3.15.25 – 2 Samuel 9

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Welcome to Add Bible, an audio daily devotion from the Ezra Project. We join Alan J. Huth as he shares Bible passages and comments from over 30 years of his personal Bible reading journals.

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Today we are in 2 Samuel chapter 9, and we welcome back our guest reader, Vicki Bustos, chaplain of the Ezra Project, to read all 13 verses of 2 Samuel chapter 9.

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2 Samuel chapter 9 And David said, Is there still anyone left of the house of Saul that I may show him kindness for Jonathan’s sake? Now there was a servant of the house of Saul whose name was Ziba, and they called him to David. And the king said to him, Are you Ziba? And he said, I am your servant. And the king said, Is there not still someone of the house of Saul that I may show the kindness of God to him? Ziba said to the king, There is still a son of Jonathan. He is crippled in his feet. The king said to him, Where is he? And Ziba said to the king, He is in the house of Maker, the son of Emil at Lodabar. Then King David sent and brought him from the house of Makur, the son of Emil, at Lodabar. And Mephibosheth, the son of Jonathan, son of Saul, came to David and fell on his face and paid homage. And David said, Mephibosheth. And he answered, Behold, I am your servant. And David said to him, Do not fear, for I will show you kindness for the sake of your father Jonathan, and I will restore to you all the land of Saul your father, and you shall eat at my table always. And he paid homage and said, What is your servant that you should show regard for a dead dog such as I? Then the king called Ziba, Saul’s servant, and said to him, All that belong to Saul and to all his house I have given to your master’s grandson. And you and your sons and your servants shall till the land for him and shall bring in the produce that your master’s grandson may have bread to eat. But Mephibosheth, your master’s grandson, shall always eat at my table. Now Ziba had fifteen sons and twenty servants. Then Ziba said to the king, According to all that my lord the king commands his servant, so will your servant do. So Mephibosheth ate at David’s table like one of the king’s sons. And Mephibosheth had a young son whose name was Micah. And all who lived in Ziba’s house became Mephibosheth’s servants. So Mephibosheth lived in Jerusalem, for he ate always at the king’s table. Now he was lame in both his feet.

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In 2007, after reading 2 Samuel 9, I wrote, David breaks with tradition. Most kings in that day wiped out family members of their rivals to prevent them from seeking the throne. Not David. He seeks out Saul’s descendants and elevates Saul’s grandson as a prince. He brought him in inside the palace. and had him eat with his own sons at his table. This was amazing, an amazing act of kindness. And then I wrote, where are my amazing acts of kindness? First of all, David is proactive. He seeks out an opportunity to bless somebody. Is that what I do? Is that what you do? Are we proactive in trying to find a way to bless people? Another aspect of this is that he did not forget his friendship with Jonathan. Remember, Jonathan was killed in the battle with the Philistines when Saul was killed. But Jonathan was his friend, and he remembered the friendship that he had and tried to find a way to bless the descendants of Jonathan. David also shows kindness to someone who is handicapped. Mephibosheth says here was lame in both feet. So he was basically, you know, at the bottom rung of society at that time. And David elevates him to the king’s table. That’s amazing. Now in our world today, we have a lot of issues. We have a lot of problems and a lot of tragic things make our news on a regular basis. But where can we as Christians show acts of kindness? You probably heard the story about someone driving up to a McDonald’s drive-in window and then paying for the car behind them. That’s an act of kindness. And I guess at one particular McDonald’s, that went on for, you know, like 30, 40 cars where the person paid for the person behind them. So acts of kindness can be catchy, can’t they? We can catch on. The other day at my Gideon’s prayer breakfast, just the chaplain and I showed up. Well, he’s in his 80s, and so that day I decided to buy his breakfast for him. And when I went to take the bill and hand it to the server, the server took both of them and said, the bills are on me today. So a couple of double acts of kindness there. Today, can you find someone somewhere to do an act of kindness? Can you bless somebody today? Just because you’re a Christian, just because we love people, can you reach out and bless somebody today? Father, we thank you for David’s example of an act of kindness. And we pray as your representatives here on earth that we could provide an act of kindness today to someone. Lord, help us think about those around us and be Christians to them and do something to bless someone else today. And when we do, they will smile and you’ll get the glory. In the name of Jesus, we pray. Amen. Thanks for listening to AdBible today. Have you ever received bad news? Well, all of us have. We get the good, the bad, and the ugly every day. The question is not whether we get bad news. The question is what we do with it. On December 28, 2011, I got the worst news of my life. I was diagnosed with prostate cancer. How did I get there? I was healthy. How could a deadly disease get inside of me? I didn’t feel a thing. I felt fine. I met with a doctor when I got that diagnosis, and he gave me four options. surgery to remove the prostate, implant seeds to kill the cancer cells, do shots, hormone shots to wipe out my testosterone, or number four, active surveillance. Come back in six months for another PSA and do another biopsy six months after that. So I didn’t really think I had anything, so I chose active surveillance. Later that year, I met with another doctor who reviewed my pathology report and said, you have nasty stuff. You now have no choice but to get your prostate out. He said, we’re not talking about the quality of your life. We’re talking about saving your life. Have you ever had a physical checkup lately? Have you had a physical checkup lately? What shape are you in spiritually? Have you had a spiritual checkup lately? I didn’t know I had something in me that could kill me. You may not realize it either, but you have something inside of you that can kill you. It’s called sin. And like cancer, it’s deadly. James 1.15 says, Then when desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin, and sin, when it is full grown, brings forth death. This may be bad news to you right now. Bad news, like being diagnosed with cancer. The question is, what are you going to do with the bad news? Ignore it? Deny it? Put it off? Deal with it someday, but not right now? Do you think sin is slow growing like I was told prostate cancer was slow growing? Right after I received my bad news, I fell to my knees and I prayed, Lord, I don’t know how I got here. I don’t know where we’re going, but I know this. I’m in the same place today as I was yesterday in the palm of your hand. The next step is to turn bad news into good news by doing something about it before it’s too late. In my circumstance, I didn’t act. I waited too long. I believed the lies. I was engaged in active surveillance until it was too late. I had no choice then but to do radical surgery. You need radical surgery today. Get the sin out of your life. We’re not talking about your quality of life. We’re talking about saving your life. Don’t wait for sin to destroy you. Get it out today. After my surgery, I thought I was done. Cancer-free. Not so. After my radical prostatectomy, I got more bad news. The cancer may have spread outside the prostate. I needed more treatment. And so will you. My prescription was two years of hormone shots and 37 days of radiation treatments. I didn’t want to do either one. The hormone shots wipe out a man’s testosterone, which makes us men. It’s our strength. It’s our drive. The shots would give me hot flashes. Radiation was a prescription five days a week for about two months. I needed to show up every day to stay on track. I couldn’t skip a day. I had to keep going. My doctor gave me the choice, though, to follow his prescription or not. If I chose not to, there was a 70 to 80% chance the cancer would return. What are you willing to do to turn your bad news into good news, to get rid of the sin that so easily besets us? If you choose radical spiritual surgery today, your sin will be removed. You will be set free, washed in the blood of the Lamb of God. You will be white as snow. Your sin will be removed as far as the east is from the west. But there’s a 70% to 80% chance it will come back. So what can you do to resist the devil? What can you do to build your spiritual immune system against sin? I offer you a spiritual prescription. It’s not take two aspirin and call me in the morning or take an antibiotic for 30 days and all will be fine. No, I prescribe radical surgery. Get sin out of your life today. It is making you sick and eventually it will kill you. Ask Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, to forgive all the sin that is within you. Get it out. Do not wait another moment. Next, I prescribe reading or listening to the Bible, God’s holy word. It’s a prescription you can take and use every day for the rest of your life. It has no bad side effects. It will not make you sick. It will be life to your flesh and health to your bones. No more active surveillance. I could not skip those radiation treatments. I had to go stay consistent. You need to be consistently in God’s word for your spiritual health. You need to fight temptation and resist the devil every day from now on. Psalm 1 verses 1 through 2 say, Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor stands in the path of sinners, nor sits in the seat of the scornful. But his delight is in the law of the Lord, and in his law he meditates day and night. No more active surveillance. Get the sin out of your life. Pray right now to Jesus. Ask him to forgive your sin and commit to live for him in the days ahead. Say yes to the spiritual prescription of searching the scriptures daily. God gives us his word to live life more abundantly. I know sometimes your doctor gives you a sample or a 30-day supply of the drugs. The Ezra Project is going to give you a gift for your new spiritual journey. Those who have Jesus perform radical surgery to get the sin out right now will receive a chronological Bible reading journal from the Ezra Project as your prescription to get you started in searching the scriptures daily. Pray today, then contact us at EzraProject.net to receive your free prescription. No more active surveillance. I know you’re going to like it and want to share it with others.