An Illustration of God’s Grace

  [434 words] Shortly after David became king of Israel, he remembered a promise he had made to Jonathan and Saul concerning their descendants. To Jonathan, he promised to protect his life and to show lovingkindness to his house forever (1 Sam. 20:12-17). To Saul, he vowed not to cut off his descendants after him (1 Sam. 24:21-22). So in 2 Samuel chapter 9, David seeks out any descendants of Saul and of Jonathan to whom he may show favor. The only candidate he could find was Jonathan’s crippled son, Mephibosheth. So David summoned Mephibosheth into his presence. One can only wonder what was going through Mephibosheth’s mind as the king’s officials came to his door. He may have thought that he was about to be executed. It was not uncommon in that era, when an entirely new family administration would take over, that the new king would kill all…