For forty years I led you through the desert … yet your sandals did not wear out." Duet. 29:5
“Who is your servant, that you should show such kindness to a dead dog like me?”
This was Mephibosheth’s reaction.
David the king kept his promise to Jonathan. He gave Jonathan’s son Mephibosheth land that had belonged to King Saul. He also gave Mephibosheth a permanent seat at the king’s table.
“With God’s help we will do mighty things, for he will trample down our foes.”
The Lord is our strength and defender. With His help we win. Without His help…
“So the LORD made David victorious wherever he went.”
David conquered all of the enemy kingdoms surrounding Israel, and forced them to pay tribute. As gruesome and as violent as his military campaigns were, the LORD was with him and blessed him.
“For his anger lasts only a moment, but his favor lasts a lifetime!”
God is Love. His anger is aroused against those who act defiantly toward him. He is angry because he knows that he who would defy the LORD is his own worst enemy.
“Do you deal with everyone this way, O Sovereign LORD?”
God really is a good God. David is overwhelmed, as we should be.
“Yes, and I am willing to look even more foolish than this, even to be humiliated in my own eyes!”
David loved the LORD, and expressed that love by dancing before the Ark of God in celebration. Whatever others may have thought of it, including his own wife Michal, mattered little to him.
So David went to Baal-perazim and defeated the Philistines there. “The LORD did it!”, David exclaimed.
Whether shepherd over his father’s flock, or king over all Israel, David gave the credit to the LORD for his accomplishments.
“How much more should I reward evil men who have killed an innocent man in his own house and on his own bed? Shouldn’t I hold you responsible for his blood and rid the earth of you?”
Recab and Baanah, two soldiers in King Ishbosheth’s army, murdered the king as he lay sleeping. They cut off his head and carried it to David. David promptly rewarded their treachery by ordering his men to kill them both.
“Your hands were not bound;
your feet were not chained.
No, you were murdered—
the victim of a wicked plot.”
Abner, who had been the commander of Ishbosheth’s armies in fighting David, had a change of heart and expressed his loyalty to David, desiring him to be the king over all Israel.
Tragically, however, Joab deceived Abner and murdered him to revenge the death of his brother Asahel.
“And everyone who came by that spot stopped and stood still when they saw Asahel lying there.”
Asahel, one of David’s fiercest warriors, was struck down by Abner, the commander of Saul’s army, now the army of Ishboseth.
The scriptures of the Old Testament are real. The stories are true —even when they end tragically.
