GRACE

^[p. 131] GRACE

2 Samuel 4: 4; 2 Samuel 9: 1 - 13; 2 Samuel 19: 24 - 30

What is in mind this evening is to speak about grace. This book sets it out in general, but these passages in particular, Mephibosheth being selected for the purpose. The book of 2 Samuel has a unique place in the inspired records, beginning with grace in the believer: the song of the bow, as it is called, embodying magnanimous feelings in the believer toward an enemy, for in christianity we are enjoined to exhibit grace in this way, “If thine enemy hunger, feed him; if he thirst, give him drink: for in so doing thou shalt heap coals of fire on his head” (Romans 12: 20); that is complete victory of good over evil. The song of the bow is like a pillar at the beginning of the book, as embodying David’s feelings towards Saul and Jonathan; and then we have the song of Jehovah’s deliverance at the end of chapter 22. On the one hand, what the believer is through grace, how magnanimous he can be, how forgiving he can be, how gracious he can be, how able to overcome evil with good, at the same time exhibiting dependence on God in the most beautiful manner; and, on the other hand, the song of God’s deliverance, for that is chapter 22, sung to Jehovah in the day that He had delivered His servant out of all his trouble and from all his enemies. These are like two pillars on which the whole book stands; a book which, at the same time, records the most serious sins of David. He is one in whom God would set out His grace, on the one hand, so that it is exhibited in him; and, on the other hand, God’s deliverance. His faithful power in deliverance, which the believer can always reckon upon; power too in himself in the deliverance, as he could say, “By thee I have run through a troop; by my God have I leaped over a wall”. What can a ^[p. 132] believer not do under God, if God is in him helping him! His greatest victory is his moral victory, that is, victory in a moral sense over his enemies.

This book develops these thoughts and in so doing brings out the house of Saul. Saul is dead, signalised, as I said, in grace by David, but dead, and yet his house remains — a very important thing to bear in mind. The house of Saul remains; it is all around us, dear brethren, at the present time. But David, not his house, we are told, grew continually stronger. That is the position. Of course the house of Saul had great influence, and has now; the official religious dominance all around is not to be overlooked, but, at the same time, David is becoming continually stronger. That obviously is to be in our souls, dear brethren, for the grace period is the faith period, and the faith period is the period in which Christ is allowed to come in so as to be in us. “If Christ be in you, the body is dead on account of sin, but the Spirit life”, Romans 8: 10. How can Christ but become continually greater, continually stronger, as scope is given to Him in the disallowance of the flesh, the body being dead?

Now in chapter 4 we have the introduction of Mephibosheth. The Spirit of God gives us no notice as to why he is introduced; it is in the midst of great events, all in David’s favour under the government of God, not yet his own exploits, but events happening without him. There is much of that today, events happening in our favour in which we have no part directly; God is doing it. And so Abner dies and Ishbosheth dies, men standing in the way of David. Who effected their deaths is not the point; it is all in favour of David. Why then Mephibosheth? Is he in David’s way? No. Still, he was of the house of Saul, who was formerly the reigning king. Ishbosheth was the son of Saul; he is called that and only that in these early verses. Jonathan also is the son of Saul, and Mephibosheth is Jonathan’s son;

^[p. 133] why is he brought in? Is it not in relation to David? Is it simply to show that favour is shown to a certain person? It is all in relation to David. What am I, or what is any one of us here, if he is not in relation to David? What is one’s history, if it is not in relation to David, if it has no bearing on Christ and His glory? Nothing. All else must go but what bears on Christ, what exalts Christ; and Mephibosheth is an exalter of Christ as the vessel of grace; he is of great value therefore. If the king is to die, if Abner is to die, Mephibosheth is to live; all have relation to David, two negatively, one positively, and each of us wishes to be that one positively in relation to David. So he is set here in the picture, a dark picture indeed, but a governmental picture. God has a hand in it and He is furnishing David with excellent material to exhibit his grace, for what marks our dispensation is grace.

Mephibosheth is mentioned in verse 4; he had a nurse. He was five years of age when the great calamity happened on mount Gilboa. It is well that believers, the subjects of grace, should recall their histories. Each of us has his history. I may be very little in men’s account, but, if I am a believer, my history has always been of account in heaven. Every believer’s history is known in heaven; not only what he has been since he became a believer, but before. He has been selected like Mephibosheth, like the man in John 9, that “the works of God should be manifested in him”. There is no blame attaching to Mephibosheth here; the nurse of course may have been at fault, though one would hesitate to say much about her, for it was a time of disaster; but she was a nurse, and a nurse’s business is not only to save life, but to save members of the body. The apostle Paul was a nurse, he was a nurse to the Thessalonians. I suppose he had great pleasure in them, as mothers have in lovely children. They were lovely in his ^[p. 134] eyes, and he virtually says, You are lovely in God’s eyes, for you are “in God the Father”. Let us seek, dear brethren, as endeavouring to serve the saints, to love them. I shall never love them if I do not respect them; respect must go before love. And so the apostle says he was as a nurse, “as a nurse”, he says, “would cherish her own children” (1 Thessalonians 2: 7), the skill of the nurse allied with the affections of the mother. The nurse here evidently failed in this, but, if God is going to exhibit grace, He is not enlarging on the failures that give Him opportunity to express grace, He is not wishing to expose anyone. We should not have the failures of godly men of old were it not that we need examples, we need reproof, we need to see how failures come about and avoid them; and, if they do come about, how to avail ourselves of the provision made for them. This book is not wanting in that; it is strikingly instructive on that line. The five year old child became lame, and many suffer in this way, deformed christians, on account of bad nursing. That is the picture in chapter 4. It is said his name was Mephibosheth, a name that stands out in the annals of grace from that day to this.

So this verse (chapter 4: 4) awaits chapter 9. Much happened in the meantime. The insertion here is to prepare us for chapter 9. Let us not forget things as we read Scripture, but carry the thoughts forward, for they are cumulative, and if I miss an early note I may fail to understand a later one. We are to be students of Scripture, diligent readers; as Philip says, “Understandest thou what thou readest?”. The Lord says, “How readest thou?”. It is not only that we are to read the Bible each day, but how do we do it? So, carrying forward the question in chapter 9, we see how God had in His mind to bring out what He had deposited in David. David rises here to a type of Christ, for, as God knew, he ^[p. 135] was already characterised by grace and had exhibited it to Saul in his remarks in the early part of the book. Now God says to David: I have reserved this person so that you might have an excellent subject to whom to show the kindness of God. One would like to retain the attitude of Mephibosheth. He is not exactly a type of a sinner; he is a man who was damaged on account of another, on account of circumstances, as the Lord says of the man in John 9, “Neither has this man sinned nor his parents, but that the works of God should be manifested in him”. So it is with each believer, for a believer never loses the attitude that he has been brought into being to be a subject of grace, to exhibit the glory of God; that is what I am in the universe for, “They that are wise shall shine as the brightness of the expanse; and they that turn the many to righteousness as the stars, for ever and ever”, Daniel 12: 3. It is a question of shining, that is, expressing what God is in Christ, reflecting it, and Mephibosheth is a good model. No one who takes up that attitude in his soul will become unruly; he will fail in the divine thought if he does. He is simply a subject of mercy, brought into being to be that, never losing the sense of that, held here awaiting the opportunity for Christ, the true David, to call for him.

David does not ask Mephibosheth if he is Mephibosheth; he says to Ziba, “Art thou Ziba?” — but “Mephibosheth”, just Mephibosheth. David experienced this himself, his introduction to us is just “David”, without any notice as to whence he is — David. Of course he was Jesse’s son, but I mean it is just “David”, not “his name was David”; and Mephibosheth is “Mephibosheth”; he has a fixed place in the annals of grace. David calls out the name, that is all, known in heaven, just as everyone who repents is known in heaven, “Behold thy servant!”. David loses no time, he proceeds at once ^[p. 136] as the opportunity offers. One great feature of the system into which we have come, dear brethren, is a readiness to do things when the opportunity arises. The time had come when Mephibosheth should be called into evidence and he is named.

David acts nobly; it is one of the brightest chapters in his history. The chapter is well known; it is a great gospel chapter, and rightly. What I want to show now is that Mephibosheth, as a subject of grace, maintains the dignity that grace accords to him. We all assume to be subjects of grace, but I want to show how Mephibosheth retained this sense of grace, this sense that he was an object of mercy throughout; the slander of his servant does not move him. The chapter outlines what he became, and the Spirit of God seems to enlarge on it. “Mephibosheth”, David says, “shall eat at my table, as one of the king’s sons”; “one” of them, there are others, he is to be amongst them. There is nothing perfunctory about it. David does not seem to have any difficulty or any compunction about placing him there as one of the king’s sons. Now Mephibosheth has a son, for there is to be a continuance of this, and, without enlarging unduly on this, there is a suggestion of productiveness on the part of the subjects of grace. It is a poor thing if one passes off without there being some evidence of having passed on some influence of grace here, whether in one’s own family or among the saints, but I am speaking of it particularly in a spiritual sense. How can anyone be easy in his mind if he is passing from the scene without leaving something in the way of sons to remind people of his influence in the testimony?

Now Saul has a servant; it is well to keep Ziba in mind in all this. He is Saul’s servant; he has that place, owned to be that. But he is a man who has influence, too; see the number of children he has! “Ziba had fifteen sons and twenty servants”. We ^[p. 137] must keep him in mind in this inquiry. He is under orders here from the king to be subservient to Mephibosheth. He was Saul’s servant, he is now David’s subject under orders unconditionally to be the servant of Mephibosheth; he and his sons and his servants are to till the land for him, and bring in its fruits. I am mentioning all this about Ziba so that we may understand what we have to contend with in our times. As I said before, we are surrounded with the house of Saul, it is the official religious system — I do not say, systems, for they all bear the same character, they are all varieties of the same thing, the house of Saul. This man is a representative servant; he will serve the saints if it suits him, but he has himself before him. He is a man of influence, fifteen sons and twenty servants. He served the saints, he served Mephibosheth evidently; at least it is put before him to do so, but he serves himself. If he is recognised, as he is later, as Mephibosheth’s servant, he has himself in mind. I am mentioning this because we are to retain grace in spite of such an influence, and not to succumb to it. How are we to maintain grace, dear brethren, save as we keep Christ clearly in mind, that the whole position is under Him? Ziba will not fail to be a good christian if it is needed to minister to himself; he will not fail to do that. As David is in rejection he comes out with his asses and his bread and his wine, skilfully designed to gain the king’s sympathy. It is after the king passes the summit of Olivet; he is no longer, for the moment, a type of Christ, he is simply a believer, but he has passed the supreme spiritual touch or summit. Ziba comes, he comes with his story, he comes with his slander, and David accepts it; hence the peculiar difficulty now confronting this great subject of grace, namely, Mephibosheth. Is he going to stand, or is he to succumb? Is he to go down under this overpowering influence that is ^[p. 138] now acquired by Ziba? Is it so with us, dear brethren? Are we to succumb to this influence around us? It touches us constantly.

Mephibosheth never gave way; we are told he “neither washed his feet, nor trimmed his beard, nor washed his clothes, from the day the king departed until the day he came again in peace”. He is maintaining his ground. He is not putting on religious clothes in sympathy with Absalom, he is no part of the secret service which David left; he is not mentioned in connection with it but he is publicly on David’s side at the very height of Absalom’s reign. The supreme test is coming, but he is establishing himself; he is loyal to Christ and will put on no dress, nothing at all to indicate his loyalty to Absalom: as we read here, he “neither washed his feet, nor trimmed his beard, nor washed his clothes”. I suppose all this was his very salvation; it would bring reproach. We are afraid of reproach even in our dress. How often do we dress to gain the respect of the worldly, to be conformed to this world, especially in feminine dress and ways! “Be not conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind”, Romans 12: 2. Of course Mephibosheth never acted like this in David’s house, or at David’s table; he is simply refusing to be conformed to Absalom’s world, and his very non-conformity to it would serve to become his salvation from it. The more we are not conformed to this world the more we are saved from it. Young men are enjoined, “Love not the world” — especially when they get married and buy their houses and their cars. Non-conformity to the world is our salvation in very large measure. We do not fit, we are objectionable to the world, and our very objectionableness is our salvation very often. So Mephibosheth in all those weeks or months of David’s absence neither washed his feet, nor trimmed his beard, nor washed his clothes. You ^[p. 139] might say, I should not like to live near him. Very good. It is the spiritual side. If the worldling says that, very good. If you do not want my companionship, I am saved from you, and that is a very great matter.

But now the supreme test is coming, I want you to notice verse 25 before going on. The New Translation says, “as soon as Jerusalem came to meet the king”. Jerusalem here is a great spiritual thought that the overcomer in Philadelphia understands. I believe that Mephibosheth is an overcomer, and we all want to be overcomers. The overcomer in Philadelphia is promised much; he is to go no more out, but he is to have a new name, “The name of the city of my God”, the Lord Jesus says, “the new Jerusalem, which comes down out of heaven, from my God”. Jerusalem is stamped on him — think of all it means! — hardly a subject in Scripture more interesting than Jerusalem from its inception till the finish, the eternal thought; and it is stamped on the overcomer of our day, this very day. When Jerusalem came to meet the king, a remarkable expression, is Mephibosheth not to be there? Certainly he is to be there; he is the leading thought, the outstanding thought, in the city. I should like to have seen him coming down to meet the king; it is not simply the inhabitants of Jerusalem, but Jerusalem; the great king, in principle, is coming to his capital. Why not come to meet him? Mephibosheth is there. He is already fortified; were he not fortified he would be overcome, for the king cannot be said to be a type of Christ here. He is here a type of a wrongly influenced believer, and the more spiritual I am, the more damage I shall do if I am wrongly influenced. Mephibosheth had to face this. The king says to him, “Why didst thou not go with me, Mephibosheth?” — a very fair question, you might say. David is already influenced, as the sequel shows; he is not ready to accept his word.

^[p. 140] Mephibosheth was spiritually the greatest man in Jerusalem, and yet I may be influenced against him; hence the need, as the Lord says in the great assembly gospel, of every word being established in the mouth of two or three witnesses.

First of all, he tells the truth about his servant, “He said, My lord, O king, my servant deceived me; for thy servant said, I will saddle me the ass, and ride thereon, and go with the king; for thy servant is lame”. Will any of Ziba’s sons or servants help us to go to the king in the crucial time? No, they will never direct us heavenward; they will teach us religion, of course, but to direct the soul heavenward is another matter. Ziba is not doing it now, he is not aiding Mephibosheth; he was enjoined to serve him, but he is not doing it now, he is thinking of himself. The apostle says, “Ourselves your bondmen for Jesus’ sake”. What about Ziba? It is for his own sake; we have to watch that. He may serve the saints, or pretend to, but he is serving himself, and we have to watch that influence, watch anyone who does not direct us to Christ. He is thinking of himself. Paul says, “We do not preach ourselves, but Christ Jesus Lord, and ourselves your bondmen for Jesus’ sake”, 2 Corinthians 4: 5.

Mephibosheth is maintaining grace, and one of the greatest things at the moment is to maintain in our souls the sense of grace, that we will not succumb to opposition, to unfair treatment, for the world is full of it. He says to the king “Do therefore what is good in thy sight. For all my father’s house were but dead men before my lord the king; and thou didst set thy servant among them that eat at thine own table. What further right therefore have I? and for what should I cry any more to the king?”. He is a subject of mercy now, as he was before, and let us hope to be that, dear brethren, until the end, to exhibit this wonderful feature of the dispensation to the very end.

^[p. 141] The Lord Jesus says, I am still sitting on My Father’s throne. It is grace; even in speaking to Laodicea, He is on His Father’s throne administering the grace of the Father’s heart, for the title “the Father” means that; it is a title that denotes grace, and the Lord is exhibiting that to the very last moment of the dispensation. I want to be in that, too; it is a great opportunity for us, dear brethren, to finish up in this way.

So Mephibosheth goes on to say, “All my father’s house were but dead men before my lord the king; and thou didst set thy servant among them that eat at thine own table. What further right therefore have I? and for what should I cry any more to the king?”. His integrity is complete; he is standing by the mercy and grace in which he was taken up, he is standing by it firmly, even in the presence of unfair treatment. He goes on, and the king is not moved apparently; he says, “Why speakest thou any more of thy matters? I have said, Thou and Ziba divide the land”. The keenest thrust! you might say. He had just been laying before the king the facts of the case, and now it is. Yourself and Ziba; he is put on the same level in the king’s mind as Ziba as to the inheritance. But he says, That is not in my mind. He is triumphant. The Spirit of God tells us, it seems to me in triumphant language, “Mephibosheth said to the king, Let him even take all, since my lord the king is come again in peace to his own house”. He is a victorious believer, acting without resentment; overcoming slander, maintaining a right spirit, and asserting in the plainest language that Christ and Christ only is his object. He is a lover of Christ’s appearing. As the apostle says, a crown of righteousness belongs to all those who love His appearing. So there is every incentive, not only for the future but in the present, to maintain the spirit of grace constantly.

Pages 142 to 466, ‘Strangership’ and Other Ministry 1939 - 40. (Volume 210). One item ‘Notes of a Word at a Burial’ has been omitted but has been included in New Series Volume 49, page 550.