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Why did God save you? If you've trusted in Christ, why did God save you? There's all kinds of ways we can answer that question from the Bible.
First of all, we might say, because he loves us. God so loved the world, John 3.16 said, that he sent his only son. We might say because he chose to. That's a good Bible answer. God saved me because he decided to in eternity past, according to the unchangeable counsel of his perfect will.
We might say I don't know. And that would be a good Bible answer too, because why did God save you in particular when we know from the scriptures that there are others that he chooses not to save, that he allows to keep walking in their sin and rebellion, that he allows to harden their hearts? Why? I don't know.
But another answer to that question that is surely, clearly shown to us from Scripture, is that he has saved us, not simply for our own benefit, but for the benefit of others.
So we think of places like Ephesians 2, 8, and 9 that tell us that it's by grace that we're saved, through faith, not of ourselves, not of works, it's a gift, lest anyone should boast. Then Ephesians 2, 10 says, for you are God's workmanship, his masterpiece in progress, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which he prepared in advance that you should walk in them. He saved you by grace so that, for the purpose that, you would walk in the good works he's prepared for you.
Or in 1 Peter chapter 1 and verse 22, he's speaking to believers there and he says, you've purified your souls by obedience to the truth. And what he means by that is you've believed the gospel. You've obeyed by believing the truth that Jesus died for your sins in your place. By embracing that truth, you've done this for brotherly love. You've embraced Christ's so that you can be brought into god's family and love other believers.
Galatians chapter 5 which we'll look at again later says that the spirit when he comes into our lives produces fruit and those fruit even though there's something that is taking place inside of us always ends up being outward directed love. Well, love can't have yourself as the main object. Love is facing out. Joy. While joy is something that's happening inside of you, we all know if we're around someone who's joyful or not. Peace. You know whether the person that you're with, you don't always know this perfectly, but you generally get an idea if you're around somebody a lot, whether they are peaceful or anxious and worried. And you can go all the way down the list. Love, joy, peace, patience. We certainly know whether we're with patient or impatient people. The things that God does in us, they are for us. Absolutely. God does love you. But he's also doing something in you and through you that's bigger than you. It's for others.
And as we look at the book of 2 Samuel, we see that David understands this about himself. 2 Samuel 5 we looked at a few weeks ago. And verse 12, this is when God has allowed David's throne to be established in Jerusalem. Verse 12, it says, And David knew that the Lord had established him king over Israel and that he had exalted his kingdom for the sake of his people Israel. God did something great in David, for David, but it wasn't just for David. It wasn't merely for David.
Last week we looked at chapter 7 of 2 Samuel, God's covenant with David. Where God, David, he thinks, boy, I'm sitting here in this house of cedar, I have this beautiful home that I live in, and God's over there, the Ark of the Covenant, it's in a tent. Maybe I should build a house for God. And God says through the prophet Nathan to David, no. You're not going to build me a house. I am going to build you a house. And God promises that he will build this dynasty for David. And that he will provide for him a great name and establish him on the earth. But it's not just for David. It's bigger than David. David recognizes that. Verse 19 says, Yet this was a small thing in your eyes, O Lord God. You have spoken also of your servant's house for a great while to come. And this is instruction for mankind, O Lord God. David understands that this promise to him is bigger than just his house and his family. It's for all of mankind.
And we come to chapter 8. And in chapter 8, we read essentially a record covering a long period of time of David's wars, of his victories over various nations. I think I pointed out last week that chapter 7, chronologically in the history, probably comes after chapter 8, maybe even after chapters 8, 9, and 10. But the reason the author of 1 and 2 Samuel front loads it for us is so that we understand David is having all of these mighty victories, but it's not David's own strength. It's not his military brilliance. It's not his prowess. I mean, he has all these things, right? David is a great and mighty warrior. But ultimately, it's not David's own strength that's getting into these victories. It's God fulfilling a promise to establish his house through him.
So as we look at chapter 8, I'm just going to read through the whole chapter, maybe making some comments as we go through. After this, David defeated the Philistines and subdued them. And David took Methag Amah out of the hand of the Philistines. Now this is, as we walk through this chapter, we're going to see enemies on every side of David are defeated. Every side of him.
And he defeated, so the Philistines are off to his west. And he defeated Moab, and he measured them with a line, making them lie down on the ground. Two lines he measured to be put to death, one full line to be spared. And the Moabites became servants of David and brought tribute. Now the Moabites, so the Philistines are off to the west, the Moabites are to the east and the south of David. And it's interesting, like, this is brutal, right? He lines their whole army up, everybody who's left after he's defeated them, in three lines. He slaughters two-thirds of them, and he leaves one-third. And really, this is merciful. He could have killed them all. But he leaves one-third. But that level of brutality is really striking when you think about David's own great-grandmother, Ruth, was from Moab. She was a Moabitess. But the people of Moab had been sworn enemies of the people of Israel since the origin of both nations. And David brings them into subjection, and they bring him tribute. They're bringing him, essentially, taxes to show that he is their king and their lord.
David also defeated Hadad Ezer, the son of Rahab, the king of Zobah, as he went to restore his power at the river Euphrates. And David took from him 1,700 horsemen and 20,000 foot soldiers. And David hamstrung all the chariot horses, but left enough for 100 chariots. And when the Syrians of Damascus came to help Hadad Ezer, king of Zobah, David struck down 22,000 men of the Syrians. Then David put garrisons in Aram of Damascus, and the Syrians became servants of David and brought tribute. And the Lord gave victory to David wherever he went. And David took the shields of gold that were carried by the servants of Hadad Ezer and brought them to Jerusalem. And from Beta and from Barathai, cities of Hadad Ezer, King David took very much bronze.
Now these nations, Zobah is to the north of Israel. Up past Syria would have been directly north of Israel, and then Zobah was above it. And so when David goes up and he defeats Zobah, Syria comes to their aid. They come to try to help them, and David conquers them both. In total, over 40,000 men are killed.
But then when Toy, king of Hamath, which is further still north, up past Zoboth, heard that David had defeated the whole army of Hadad-Ezer, Toy sent his son Joram to King David to ask about his health and to bless him, because he had fought against Hadad-Ezer and defeated him, for Hadad-Ezer had often been at war with Toy. So these two nations, Hamath and Zobah were constantly in battle. And when David defeats Zobah, instead of Hamath trying to help because he had been at war with them, he is thankful to David. And so he sends his son with gifts, and he tries to establish a good relationship with David, lest the same thing happen to him.
Joram brought with him, verse 10, articles of silver and gold and of bronze. Then also King David dedicated to the Lord, together with the silver and the gold that he had dedicated from all the nations he had subdued, from Edom directly to the south, Moab southeast, Ammonites to the east, Philistines to the west, Amalek. So every side, all of these enemies on every side, God had given David rest, either because he had conquered them, or they had voluntarily submitted when they saw his power.
And David made a name for himself when he returned from striking down 18,000 Edomites in the Valley of Salt. Then he put garrisons in Edom. Throughout all Edom, he put garrisons, and all the Edomites became David's servants. And the Lord gave victory to David wherever he went. And that phrase right there is a repeat of exactly what the text had said in verse 6. End of verse 6, and the Lord gave victory to David wherever he went. End of verse 14, and the Lord gave victory to David wherever he went. What we're supposed to see as we read through chapter 18 is that every single time God is giving him the victory. David is powerful. David is mighty. That's supposed to be seen. God had promised in chapter 7 and verse 9 that I will cut off all your enemies before you, and I will make for you a great name, like the name of the great ones on the earth. David's name is being made great, but ultimately it's not david who's doing it it's not david who's bringing it about god is giving him the victory.
At the end of verse eight we see kind of a summary statement that tells us how his administration was carried out david reigned over all israel and david administered justice and equity to all his people. So we just get this list of all the officials who are helping David carry out his just and equitable rule over the nation of Israel.
One weird thing there at the end of verse 18, it says David's sons were priests, but they weren't. Obviously, David's of the tribe of Judah, and the priests were all to be Levites of the tribe of Levi. They're totally separate clans in Israel. And so what does he mean by priests? I'm not sure. If you look at the parallel passage in 1 Chronicles 18, it says that David's sons were high officials. They were chief officials in his administration, in his house. And so the best commentary that I could get on it that I think makes sense is that the way a priest functions in the house of God was that they represented God. the people to God, and they ministered on behalf of the people to God. That's how a priest functioned. The prophet represented God to the people, the priest represented the people to God. And in a similar fashion, David's sons in his administration in his house may have represented the people to the king. Like they would have been possibly over a certain portion of the people and represented those people's interests when they were having discussions around the king's table about what to do. That's one possible answer to that seeming conflict, but I don't know for sure.
But the whole point of the chapter is is really clear. God is giving David victory everywhere he goes. He's establishing his throne and beginning to answer the promise of chapter 7, that he will make for him a great house, that he will make for him a great name.
Which then, when you come to chapter 9, makes chapter 9 feel a little out of place. If you skip over chapter 9, you get into chapter 10, which starts to tell you of the war with Ammon. And that's a three-chapter story, this long war with the Ammonites, which would seem to follow right on the heels of chapter 8. But then there's this little interlude where we read about David's dealings with a man named Mephibosheth.
Chapter 9, beginning in verse 1. And David said, Is there still anyone left of the house of Saul that I may show him kindness for Jonathan's sake? Now if you remember, David is, to borrow from L.M. Montgomery, a bosom friend with Jonathan. David and Jonathan were knit together. Even though Jonathan's a much older man than David, probably 15 to 20 years older than David, when David had gone out and defeated Goliath, the text tells us, I think it's the very first part of 1 Samuel 18, that Jonathan's heart was knit to him. Jonathan had done similar things, right? He and his servant alone had gone and attacked a garrison of the Philistines earlier in 1 Samuel 18. And he had the same confidence in the Lord's power that gave him courage to do what he felt God wanted him to do, whether it made human sense or not. And so when he sees that in David, their hearts are beating to the same drum. They have the same view of God that leads them to take the same kind of brave and bold actions in service for the Lord. And so even when Saul, Jonathan's father, is trying to kill David, Jonathan still has a deep affection for his friend. And when Jonathan ultimately is killed, Mount Gilboa with his father David is broken-hearted and and and in this He had made promises both to Saul and Jonathan that when he came to the throne He would not utterly cut off their house that he wouldn't get rid of their whole family And this is really a crazy promise for David to have made To not cut off David's not cut off Saul's family because no matter how good of a king you are, no matter how good a ruler is, there's always a contingent of people who are ready for regime change, who are ready for someone else to take the throne. And Saul's family is the only other family that would have any legitimate claim to the throne. So to seek out someone from Saul's house to do good to them rather than to kill them seems a little nuts from a human perspective. But David wants to honor his friend Jonathan. He wants to honor his promise.
Now there was a servant of the house of Saul, whose name was Ziba, verse 10. 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? 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. And the king said to him, where is he? And Ziba said to the king, he is in the house of Machir, the son of Amiel at Lodibar, which would have been up in the northeast. It seems probably in the time of Ish-bosheth, his uncle, Mephibosheth would have been seen as a potential contestant for the throne. And so they probably took him away and hit him up in the northeast where he would have been safe.
And the king David sent and brought him from the house of Machir, the son of Amiel at Lodebar. Verse 6, 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 him 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. And 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. 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 always ate at the king's table. Now he was laying in both his feet.
So David searches out. Now he's established on his throne. God is giving him victory everywhere he goes. And he spends his time now looking for someone to give kindness to. And the someone that he goes looking for is someone who, in an earthly sense, has every reason to be someone that David looks at as an enemy. Someone who could, the only person around who really has any rival claim to the throne, and instead of casting him out or killing him or even doing him kindness in a distant way, David brings him back to Jerusalem, gives into his possession all of the land of Saul and his family. Then takes this servant who had probably been stewarding or managing this property anyway, Ziba. And most likely beforehand, Ziba had been taking care of this property either directly for the benefit of David or for somebody else that David had said to receive the benefit of the produce of that ground. And now, Mephibosheth is going to be lord and master of all of Saul's possessions. But more than that, David brings him to the table as if he is David's own son.
David is established by God, and then he reaches out and makes this human enemy his son, his friend, gives him a seat at his table every single day. God established David, not just for David's sake, but so that David could show the kindness of God to Mephibosheth, so that he could be merciful.
Now David, like we said, is fulfilling his promise to Jonathan. But again, put yourself in David's place. David has been established, and he's not clamoring to secure his position against every possible foe. Instead, he's taking this firm establishment by God and using it as a basis, a platform from which to show God's kindness. And this, I think, is the lesson that we're supposed to draw from that, is that when we are established by God, he does so in order to to extend his kindness through us.
What we talked about last week was how do we get established? Like we're not David. God didn't promise us a throne in Israel, right? He didn't promise that the Messiah is coming from our heritage. Rather, we become established as we are identified with the messianic king, as we're identified with the son of David. And so when we trust in Christ, we become members of his kingdom and we're given a firm foundation. That's the language Jesus uses in Matthew chapter 7, that our life goes from being built upon the shifting sand of whatever we try to build it on to being built on Christ himself and on his word. And when we have that firm foundation and our biggest problem, our relationship with God, which is broken by sin, when that's fixed by Jesus and by our trust in Jesus, we receive forgiveness. all of the promises of God being yes in Christ, when we receive Christ, we now have a platform from which to extend the very kindness of God himself.
And this is one of the most common things in the New Testament that it says should be produced in us. So in 1 Corinthians 13, Paul says that love is patient and patient. In 2 Corinthians 6, one of the things that Paul is doing with that letter is he's trying to explain to the church There's been a lot of accusations that he's not really an apostle. He's not really all he's cracked up to be. This guy is kind of a joke. You shouldn't listen to him. You should listen to these super apostles instead. And so in 2 Corinthians 6, Paul lists out all of these reasons why actually you can trust us. And one of the reasons he gives in 2 Corinthians 6.6 is the kindness that they have shown. And then when you look at the fruit of the Spirit that God says should be produced in every Christian's life, one of those is kindness.
I think this is really important in our age because kindness isn't really a value anymore. If you disagree with somebody, you're expected to be harsh and mean and, well, they just don't even deserve to be listened to. And yet God is marked by his kindness. Romans 11. Behold the kindness and severity of God. Severity. God is severe. He takes sin seriously. He won't be mocked, Galatians 6 says. but he's kind to us. In extending Christ, God has shown great kindness. And we are called to show that exact same kind of kindness.
And why can we do that? If we're secure in Christ, why does that enable us to be kind? Even when, well, Matthew, Matthew chapter 5 says, At the end of the Beatitudes, Blessed are you when others revile you, verse 11, and persecute you, and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you. Why, when we are reviled, persecuted, when people utter all kinds of evil against us because they disagree with us and so we must be evil, why can we respond in kindness?
If David were clamoring, trying to get the throne for himself and to secure the throne for himself and to hold on to his position— He couldn't have been kind to Mephibosheth because it wouldn't have made sense. And if we are living our lives trying to grasp some kind of identity for ourself or some kind of position or to make sure that things go well for us, we can't be focused on kindness. Because kindness, A, can be costly, and B, it's always risky. If you extend kindness to someone, they might just throw it back in your face. It might be misinterpreted. It might be taken wrong. There's no guarantee that it's going to come back towards you in any beneficial way.
And yet that's exactly what Christ calls us to in Luke chapter 14. And I think this is significant, particularly when we think about the story of Mephibosheth. So that chapter, chapter 9, when Mephibosheth is introduced to us, the first thing that Ziba says is that he's crippled in both of his feet. And then the very last verse of the chapter, it again points out that he's lame in both feet. So like bracketing the whole section there on Mephibosheth is this emphasis that he's lame. That he has nothing he can offer David. It's not like, so when Abner came to David, Abner was David's enemy, and David was willing to bring Abner in. He was willing to bring him into the fold. But Abner was bringing half the kingdom with him. Abner had a lot to offer David. It was maybe a little bit of a risk on David's part to trust this guy, but Abner was bringing a lot to the table. Mephibosheth didn't have anything. David gave him everything he had.
And when you look at Luke 14, so Jesus, he's here, verse 1, it says, One Sabbath, when he went to dine at a house of the ruler of the Pharisees, they were watching him carefully. So this Pharisee has invited him in, and then three different things happened. During this Sabbath dinner. First, Jesus heals a guy on the Sabbath, which is a scandal. And the second thing is he looks around at everybody that's at the party and everybody's jockeying for the best seat. Who can I sit close to that's going to give me the ability to rub elbows, rub shoulders with power and move up in the world? And Jesus tells them a parable and says, you know, it's probably better to sit at a low spot and have someone call you up to the honored position than to be jockeying for the honored position and told to go sit back down.
This isn't the point, but that reminds me of a story. When I was a freshman and I was playing football, I was homeschooled. So I was kind of already the weird kid on the team, right? I'm homeschooled and I'm playing with all these public school kids. And I was also very sure of myself. I don't know, you can't imagine that. And I knew how things were supposed to be done. I studied the game, I memorized the playbook backwards and forwards, I knew how everything was supposed to happen. And I thought since I knew, if somebody did it wrong, I should tell them. And surprisingly, juniors and seniors Didn't think that was the best thing in the world. And so they would single me out of practice and beat the snot out of me and I needed it. And then finally after practice, I still didn't get the message though. And after practice one day, the head coach and the assistant coach, they pull me aside and they're like, Will, number one, you're a freshman. Number two, you're homeschooled. Number three, you're a freshman. Shut up. You do understand things. If you can correct other freshmen, you can talk to sophomores, Just don't even talk to the juniors and seniors anymore. And I needed to be put in my place. And Jesus is saying to the guys at this feast, it's better to just sit in the lower spot to start with and be called up to a position than to think, oh, I'm going to show everybody how it's done or I'm going to be so awesome and be told, no, go sit back down.
But the third thing he does is he looks at the man who who hosted him. He looks at the man who is holding this banquet and he says, verse 12, when you give a dinner or a banquet, do not invite your friends or your brothers or your relatives or rich neighbors, lest they also invite you in return and you be repaid. And when you invite people over, who do you normally invite over? Relatives, friends, people that you want to know, Like that's normal. That's what everybody does.
But Jesus says in verse 13, when you give a feast, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind, and you will be blessed because they cannot repay you. For you will be repaid at the resurrection of the just.
Now the basis for inviting all of these people who can't pay you back, who don't offer anything in return, is that last phrase, you will be repaid at the resurrection of the just. It's the knowledge that because we're with Christ, because we're with the eternal king, the eternal son of David, son of God, if we're with him, if we're being established eternally by being right with him, We can reach out to those who can't do anything for us in this life knowing that God himself will give the rewards. If we're trying to jockey for our own position in this world, those are the last people we're going to want to be involved with. The last people that we're going to want to involve our lives with is the people who are a drain on your time and your energy and your effort and don't give anything in return.
And yet God says If you are with me, I will reward you. And you can pour yourself out gladly. You can pour yourself out in knowledge that blessing, happiness, joy from God himself is what will flow back to you in return forever. And this is exactly what David was doing for Mephibosheth And it's exactly what God does for us.
That's where Jesus says, freely you've received, freely give. When we refuse to give that kind of love, that kind of kindness out, what we're doing is denying what God has done for us. If we aren't willing to pour ourselves out for those who can't give us anything in return, we're denying our own sinfulness and our own need. God doesn't love us because we deserve it. God doesn't love us because of anything that's already lovely in us. Anything that's lovely in us is created by him. Just like Mephibosheth brings nothing to David's table except his crippled self. So we bring nothing to God's table except our sinful, spiritually crippled and dead selves. And yet he gives us everything. And he does that so that we, in turn, can be conduits of his grace, pouring that same kindness out to others, inviting them to Christ's table, to the table of the king.
As we get ready to take communion, I just want to challenge myself with that and to challenge you with that. Who is there in your life that you are hesitant to to pour out for, hesitant to invest in, because I'm just not going to get anything in return. And how can you show them God's kindness, the kindness that he has already shown to you in Christ?
So I'm going to take A minute or two here. Silently pray. Ask the Lord that question. And as we get ready for communion, ask him to prepare your heart to remember what Christ did for you at the cross. In shedding his blood, having his body broken for you. And ask him to help you pour that same love out to those he's put us in contact with. Let's pray.
