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[0:00] All right, 2 Samuel chapter 9, and this is the word of the Lord.

[0:17] And David said, is there still anyone left of the house of Saul that I may show him kindness for Jonathan's sake? Now there was a servant of the house of Saul whose name was Ziba, and they called him to David.

[0:36] And the king said to him, are you Ziba? And he said, I am your servant. And the king said, is there not still someone in the house of Saul that I may show the kindness of God to him?

[0:48] Ziba said to the king, there is still a son of Jonathan. He is crippled in his feet. The king said to him, where is he?

[0:59] And Ziba said to the king, he is in the house of Machir, the son of Amiel at Lodabar. Then king David sent and brought him from the house of Machir, the son of Amiel at Lodabar, and Mephibosheth, the son of Jonathan, son of Saul, came to David and fell on his face and paid homage.

[1:24] And David said, Mephibosheth. And he answered, behold, I am your servant. And David said to him, do not fear, for I will show you kindness for the sake of your father Jonathan.

[1:40] And I will restore to you all the land of Saul, your father, and you shall eat at my table always. And he paid homage and said, what is your servant that you should show regard for a dead dog such as I?

[1:58] Then the king called Ziba, Saul's servant, and said to him, all that belong to Saul and to all his house, I have given to your master's grandson.

[2:10] And you and your sons and your servants shall till the land for him and shall bring in the produce and that your master's grandson may have bread to eat. But Mephibosheth, your master's grandson, shall always eat at my table.

[2:25] Now Ziba had 15 sons and 20 servants. Then Ziba said to the king, according to all that my lord the king commands his servant, so will your servant do.

[2:39] So Mephibosheth ate at David's table like one of the king's sons. And Mephibosheth had a young son whose name was Micah. And all who lived in Ziba's house became Mephibosheth's servants.

[2:52] So Mephibosheth lived in Jerusalem, for he ate always at the king's table. Now he was lame in both his feet.

[3:04] Okay, so there's a lot that is in here in this text. And one thing that I like to do, and I know many and especially the one that taught me how to do, or some of the ones who've taught me how to exegete and do those fun preacher type things over the years, like my seminary professor at preaching and hermeneutics people and my father and others as well, is to look at the text and find different things about it.

[3:35] One of the things that is obvious is what words in there, especially major words, are repeated. Things that are repeated and such, and especially phrases that kind of catch an eye, that kind of thing.

[3:50] And there are several that are in here that speak up. One is the word servant. There's a lot of places in here where it talks about servant, whereas Mephibosheth's servants at the end there, or Saul's servant.

[4:05] And then there's also two places, one by Ziba and then one by Mephibosheth, where they come to David and say, I am your servant. And so that's an interesting thing that's talked about there.

[4:19] Another is the word kindness. That's an interesting idea. We'll talk about that in a couple of minutes, especially the meaning of that. But also for the sake of Jonathan, or just the word Jonathan, the name Jonathan is mentioned there quite a bit.

[4:37] Jonathan obviously is dead. He died at the end of 1 Samuel, and this was many years ago by this point. A good 15 years, probably more.

[4:48] But there's four different times that Jonathan is said here. And then there's also four different times, starting in verse 7 and following, where eating at the king's table, I mean, that's a big deal. And so these are things that help us to clue us into what this text is really bringing about.

[5:05] It's more than just a story. It really is pointing to something that is major. And so these are helpful in this idea. But also there is an outline that this text kind of goes by that's pretty neat as well.

[5:22] A lot of Old Testament texts do this. But what happens is that there is a verse or there is a portion of Scripture that maybe would be in the middle of this entire passage.

[5:34] And then you would find that it's kind of going to this point. It's an outline called a chiastic outline or a chiasm. But you would have, like, let's say, point A, point B, point C.

[5:47] And then you would have, like, point B again, kind of B prime or something. And then A, once again, kind of reiterated in there, a recapitulation of that, so to speak.

[5:58] So I'm a musician, obviously. And in music, especially music history and theory and such, when we study music from the classical period, and I do mean classical proper like Mozart and such, you would have that a lot.

[6:12] You would have, like, section A, section B, and they come right back to section A. And they do section C or something. They come right back to section A. And so it would have that kind of thing. But this kind of does something similar to that.

[6:24] But when it's a chiastic outline especially, the middle where it's pointing to really becomes the main subject, the main thing you really want to point to.

[6:36] And this chapter does that. The entire chapter points to verse 7. I mean, more than anything else, you'd find it's verse 7. So the main point we can find comes to verse 7.

[6:48] And I want to read that again. It says, And so this is doing something that is relatively strange.

[7:13] We talked about last week, chapter 8, a lot of precedent that happened in chapter 8. A lot of land that was taken. Typical things that go on, especially in the ancient Near East.

[7:27] You know, whenever people are conquered, nations are conquered, you would find that there would be a lot that could be slaughtered, that could be executed. That kind of situation.

[7:38] Those things happen in chapter 8. A lot of precedent. Some that are not so much precedent. But this is a completely unprecedented thing that happens right here.

[7:49] Because we've been studying through 2 Samuel and 1 Samuel prior to that. Pastor Donald's here and preaching through this very faithfully. And really what's being brought out is that there was this king named King Saul.

[8:05] And there was this guy named David that just kind of an upstart almost. And, you know, nobody thought anything of him until Samuel said, Hey, he's going to be the next king.

[8:19] And then this young man out of the blue just kind of steps out. And this big giant dies because he throws a sling at him. Or, you know, he slings a rock at him.

[8:32] So it's an amazing thing that's going on. But then he just kind of rises up into the ranks. Saul slays his thousands.

[8:43] David slays his ten thousands. And, you know, that kind of got to the goat of Saul. And all of a sudden Saul wanted to kill this guy. And wanted to get rid of him.

[8:55] And, of course, you know, before that, you know, the reason David is even there is because Saul has shown that he is no longer. And his house is no longer capable of being the king.

[9:06] And the proper king for the kingdom of Israel. So this is just all kinds of crazy things here. But if you want to go back, there's a couple places that will help us with this idea.

[9:19] Because there is a covenant that happens. And that's why this sermon is called Covenant of Kindness. Because it's referring back to a covenant. As we will find out, a covenant of kindness. But there's a couple spots.

[9:31] Chapter 18 of 1 Samuel. There's one spot here. And the other spot is in chapter 20 of 1 Samuel. But if you want to look back at this, just keep your finger there on 2 Samuel chapter 9.

[9:43] But it says in verse 3 and verse 4 of 1 Samuel, sorry, 18. Then Jonathan made a covenant with David because he loved him as his own soul.

[9:59] And Jonathan stripped himself of the robe that was on him and gave it to David and his armor and even his sword and his bow and his belt.

[10:09] Well, there's two things that happened right here. One, Jonathan loved David as his own soul. And David reciprocated, as we see in other texts as well in this passage and following passages as well.

[10:22] And a lot of people have tried to make something of this, especially liberals, to advocate something that they really want to advocate. But the fact is, what this is, loving someone as your own soul.

[10:35] I mean, aren't we all supposed to do that? Isn't that the law there? Isn't that the, you know, God's law, you shall love your neighbor as yourself? I mean, that's really a great example of that right there.

[10:47] So that's one. And the second thing is in verse 4, there are several different things that are given to David. Jonathan gives to David his armor, his belt, his bow and sword. And these are not just things or weapons, that kind of thing.

[11:02] These signify something, major significance. Jonathan is the heir to the throne. And these are symbols of his, you know, ascendancy to the throne.

[11:13] Once Saul dies, Jonathan will be the heir. And what is he doing? Well, he is giving these symbols to David, understanding the covenant that the Lord has made with Israel to make David the king and make his family, you know, the kingly family there.

[11:32] So this is something that Jonathan is actually submitting not only to David as the rightful heir to the throne, but also to God's plan. I mean, a huge thing for this to happen.

[11:45] And again, Jonathan, by blood at least, is the rightful heir to the throne. And of course, there's plenty that thought so anyway. And yet he's giving over.

[11:58] But in also chapter 20, this is really the meat of the covenant that's going on. And we skipped some passages, and that's where we find the Saul slays his thousands.

[12:09] David is tens of thousands. And we find that the anger and the rage and the jealousy and any other adjective we can think of there to describe Saul's rage is, you know, welling up at this point.

[12:25] And but nonetheless, Jonathan apparently is kind of out of the blue of it. I mean, he doesn't see this for whatever reason. I guess he's busy with his own things. Obviously, very busy guy.

[12:36] And so but but nonetheless, David comes to Jonathan and simply says, and I'm going to kind of paraphrase this a bit. Basically, he's saying, hey, you know, this, you know, Saul, your father, he's trying to kill me.

[12:53] And Jonathan's like, no, I don't think that's happening. He would let me know. You know, Saul, you know, my father lets me know things and he keeps me in the loop for things. I don't think he would let me know if he wanted to kill you.

[13:05] I don't know why he would let to know that. But but nonetheless, he's like, you know, he doesn't keep me out of the blue of stuff. He lets me in the loop. He would let me know. So I don't think that's happening.

[13:16] Well, anyway, David asks him as well as Jonathan just started a covenant with him. And back in chapter 18. So David is furthering this covenant in verse eight.

[13:28] It says, therefore, deal kindly with your servant, for you have brought your servant into a covenant of the Lord with you. And what he's asking there is if you would just go to the table as the new moon festival is coming up.

[13:42] And and David is going to miss it just to see what Saul does. And he's going to go out, hide and hide. And he'll hide for three days. And if Saul misses David, eventually Saul's going to ask, hey, where's David?

[13:55] And and Jonathan can let let Saul know what's going on. And the story there is that he's going back to his family in Bethlehem to celebrate the new moon festival.

[14:07] And and his brothers called him to there to come to come to that. And of course, if Saul's like, OK, that's fine. Then everything is all good. But if there's major jealous rage, as we see actually happened, then then then.

[14:23] Yeah, let me know that kind of thing so he can run and hide. And then in verse 14 through 17, Jonathan says to David these these important words.

[14:34] It's verse 14. If I'm still alive, show me the steadfast love of the Lord that I may not die. So Jonathan, first of all, saying, hey, I will do this for you.

[14:46] I will let you know if this is going on and display this kindness. But in return, please do this. If I'm still alive, show me steadfast love of the Lord that I may not die.

[14:58] Verse 15. And do not cut off your steadfast love from my hand forever. When the Lord cuts off every one of the enemies of David from the face of the earth. And Jonathan made a covenant with the house of David, saying, may the Lord take vengeance on David's enemies.

[15:14] And Jonathan made David swear again by his love for him, for he loved him as he loved his own soul. And so there's really kind of a two-way street here.

[15:27] First off, Jonathan is going to show kindness to David at that point in time. A major valuable point in time. You know, David could lose his life at that point.

[15:41] Well, that would be the end of everything. So we don't want that to happen. And so there you go. It's, you know, a valuable point in time. And so Jonathan is going to display kindness to David at that point.

[15:53] And in return, David will show kindness to Jonathan for the rest of time. And basically, David and his line will show kindness to Jonathan from here on out.

[16:05] If Jonathan is still alive at that point, you know, the reality is Jonathan didn't know he was going to die. I mean, none of us know when we're going to die necessarily. So, I mean, that was, so if he was still alive, he was going to display kindness to Jonathan and not be like, well, every other king.

[16:21] And kill and wipe out the last line. And that was a pretty typical thing in the ancient Near East. We don't really have to go very far, like, into history books like Josephus and such.

[16:32] We can just stick right here to the Bible. And we find out that in the northern kingdom of Israel, we find Yehu or Jehu. And we find Basha, king of Israel, and some of these other guys.

[16:46] That basically, you know, when a new line came in, Omri, other guys, when the new line came in, the old line just gets wiped out. In the southern kingdom of Judah, we find queen Athaliah, who was king Ahab and queen Jezebel's daughter, who married Jehoshaphat's son.

[17:07] Kind of a weird situation there. But, you know, she wiped out just about every single one of the people, too. And her intention was to wipe out the entire Davidic line. And yet, they did something similar to what was done with Mephibosheth, with Jehosh being hidden by a priest that was more than just a priest.

[17:29] He was a pretty tough guy, too, in Jehoiada. So, anyway, there's definitely a lot of precedent that we see there.

[17:40] And yet, David was already going to show to Jonathan that his family was going to be saved as well. Okay, so that's kind of the background of that.

[17:53] So, if we go back to chapter 9, we see this title of Covenant of Kindness. And I want to give a five-point outline here.

[18:04] It won't take very long. Some of these points will take just a minute or two to say. But the first verse is David's honest resolve. This is just verse 1 here.

[18:15] And he just simply asks the question, Is there anyone left in the house of Saul that I may show kindness for Jonathan's sake? And he's just really bringing it out and understanding this point.

[18:26] But I also said before that kindness is something that is said several times in this chapter. And this kindness is not just any old kindness. It is the word, and I'm not a Hebrew guy, but it's chesed.

[18:41] And I have to kind of, you know, develop some phlegm there to really say it correctly. But this is a word that, it's covenant language. When a covenant is made, the response to that covenant is this chesed.

[18:59] And so kindness is kind of one of the, some of the best things we can do in terms of English language. Maybe not best. You look at loving kindness and mercy and grace.

[19:11] All displayed in this kind of aspect. I mean, this is, this is really hard to explain, but it really is a covenant that is going on. And it means more than just kindness that is here and tomorrow gone.

[19:27] It is something that will last. And it's something that has a vow connected to it. And so it's a very important aspect of this. So when he is saying that I may show him kindness for Jonathan's sake, he is really meaning something strongly here.

[19:44] However, I have to say this as well. There are multifaceted thoughts in this situation. And when you look at people that have once been enemies of David, such as the house of Saul, you might think that there could be something nefarious going on right here.

[20:04] And we'll see something later in verse 3 about that or 4. And so, but nonetheless, that's the question they're asking.

[20:16] Well, probably some time passed between verse 1 and verse 2 because there, what we find out, or Mephibosheth would be, it's not necessarily like next door to Jerusalem.

[20:29] You know, Mephibosheth obviously is a Benjaminite like Saul would be in Jonathan. And the Benjaminite kingdom, or at least the territory of the Benjaminite, it's not kingdom, but the territory the Benjaminites have would be around Jerusalem.

[20:47] Jerusalem is actually at the southern tip of Benjamin. A lot of people think Jerusalem is in Judah, but actually it's in Benjamin in the territory there. And then right below Jerusalem, the Kidron Valley would be the territory of Judah.

[21:01] And so, you know, Lodabar, the place that he's hiding is nowhere near that. And so we're going to find out that something, that, you know, there's something going on here.

[21:14] So anyway, he's asking this question, and finally, one of his servants finds someone that may know more about this. And we're introduced to this man named Ziba.

[21:27] Now, Ziba is an interesting fellow. We learn later that he is more than just a servant. He's a servant with lots of servants of his own, 15 sons, 20 servants of his own as well.

[21:39] So he's a man of good wealth and prominence as well. And he is found, and he was at one time a servant of Saul, a servant of the house of Saul.

[21:54] And so David calls him and asks him the exact same question, almost the exact same question. If you look at verse 3, it says, Now, something that's being said here is not, it's not just the house of Jonathan, it's the house of Saul.

[22:17] And so he's actually expanding it even more than what the covenant said there. But then it says the kindness of God. And that really displays something even stronger, a stronger thought than this just simply kindness.

[22:31] But, I mean, it's really reemphasizing this covenant issue with them. Because I think there's something going on here at this point. Ziba, he was a servant of Saul. Saul people did not like David, did not trust David.

[22:46] And there's a good reason they didn't trust David. Because they wanted to kill David. I mean, when you want to kill someone, you can't expect the person that you want to kill to like you. I mean, that's a pretty normal thought.

[22:58] It doesn't take a genius to figure that out. So, I mean, they know that they can't trust David at this point. So when David is asking him this, okay, this is strange what's going on.

[23:11] Actually, commentators that have actually brought this out of Ziba as well, that Ziba's willing to just simply say, well, yeah, yeah, Jonathan's got a son still alive. Oh, wow.

[23:22] Wow. You know, like you're just saying that so David can go kill the guy. Well, frankly speaking, I think at worst, I think the best thing that could happen just at the absolute worst is that, you know, the time's up.

[23:40] David's determined he's going to find this guy. And so the best thing I can simply do to save face as best as possible is just to simply let him know this.

[23:52] But he says something about this boy or this young man at this point, Mephibosheth. It says right there at the end of verse 3, there is still a son of Jonathan and he is crippled in his feet.

[24:07] And let me say that again just with inflection of probably how I think he said it. It said, there is still a son of Jonathan.

[24:20] He's crippled in his feet. I mean, what's he saying right there? Well, yeah, there's a son, but he's not a threat to you. Please just ignore the guy. I think it's what he's saying right here.

[24:32] Just, he's not a threat. Just ignore him. Just ignore him. I mean, please, just move on with your life. You don't need to go after him. He's way off. He's way off in the boondocks and you don't have to worry about him.

[24:43] He's going to stay there. Don't worry about it. And that's what the boondocks is. If you want to know what the boondocks, he's in the house of Machir, the son of Amiel at Lodabar. So definition of boondocks, right there.

[24:56] Okay? I mean, you're thinking of, you know, like no man's land Oklahoma right here. So not much here. And if you want to look at a map, you'd find that the Benjamin territory in Jerusalem is centered right there in the center of Israel or around that point.

[25:14] And if you had to go east of the Jordan and the Sea of Galilee or Chenareth and just a little south of the Sea of Galilee, you would find Lodabar. And it's just right there.

[25:27] It's quite a few miles away from Israel. Of course, Israel's not a very big place. Anyway, you know, we think of the United States of America. It's nowhere near that size.

[25:37] But nonetheless, I mean, it's a pretty good distance, a few days travel at least. You've got to also remember Israel, very mountainous, and it's hard to traverse at all anyway.

[25:51] And so, and the guy's lame in both of his feet. He's not going to just rise up and be a general of an army and take over David. So I think it's really what's being said right here as well.

[26:05] But at the same time, I got ahead of myself. But the second point is the humble response. And there's two humble responses that happen.

[26:15] And one is Ziba right here. Like I said, that was his humble response. But the second one, it starts in verse 5. And it's Mephibosheth's humble response.

[26:27] That they actually do decide to go to Lodabar and to take that trip all the way out there to Lodabar. It's in the territory of Gad. Gad is not Benjamin.

[26:39] Gad is Gad. So he's in a territory that has nothing to do with Benjamin at all. And east of the Jordan River as well. So they actually do go out to Lodabar as it says in verse 5.

[26:52] And then verse 6, and Mephibosheth the son of Jonathan and the son of Saul. Very important to understand that. Came to David and fell on his face and paid homage. Why is he falling on his face and paying homage?

[27:05] Well, David's the king for starters. Secondly, he thinks he's toast. I mean, honestly, you are the son or the grandson of the former king. And you know what all the other nations do, what all the other kingdoms do whenever another family comes in.

[27:22] Seems to be a pretty normal thing that happens. Guess what? You're dead. So here you go. That's about as good as I can get. Maybe he'll spare my life if I'm nice to him.

[27:37] If I'm kind. And then David says, I love this. In my translation here, ESV, it just has an exclamation point after this.

[27:51] Mephibosheth! I mean, it's interesting how that's working out. But you've got to remember, David loved Jonathan as his own soul.

[28:02] And here is the representation of Jonathan, his son, his own son. And it has been 15 plus years. And finally, he gets to have at least a semblance of a reunion with probably his best friend and close enough to be family in many ways.

[28:26] But then Mephibosheth humbly answers, behold, I am your servant. Just like Ziba did. Behold, I am your servant. And so these are responses.

[28:37] And they're responses that you can hear the fear in these responses. And there's obviously to hear the fear because you look at verse 7. Do not fear.

[28:48] So he says that. And this is David's honoring remarks. And he's honoring Mephibosheth in such a great way. In a way that he doesn't deserve. In a way that is completely unprecedented.

[29:01] And has nothing to do with the culture at hand at all. And it really has nothing to do with our culture either. It's just such an odd thing for the previous administration, whether it's a kingdom or a head of state, to be honored by the following administration, especially when the party or the bloodline is different.

[29:25] I mean, I think we can kind of understand what's going on there. Just looking at the last two administrations we've had. Presidential administrations. Now, it has nothing to do with being a king, thankfully.

[29:39] But anyway, his honoring remarks. First of all, do not fear. You know, let the fear go. I am showing you kindness.

[29:51] Chesed. Kindness. And why is he showing kindness to him? For Jonathan's sake.

[30:02] It has nothing to do with Mephibosheth except that he is a family member. It is his family that David is showing kindness to.

[30:12] And that is an odd thing. Like I've said already, time and time again. But he does two things to honor him. Also, just totally unprecedented.

[30:27] He restores all of the land of Saul to him. So Saul's land becomes Mephibosheth's land. And by land, I don't mean the kingdom, of course. I mean the actual farmland that Saul owned.

[30:40] It becomes Mephibosheth's land. And so now, Mephibosheth is no longer going to be in that land of obscurity. And the boondocks of Lodabar, he's going to be right there in Benjamin.

[30:52] He's going to be right there in that situation. I mean, this is an interesting idea. I mean, he is the grandson of the former king of Israel.

[31:04] And now, David is bringing him back into a place of prominence. And back into a place where people can recognize, oh wow, Saul still has a lion still alive.

[31:16] Maybe we can do something about this. But yet, David is doing this nonetheless. Because this covenant is stronger than any of this other stuff.

[31:27] The covenant is stronger than his kingdom. The covenant is stronger than even his life. I mean, it's an amazing thing. And that's the value and that's the strength of a covenant.

[31:40] But not only the land, but he's also going to eat at his table always. And it says later on in the passage, just like a son. Like a member of his family.

[31:52] Like his children would come. He's going to be one of them. Okay, so it's valuable remarks, honoring remarks. And then verse 8 is simply Mephibosheth's humiliating reaction to this.

[32:07] As he says, why are you regarding a dead dog? Why in the world? Now, David actually called himself a dead dog at one time. You know, earlier in 1 Samuel.

[32:20] There are others that use this term dead dog. It is a repulsive term. And I don't think it really takes a whole lot of exegeting to figure this one out. Because, I mean, how valuable is a dead dog?

[32:32] How useful is a dead dog? I mean, not so useful. Not so valuable. It's just, it's dead. And so, and that would be anything that's dead.

[32:44] And so, why are you, you know, why are you showing regard for such a dead dog? And of course, just calling somebody a dog back in this day. It was such, it was such a horrible remark anyway.

[32:55] And a pejorative in the greatest of ways. And so, not just a dog, but a dead dog. So humiliating. And then we get to the final part, which is verses 9 and following.

[33:07] And it's the happy relief. The happy relief that goes on. And as you noticed, I was alliterating and probably pushed it there. But basically, this is the fallout that happened here.

[33:18] And this is what happened with this. David was able to find a way for both of the things that he did in his remarks. For both of the restorations that came on.

[33:29] Whether it's restoring the land or bringing him to his table. He found a way to make it happen. He executed, administered this plan. And if you look in verse 9 and following.

[33:40] He called Ziba once again. The king called Ziba. Now something I want to back up real quick. If you notice, he says the king called Ziba in verse 9.

[33:50] And if you notice back before verse 6, verse 4 and before that. You find the king said to him, the king, the king, the king. But then you get to verse 6 and when he's talking about Mephibosheth, David.

[34:06] If you notice that as well. You know, the king said to Ziba, but David said to Mephibosheth. See, there's a very personal thing going on here. So anyway, the king said to Ziba this. In verse 9.

[34:17] Saul's servant said to him. All that belong to Saul and to all his house I have given to your master's grandson. And you and your sons and your servants shall till the land for him. And shall bring in the produce that your master's grandson may have bread to eat.

[34:33] So this is a major claim that's going on. He's going to have bread to eat. He's going to have, he has plenty of help to till the land. He brought in Ziba's household, his servants.

[34:46] As it says there in verse 10. He has 15 sons, 20 servants, plenty of help to work this land, to till the soil for the sake of Mephibosheth.

[34:59] And yet remember, is Mephibosheth going to do this work? Well, he can't. He's lame in both feet. And so, it's a major situation that, you know, what great grace that is going on to administer the plan to work his land.

[35:17] And bread to eat. And also you have to remember this too, but Mephibosheth, your master's grandson, shall always eat at my table. So who gets to eat of this bread? Well, Mephibosheth does and so does everyone else at David's table.

[35:28] Isn't that wonderful? And so, so David even expanded his land to help himself out with, with his table as well. So it's a great thing. And, and maybe not completely altruistic, but certainly a wonderful thing that he did.

[35:42] And then, and then Ziba says to the king, again, very humbly, according to all that my lord and king commanded his servants. So your servant, so will your servant do.

[35:54] And then, of course, it says again, Mephibosheth shall sit at David's table. He's being cared for. It's being, it's being reiterated so much because it makes, it is so weird for a king to do that for, for a, for a former family.

[36:11] And it's just so strange for that to happen. That's why it's said so many times. But then it's even more care. He's got a son, a young son named Micah.

[36:22] And Micah's going to be cared for. And, and, and there, and Ziba's house is going to be Mephibosheth's servants. So no longer is Ziba just the servant of the house of Saul. Now he's the servant of the house of Mephibosheth.

[36:34] So it even goes down the line in a great way. And then he always ate at the king's table. And then at the end, it's an interesting thing that's said right here. At the end of verse 13, now he was lame in both his feet.

[36:47] And that's how it ends. It just ends. And he's lame in both his feet. And I want to take you back to another passage just a few chapters earlier, chapter 5. It's where David conquered Jerusalem from the Jebusites.

[37:02] And, and I think this is the reason why it's in here. And, and other commentators I've read about this as well. And so, but starting in chapter 5, 2 Samuel chapter 5.

[37:17] Let's start in verse 6.

[37:48] So this is an interesting passage of scripture. Hard to, to reason in this way.

[37:59] But you have to look at the way the blind and the lame line is used these three times. The first time is the Jebusites saying, hey, you can't attack us. We can put the blind and the lame on the wall.

[38:11] And, and the wall's just going to take care of itself. You can't come in here. There's no way. And, and, and that's, they're using that as a taunt. And what did David say?

[38:22] Well, they came up the water shaft. And they were able to get into the wall from the water shaft. And take over the Jebusites. So David, in verse 8, calls the Jebusites the lame and the blind.

[38:35] The entire Jebusite army might as well be the lame and the blind. And, and it's not meant to be literal. It was meant to be a metaphor. It was just saying, well, of course, there's also using the, the snide remark that the Jebusites used with him, taunting him in that way.

[38:52] But it, it came to a rule. A rule actually happened, or at least a principle came out of this, at least an idea. And that's why it says, therefore it is said, the blind and the lame.

[39:05] The lame shall not come into the house. Shall not come into David's palace. Is the blind and the lame not come into this palace? But now, three chapters later, you know, several years have passed by this point.

[39:19] And, and, and yet God has shown that that is not going to stick necessarily. And, and, and yet he has a, he has a plan for this, this situation.

[39:30] And, and that's, and that's important for us to, to understand as well. Um, you know, man-made rules, when they do not fall in line with God's plan, with God's rules, they need to be done away with.

[39:46] And that's really what's going on here. You know, David asked, is there anybody out there in Jonathan's family or in Saul's family that I can show chesed kindness for Jonathan's sake?

[39:59] And it doesn't matter who comes up in that way. If you're going to be a, be true to your word, you're going to show kindness. And this is such a, um, you know, an important thing to me as well, is the, the greatness of showing this, this, this, this kindness, uh, to, to those, um, of, of any need whatsoever.

[40:21] Not just physical special need, although that's dear to my heart, having a son with autism to show special need. But the fact is, all of us are in dire need due to our sin.

[40:34] Are in dire need of salvation. And yet this covenant of grace, this new covenant that was displayed in Christ, that was talked about in Jeremiah, uh, chapter 31.

[40:49] This, this new covenant that has come in, uh, through the cross, through the, it is finished, the finished work of the cross and the resurrection that we will be celebrating in a great way, uh, next week, but we celebrate every Sunday.

[41:03] And, uh, and, uh, you know, this, this covenant that, that, that is displayed saves us and gives us hope and gives us new life.

[41:16] For we are the ones that are crippled. We are the ones that are blind and lame because of our sin. And, and, and the Lord makes us whole in such a great way.

[41:30] Thank you.