THE KING AND THE CRIPPLE
[p. 65] THE KING AND THE CRIPPLE
The incidents of this chapter present a lovely picture of the grace of God to sinful men. David, after years of wandering and warfare, was at last securely seated on the throne of Israel. With prosperity at home and peace abroad the king’s generous heart sought an object on which to bestow his royal bounty, and hence the gracious inquiry with which the chapter opens, “Is there any that is left of the house of Saul, that I may shew him kindness?”
Saul had sought to pierce David with a javelin even to the wall. Again and again he had attempted to lay violent hands on David, and had pursued him upon the mountains like a partridge. He had, moreover, hated him without a cause. Yet when David was established on his throne he said, “Is there yet any that is left of the house of Saul, that I may shew him kindness?” and again in verse 3, “Is there not yet any of the house of Saul, that I may shew THE KINDNESS OF GOD unto him?”
The kindness of God goes out to His enemies and to the utterly undeserving. Otherwise it would never reach lost and guilty men. “For we ourselves also were sometimes foolish, disobedient, deceived, serving divers lusts and pleasures, living in malice and envy, hateful, and hating one another. But after that the KINDNESS and love of God our Saviour toward man appeared, not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us” (Titus 3: 3 - 5).
A wicked girl, in a frenzy of passion, struck her Christian mother with the poker, crying, “I would kill your God if I could get at Him”. The kindness of God is toward such a [p. 66] one as that. You may be shocked at such bold wickedness, but remember that a deceitful and desperately wicked heart beats within your own breast. Have you never had hard and rebellious thoughts of God? It is true of all, that “the carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be. So then they that are in the flesh cannot please God” (Romans 8: 7, 8).
Man’s enmity against God was proved at the cross. God was in Christ reconciling the world unto Himself, but it would not be reconciled. God presented His grace to a guilty world, but the world’s answer was the rejection and murder of His beloved Son. But, in spite of this, God’s attitude towards men is one of “kindness and pity”. For well-nigh two thousand years He has continued to proclaim by His servants “repentance and remission of sins” in the name of the Lord Jesus “among all nations”. This is “THE KINDNESS of GOD”. His attitude towards men is one of infinite grace, and He desires that His grace should be known even by those who have said in their hearts, if not with their lips, “Depart from us, for we desire not the knowledge of thy ways”.
“And Ziba said unto the king, Jonathan hath yet a son, which is lame on his feet”. In chapter 4 we are told how Mephibosheth became a cripple. “He was five years old when the tidings came of Saul and Jonathan out of Jezreel, and his nurse took him up, and fled: and it came to pass, as she made haste to flee, that he fell, and became lame”. The present condition of man is figuratively set before us in this fallen cripple.
When God created Adam and Eve, He put them in a place prepared by His own hands for their reception. Everything in the garden of Eden (”Pleasantness” ) witnessed to the goodness of God. The fruitful tree, the flowing rivers, the golden sunlight, all declared with harmonious voice that God was good.
[p. 67] But man had not been made as a mere machine, or as an irresponsible animal. He was an intelligent and responsible moral being, and to remind him of this, as well as to test his obedience, he was forbidden to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. The penalty of death was attached to disobedience.
While Adam and Eve obeyed the command of God they were innocent and happy. But the serpent came upon the scene and suggested that God was not good, and that He was keeping back from man something that would be for man’s benefit to possess. Losing confidence in God, and carried away by lust and pride, our first parents fell from their happy state of innocence, and came not only under the power of sin and Satan, but also under the penalty of death.
Thus, in the very infancy of the race, man fell and became a moral cripple; he cannot walk with God; he cannot run in the way of God’s commandments; he has fallen and become lame on his feet. And, like Mephibosheth, he is lame on both his feet. He is defective and incapable in his responsibilities both towards God and his neighbour.
People do not like to admit that they are entirely crippled. They do not mind confessing in a general way that they do not walk quite straight. They will say, “We are all sinners; we all have our shortcomings, etc.”, and many try to remedy their defects by resolutions, vows, pledges, turning new leaves, and other crutches and appliances of similar nature. But human efforts are in vain. It remains ever true that man is “without strength” (Romans 5: 6); he is destitute of power to perform the will of God. How good it is to know that God in grace does not claim from man that which cannot be rendered, but that “To him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness”! (Romans 4: 5).
“And the king said unto him, Where is he? And Ziba [p. 68] said unto the king, Behold, he is in the house of Machir, the son of Ammiel, in Lo-debar”.
The sinner’s condition we have already dwelt upon, and now we come to his position. Lo-debar means a place of no pasture, and it fitly represents the world. It may seem strange to speak of the world as a place of no pasture, for its things are very attractive to the natural man. The world’s things are perfectly adapted to suit the tastes, and gratify the desires, of man as a fallen sinner. But, viewed morally, the world is a desert, because the knowledge of God cannot be found there. The world is a vast system of things in which men seek to make themselves as happy as possible at a distance from God. Thus, in a true and divine sense, the world is a veritable Lo-debar. It contains nothing to minister to the deepest necessities of man; for of what avail are all its boasted stores of wisdom, honour, wealth, end pleasure, if GOD remains unknown? Sad is the portion of those who are “without God in the world” (Ephesians 2: 12), for they are strangers to that in which alone true satisfaction can be found by human hearts!
“And king David sent, and fetched him out of the house of Machir, the son of Ammiel, from Lo-debar”.
Here we see, in figure, the activity of God’s grace. If the sinner cannot remedy his own imperfections, and if he is at a distance from God without desire to seek after God, blessing must come in altogether from God’s side. In the gospel of His grace God approaches men as they are and where they are, and makes Himself known as a Saviour God. It is by the gospel that God brings men to a knowledge of Himself. Then it is of all importance that we should know the true nature of the gospel of God.
Briefly stated, the gospel is (1) the presentation of a Person; (2) the declaration of what that Person has undergone, and of God’s actings towards Him; and (3) the proclamation of repentance and remission of sins in His Name.
[p. 69] 1. The Person whom the gospel presents is THE SON OF GOD. By sending His Son into the world God presented Himself in grace to men. There was no form of human need that He was not able and willing to meet; there was no kind of pressure upon man that He could not relieve. He “went about doing good, and healing all that were oppressed of the devil: for God was with him” (Acts 10: 38). He came not to condemn the world, not to impute trespasses to men, but to present in the excellence of His own Person the all-blessing grace of God.
There was also in Him the complete setting forth of everything that was according to God’s good pleasure in a Man. He was the beloved Son, in whom the Father was well pleased. Every divine perfection was brought near to men in pure grace in that blessed and holy Person. And every one whose heart was attracted by His grace, and believed on Him, obtained forgiveness of sins and found the knowledge of God.
2. But this wondrous grace must reign through righteousness, and it could only be presented to men in One who was willing and competent to charge Himself with the liabilities of men. The Lord Jesus could speak of forgiveness of sins because He was about to bear sins in His own body on the tree; He could heal every disease, and rescue men from the power of death itself because He had come in grace to undergo all that was due to men in consequence of sin. In the days of His flesh the accomplishment of all this was future, but it is now past, and the gospel declares what He has undergone on man’s behalf. He has borne and suffered for sins, has been made sin, and has tasted death. He charged Himself with the liabilities of men, and has undergone the holy judgment due to sin. And all this in absolute grace, that the grace of God might flow out in righteousness to men.
Then the gospel declares further how God has acted towards the One who thus came in grace into man’s condemnation. GOD RAISED HIM FROM THE DEAD, so that He saw [p. 70] no corruption, and He lives for evermore beyond the reach of sin and death. Man, in the Person of the Lord Jesus, has an entirely new place with God, and is found in a state to which no imperfection or condemnation can ever attach. Nothing has been overlooked or compromised. Sins have been borne, sin has been judged, death has been suffered, Satan’s power overthrown, and all this by One who is now raised from the dead as the glorious Witness to the complete triumph of grace.
3. Now we get the proclamation of forgiveness of sins. “Be it known unto you therefore, men and brethren, that through this man is preached unto you the forgiveness of sins: and by him, all that believe are justified from all things, from which ye could not be justified by the law of Moses” (Acts 13: 38, 39). God thus approaches men in unmingled grace, as One who “will have all men to be saved”. He is made known through the Lord Jesus Christ as a Justifier and a Saviour God. He sets forth what He is that He may be known and believed on in that character. And “all that believe are justified from all things”. If we believe on Him that raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead, righteousness is imputed to us. And “being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ”.
It is by this wondrous and blessed gospel that God approaches man in his ruin and distance. This gospel, received by faith, gives man the knowledge of God in grace, and brings him away from the world where God is unknown. He leaves Lo-debar for the courts of royal grace.
How blessed to know that the kindness of God is toward men because of what CHRIST is, and on the ground of what He has accomplished! It has no respect to merit, or worthiness of any kind, in the sinner. David’s kindness to Mephibosheth was according to the worthiness of another. “That I may shew him kindness for Jonathan’s sake”, and “I will [p. 71] surely shew thee kindness for Jonathan thy father’s sake”. The excellence and perfection of Christ are now before God, and all His grace to men is according to His estimation of CHRIST. Can anyone say that such infinite grace as this is not “worthy of all acceptation”? Then why not believe, and receive it now?
Another thought we may gather from the picture before us is that the known grace of God not only separates a man from the world of the ungodly, but it gives him a true judgment of himself. In the presence of David’s grace Mephibosheth could only say, “What is thy servant, that thou shouldest look upon such a dead dog as I am?” This is repentance — the judgment which a sinner has of himself in the presence of divine grace. “Repentance and remission of sins” are both preached in the Name of a risen Saviour.
Finally, we see here in picture the purpose which God has in view in making known His grace to men. “As for Mephibosheth, said the king, he shall eat at my table, as one of the king’s sons”. It is God’s purpose and pleasure that we should receive SONSHIP (Galatians 4: 5). This is not to meet our need, but to gratify His own heart. He is “bringing MANY SONS to glory” (Hebrews 2.: 10). The love of God will find its satisfaction in having a company “conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren” (Romans 8: 29). And God delights that even here His children should know, by the Spirit, the liberty with which THE SON makes free. Liberty to be in the home circle of divine affections, and to respond to those affections with the cry of sonship, “Abba, Father”. May God affect our hearts by His grace and love!