Eat at the Table

 DEVOTION

2^ND SAMUEL

EAT AT THE TABLE

2 Sam 9

9:1 David asked, "Is there anyone still left of the house of Saul to whom I can show kindness for Jonathan's sake?" 2 Now there was a servant of Saul's household named Ziba. They called him to appear before David, and the king said to him, "Are you Ziba?" "Your servant," he replied. 3 The king asked, "Is there no one still left of the house of Saul to whom I can show God's kindness?" Ziba answered the king, "There is still a son of Jonathan; he is crippled in both feet." 4 "Where is he?" the king asked. Ziba answered, "He is at the house of Makir son of Ammiel in Lo Debar." 5 So King David had him brought from Lo Debar, from the house of Makir son of Ammiel. 6 When Mephibosheth son of Jonathan, the son of Saul, came to David, he bowed down to pay him honor. David said, "Mephibosheth!" "Your servant," he replied. 7 "Don't be afraid," David said to him, "for I will surely show you kindness for the sake of your father Jonathan. I will restore to you all the land that belonged to your grandfather Saul, and you will always eat at my table." 8 Mephibosheth bowed down and said, "What is your servant, that you should notice a dead dog like me?" 9 Then the king summoned Ziba, Saul's servant, and said to him, "I have given your master's grandson everything that belonged to Saul and his family. 10 You and your sons and your servants are to farm the land for him and bring in the crops, so that your master's grandson may be provided for. And Mephibosheth, grandson of your master, will always eat at my table." (Now Ziba had fifteen sons and twenty servants.) 11 Then Ziba said to the king, "Your servant will do whatever my lord the king commands his servant to do." So Mephibosheth ate at David's table like one of the king's sons. 12 Mephibosheth had a young son named Mica, and all the members of Ziba's household were servants of Mephibosheth. 13 And Mephibosheth lived in Jerusalem, because he always ate at the king's table, and he was crippled in both feet.

NIV

We are not sure why we are told twice that Mephibosheth, the son of Jonathan, the son of Saul, was cripped in both feet. There is no clue from the Hebrew that he could still walk, as the only and direct meaning is lame. How did he get to the table to eat? Was he carried by servants wherever he went? However, what we see in the narrative that we could apply to our lives is the great compassion David had regarding the son of his dearest and closest friend, Jonathan, who was the son of Saul, the first king of Israel, and now both of them are dead. So David brings the last remaining member of the household of Saul to live in Jerusalem and always has a place at King David’s table. David also restored all the land that belonged to Saul to his grandson and had the servant Ziba ensure it was farmed, harvested, and the proceeds were in the hands of Mephibosheth. He may have gone from a cripped man with nothing to a wealthy man cripped in both feet and having the honor of eating at the king’s table. Can we not see that we were once poorly crippled, not lame in our feet, but in our spirits? However, maybe we were also lame in our feet, as if we were blind and could not find our way in the dark, so we stumbled around. But now we have the honor to eat at the King of Kings’ table. We have been brought to live in the kingdom of our Lord, as Mephibosheth was brought into Jerusalem. Of course, we will be brought into the new city of Jerusalem when He brings it down out of heaven onto the new earth. Because we have bowed low to the Lord, accepting His lordship over us, we have the right to eat at the table, which we see in two ways. First, we have been blessed to be a part of the Lord’s blessings. As David blessed the son of Jonathan with all the land and servants to farm it, taking him from poverty to wealth, the Lord has taken us from the poverty, or deadness of our spirits, to live and live abundantly. In Fact, the Lord has done more for us than David did for the son of Jonathan, because we have gone from being dead to being alive. Secondly, we now have the right to eat at the Lord’s table, taking the bread, his body that was broken for us, and the wine, his blood that was shed for us, because not only have we been brought into the Lord’s kingdom, but we have also been adopted as His children. What a wonderful blessing that we can eat at the table.