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Bible preaching from the pulpit of Choice Hills Baptist Church in Greenville, South Carolina
Alright, 2 Samuel chapter 4, we'll pray before we start and we'll get into the message.
Alright, let's pray.
To the Lord, I follow, Lord, I think for your grace and mercy towards us.
Lord, just thank you once again to be in your house.
Lord, just thank you for keeping us safe during the ice storm.
And Lord, just thank you for your grace, just allowing us to be here together tonight.
Lord, just ask you to be with us tonight as we look into your word.
Lord, that you just give me the words to say and Lord, the thoughts that come to my mind.
That there be what you would have me to say, dear God.
Lord, I just ask for you to be with the hearer as well.
Lord, that it be a blessing to them.
Lord, just thank you so much for your son Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world.
Lord, just ask for you to be honoring and glorifying him tonight.
And also as we pray later on.
Lord, that you just give grace to us as we do that.
Thank you for the missionary prayer letters that were read tonight, Lord.
And Lord, just thank you for your work and what you're doing in those ministries.
And Lord, just thank you that you're a God that is still creating and still creating new creatures.
And Lord, just ask for you to just to continue to bless and guide there in each and every ministry that we either support.
Either through prayer or through financial support or both.
And Lord, that you just be with all things there.
And Lord, just be with us tonight once again.
Jesus, may we pray.
All right.
Second Samuel, Chapter 4 is where we'll start.
I did make a kind of rough outline.
So that if you do take notes, then you can kind of follow along a little bit.
I'm not a point by point person.
So I kind of like to kind of wander into different things and just kind of take points as they come.
So it's not exactly as organized as what some people have.
Like they'll have like a and then under that like three different points.
I'm not that type of person.
I get more confused doing that than doing anything else.
So I try to keep it simple.
But what we're going to be talking about is basically the life of the fibble chef.
I've got to say that name quite a bit tonight.
So I'm going to mess it up several times tonight.
So don't worry.
You can laugh.
That's fine.
I laugh myself too.
But we're going to talk about this is the life of the fibble chef.
And I got basically five points.
And we'll start in second Samuel, Chapter 4.
And we'll start in the first verse there.
And it says this and the word God.
And when Saul's son heard that Abner was dead and he brung, his hands were feeble and all the Israelites were troubled.
And Saul's son had two men that were captains of bands.
The name of one that was Bahanai and the name of the other was Rechab.
The sons of Ramon, Barothite of the children of Benjamin for Baroth also was reckoned to Benjamin.
And the Barothites fled to Githium and were sojourners there until this day.
And Jonathan and Jonathan, Saul's son, had a son that was lame of his feet.
He was five years old when the tidings came of Saul and Jonathan of Jezreel.
And you remember that that's where they end up getting killed in that battle.
And his nurse took him up and fled.
And it came to pass that she made haste to flee that he fell and became lame.
And his name was Mephitheposhe.
And what I kind of named this chapter is the fall of Mephitheposhe.
Very apropos, I guess.
But yes, but it is important as we kind of look at it in this way, not to over-spiritualize things,
but everyone has to come to a realization of they have a need.
Everyone has to come to a realization that they are fallen and that they need help.
And not just help physically, but help spiritually.
And so we all have to come to that point.
And sometimes God kind of takes you down roads that you maybe didn't necessarily think you would come.
And sometimes he has to correct you in ways that kind of humble you.
And just like I looked through my life a little bit and just trying to think of different things.
I think of, I thought of this this afternoon when I was thinking about it.
I remember my dad, we were having dinner, and it was my dad and my mom.
And believe it or not, I wasn't always respectful to my mother in some ways.
And I remember I talked back to her during dinner.
And all of a sudden, I was on the floor like, how did I get there?
But my dad is like, OK, you can sit there and think about what you just said to your mother.
And that really made an impression on me.
But during that time, not to be too funny, but I was just thinking, how did I get on the floor this fast?
But my dad, many of you don't know, but he was a multi-sport athlete, very athletic growing up.
He actually, when he was in high school, he had pro baseball scouts looking at him and stuff like that before his knee got blown out during a baseball practice.
But so he moves fast. He's a fast mover.
And I was just, but that made an impression, though, is just like, OK, I'm here to learn a lesson, not the way that I should have.
I shouldn't have talked back to my mom and that.
And so I learned a valuable lesson that day.
But yeah, we all have to have a realization sometimes.
And sometimes we have to go through uncomfortable things and circumstances to find that out.
A lot of times, you know, when you have different things go on in your life and you think you know exactly where God's leading you,
and then he changes the course on you just like that.
And it's just to get you to realize it's like you don't know what's best for yourself.
It's what God knows what's best for you.
So he always just tries to keep you humble and keep you focused on trusting him.
And everyone has their own vices and stuff.
You know, we kind of we give a lot of hard time.
And we know that the Bible actually calls him in the New Testament a just man, you know, because his righteous soul is vexed when he was in Sodom.
We give him a hard time.
But how many times do we put things in our lives that are just as bad, just as sinful, just as wicked?
Like, yeah, that wasn't good that he pitches his tent towards Sodom.
But what do we pitch our tent towards?
Do we pitch our tent towards, I don't know, like celebrities?
Do we pitch our tent towards, you know, a certain show or whatever the case is, you know, what kind of gets you?
And, you know, we're just as guilty.
But thanks to the grace of God, you know, we can we can be justified through him.
But that's just just a quick summary of that little chapter there.
You see Mephibosheth.
He, you know, he, you know, he's he's lame now.
He's not able to do anything.
He has to be able to, you know, have a way to support himself.
And thankfully, he has someone to take care of him in this passage.
But, you know, you got to think, you know, it's like he's relying on people.
He's relying on people helping him and giving him what he needs.
And if you turn to Second Samuel, Chapter nine, we'll get to my second point.
Second Samuel, Chapter nine.
This is the redemption of Mephibosheth.
If you want to put the put a title on it, I guess.
Chapter two.
The redemption of Mephibosheth in Second Samuel, Chapter nine.
We'll read the whole chapter.
There's only 13 verses.
So and I'll just try and make some comments as we go.
And David said, Is there any yet that is left of the house of Saul that I may show him kindness for Jonathan's sake?
If you remember who Jonathan is, that's Saul's son, whom David and Jonathan became really close friends.
And they made a covenant with each other before God.
And verse two, it says, And there was of the house of Saul a servant whose name was Ziba.
And when they called him unto David, the king said unto him, Art thou Ziba?
And he said, Thy servant is he.
And the king said, Is there not yet any of the house of Saul that I may show the kindness of God unto him?
And Ziba said unto the king, Jonathan hath yet a son, which is lame on his feet.
And the king said unto him, Where is he?
And Ziba said unto the king, Behold, he is in the house of Machar, the son of Amiel in Lodobar.
Then King David sent and fetched him out of the house of Machar, the son of Amiel from Odubar.
Now you see, like Ziba, he just kind of gives information a little bit.
Doesn't necessarily, I don't think, say that he went.
But the king sent and fetched him out.
And so you see God, because King David's kind of a picture of what God the Father did.
You know, he sent out, you know, he sent Jesus Christ into the world to save sinners and to save that which was lost.
And so it's a good picture of that, as you kind of see there.
But also you just see that he comes to where you are.
Not, you know, it's not the vice versa.
It's not like, go tell Mephibosheth to get over here.
Yeah, he did kind of tell him to come.
But at the same time, it's God that reached out.
It's David that reached out to him.
Now verse 6, it says, Now when Mephibosheth, the son of Jonathan, the son of Saul, was coming to David,
he fell on his face and did reverence.
And David said, Mephibosheth.
And he answered, Behold thy servant.
And we kind of see Mephibosheth, you're kind of wondering what's going through his mind a little bit.
Because you realize, you know, from the past, you know, enemy, you know, basically his enemy was Saul.
And so maybe he's kind of thinking, well, you know, it's like, hopefully he has mercy on me.
But, you know, it's like really, David could have very well just ended the Saul line right there, so to speak,
or at least that part of the line.
But it's all because of what Jonathan and his relationship with him that he ended up getting the blessings out of that.
And it says in verse number 7, after Mephibosheth said, Behold thy servant.
And David said to him, Fear not, for I will surely show thee kindness for Jonathan thy father's sake.
Just like for us, for Christ's sake, we, you know, like we have the blessings, we have salvation through him.
And so just a good picture of what Jesus Christ and just the covenant that he has with the father and because of the blood that he shed for us.
And it says also, And will restore thee all the land of Saul, thy father, and thou shall eat bread at my table continually.
And so you get to see, go from basically kind of worrying about death and now all of a sudden, wow, I got everything.
I got my family land restored to me and then I get to eat at the king's table forever, basically.
So, you know, that's a good deal.
But he didn't take that as, oh, wow, now I'm something.
So you look at verse 8, he says, And he bowed himself and said, What is thy servant that thou shouldest look upon me, upon such a dead dog as I am?
And so he had one thing I really love about Mephibosheth is his humility.
I need to work on that just as much as anyone.
And you just see his desire to understand a little bit more.
And he's like, OK, why are you having all this compassion on me?
And even David says, you know, it's because Jonathan's sake, because we made that covenant and said that, you know, I would be good to thy seed and vice versa.
And so when they made that covenant, that was something that was unto the Lord.
It wasn't just a covenant between two men.
It was a covenant that God overlooked and saw and made sure that was going to come to pass.
It wasn't David accomplishing the covenant.
It was really God that was working through David in order to accomplish that covenant.
Verse 9 then says, Then the king called Zeba, a sole servant and son to him.
I have given unto thy master's son all that pertain to Saul and to all his house.
I think it's interesting after to see.
Yes, towards the end of this verse about Zeba, I think it's kind of interesting.
It's just a little side note.
It says 15 sons and 20 servants.
And every time, almost every time you hear about Zeba, like that's always mentioned.
She had 15 sons and 20 servants.
15 sons and 20 servants.
Like, can't we get 15 sons and 20 servants?
But anyway, I just thought it was interesting.
Thou therefore and thy sons and thy servants shall till the land for him and thou shall bring in the fruits and that thy master's son may have food to eat.
But Mephibosheth, thy master's son shall eat bread all the way at my table.
Now Zeba had 15 sons and 20 servants.
Yes, we understand.
But as you see, God provides the laborers there.
You know, God had Zeba have that many servants and have that many sons so that they could, he could fulfill the covenant.
David could fulfill the covenant there because he had someone that could till the land and take care of Mephibosheth while he was lame on his feet.
Then said Zeba unto the king, According to all my lord and the king hath commanded his servant, so shall thy servant do.
As Mephibosheth said the king, he shall eat at my table as one of the king's sons.
And just what, what a great picture.
You know, you get to see like we who are in Christ, we get to be treated just like sons of God.
You know, we get that, we get that privilege.
We get that little, little insight with God there.
We get the opportunity to fellowship with him as sons.
And what a, what a great privilege that is.
But also you see Zeba, you know, he's, he's a faithful servant.
You know, he's, he's going to be a faithful servant to where, to where David tells him to go in this case.
And so at least he's faithful in this passage and later on he's not.
But we'll get onto that one soon.
But you know, you just see that, you know, you know, God provides the laborers.
God provides all that's needed throughout all this covenant.
And that between David and Jonathan that God oversaw.
And so that you get to see God's mighty hand through that.
Verse 12, it says, Mephibosheth had a young son whose name was Micah.
And all that dwelt in the house of Zeba were servants unto Mephibosheth.
So Mephibosheth dwelt in Jerusalem.
And he did eat continually at the king's table and was lame on both of his feet.
And just in case you forgot, but it's, it's kind of interesting.
It's like, it's through this passage you just see like the whole time God's kind of reminding you.
It's like you can't do anything.
You're lame on your feet.
You know, it's like you're lame on your feet.
It's like, it's like, yes, God, we understand he was lame on his feet.
But there's a purpose and a reason behind that.
It's because, you know, God said you can't do the work.
I do the work.
God does the work.
So, and yeah, praise the Lord.
That's the case because if I was, if I was responsible for my own salvation, there is a problem.
I would not make it.
I definitely would not make it.
Okay, second Samuel chapter 16, that would get to the third point.
I call this one the slandering of Mephiboshef.
This is where Ziba kind of gets himself.
I don't know.
It's like, and I was reading through this and the Bible really doesn't say that either one is right.
It doesn't say Ziba lied.
It doesn't say Mephiboshef lied when he, when he kind of says he gets slandered here.
But you kind of, I don't know, you kind of take it for how it is.
I guess it depends who you trust more, if you trust Ziba or you trust Mephiboshef more in his words.
So it's kind of interesting that, you know, God kind of leaves that open-ended.
He doesn't outright say someone lied or, you know, someone was being dishonest.
Maybe Ziba actually heard something or different, but who knows.
Verse chapter 16, and we'll start in verse one.
And it said, And when David was a little past the top of the hill, because he's leaving Jerusalem,
because his son Absalom is looking to overtake the kingdom and everything.
So he's leaving Jerusalem.
And behold, Ziba, the servant of Mephiboshef, met him with a couple of vases saddled,
and upon them two hundred loaves of bread and a hundred bunches of raisins and a hundred of summer fruits and a bottle of wine.
And the king said unto Ziba, What meanest thou by these?
And Ziba said, They asked me for the king's household to ride on,
and the bread and the summer fruit for the young men to eat,
and the wine that such as be faint in the wilderness may drink.
So it seemed like, you know, he's just making provisions.
It's kind of interesting that he goes through the itinerary.
It's like, this is for this, you know, we got some of our fruits, we got all this stuff, you know, for your journey.
And it's like, yeah, but you could have put somebody else on one of these donkeys.
But, you know, it is what it is.
And so King David kind of asked the question in verse three, he says, And the king said, And where is thy master's son?
And like it said, the Bible doesn't say Ziba lied here, but and Ziba said unto the king, Behold, he abideth at Jerusalem,
which is true. He does. He is still in Jerusalem.
For he said today, I don't know if he said this, but today shall be the house shall the house of Israel restore me the kingdom of my father.
So I don't know. It seems kind of brave to say that if you're a guy lamb on your feet.
But I guess I guess but that seems a little optimistic, I'd say.
And so and but David, he kind of responds.
I think he's just kind of like, OK, we're going on this journey.
I'm not thinking about this. I'm just making a decision right now.
And he says this and said, The king to Ziba, Behold, thine are all that pertain unto Mephibosheph.
So he gives everything to Ziba, all that pertains to Mephibosheph.
And Ziba said, I humbly beseech thee that I may find grace in thy sight, my lord, O king.
And then it just cuts out that scene.
But I think it's interesting anyway that it's like like, I don't know, David didn't really think twice about it.
He's like, oh, yeah, it's like, yeah, sure.
You're telling me the truth, which I guess maybe that's credible because, you know, it's a line of salt.
Maybe maybe he did say that.
But I just thought it's kind of interesting that he just kind of made that decision right away.
Chapter 19, Second Samuel 19.
And this one, I kind of labeled the restoration of Mephibosheph's relationship to David.
Kind of a long title, but, you know, seemed accurate.
Second Samuel, Chapter 19, will start in verse 24.
Verse 24. That's when, well, verse 23 for a little bit.
It goes, Shimeh, he just got pardoned by David.
And so that's kind of where that ends.
Therefore the king said to Shimeh, thou shalt not die.
And the king sweared unto him.
And then Mephibosheph comes in.
And Mephibosheph, the son of Saul, came to meet the king and had neither dressed his feet nor trimmed his beard nor washed his clothes from the day the king departed until the day he came again in peace.
Kind of interesting why I kind of believe Mephibosheph made a little bit more than Zeba is because of this.
Because when he came to David, he came exactly how he was.
He knew he needed to restore his relationship to David as soon as he saw him.
He couldn't let the rumors build and build.
And then all of a sudden when he sees him, he's like, well, where were you?
And might not be in a good mood.
But anyway, it doesn't mean he'd kill him, but at least give him a bigger scolding if he didn't come to him and make it right.
And so he comes in again in peace.
And it came to pass in verse 25.
When he was come to Jerusalem to meet the king, that the king said to him, wherefore wentest thou not now with me, Mephibosheph?
And he answered, My lord, O king, my servant deceived me.
So he's saying basically Zeba deceived me.
It's like I didn't know we were leaving at that time.
I don't really know.
For thy servant said, I will saddle me and ask that I may ride thereon and go to the king, because thy servant is lame.
And so a valid excuse.
You know, he's lame.
He needs some help.
But it's like, you know, it's hard to see where the Zeba get that point of, oh, yeah, my father's throne is going to be restored to me.
I don't know.
So I tend to believe Mephibosheph on this one.
Verse 27.
And he said, slander and he slandered thy servant to the Lord the king.
But my lord, the king is an angel of God.
Do therefore what is good in thine eyes.
So basically saying like, you know, David's like, I trust your judgment.
I know you're just man, righteous man.
You know, you won't do me unfairly.
He's like, whatever is good in your eyes is fine with me.
And so in verse 28, he says, for all my father's house were but dead men before my lord and the king.
Yet this thou set thy servant among them that did eat at thine own table.
What right therefore have I yet to cry any more unto the king?
And the king said to him, why speakest thou any more of thy matters?
I have said, thou and Zeba divide the land.
And Mephibosheph said to the king, ye, let him take all.
For as much as my lord the king is come again in peace unto his own house.
I really like this part of the passage because you get, you know, you see his humility,
but then you also see his contentment and just having the king bring peace back into Jerusalem.
And so you see just, you know, it's like, yeah, it's like he might have got robbed.
He might have got robbed of his land because, you know, Zeba probably lied about him saying that.
But he wasn't thinking about earthly things.
He was thinking about just having peace with David, having, you know, having a relationship with the king,
which is what we should be focused on, too.
You know, it's like too many times we think about, well, I don't have this much money in the bank account.
I don't feel as secure or I don't have enough money for this or I don't have a good enough car and I have to replace it.
And you get all lost in the worries of this world.
But what really should give us peace is just knowing that the Lord Jesus Christ has what's best in our interests
and that he will take care of us as long as we put our trust and faith in him.
So it's just that he would basically give up his family inheritance and said, you know what, I don't care about that.
I just care about what the king wants and, you know, what will make me right with the king.
And so that's a good testimony by Mephibosheth there.
And the last one, last point, will be in chapter 21.
And we'll read verses one through eight, starting verse one.
Then there was a famine in the days of David, three years, year after year.
And David inquired of the Lord, and the Lord answered, It is for Saul and for his bloody house, because he slew the Gibeonites.
And the king called the Gibeonites and said unto them, Now the Gibeonites were not of the children of Israel, but of the remnant of the Amorites.
And the children of Israel had sworn unto them, and Saul sought to slay them in his zeal to the children of Israel and Judah.
Wherefore David said unto the Gibeonites, What shall I do for you? And whither and wherewith shall I make the atonement that ye may bless the inheritance of the Lord?
And the Gibeonites said unto him, We will have no silver nor gold of Saul nor of his house, neither for us thou shalt kill any man in Israel.
And he said, What ye shall say that will I do for you?
And they answered the king and the man that consumed us, and that devised against us that we should be destroyed from remaining in any of the coasts of Israel.
Let seven of his sons be delivered unto us, and we will hang them up unto the Lord and Gibeonites of Saul, whom the Lord did choose.
And the king said, I will give them.
Now you see right here there's consequences for everything you do.
And we see, and this affects generations of Saul here.
And in his zeal it says, you know, he tried to slay all the Gibeonites there.
And so the Lord caused a famine to happen for three years.
And you know, and David finally inquires about it.
And he says, Well, why is this the case?
And he's like, Oh, because Saul's bloody line.
Like Saul just, you know, unjustly tried to wipe out all the Gibeonites.
I guess not in the way that should have been done.
And so you see what's required is, you know, blood's required.
You know, so it's the blood of that line.
And so you see they don't want silver.
They don't want gold.
You know, they want they want the blood of that line.
And so we see that, you know, that our sins and everything like that requires blood to cover.
And it's not the blood of man.
It's the blood of a man, the Lord Jesus Christ, who was able to cover us.
But as you see here, the sons of Saul were not, you know, they didn't have anyone to be a substitute for them.
But we do see in verse seven, which is really encouraging, but the king spared a fiddleship, the son of Jonathan, the son of Saul.
But why?
Says, Because of the Lord's oath that was between them, between David and Jonathan, the son of Saul.
And so you get to see because of God's grace and because of that covenant that David and Jonathan did before the Lord for Jonathan's sake, my fiddleship was spared.
What a great picture of what eternal security is, is because of, hey, we are because of Christ's sake, we don't have to be killed.
You know, we don't we don't have to be put on the altar, so to speak.
Like we don't have to die for our sins.
It's because the Lord Jesus Christ was able to do that for us.
And then we see in verse eight, we see a substitute, my fiddleship.
But the king took two sons of Resba, the daughter of Ai, whom she bear unto Saul, Arimony and my fiddleship.
But it's not the same my fiddleship.
It's a different one.
And so we see the substitute for my fiddleship happens to be my fiddleship.
So it's a great picture of what Jesus Christ has done for us.
And so we get to see that Jesus Christ and his blood sacrifice covers us that we don't have to face the judgment to come and that we can be secure through him and not through our own works.
And so that those are the and this was I'm sorry, Devin, I know you take notes.
The Keeping of My Fiddleship was the title of that one.
But that's that's what I think the Lord had for me to speak tonight.
Just a good reminder of what a good Christian would be like in my fiddleship in his life.
And I just hope that was a blessing to you guys.
And thank you, pastor, for letting me do that.