By Dennis Bourne
Among the people with funnier names in the Bible, Mephibosheth has to win some kind of prize. The story of his life, however, is somewhat less funny.
Mephibosheth was born into Israel’s first royal family. He was the son of Jonathan, and grandson of Saul, the king. As the first-born son of the first-born son of the king, he would have been in line for the throne had fate not intervened. By fate, I mean God’s plan, Saul’s sin, several tragic deaths, a civil war, and a violent coup or two.
Mephibosheth is first mentioned as a parenthetical afterthought in the story of his uncle’s murder in 2 Samuel 4. His uncle, Ish-Bosheth, was killed by two of his guards after the deaths of Saul, Jonathan and the captain of their army in battle. The guards killed Ish-Bosheth to win the favor of David, who was now king. They assumed that he would be pleased by the death of his enemy, Saul’s, last living son. The moral of this story is the other thing that happens when you assume: you end up dead, dismembered and hung. In any event, other than being Ish-Bosheth’s nephew, Mephibosheth was relatively unrelated to the story.
The reference explained that Mephibosheth was five years old when his father was killed. The Bible never mentions his mother, but it says that his nursemaid feared for his life because of the aforementioned civil war that ensued. In the process of her rushing him to safety, Mephibosheth fell. The fall left both his legs crippled for life.
The next time he is mentioned is five chapters and several years later. In 2 Samuel 9, David is still mourning the death of Saul and his friend, Jonathan. He asks if they have any living relatives that he could honor for Jonathan’s sake. One of Saul’s servants, Ziba, is found. The servant explains that Mephibosheth is alive, although he is crippled, and living with Machir ben-Ammiel, a wealthy and powerful Gadite in Lo-debar. By this time, Mephibosheth had married and had at least one young son, Micha.
David asks that Mephibosheth come to him. David tells him that because of his friendship with his father, he will give him back all of the land and property that belonged to Saul. He also orders Ziba and all of his relatives and servants to take care of Mephibosheth and his family.
My interest in the story comes from David’s other proclamation. He decreed that Mephibosheth would eat at the king’s table for the rest of his life. Or as Dick Foth put it, he would rest his lame feet under the king’s table forever.
At the time when I heard Dr. Foth’s message that referenced Mephibosheth, I was processing a lot of stuff from my childhood. So, I went back and read through his story. I identified with the notion of his being hurt by his someone who was charged with taking care of him as she was trying to save his life. And I truly resonated with the idea of sitting, broken, and eating at the king’s table forever.
Unfortunately, the Bible felt the need to tell the rest of his story, which is slightly less auspicious. In 2 Samuel 16, there’s another civil war. David flees Jerusalem and goes to pray on the top of a nearby mountain. As he’s leaving the mountain he runs into Ziba. Ziba’s carrying food and supplies for the king and his household, but Mephibosheth is not there. When David asks where Mephibosheth is Ziba tells David that he’s waiting in Jerusalem thinking that after the war he’ll inherit the kingdom that was taken from his grandfather, Saul. David gets mad and gives all of Mephibosheth’s property to Ziba.
In 2 Samuel 19, the war has ended and David returns safely to Jerusalem. Mephibosheth comes to David and explains that Ziba had lied. He actually abandoned Mephibosheth in Jerusalem, and since he was lame he couldn’t come by himself. David decided the situation was too complicated, so he ordered the property split between the two of them. Mephibosheth said Ziba could keep it all, he was just glad to see David safe and back in the city.
And that’s where the story ends. The Bible, like David, didn’t bother sorting out who was lying and who was telling the truth. I believe in my heart it Mephibosheth was telling the truth. But I might be a little biased.
Dennis Bourne has been a member of NCC since the Seabiscuit sermon, the third in Spring 2004’s God @ The Box Office sermon series. He is originally from Columbus, Ohio. Dennis is currently a proud resident of The Hill, a researcher at the American Psychological Association, and a student in the Counseling program at Regent University.
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