Loss & Redemption

Mephibosheth was a man of honor now discarded and destroyed. He had little left in life. His grandfather, a former king (Saul), and his father had both died in battle when he was a child. He had both of his feet crushed when his nurse, while carrying him, fell and crushed them beneath her body.

He was hiding out in the country for fear of retribution towards him for how badly his grandfather had treated the man who became king in his place. He had gone from heir to a kingdom and the inheritor of vast tracts of land, to a destitute, lost, deformed young man with no hope of a real future.

Yet hope still prevailed! The present king, whom his grandfather had treated so badly, was a God fearing man who remembered not the cruelty of his grandfather, but the honor and love of his father (Jonathan). This new king (David) searched out Mephibosheth, the young man so discarded and destroyed, and gave him honor once again. Instead of killing him and destroying all that he had, as was traditionally done and to some extent expected, the king returned to Mephibosheth the lands his grandfather had once owned. He was also given the servants needed to care for that land as well as himself, and all that he personally had need of was provided for directly from the table of the king.

It is a beautiful story of hope, love, kindness, and redemption (II Samuel 9). If only it had ended there. Unfortunately, the story goes on. The new king ends up having some trouble of his own when his own son attempts to usurp him from the throne. David flees the city of David and is on the run from his own son, Absolom who is trying to make himself king in his fathers place. So how does Mephibosheth respond? He abandons David, the man who had shown him so much kindness and mercy. Why? Because what he has isn't good enough. He thinks that by abandoning David and joining with Absolom somehow he will regain the kingdom of his grandfather Saul (II Samuel 16). In the end though, the coup fails, David returns, and all that Mephibosheth has gained is instead given to his head servant, Ziba, who had proven himself faithful.

It is a sad story which too often parallels our own lives. We were lost, the children of sin. Yet the true king comes and redeems us of our own wrongdoings, and gives us a new life. It's a life that we had been meant to have. Some of us embrace that life; that new hope and love in faithfulness. Others of us return to the anger, hatred, and selfishness of the past. We see it as "our right" to try to take back what was "ours". As if it had not been lost in the first place because of just that kind of selfish attitude. We need to let go of the past and our own selfish ambitions and embrace the God that gave us our redemption. He is the God of mercy that will forgive. He is the only God that can bring us new life. The only God of faith, hope, and true love.

Image from pawpaw67 used under cc license.