2 Samuel 9:1-7 – Reason to Hide Because of Ancestry
As long as Mephibosheth is alive, he’s a potential rallying point for those who don’t want David as king. The only way for David to guarantee himself a nice, safe, secure kingdom is to take him out.
Mephibosheth is well aware of that fact. The fact that David isn’t aware of his existence is likely because Mephibosheth was trying to keep his head down. That’s why, when David does send people to bring him, he falls on his face. The reason David tells him ‘Do not fear’ in v7 is because he’s likely trembling and thinking he’s going to be executed on the spot. The reason Mephibosheth was afraid wasn’t because of anything he’d done himself. But it was because of who he was related to. Mephibosheth stood condemned before David because he was descended from Saul. We stand condemned before God because we’re descended from Adam. And we add to that guilt every hour by our actions.
Rather than simply being sinners because we sin – we sin because we’re sinners. It’s not that we do x, y and z and so that makes us a sinner, but rather it’s because we’re born sinners that we do x, y and z. Many will say ‘that’s not fair’. But an even more fundamental question than ‘is it fair’ is – ‘is it true’? The idea that we’ll eventually all just learn to be nice to each other, which was so prevalent at the beginning of the 20th century, has long since been disproved. People may argue against the statement that the reason they sin is because they’re born sinners, but it’s the only rational explanation for why the world’s in the state that it’s in.
God’s standard is perfection. But people find it hard to shake the delusion that if they just clean themselves up a bit, then he’ll accept them. But the truth of original sin means that even if they can clean their life up a bit, they can’t change who they fundamentally are. If we’re born as good people who just commit some sins, then if we could cut out our sinning, we would go back to being good people. But if we’re born sinners, then the only hope for us is to be born again.
Question
- Why was Mephibosheth so afraid?
- What is original sin?
Prayer Points
- Pray for the salvation of family and friends.
- Use prayer points from your congregation.
- Pray for family matters.