is a characteristic of God that is always present. God's Hesid shown to his people. So David here is trying to reflect God in that manner. He's keeping this covenant and wants to show Hesid to the house of Saul. That's a very loaded word. And this is somewhat odd, like I said, that Saul tried to kill David. So now David's in power, what do you think normally would happen like that? What do you think normally would happen is, okay, your household tried to kill me, now I'm in command, what do you think usually happen? The king exacts revenge. I'm taking your whole family out and that happened a lot. And the ancient Hesid and it happens in the Bible. That vengeance is enacted. So it's commendable to note that David is being a good king here. That David is trying to reflect God's demeanor. He is trying to reflect who God is and he's keeping this covenant and he's showing kindness to those who are usually revenge is acted upon. That's all I want you to see. For those first three verses, we have David being a good and faithful king showing Hesid to the house of Saul, even though Saul tried to kill him. Secondly, David in his good kingliness shows kindness to Mephibasheth. Enter Mephibasheth. And this is a hard name I might mispronounce that some of you in your Bibles might have, I think Mary Bail or Mary Bail, same guy, if you have an older translation. So enter Mephibasheth. We learned from earlier in Samuel that he was dropped as a child, rendering his feet or both of his legs crippled. And he's at the house of Saul. And David turns out there's going to attempt to show him kindness. Notice the posture of Mephibasheth when he enters the king because you can imagine Mephibasheth is probably scared. He's been brought to the king. He's at the house of Saul. He's probably aware of what has gone on. He probably thinks I'm about to be killed. My life is over. The king is going to take out his vengeance on me and Saul's house will be done.
Notice what Mephibasheth does in verse 6. Mephibasheth son of Jonathan, the son of Saul, came to David. He bowed down to pay him honor. So you have someone who has crippled in both legs or both feet. It's a hard thing to bow down. It's a hard thing to get up when you're in that situation. The humility of Mephibasheth is evident and David's kindness all the more. And how does David show him kindness? How is the king going to show kindness to Mephibasheth? Well, one thing you can notice in verse 7 that Mephibasheth is going to be restored. He's going to have his grandfather's possessions. He's going to have what was once his. But the more important thing to note, I think, is when David says in verse 7, you will always eat at my table. As we've been talking about eating is a big deal. How we eat what we eat, who we eat with. You will always eat at my table. The honor this shows in the hospitality, how comforting that can be to eat at someone's table. I have a, there's an experience in my own life where I saw this kind of happen before my eyes. I was fortunate enough to, I was raised with good parents and a good home and a good neighborhood and basketball was my sport. I played basketball in high school and even played AAU ball for a little bit and sought to walk on. So basketball was very dear to my heart. And on the basketball team, there was a guy by the name of Andy Johnson, who was my age and also my competitor. We were both point guard, so we were always competing for the same position. And oftentimes those people tend to make enemies. You know, it's kind of like first chair in band. You know what I mean, it's just you hate them at their head of you. Well, we became friends and Andy had a much different background than me. He was a black man. He was from a different socioeconomic position. And Andy had a hard life. I have no idea who took care of him. There was a house several times and never saw his parents as parents from around. He had a grandmother and uncle that helped out. He would cut hair in the back of his house just to make a little money on the side. And as long as I knew him, he never had an actual front door. It's just a curtain. So Andy and I were friends through basketball. We would hang out. You know, in the early stages of friendships where it's kind of awkward, you know, you're kind of figuring people out. Like, you know, can we get along? Are we going to be friends? Are we going to hang this up soon? You know, we're talking about same sex here. You know, it's like, are we going to be friends? Can we do this? Well, Andy, I had him over to my house for the first time. And I'm from the deep south. I'm sure you can hear to my accent. I apologize for those that, you know, you can hear a brother or a art thou music or something when I talk. Which is a great movie, but I apologize for the distraction it might be. In the deep south, there on a whole lot of close friends across interracial lines. I mean, it's sad. It's just true. Like, that's just how it is. But Andy, I did become good friends. But early on when he first came to my house, we were still trying to figure each other out. And I think Andy was almost somewhat suspicious of me. And, you know, rightly so. There's a long-sorted history between blacks and whites in the south. But when he was over in our kitchen, my mother and her true hospitality form was a very hospitable woman. Comes in, greets Andy with kindness, fixes up the leftovers, only like a mother can do. There's stuff in their microwave, stuff comes in the oven. She's going to feed Andy just because he's there. I'm going to feed him. I'm going to make you comfortable. We want to feed you while you were here. You can almost watch the transition happen in Andy's face. He settled down. He realized there was no ulterior motive for our friendship. He became very comfortable and he kind of opened up to me for the first time. That through this act of eating together did wanders and starting our friendship. And this is how I believe that God made the world. A lot goes down across the dinner table. A lot goes down in conversations over food. And the kind that's shown to Andy by my mother in eating something special happened. So when the king David says, the man who was crippled of the house of his enemy, David, and keeping his covenant, you will eat with me. It's a very, very kind, honoring act.
And then notice Mfibishev's self abasement. In verse 8, some harsh words, Mfibishev, how he refers to himself. He bowed down again and said, what is your servant that you should notice a dead dog like me? We're going to come back to that. I want you to keep that in mind. I think there's something at the heart of this passage in those words. A dead dog, brutal language. So as far we've seen, the good king David is keeping his covenant, like he said, and he is showing kindness by letting Mfibishev eat at the king's table.
But we find the king David does not only show kindness, but is also going to make sure Mfibishev is provided for. Look in verse 10, as he commands his servant Zeba, farm the land for him and bring him the crops so that Mfibishev may be provided for. Now it's the every one thing to invite Mfibishev to eat at your table, but if it were to stop there, you would wonder. He said, well that's really nice, David, that you invited this guy to eat at your table. But he also, he's going to have a hard time getting around between those meals, like what then? So David is showing great hesed in this act. I remember seeing Stevie Wonder. Any Stevie Wonder fans in here? For you kids, look him up. If you're a music fan, you need to know Stevie Wonder. He's got more soul than most of us in here combined. One of my favorite singers, intervisions and songs in the key of life for the best albums of all time. So anyway, Stevie Wonder, pick it up, should you want some good music. But Stevie is blind. I remember one time in the 90s, I think, on MTV, some awards show, and this is when MTV still had some music going on. We're old school. That's old school to my generation. MTV had music videos. Sad as that is, that's where I'm from. But Stevie was on some MTV Awards show. So it was really nice of them to get him up there. He's blind. They put him right there on the piano. Stevie does a song, very well done. But then they forgot to get him off the stage. So he just sits there not knowing what's going on. The show continues. I think I'm like five, ten minutes later. It's very awkward. So you know, you think, that's great, David. You're going to get my fidgett to the table. But what about in the meantime, you know, he's going to need some help, like between gig to gig, between meal to meal. Well, like that, David knows. He shows kindness beyond what you might expect. That he's going to provide for him even between the meals. And then we see the description of Mephibiseth in verse 11. So Mephibiseth ate a David's table like one of the King's sons. So we had this interesting progression. We have a king that you might expect to act vengeance upon the House of Saul. Instead, he shows kindness because of his covenant. This is a very unlikely person, someone who has crippled in both feet through no fault of his own. He comes in the King's court, bows down, and David's going to look after him. He's going to promise him a place at his table. He's going to provide for you between meals. So what does this matter for us? Well, I hope that sounds like someone to you. I hope that some things are going off in your head. Who does that sound like? What being is that? That through no reason when deserving of wrath, kindness is shown to you. Though nothing good to offer, he's going to feed you. And despite your inability, he's going to care for you.
When it's not you, it's not me. It sounds a lot like Jesus doesn't it? It sounds like the God the Father. So why does this matter? What does this mean for us? Well, it'd be very oversimplifying to say, we see Jesus is like David but better. Well, that's true. That is true. But what we know about David is it does show us our need for a king. Because what is David going to do to chapters over? David is going to see a woman who looks beautiful bathing. He's going to send her husband to the front lines to be killed so he can sleep with her. So the king of Israel, the Lord's people, who's showing great hesitation here, he's about to commit murder and adultery just because he likes what he sees. And this is your king. Saul, who David's replacing, Israel begged for a king like the nations. Give us a leader like the nations have. And Saul tries to murder the next in line. This kingship needs some serious help. Does it not? What the people of God wanted doesn't seem to work. So indeed we need a good king. So David's life is somewhat tragic. Although he is a man after God's own heart, he will write some of the Psalms. He is a figure that can be imitated at times. I wouldn't recommend the murder thing or some of his other sins. But this is how the Old Testament works. A lot of times we read these stories, we read, speak of eating, you know, Levitical dietary laws. What does that have to do with us, right? The Old Testament is sometimes a little confusing. But a lot of times the Old Testament is giving us pictures of who God is, of what God will do in Jesus Christ. And I think this is one of those pictures. To where through this narrative of David, we see David showing God's hesed who Jesus will be in the line of David. We see him doing this in the ways that we've just talked about. That he keeps his covenant. He feeds him, brings him to his table. And he provides for him. So when light of that, when we think about Jesus, who is the true David, Jesus is the true king. The one that David was pointing to is Jesus. When we look back to our king, the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, how does he fit this? And what ways does he show the hesed that David shows? Well, one, Jesus is certainly the covenant keeper, much better than David. I'll be curious. We've had lots of seminary guys up here, so I'm sure somebody's used this before. But when God makes the covenant with Abraham, when he says, I will bless all nations, who does God make a covenant with? Who does he swear by? John, no, himself. Thank you, Vicki, himself. See, David made a covenant with Jonathan. It was for this sake of Jonathan, which this story doesn't really end well. Zeba will end up being a backbiting God, and the fivosheth gets falsely accused. So this doesn't, the happy ending isn't perfect here at all. But for this time, David is keeping covenant because the covenant he made with somebody else. Well, God makes the covenant and he swears by himself. So Jesus coming the flesh is keeping that covenant. It will be through him all the nations will be blessed and know who God is. A much better David, a truer David, the true king, the true covenant keeping king. Secondly, in the kindness shown to David, Jesus' kindness is efficacious, isn't it? As I just said, this isn't necessarily a happy story. It doesn't go well for all the characters involved. But the book of Hebrews tells us that Jesus is the author and perfector of our faith. That Jesus leaves us the Holy Spirit to help us to sustain us between meals. And like this, Jesus is the true David and that he shows us kindness by forgiving us, by dying for our sins, for providing that sacrifice, for revealing that to us. Jesus shows us kindness. And like he leaves Zeba to take care of the fivosheth, he leaves his church the Holy Spirit to help us and to teach us and to sustain us from meal to meal. So you see the parallels going on here? How David is a small picture of the much greater things that Jesus will do. So the issue at stake here is God's hesed, God's faithfulness to his people, which David is a beautiful picture of. Now I asked you to hold off on verse 8. My fivosheth bowed down and said, what is your servant that you should notice a dead dog like me? I find this phrase fascinating. My wife is very quick to lighten the mood in our place sometimes. My literature is somewhat darker. My humor is more sarcastic. My movies are darker. Aaron's more lighthearted. She kind of keeps it light. So I was going to like really focus on the dead dog part because if David is like the picture of Jesus, then I make such a fivosheth, right? So they're all dead dogs. It's like nobody likes that, right? So Aaron was like, well, human beings always have dignity because of the image of errors of God. And that's true. So Aaron, good point. So the point stands that if David is a picture of Jesus and my fivosheth is kind of like us, you can see some of the parallels. So man, does that make us all dead dogs? No one likes that, right? Well, as demeaning as that is, I think it's fair in that the New Testament comes along and actually paints us worse. How are people described outside of Christ described? The describing is dead and rebels. Rebellious towards God. So really a dead dog is one thing, but you know, it's not really rebellion. It's not necessarily in that. My fivosheth is already shown that he's at the, he needs the mercy of the king. And always thought the notion of a dead rebellious person was interesting because that doesn't make sense. But I do, it does make a lot of movies, images go off in my head. You know, when somebody just pick a movie, but there's good guy, there's bad guy who's been shot like five or six times. He's on the ground. The good guy has more guns in his holster in his gun. He has more bullets in his gun. And he's having his last words with the bad guy, right? Now, on a normal circumstances, you would think the person would plead for his life, but in so many movies, even then, even like on the brink of death, he'll kind of maybe slip him the bird of some sort. You know, I'm not, I'm not going to cave in. You know, I'm not going to swallow my pride for you, even though I'm your enemy, and you have one, I'm going to hold on. And at that, at that flipping the bird image of Finn and y'all, I'm sorry, I just, it's like that. It's not necessarily always vulgar, but it is one of the things to where the person who's in great need won't do it. He won't ask for help when he should. So the dead dog is actually built upon, is actually seems to be expanded for those outside of Jesus's mercy. And I think the church and our culture can be guilty of what I would call and please don't turn me off when I say this. I'm going to qualify this in two ways. For one, I try to avoid sports analogies. I know I've already talked about my basketball career, but not really career and never got paid. So I do try to, you know, you hear somebody to let me speak and you're expecting here to come to football analogies. Well, I'll try to keep those two a minimum. But I do the church is guilty of what seems to be like a Tim Teebo type syndrome. And this is not to integrate Tim Teebo. Fine football player for everything I gather is a fine young man. So this is not to take away from Teebo. This is with what the church can sometimes be obsessed with guys like that. That we look at Tim and we, our guys like him and say, this is kind of, that's Christianity in action. The big, awesome athlete doing big, awesome things for God on these huge platforms reaching millions. And praise God for them. Seriously, praise God that there are men like him doing what he does on the stage that he does it. But the gospel, I think, would tell us that apart from the mercy of the king, the image of the dead dog doesn't go far enough. We're dead rebels. We hate God. That is our beginnings. That's from where you came that you need help. So we can ask ourselves, is the Lord good? Will the Lord show mercy to me? I think this is appropriate because Christ, kingdom here, we celebrate weekly communion, which is a wonderful practice, that weekly we are reminded of what Christ has done for us. So I hope it's kind of clicking in your head now. King David brought me a fidget to his table out of his kindness. And every week that we eat here you eat with the king. And from where did you come? Who were you apart from his grace? The dead dog, rebellious, dead. So some of you might be wondering, is the Lord good? Has he been kind to me? Has he shown me kindness? I tell you, if you believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, the sacrament isn't always just what we tell God and in remembering Christ's sacrifice, which is true. We do remember Christ. But God is also showing you His kindness. You should mean something to you. Does the Lord love me? Will He show me kindness? Every week we taste of that grace. That He does. That for those that ask the king's mercy, He will. He will show you kindness. But for those outside of Christ, those who you do not, to borrow the turn from a dear friend Andy Johnson, the RUF minister, that your life is wrecked. I always use this wreck to describe the individual who doesn't know the true and living God. I'll just save you a lot of trouble that your only way out is to submit to the king. That is your only hope. It is miserable in trying to find a table that will satisfy apart from the real one. Very empty life. You should be warned that King David, like a picture of Christ, David has a good track record of slaughtering most of his enemies and he ends up crushing the head of Goliath. Jesus in a much more real sense. His enemies will be crushed in the verse that every knee shall bow and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord. That is not an imperative statement. That isn't you should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord. That isn't indicative statement. That is a statement of fact. Everybody will. The question is, under what circumstances will you bow before his kingship? You will either bow in mercy and grace now. I submit to I need God's kindness shown to me. Apart from that, I have nothing. You need that shown to you or you will bow in judgment and you will bow in punishment. I plead with you. If you were here and you do not know the Lord Jesus Christ, you need the king's mercy. You need it. Apart from it, a dog are much worse. But with it, in asking for the king's mercy and asking for Jesus, you have a place at his table. The book of Revelation tells us, we anticipate the wedding feast. This is the foretaste of love divine. As you eat, we are headed towards a wedding feast. We will eat with the king Jesus. This is the glimpse. I ask that you come and you eat. You eat with thankfulness. You eat with gratitude of what the Lord Jesus has done for you. This is not a light meal. The next few weeks, God has been going through a faith that works. And as we think about faith that works in relationships and family, this kind of levels the playing field. That we acknowledge that any reflection we have of the king's kindness and any life that is good is because of the kindness shown to us first. So this is who you are. And asking for the king's mercy, you have a royal seat and he will provide for you meal to meal. But apart from him, the wrath of God abides on you. So Christ came to my encourage you with that. If you believe and who King Jesus is and what he can't do for you, eat with thanksgiving. This is the Lord's kindness to you. And if you are not, I plead with you to come to the good table and know the Lord Jesus. Amen. Let's pray. Father in heaven, we thank you for your goodness to us and we thank you for how you reveal yourself to your church. We thank you for the wonderful, hopeful story that Mfibisheth is as David because he is the good covenant keeping God keeps his word. He will show him kindness and he will sustain him. So Lord Jesus, we thank you for doing this for us. Let me do ask that you would draw those that do not know you to your good table. And Father help us all that do know you to acknowledge and to live in such a way that is true to the reality that you showed us kindness first and that we are completely at your mercy. Help us to eat and to live in such a way. We ask these things in Christ's name for his sake. Amen.