Dead Dogs Don’t Inherit • 2 Samuel 9

58:15 Teaching begins

Notes

Here’s an old proverb that I made up this week.

Dead dogs don’t inherit, but sons do.

Today we see the ultimate rags-to-riches story. A man expects to die, instead inherits, returns from exile, and becomes a close associate of the king.

The unexpected becomes reality, not because of anything in the man, but because of a covenant made between two men before he was born.

He thought he was a dead dog. He found out he was a son of the covenant.

Dead dogs don’t inherit, but sons of the covenant do inherit.

I’m reading in 2 Samuel 9.

1. David remembers his covenants with Jonathan.

A. Jonathan was the son of Saul the former king, who died with Saul and two of his brothers at the battle of Mount Gilboa.

B. 1 Samuel shows that Jonathan made three covenants of the Lord with David.

1. The first was 1 Samuel 18 after David killed Goliath. Jonathan loved David as his own soul, and he made a covenant of the Lord, of friendship and commitment.

2. The second covenant is in 1 Samuel 20. This covenant included showing the lovingkindness of the Lord to all the house, or family, of Jonathan, forever.

3. The third covenant was made in 1 Samuel 23. They already had two covenants of the Lord between them. One would be plenty. But here are three solemn covenants of the Lord binding them in relationship, committing them to support and bless the other.

C. The time in this chapter is years later after these covenants were made.

1. Jonathan is no longer alive.

2. David was king over the tribe of Judah for seven years, then he has been king over Israel for years. He’s brought the ark to Jerusalem, been told he’s not the one to build the temple. He’s been gathering supplies and making peace all around him.

3. After many battles and life events David remembers his covenants with Jonathan.

D. A covenant of the Lord includes the Lord as the basis of fulfilling it.

1. The Lord Himself insists on honouring all oaths and promises. He remembers his covenants, to do them. A promise, detailing what He will do or not do, is binding. God promises with the intent and power of remembering and fulfilling His word, even to thousands of years later, when the person to whom He made the promise is no longer alive. Still God keeps His promise.

2. David made three covenants involving the Lord with Jonathan. He had surely better keep those covenants. You do not vow lightly and say, “Oh yeah, I’ll do that, bro,” and then forget about it. That is highly offensive to God. It doesn’t represent His nature. He is faithful. His people are to be faithful to their covenants.

2. David asks around and finds there is a steward of the house of Saul named Ziba.

A. David summons him and asks if there’s anyone still living of the house of Saul to whom he can show the chesed of God. This is the strong, faithful covenant love of God. That’s what he and Jonathan promised each other.

B. Ziba knows there is a son of Jonathan and he knows a lot about him. He’s crippled, lives with Machir son of Ammiel in Lo-debar. Machir was a wealthy man who took Saul’s grandson in at some point, and let him live with him.

C. So David sends for Mephibosheth.

3. Mephibosheth expects the worst.

A. He falls on his face before David. If he could go lower, he would do it.

B. In the world at this time, a new dynasty, a new ruling house, would execute all those related to the previous ruling dynasty as a matter of course.

1. Otherwise a relative of the former king could appear and challenge the present king’s right to the throne. That king is there without legal right. I have the legal right to the throne. That man is illegal, he’s a usurper. He has no right to be there.

2. The way one would deal with this kind of legal hassle is just round up anyone, family, friend, or servant, who had any kind of relation to the previous king, have them executed. Then you don’t have to worry about challenges to your throne. Your throne is secure.

C. Mephibosheth is thinking these last years have been a merciful reprieve.

1. It’s true, he’s experienced tragedy all throughout his life. Orphaned at age five, his well-meaning nurse drops him as she flees and cripples him in both feet, he can’t support his family, he lives by the charity of a wealthy man, he’s an exile from his tribe and lands.

2. But—he’s off the new dynasty’s radar. No one was thinking, “Oh yeah, I have to get rid of the house of Saul so I can be totally legit. Where are they all?” That would be his death sentence.

D. Well, that’s over now. The king remembered him and sent his guards to escort him to the throne room in Jerusalem. Now he’s going to listen to the king monologue about truth, justice, high ideals, and how legitimate he is as king, and then they’re going to kill him. He expects to die today, right now. This is it. I wonder what it’s like to die? I guess I’m going to find out now.

E. So there he is on the floor, saying, “Your servant,” thinking, “Those were the last words I ever speak.”

4. It’s right at this point when he’s sure he’s going to die that David shows him the kindness of God.

A. “Don’t be afraid,” he says. That’s because Mephibosheth is obviously trembling on the floor. You would be too.

B. David is emphatic. “I will surely surely show chesed, strong faithful covenant love to you for the sake of your father Jonathan. Much more than, “You’re not going to die, you’re going to live,” this is the chesed of God which is better than life, says David in Psalm 63:3.

C. I’m restoring to you all the lands of Saul your grandfather. You now own everything he lost in his death. You are wealthy, you have the means to generate more wealth. You have possessions.

D. You shall eat at my table every day. You’re going to be close to me as my own family and have the same kind of access to my presence and my attention.

E. Mephibosheth had evidently gotten up off the floor before this, but now he falls down again, this time overwhelmed at all this chesed of God. He can’t process what he’s hearing just now. The goodness is way beyond anything he would ever imagine.

F. He asks, “What is your servant that you should regard a dead dog like me?” What did I do right this week? I’m a canine carcass, that’s not pretty, that’s not why you bless anyone.

G. But this is the chesed of God, blessing not because of anything in him personally, but because of a covenant made before he was born, because of remembering that covenant, and because of faithfulness to honour that covenant.

5. So what? This is what we learn: God will bless me even though I don’t deserve it because I’m in the covenant of the Lord.

A. David didn’t bless Mephibosheth because he had problems. He didn’t avoid blessing Mephibosheth because he had problems. It had nothing to do with Mephibosheth personally.

B. David shows Mephibosheth the chesed of God because Mephibosheth was related to Jonathan. That was the condition of the covenant: be related to Jonathan. There were other sons and descendants of Saul. None of them survived or had children. They all died out except for this one descendant of Saul because he had a covenant of the Lord with the Lord’s Messiah, David.

C. This applies to us because we have this covenant of the Lord. This is our salvation. This is all through the New Testament, but we want to look at one instance of this, in Galatians 3:13-18 Christ redeemed us from the curse of the Law, having become a curse for us—for it is written, “Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree”— in order that in Christ Jesus the blessing of Abraham might come to the Gentiles, so that we would receive the promise of the Spirit through faith. Brethren, I speak in terms of human relations: even though it is only a man’s covenant, yet when it has been ratified, no one sets it aside or adds conditions to it. Now the promises were spoken to Abraham and to his seed. He does not say, “And to seeds,” as referring to many, but rather to one, “And to your seed,” that is, Christ. What I am saying is this: the Law, which came four hundred and thirty years later, does not invalidate a covenant previously ratified by God, so as to nullify the promise. For if the inheritance is based on law, it is no longer based on a promise; but God has granted it to Abraham by means of a promise.

D. Here’s what we notice:

1. God made a covenant with Abraham to bless him, make him a blessing, that the whole world would be blessed in him. Realize that Abraham had nothing to do on his part to fulfill the covenant but trust in God.

2. That covenant was also made with Jesus Christ. Jesus is the guarantee, the one who fulfills the covenant. He became a curse for us and redeemed us from the curse of the Law. And then He rose from the dead in newness of life and gives new life and the promise of the Spirit to those who trust in His death and resurrection.

3. The condition of this covenant is that you be related to Abraham. It’s in Abraham’s seed that all the earth be blessed so that’s the condition that must be fulfilled, just as David’s covenant was with the descendants of Jonathan, and Mephibosheth fulfilled that requirement.

4. You would think that lets me out. There’s no way I can be born Jewish. But again, Jesus qualifies me to share in the covenant of Abraham. In Jesus Christ I am born again into the family of Abraham. Even though I am a Gentile, a dead dog who lives in Nowhere, I am included in the covenant of Abraham because in Christ Jesus I am related to Abraham. God said to Abraham in Genesis 17:5, “I have made you a father of many nations.” The Apostle Paul quotes this in Romans 4:17, which we are about to get to in our Friday night study. Even a guy from Bellevue, Washington can get saved, and so can people from Nigeria, or Congo, or the Philippines, or even Sunbury-upon-Thames.

E. You need to learn about this covenant because knowledge is power. Imagine if Mephibosheth knew about this covenant. He could have gone to David and said, “Hey, I’m the descendant of Jonathan, and even though I’m crippled, live in nowhere, and I’m a dead dog, you made a covenant of the Lord with him, and that affects me. You do follow through with your covenants of the Lord, right?” Cheeky? No, rightfully entitled.

F. There’s one guy in this story who wouldn’t want Mephibosheth to ever learn about any covenant of the Lord because it also affects him as well.

1. Ziba, Saul’s steward, was still working Saul’s lands for himself. He had no title to the lands, he just ended up with them, and he worked all that for himself. He knew that Mephibosheth the heir of Saul lived, he knew where he lived, he knew he was crippled. In all those years, he never made a move to say, “Hey, this is really all yours, why don’t you come and inherit?” He was squatting on the land. Hey, possession is nine-tenths of the law. When the real heir shows up, he can’t pretend he’s the owner anymore. He has to serve him now. He’s back to being what he was supposed to be, a steward, not the owner.

2. As long as you remain ignorant of the covenant of the Lord and your rights because of that covenant you are no better off than Mephibosheth. You remain a dead dog from nowhere with no inheritance. The devil wants you to remain ignorant because then you don’t inherit what is rightfully yours by covenant. And the devil likes to rule over your things for you and keep them from you.

G. Don’t do the devil any favours. Dead dogs don’t inherit, but sons do inherit. As you learn about your covenant and your inheritance and your guarantee of blessing, then you get to receive it because it’s yours. You have a right to this blessing, in Jesus’ name.

Let’s pray.