Mephibosheth: Living With Uncertainty

Well, you know, with the wedding coming up here tomorrow, and I didn't realize it was two weddings, so you guys are really doing well here. I did have a message on that. I decided to pivot to give another message that I've shared in French. I shared this in Seattle once as well. It has to do with uncertainty. And, you know, when you're starting out in life, there's a lot of uncertainty. And I think a lot of us face uncertainty. And I guess I'll start out by just sharing a story. You know, if somebody comes to you and says, you know, I've had some difficulty financially, and I'm wondering if I could just move in with you. It'll just be three weeks, and I just need to kind of get back on my feet. You know, you might say yes to that. You might ask some questions. But if somebody comes up to you and says, hey, I'm having some difficulty financially, and I just need to move in with you. Not sure how long I'll be staying with you. Would that be okay? My guess is that second one, you're probably going to be like, yeah, I don't think so. You know, maybe we could agree on three weeks or four weeks or two weeks or whatever. But really, the difference is uncertainty. When you're dealing with something uncertain, that's when you start getting really uncomfortable. And it's the same way if we're dealing with trials or difficulties that come our way. If we know that we've just got to make it through for six months, right, we can hunker down, figure it out, you know, do what we need to do. But when you have no idea when that's going to end, that's when it gets really, really hard to stay focused. And the Bible speaks a lot about uncertainty. You don't have to turn there, but you can note Proverbs 27.1 that says, Don't boast about tomorrow, for you do not know what a day may bring forth. That's kind of the reality. And maybe you've had that where you wake up in the morning, you've got all the plans set for the day, and then something happens, and all your plans are basically thrown out, and you're doing something completely different. Why don't you take a look at James 4, just by introduction, James 4, verse 13 to 15. This is also something that James, the half-brother of Jesus, wrote, sharing with the Jews in the Despora there in James 4, verse 13.

It really just tells us, let's be careful about getting too certain about things. And if you have a Bible, I encourage you to turn there. I'm going to be going through a number of Bible stories here. Actually, it's one Bible story, but in a lot of different places. And it's really good to read it yourself. I'm reading from the New King James. I'll give you a couple other translations as we go through here. But anyway, James 4, verse 13 says, So this is a general principle. We have to be careful about this. We have to be careful about what happens tomorrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes away. Instead, you ought to say, if the Lord wills, we shall live and do this or that.

So this is a general principle. And I think this, just to give you my way of introduction and where we're going to start today, there is a person in Scripture that I think is a perfect case study of faith and uncertainty. Somebody who was not a king, not a general. I want to say just kind of a normal person. Somebody hopefully we can relate to. I asked whether or not you'd had a sermon here on this person recently. The answer was not recently anyway. It's the case study of a person in the Bible named Mephibosheth. You get extra credit for spelling if you put that in your notes correctly.

We'll get there in a moment. Sometimes the name kind of puts us off. We'll be called a Mac. It might be easier, right? Let's talk about Mac, you know. Mac had some difficulties, but his name is Mephibosheth. He's the son of Jonathan, grandson of King Saul.

If you've studied into the story of Mephibosheth, I look forward to hearing from you afterwards to see kind of how your notes compare to what I'm going to share today. If you haven't, then I hope this story will be something that you can spend some time on individually looking at. He is, as I said, he's not one of the Bible's most famous characters, but he is actually somebody who we've got a story arc on in a way that we don't have with a lot of individuals in Scripture. When I say story arc, what we're going to see today is really his life and what I'm going to call three acts.

This is sort of the three-act play of the life of Mephibosheth, and we'll even throw in an epilogue at the end there when we're done. So the three acts of Mephibosheth through Scripture, which is a little unusual because typically we meet somebody, we hear their story, and that's kind of it. Or maybe their story is quoted in the New Testament, and we get a little insight. But we actually have quite an arc of his life. We first encounter him in 2 Samuel 4.4.

I'm going to share kind of the specifics of what we're going to go through. But if you want to turn to 2 Samuel 4.4, I'll give you a chance to get over there. As I said, he's a fairly minor figure in the Bible, but there's a lot of references to him.

And really the theme of what I want to focus on today, if you want to just kind of get the main thing we're going to talk about, is that faith is built in uncertainty. We don't like uncertainty, but it is really where faith is built. Faith is built in uncertainty, and it is maintained over time as we learn really some simple tenets from God's Word.

And we're going to go through a couple of those. The three acts we're going to see of Mephibosheth's life here first is faith when our future collapses. And we're going to see a collapse. That's pretty dramatic. Maybe some of you have had your future collapse in front of you. It is not an easy time. We're going to see his life when his future collapsed.

Two, we're going to look at faith when what has been lost is restored. And you might think, oh, why would I need faith with that? Why would I need faith when things have been restored to me? Well, believe it or not, there's a little bit of challenge associated with that as well. And finally, we're going to look at faith when loyalty is tested and incomplete justice is given.

When loyalty is tested and incomplete justice is given. And for each point, we're going to look at, as I said, the story arc of Mephibosheth's life. So, title of today's message, and if you turn to 2 Samuel 4 for you, you can actually spell this. Mephibosheth, faithfulness in uncertainty. I might refer to him as Mac from time to time. I actually looked up. I asked A.I., what's a good reference, a good English name that we could use instead of Mephibosheth? And I didn't get any answers to that, you know. They say A.I. is going to take over the world, but sometimes it can't do very well on basic things. So, look over in 2 Samuel 4.4. I'm going to get myself over there to join you. And let's meet Mephibosheth. 2 Samuel 4, verse 4.

Jonathan, Saul's son, had a son who was lame in his feet. So this is a man with a disability. He was five years old when the news about Saul and Jonathan came from Jezreel, and his nurse took him up and fled. Why would she flee? Well, you know, in ancient times, and sadly in times today, when there's a change in administration in a country, I visit a lot of countries in Africa, and you've been in power a long time, anybody who's associated with that previous regime is pretty much going to flee or be killed.

And so that's what she was worried about, that essentially this little boy was in danger because he was the grandson of the king. And as he was grandson of the king, he would be in line for the throne. And so he would be one of the people that would be murdered as part of the transition of power.

So she fled, and it happened as she made haste to flee that he fell and became lame. And so his name was Mephibosheth. There's different names for him in different places. There's also another Mephibosheth in Scripture, which we'll see later. But anyway, so it's a little unclear whether he was born with this handicap or whether this was the result of him basically getting dropped as his nurse was running away.

So here we meet him. This is the first time we meet him, 2 Samuel 4.4. We see that in a day, he loses his father. His father is killed. His grandfather is killed. He's picked up and dropped, and he's got to flee everything that he ever had. So his life was basically completely changed. That's why I said his whole future collapsed in a day. And not just that, he now begins to live life under threat because, as I said, he's the heir to the throne of the previous dynasty.

And the thing is from his life is he didn't choose any of this. Sometimes in Scripture we see people who make bad decisions. Jonah made a bad decision. David made a bad decision. Mephibosia didn't make any bad decisions. Life just happened to him. It just as a little kid, it just happened to him. And we'll learn a little bit later that he went from living in the center of power to a place in Scripture. It's in 2 Samuel 9 verse 4. We'll read in a moment. A place called Lodabar. Lodabar basically means no place.

So he ended up going from the seat of power. You might imagine, you know, I mean, Atlanta is this major metropolitan area in the United States. You go from living sort of, you know, in a nice area of Atlanta to living nowhere. And you don't even know where they can find you. So what's the lesson here? I think some of it might be obvious. Life can become very hard without our permission. Yeah, I didn't give permission for this to happen to me.

Well, it just happens. What kind of person do we become in the aftermath of something like this? What does it mean to us? Well, in the case of Mephibosheth life, his life could have become one of bitter ambition. Somebody who says, hey, you know, I'm Saul's grandson. I deserve this. This is my right. This was taken from me, and I'm going to get it back. But there's nothing in Scripture that seems to indicate that he had that posture. Also, because he has a disability, you know, he can't easily travel.

He can't easily protect himself. It's not like he's going to go become the best general in an army. He's vulnerable. He's not going to go and avenge himself, given his condition that way. Money, health, mobility, influence, little abilities to do that. So imagine a family whose stability changes overnight. Father or mother loses his or her job unexpectedly. Family had plans. They weren't reckless. They were doing what they could. They weren't irresponsible. But the economy changed. Job disappeared. Suddenly, the family's got some troubles. First month, what do they do? Well, cut expenses, figure out what you're going to do, hunker down.

But then when the weeks turn to months, it gets harder and harder. And the temptation in that period is to start reacting, to start blaming, start becoming cynical, start becoming a victim. You know, that might become angry, kind of, you know, get harsh on people. You know, it's not my fault, you know, I didn't deserve this. Or it might be depression, it might be impulsiveness. Many families have lived this. And what often determines the long-term outcome is not necessarily the job market, if you lost your job, or not necessarily, you know, the type of medical care. A lot of times, it just comes down to what happens to our character and what kind of character we're going to build, what kind of person we're going to decide we're going to be in those instances. Are we going to step forward and say, you know what, I didn't ask for this, but God gave it to me and I'm going to make the best of it? And that isn't done on our own. It's done with a lot of support, a lot of help, a lot of prayer, a lot of study, a lot of family support, a lot of support from friends, a lot of support from the church. But sometimes this just happens. And I think we're going to see that's what happened here with Mephibosheth, his security vanished, his future collapsed. So the first point is, when the future collapses, faith is built. When the future collapses, faith is built. So this is the first act here of Mephibosheth's life. Let's go to the second act. It's in 2 Samuel 9, so just turn over a few chapters to 2 Samuel 9. We'll read verses 1 to 4.

The second point here is faith, when what has been lost is restored. So let's read here about what happened to Mephibosheth at this. So 2 Samuel 9, verse 1, We'll get to that in a moment here. Why he said that. You might, you know, I read it in a very neutral tone. You might read it this way. Are you Zeba? Are you Zeba? Oh, okay. So you could read it that way too. We'll get to that in a moment because Zeba is going to be an important character in our story.

Then the king said, Is there not still someone of the house of Saul to whom I may show the kindness of God? And Zeba said to the king, There is still a son of Jonathan who is lame in his feet. And so the king said to him, Where is he? And Zeba said to the king, Indeed, he is in the house of Mishar, the son of Amiel in Lodabar. He is in no place. He is in the middle of nowhere. Now, at this point, David's kingdom is secure. David is not feeling particularly threatened. And certainly Mephibosheth would not be a threatening character if he is lame this way. Saul's house essentially has no benefit to him. If anything, Saul's house is a liability to him. At any point, someone might come along, or they might go raise an army and come and try to overthrow him. So David really had no benefit at all from attempting to find this person. But he said, For Jonathan's sake, for kindness' sake, he wanted to do this. So let's continue in verse 5. Then King David sent and brought him out of the house of Mishir, the son of Amiel from Lodabar. Now when Mephibosheth, the son of Jonathan, the son of Saul, had come to David, he fell on his face and prostrated himself. And David said, Mephibosheth, and he answered, Here is your servant. What's the first thing that David said after that? Do not fear. He probably thought this was it. He probably thought that he was going to be killed because he was found. David would be worried, concerned about him in some way. And so David said, Do not fear, for I will surely show you kindness, for Jonathan your father's sake, and will restore to you all the land of Saul, your grandfather, and you shall eat bread at my table continually.

Mephibosheth just won the lottery.

All the lands of his grandfather, huge wealth was just given to him. And not just the wealth of the land, he's going to eat at the king's table. He's going to go from living no place to being at the center of power in Jerusalem, at the king's table. That means you've got a little seat at the table. You can share your thoughts. You can listen. You can understand what's going on in the kingdom.

Now, this is a beautiful thing. An incredibly good fortune. But in the same story, we meet a man named Zeba, and he's described as a servant of the house of Saul in verse 2. And that may sound simple, but practically what does that mean?

Zeba, a servant in the house of Saul. How did he survive when Saul's house fell? You know, was he just sort of like lucky? Was he far away? A man who had this kind of responsibility likely means that he was managing property, labor, logistics, likely a well-connected man. And he didn't disappear. He somehow managed to stay around. And he asks where these people are and what's going on. And he knows. He's still connected. He knows what's going on. Look over in verse 9. Actually, before we go to verse 9, there's a response that Mephibosheth shares that I think is important. Mephibosheth bows himself in verse 8 and he says, What is your servant that you should look upon such a dead dog as I? This is something interesting because he clearly did not come to David and say, Well, finally, right? You finally recognize he found me. No, he just, I don't deserve any of this. I probably deserve to be killed because of the concern over what I might mean in the future to you. And you have been very kind. So now, verse 9, the king called Zeba, Saul's servant, and he said to him, I have given to your master's son all that belonged to Saul and to all his house. You therefore, and your sons and your servants, shall work the land for him, and you shall bring in the harvest that your master's son may have food to eat. But Mephibosheth, your master's son, shall eat bread at my table always. Now, Zeba had 15 sons and 20 servants. Now, how can a man have 15 sons? Now, I see this in Africa all the time. Our elder in Togo is one of 18 children. How is he one of 18 children? Well, his father had four wives. That's how he is one of 18 children. There was a situation recently where a man was walking and showing me something. I said, how many children did you have? And I think he said something like 15. And I said, how many wives? And he told me how many wives. So, very likely, Zeba had multiple wives, which means he could support financially having multiple wives. And having 20 servants means, again, he was financially able to maintain a household of that size.

So, here we have the incredible blessing that Mephibosheth has received. Protection, restoration, but at the same time, there is a reliance on Zeba. Zeba's got to do all this. He's got to work the land. His servants are going to take care of it. David's like, you know, Zeba is going to take care of you. And so, at this point, Zeba is the person with operational control. He can plant, he can manage the workers, he can manage access.

And so, here we are, Mephibosheth, as a child, dealing with political chaos, disability, and loss. And now, years later, a man comes along and is now going to take care of all of his livelihood. And I think this is a very modern issue. I think we live at the mercy of institutions. We live at the mercy of healthcare systems, employers, government processes, at the mercy of individuals with certain gatekeeping power. And Mephibosheth is now protected by David, but he still relies on Zeba for day-to-day things.

And what does that look like? Faith here looks like receiving grace without anxiety. Faith here looks like receiving grace without anxiety. Mephibosheth could have reacted in several very unhealthy ways. He could have become suspicious, assuming David's kindness was a trap. He could have become controlling and demanded that he was the one who was going to choose the man who would oversee his fields.

He could have gone back to David. No, no, I don't know about Zeba, you know, because who is this Zeba guy? Can he be trusted? He could have become demanding, asking for more things. But instead, the narrative presents him as humble, steady. He lives at the king's table. He accepts the arrangement. He doesn't appear to seek political leverage. So we see that Mephibosheth's story has moved from collapse to restoration. But restoration does not remove all the risks. And in fact, sometimes restoration creates new vulnerabilities, because now there's something to lose.

Now there's something to lose, and there are people around you who may not share your interest. Consider this in a modern context. A person who has lived for years with instability, financially, relationally, professionally. Maybe he grew up in a home where things were unpredictable. Maybe he spent years moving from place to place or job to job. Maybe he lived through major setbacks. And then unexpectedly, an incredible opportunity comes along. A new job, great benefits, stable community, trustworthy mentor. Something that was never there before. That kind of stabilization can actually be surprisingly difficult. People often assume the only challenge is getting out of hardship.

But many people struggle when stability arrives, but it feels unfamiliar. We talk about the snatching defeat from the jaws of victory. Sometimes I think it's the phrase that's used. They wait for the shoe to drop. They wait for something to happen.

It's actually a mental diagnosis where you're just having this wonderful life experience and you're just waiting for something bad to happen. And it basically just sort of takes away the joy. It takes away the stability that somebody can have. Faith in those moments looks like this. Receiving help and stability with humility, gratitude, and steadiness without making fear the ruler of our decisions. Turn with me to Ecclesiastes 7, verse 14.

You can keep your place there, and 2 Samuel will come back. Ecclesiastes 7, verse 14. Here it says, In the day of prosperity be joyful. In the day of prosperity be joyful. There is a time we can just rejoice. But in the day of adversity, consider. Surely God has appointed the one as well as the other, so that man can find nothing that will happen after him.

You see, sometimes we're feeling great. And sometimes we're not feeling great. And sometimes when that happens, we have forgotten completely about the other. So we're feeling great. Nothing ever is going to happen wrong. And then suddenly it does, and we're like, what happened? And then we think our whole life is down.

Well, no, maybe in a few more days things will be better. Or sometimes things are going really bad, and we think we'll never get out of it. And then things do get better. Mephibosheth, I think, models this kind of faith. He received what David gave him, not with entitlement, but with appreciation. He lives at the king's table as a man who knows what it is to lose something.

Point number two is that when grace restores what was lost, faith receives the gift and lives responsibly with it. If you face this challenge where you're just waiting for the next shoe to drop, I hope you can look at Mephibosheth's story, because it appears that he just lived faithfully with it. The third act of Mephibosheth's story is faith after betrayal and incomplete justice. Look over at 2 Samuel 16, and let's continue the story here. 2 Samuel 16.

Start in verse 1. Now the context here is that David is under attack. His son Absalom has taken the kingdom from him. He is fleeing. This is a very, very difficult time in David's life. And as he's fleeing, it says in verse 1, David was a little past the top of this mountain. And as he's fleeing and he's coming up the top of the mountain, who does he see?

Zeba. Zeba. And again, remember, I read it in a neutral tone, and I read it in a tone of like, oh, I remember who you are. Zeba, the servant of Mephibosheth, used to be the servant of Saul, servant of Mephibosheth, who met him with a couple of saddled donkeys, and on them were 200 loaves of bread, 100 clusters of raisins, 100 summer fruits, and a skin of wine. Enormous provisions. And the king said to Zeba, what do you mean to do with these?

And so Zeba said, the donkeys are for the king's household to ride on, the bread and summer fruit for the young men to eat, and the wine for those who are faint in the wilderness to drink. Zeba's like, I'm here to help. I know you're fleeing. Your kingdom has been taken from you. You are in a difficult spot. Here's a bunch of provisions for you. I'm here for you to help. And David asks the obvious question, the question that would be normal. Verse 3, then king said, And where is your master's son?

I see you. Where's Mephibosheth? And Zebas said to the king, Indeed, he is staying in Jerusalem, for he said, Today the house of Israel will restore the kingdom of my father to me. See, this was the worry all along, that now in the midst of this chaos with Absalom and David, Mephibosheth is going to come in and say, I am the rightful ruler of the house of Saul. Now it is time to restore the kingdom to the house of Saul. Wow. So the king said to Zeba, Here, all that belongs to Mephibosheth is yours.

Mephibosheth has betrayed me, and I give all of his things to you. And Zebas said, I humbly bow before you, that I may find favor in your sight, my Lord. O King.

Notice his accusation. It removes Mephibosheth from David's trust at the worst possible time. It frames Mephibosheth as opportunistic and disloyal. It triggers David's political instincts, because any hint of Saul's house reclaiming power is a threat and always has been. And it positions Zeba as the loyal servant worthy of reward.

This is what betrayal looks like.

Mephibosheth is not merely insulted, he is dispossessed.

And because he is disabled, he can't necessarily be there to represent himself.

How do we think Mephibosheth felt when he found out about this? Let's look over in 2 Samuel 19, verse 24, because we don't have to guess.

There's actually a discussion of what actually happened. 2 Samuel 19, verse 24.

At this point, Absalom's rebellion has been put down, and David has been restored as the king. And what's going on now is that David is going through the aftermath, right? All the different things that happened. And one of those things relates to Mephibosheth. And so in 2 Samuel 19, verse 24, it says, Now Mephibosheth, the son of Saul, came down to meet the king. And he had not cared for his feet, nor trimmed his mustache, nor washed his clothes from the day the king departed, that is departed from Jerusalem, until the day he came back in peace. Now, this is not just about sort of he got, you know, he got ready quickly. He didn't get himself ready. This is a sign of mourning. This is a sign of a basement. And I think if we can just imagine, you know, he's got a problem with his feet. You know, in the church, we wash one another's feet once a year. And if you've ever washed somebody's feet who has difficulty, let's say, with a health issue, a lot of times health issues can come out in people's feet. And if he has an issue with his feet, this actually might have really hurt, because if you have an issue like this, you've got to keep your feet clean. And if you don't, a lot of different things can happen. So he was clearly suffering, and he was showing that he was putting himself through the suffering. Verse 25, so it was when he had come to Jerusalem to meet the king, that the king said to him, again, the obvious question, why did you not go with me, Ephesh? Where were you? Where were you? Basically, did you try to betray me? Is it true what I've heard? And it says in verse 26, and he answered, Oh, he says, My Lord, O king, my servant deceived me. For your servant said, I will saddle a donkey for myself, that I may ride on it and go to the king because your servant is lame. I had I got myself ready. I had it all set. In fact, you can almost imagine that Mephibosheth was working with Zeba to gather all those provisions. You can imagine they got it already. It took time to load all these donkeys and all these things going on. And we're all ready to go. And then at the last minute, he rides off. Maybe pushes him aside. Maybe pushes him down.

Verse 27, and he has slandered your servant to my Lord the King.

But my Lord the King is like the angel of God. Therefore do what is good in your eyes.

I want to read to you from the Amplified Bible.

This verse, I think it captures a little bit better. It's again, they're doing their best to translate sort of the sense.

The Amplified Bible says this, My Lord the King, my servant Zeba betrayed me. For I said, Saddle a donkey for me so that I may ride out, ride on it, and go with the King for your servant is lame. But he took the donkeys and left without me.

You know, if you just kind of put yourself in that moment as Mephibosheth is standing there, perhaps on the ground if he's pushed aside. And he sees Zeba leave with all those provisions. And there's no way that he can go and get that back. And he sees his entire future again about to be destroyed in front of him. What is this guy going to do? He's going to betray me. He's going to slander me to the King.

Is the King going to send somebody out to kill me? What's going to happen?

I mean, this is if you just put yourself in that position and what he must have felt.

And then verse 28, Again, you get this sense that everybody in Saul's house, really under ancient standards, would just have been executed. Because they would have been a threat. They were all as if they were dead. And yet David, in his kindness, gave him a seat at his table. Yet you set your servant among those who eat at your own table. Therefore, what right have I to cry out any more to the King? I deserve nothing. I deserve nothing. I've told you my story. If you don't believe me, I was dead anyway. Just kill me.

This is what he's saying. I was dead anyway. Do whatever you think is best.

Now, we would love for a Hollywood ending to this story.

We would love, you know, and that's how this typically comes across. Oh, yeah. And David's like, oh, I realized, of course, how could I have not trusted you, Mephibosheth, that you would have done this to me?

But you know, life is not Hollywood stories. Verse 29. So the king said to him, why do you speak any more of your matters? It's almost a little... Okay, enough. I heard it. All right. Done. Stop. I don't hear any more.

And he says, I have said you and Zeba divide the land.

Who's David supposed to believe? Zeba told him that Mephibosheth is going to stay back and try to restore the house of Saul. Now Mephibosheth is saying, no, I, you know, I saddled my donkey and got already, and then he took off without me. Who is David to believe? Who's David to believe? Is this justice for Mephibosheth?

No. Now, if we stopped in verse 29, you might think I'm really taking Mephibosheth's side here. But I came to this position based on what I see Mephibosheth say in verse 30. And then Mephibosheth said to the king, rather let him, Zeba, take it all, inasmuch as my lord the king has come back in peace to his own house. Mephibosheth didn't want the land. He didn't want that stuff. That's not what he was there for. He was genuinely concerned about the king's well-being. So he's like, no, that's fine. I don't need to take that.

From a strict justice perspective, this rendering feels very unsatisfying to me. I don't know how you would feel. Well, does David not trust me? Did he not believe me? Am I going to live the rest of my life with David kind of questioning my loyalty? If Zeba lied, why reward him? If Mephibosheth was loyal, why penalize him? This narrative leaves us in ambiguity. It leaves us in an ambiguous ending. That's, for me, rather unsatisfying. But as I said in verse 30, we see Mephibosheth's response. Mephibosheth valued the restoration of his relationship with the king more than his physical life. He valued truth to the point of just allowing Zeba to take it all. And we don't know. Maybe David said, fine. We don't really know the rest of this.

I think Mephibosheth's faithfulness, as I read the story, is shown here in three ways.

He does not turn betrayal into revenge.

You know, this guy really had a rough life. We've seen this. He really had it tough. And he could have turned it into revenge. He could have gone after him. He could have gone after Zeba. But he just stated his case, and that was it. He remained faithful even when the outcome was imperfect. David's judgment, perhaps, was not satisfying. We don't see anything about Mephibosheth saying anything other than, it's okay. I don't even need that.

And he prioritized what mattered most, which is that he was most interested in the kingdom being restored to David.

I think at this point we see the full shape of living in uncertainty in Mephibosheth's life.

He begins in uncertainty through loss and disability. He experiences a surprising season of restoration. And then he is tested by betrayal and unresolved justice.

And I think this is where many people struggle the most. Not in the original hardship, not at even receiving help, but in being misrepresented, betrayed, and left with an outcome that feels unfair.

And learning to live with it. Learning to live with incomplete justice.

I think Mephibosheth teaches us that faith is not only trusting God when you receive kindness, but when you receive incomplete justice. Because a lot of times things in this life are never going to get resolved.

God is going to say, that's okay. My grace is sufficient for you. That's the quote from Paul, clearly, when he talked about praying three times for this difficulty that he had to be taken from him. How many of us have suffered betrayal at the hand of a friend? It really hurts.

We want everyone to know the truth. We want everybody to know what happened.

We want our story to get out and be told. But that doesn't always happen. And in fact, generally, it doesn't happen.

I think there's a maturity in Mephibosheth's response that we can learn from.

Now, I promised you an epilogue to this three acts of this story. And the epilogue is found in 1 Samuel 21. We're going to read verses 1 to 7. And I share this because you might think after everything Mephibosheth has been through, that he would get a break.

But he doesn't. And again, we see a man who just seems to be just chugging along, doing what he's supposed to do, trusting, and moving forward. Let's read 2 Samuel 21 verse 1 to 7 and see then this final threat to Mephibosheth's life.

2 Samuel 21 verse 7. Now there was a famine in the days of David for three years, year after year. And David inquired of the Lord, and the Lord answered, It is because of Saul and his bloodthirsty house because he killed the Gibeonites.

So the king called the Gibeonites and spoke to them.

Now the Gibeonites were not of the children of Israel, but of the remnant of the Amorites, the children of Israel, had sworn protection to them.

So this is a story we can go back and see where they had actually sworn to take care of them. But Saul had sought to kill them in his zeal for the children of Israel and Judah.

Therefore David said to the Gibeonites, What shall I do for you?

And with what shall I make atonement, that you may bless the inheritance of the Lord?

And the Gibeonites said to him, We will have no silver or gold from Saul or from his house, nor shall you kill any man in Israel for us. And he said, Okay, whatever you say that I will do.

And so they answered the king, As for the man who consumed us and plotted against us, that we should destroy from the remaining of all the territories of Israel, let seven men of his descendants be delivered to us, and we will hang them before the Lord and Gibeon of Saul, whom the Lord chose.

And the king said, I will give them.

Wow!

So David has to go find seven descendants of the house of Saul.

Again, was this story told to Mephibosheth?

It's just one thing after another. But the king spared, verse 7, the son of Jonathan, the son of Saul, because of the Lord's oath that was between them, between David and Jonathan, the son of Saul.

Now, I share this again to give this character of Mephibosheth the full discussion that he should have, because did David believe Mephibosheth when he said, fine, just split the land with Zeba?

I think to some degree, yeah.

But he chose that, and perhaps at that time he made the decision he wouldn't go back on it.

But if David was really concerned about Mephibosheth's loyalty, I think this might have been a time he might have decided to go ahead and just let Mephibosheth be taken by the Gibeonites.

Perhaps that, or perhaps just his oath to Jonathan was enough. But in any case, he spared Mephibosheth.

And so in verse 8, so the king took Armini, and there's another Mephibosheth. Sometimes that's a little bit confusing. It's another son, you can look in the story.

The two sons of Ritsba, the daughter of Eai, whom she bore to Saul, and the five sons of Mikael, the daughter of Saul, whom she brought up for Adriel, the son of Barziliai and Mepholite.

You know, again, there's such tragedy here because if you think about Mikael, one of his, you know, the daughter of Saul, you know, we understand the connection that she had to David.

So he took these and he delivered them into the hands of the Gibeonites, and they hanged them on the hill before the Lord.

And so they fell all seven together and were put to death in the days of the harvest and the first days in the beginning of the barley harvest.

And it goes on to describe the aftermath of this and what went through.

Clearly, this was a difficult time to live.

And for a man who was either born lame or suffered it from the fall, a man who lived no place for a long time, a man who was restored to the king's table, and then through betrayal ended up not taking care of himself for a period of time.

And then the land was split again. And then now, once again, to go through this, I think we see uncertainty.

Can we handle uncertainty in our lives?

When uncertainty comes, are we going to be ready to realize that God is there in the good days and the bad days?

As I said, point three, when loyalty is tested through betrayal and incomplete justice, faith remains steady.

It tells the truth without retaliation, and it values peace and integrity over vindication.

There's nothing that indicated that Mephibosheth was looking for revenge. When life collapses before us, faith is built. When grace restores what was lost, faith receives the gift with humility, even when vulnerability remains.

Perhaps the central takeaway of this modern life that we see, uncertainty does not automatically produce wisdom. A lot of times it can produce fear. It can produce control. It can produce cynicism. It can produce impulsiveness.

What are the fruits of our uncertainty? But it can also produce faith, humility, and mature judgment.

Mephibosheth lived a normal life like ours. I hope we can learn from it, and again, I hope that we can spend some time talking about these kinds of characters in the Scripture.

I hope that you can read through this story yourself in difficult times that you might be facing as we go through those difficult times.

I look forward to the discussion afterwards. Thank you.