During David's Flight From Jerusalem: Ziba

hashtag dancein' you Lord my night

God for peace in your

bulls

We Island

What is

good

Dancing you Lord my God, dancing you Lord in God's holy hour of life.

Dancing you Lord my God, dancing you Lord in God's holy hour of life.

Dancing you Lord my sight, dancing you Lord my heart, dancing you Lord in God's holy hour.

I will praise you with all of my life.

I will praise you with all of my strength, with all of my life, with all of my strength.

Oh my God, dancing you, dancing you Lord my strength, dancing you Lord my heart,

dancing you Lord in God's holy hour of life.

Dancing you Lord my sight, dancing you Lord my heart, dancing you Lord in God's holy hour.

I'm going to give you a few scenarios.

Just listen for one second, okay?

And then I'm going to ask you, tell me which of the Ten Commandments am I talking about?

Okay, here's the first one. It's not so direct, but listen.

You're on the clock. You've clocked in.

It's a busy day at work. You're doing one job after another. Your boss has given you several things to do.

But you're concerned about what's going on at home, and so you slip around the corner,

hide from everyone and everything that's being done, and make a quick phone call.

Or you're playing cards. You'll have the necessary cards.

You realize if you don't win this hand, you lose the game.

You've got to win this hand to have a chance of winning the game.

So when the other person's not looking, you swap a few of the cards to make your hand a winning hand.

And now you'll win that hand and possibly have a chance of winning the game.

Now this will make it pretty obvious.

You're over at your friend's house, and you notice that his mom just got back from the grocery store

and opened a couple of bags of candy on the counter.

Three different kinds of candy sitting there.

And you think nobody will know exactly how many pieces of candy are in each bag.

So you slip a few pieces of those candy in your pocket without asking.

Okay, now that one made it pretty obvious, didn't it?

Thou shalt not steal.

Now, I'll give candy to anybody who can tell me the exact book, chapter, and verse on your first try.

Okay, I already said it's an Exodus, so he gave you that much.

The chapter?

It's actually in Geronimo as well, but we'll go with the Exodus for reference.

The Exodus chapter. Anybody?

Going once.

Nope. You're out.

Go ahead.

Nope. You're out too.

You're out too.

No, it's not.

15?

15 is too low. You're out.

You've got three people out.

See how we can do this, especially if you play a brickmanship right in the end.

22 is too high versus out.

20.

20 is correct. You said that.

Too many people.

Anybody that is not out.

He was out for each other.

Okay, chapter so far. Now the verse.

Quit looking at me. I don't know.

He was my verse again.

20 and then verse 10 is too low.

Holly's out.

Anybody want to take a stab at it? We're running out of people. Go ahead.

20.

17.

So close. 14 missed by a little bit.

Ariana's out.

15 is correct.

Verse 20.

They said at first try they got a piece of the answer.

I'm going to give these to you.

I got 13.

Okay. All right. We're going to pray together.

And then we'll worship a little bit more.

One more song.

And the kids are off to the classroom with their lead.

All right. Here we go.

We're praying now.

We're all calming down.

Focusing on God.

Tyson, buddy, we're going to pray.

It's okay. We're going to pray.

Here we go. Ready? Are you with me?

This is the easiest way to do it.

Father in heaven, we thank you so much that the instructions that are in the Bible,

they're no longer just rules to us.

They're no longer just punishable offenses.

They don't just point to the fact that the wages of sin is death.

They remind us that now that we are alive,

there's a way that we can live, that we can honor you and do better, better, better every day.

We know that Jesus came that we might have life and have it more abundantly.

An abundant life does not include taking that which does not belong to us.

And we are grateful, Lord.

We are grateful that in you so much more belongs to us than we ever could have asked for.

Please bless us today as we worship you.

Grow us today as we study.

We study, delve into your word, listen and learn.

We pray all these things in Jesus' name. Amen.

Amen.

All right. Children, Ms. Sherry has the instrument basket.

If you would like to go get one and stand back there by her,

she will lead you with our next song.

Everyone else, would you stand with us?

You got it.

You can use your hands as instruments,

which is easier to do if you're standing.

Strike your head.

You can stomp your foot like this.

Music

Music

Music

Music

That was awesome.

Yay for us.

After you turn in your instruments, the children and their leaders will be released to the classroom.

It's class time.

Class time.

Yes, watch the classroom.

Come on.

Kyler, don't have to fall on us.

Walk, please.

Classroom.

Time to go.

Bye-bye.

Music

Music

Come on.

Music

Music

Music

Music

Music

Music

Music

Music

Music

Music

Music

Music

Music

Music

Music

Music

Music

Music

Music

Music

Music

Alright, before we get going, as the papers are coming around and we get organized, I will throw this, I'm going to find some orange in here.

We like the orange stuff.

Oh, here's some brown and here's some orange.

I'll throw this right here to anybody who can tell me the title, just the title of this past Sunday's sermon, the title.

Go.

Coming at you.

Good catch.

It'll taste just as good.

Okay, can anybody, now I've got four in my hand, can anybody do the lightning point, the bottom part, or get pretty close?

It's harder.

It's harder.

He's got notes.

We're on a time limit.

How accessible are they?

There you go.

Very good, sir.

Okay.

Alright, so we are still and will be for some time because there are a lot of entertaining characters and more than entertaining, there are educational characters in, I just realized I forgot to fill in a blank, but I know what it is, so I think we're good.

Okay, in the story of when David was ousted from Jerusalem, you remember that's what we're talking about, right?

We've been looking at people from the story of when David was ousted from Jerusalem.

What are we doing?

Are we with me?

Okay.

He's coming in there.

Then when he gets there, his attention will be complete.

He's going to be focused, right, Alex?

Right, Alex?

We're going to be focused.

We're ready.

We got this.

We're drilling in.

Okay, here we go.

Alright, so this guy's name, I bet you can't guess what his name is.

Zeba, Zeba, right, it's in the middle of the page.

The paper focuses on his name.

It's right here in the middle of the page.

Z-I-B-A, that's his name.

I don't even know how you pronounce it for sure, but I go with Ziba or Ziba.

Alright, so he's a smallish character in the story, but he plays a real important role, which we'll see before we're through.

Okay.

Everything okay?

Okay.

Alright, so if you'll look in the number one at the top, we're going to find out where he's introduced, but there's a symbol next to that number one.

It kind of looks like a clock.

Do you recognize that I've been using it recently?

Notice that the arrow on the clock is going counterclockwise, which means we're going back in time.

That's right.

So we're going to go back and find out where Zeba or Ziba or however you want to say his name was first introduced.

And you're going to find him in 2 Samuel chapter 9.

2 Samuel 9 · chapter mention

Okay, so right there is your reference, 2 Samuel chapter 9.

2 Samuel 9 · chapter mention

And it's verses 1 through...

I forgot the last one. Hold on a second.

12. Verses 1 through 12.

Okay, that's the blank I didn't fill in by the way.

So now we're good. All the other blanks are filled in for me, so we're good.

So I'm going to read this to you briefly.

There is another interesting character, listen for him.

He's important by the time we're done.

He's important in the life of Zeba or Ziba.

Okay.

Then David said, Is there yet 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 Zeba or Ziba.

And they called him to David.

And the king said to him, Are you Ziba?

We'll just call him Ziba.

And he said, I am your servant.

And the king said, Is there not yet anyone of the house of Saul to whom I may show the kindness of God?

And Ziba said to the king, There is still a son of Jonathan who is crippled in both feet.

So the king said to him, Where is he?

And Ziba said to the king, Behold, he is in the house of Machir, the son of Amiel in Lodobar.

Then King David sent and brought him from the house of Machir, the son of Amiel from Lodobar.

And Mephibosheth, Mephibosheth, his name is written by the way in the middle of your page.

I gave it to you one time, so because you're going to have to spell it like three times.

Okay.

And so it says, And Mephibosheth, the son of Jonathan, the son of Saul, came to David and fell on his face

and prostrated himself.

That means he laid out flat in front of David.

And David said, Mephibosheth, and he said, Here is your servant.

And David said to him, Do not fear, for I will surely show kindness to you for the sake of your father Jonathan.

I will restore to you all the land of your grandfather Saul, and you shall eat at my table regularly.

Again he prostrated himself and said, What is your servant that you should regard a dead dog like me?

And the king called Saul's servant Zeba, or Zeba, and said to him,

All that belong to Saul and to all his house I have given to your master's grandson.

So David's giving everything that previously belonged to Saul to Mephibosheth.

And it says, And you and your sons, your servants, shall cultivate the land for him.

So he's saying this to Zeba, You and your sons will cultivate the land for him.

And you shall bring in the produce so that your master's grandson may have food.

Nevertheless, Mephibosheth, your master's grandson, shall eat at my table regularly.

Now Zeba had fifteen sons and twenty servants.

Then Zeba said to the king, According to all that my lord the king commands his servant, so your servant will do.

So Mephibosheth ate at David's table as one of the king's sons.

And Mephibosheth had a young son whose name was Micah, and all who lived in the house of Zeba were servants to Mephibosheth.

So we have, this is the background story.

So real quick before we go on to the paper, Zeba was a servant of Saul.

Who was Saul? The previous king.

No, not Paul in the New Testament, that's another Saul.

Maybe named after him, maybe, I don't even know.

But anyway, this is the Saul that was king before David.

This is the Saul that was king before David.

And Saul did what to David?

Tried to kill him.

Hunted him across the land with an army trying to kill him.

Because it was said by God, through the prophets and through Samuel, that David was going to replace him.

Saul also had a son.

His name was, going once?

No, Jonathan. His name was Jonathan.

There's a story where Jonathan told David that he needed to flee.

They had a little thing where he fired the arrow, fire a pass, and they say it's past you, then you've got to run away.

It's a story, you can read that.

Jonathan gave David the hint that he needed to get away because Saul was going to kill him.

After he went back and checked with his father, he found his father was trying to kill David.

So then he ran from Saul all that time.

But Jonathan protected David as much as he could, being the son of the king and the heir.

Jonathan would have been king in Saul's stead when Saul died.

But David had been ordained to be the king.

So David was going to replace Saul.

So by protecting David, he was sort of giving up his throne in a way.

But he was trying to be a friend to David and an ally to God.

So now David has ascended to the throne and he wants to reward somebody for Jonathan's sake.

That brings us to the paper.

So first of all, the first thing we have there starts with a Z.

So if it starts with a Z in here, it's probably going to be Ziba.

And it got a W-A-S of was a servant of Saul. That's right. Was a servant of Saul.

And in this particular story, his main role was he what?

T-D, D is capitalized. So it is probably...

He told David about Mephibosheth.

That was his main role. The main thing that he did here was he told David about Mephibosheth, which is hard to say.

Mephibosheth. It's on the paper. I gave it to you once.

It's right in the middle above Ziba. Two lines up.

So you can just copy it over because we're going to use it like four times.

So he told David about Mephibosheth. David wanted somebody to bless.

Ziba provided him. He provided Mephibosheth.

Mephibosheth, by the way, was crippled in both of his feet because when Saul's household was fleeing,

the woman who was carrying fell with him into her arms and broke both of his feet when he was a baby.

And so that's why he was crippled for his whole life.

But he had been spared and now is alive, is a descendant of Jonathan and Saul.

And David wants to bless somebody and Ziba provides Mephibosheth.

So the next line then says Mephibosheth. The first word is Mephibosheth.

I warned you it's going to be a couple of times.

P-L. What does he do?

Want to take a stab at it?

So he comes to David and then he does what?

Prostrate.

Okay, that would work perfectly for P except it doesn't go very good with the L.

You could say prostrates low, I guess that would kind of work.

But he professes loyalty. Why is that important?

Why is it important that he's loyal to David?

Yeah, because very technically he is an heir to the kingship.

Mephibosheth was the son of, was one of the sons in the heirship,

I'm not sure where he fits in exactly, but he's the son in the heirship of Saul.

So Saul, Jonathan, Mephibosheth.

So he could claim to be king.

Now he's crippled in both feet, he's not a mighty warrior,

he doesn't have a lot of followers, so he's not really probably a danger in that area,

but he lays on the ground and he professes loyalty.

And then it says and, capital D is probably David, and it's D-T-S-K.

What do you think?

You could do decides or desires to S-K.

Jason, what do you think, man? You love puzzles.

Something king.

Okay, it's show kindness. Remember what David said?

Is there not an heir left that I can show kindness to?

And then the next part I'll just give you, for Jonathan's sake.

That's what he said, is there not an heir left that I can show kindness to for Jonathan's sake?

So David desired to show kindness for Jonathan's sake.

Remember, Jonathan gave him the word to help him get out of there when Saul would have killed him.

Jonathan, Saul's son, heir to the throne, protected David at a crucial moment in time.

And so David is now wanting to be a blessing to that household, and there's very few left,

and the only one they could find was Mephibosheth provided by Zeba.

And then we've got a Z, so that's Zeba or Ziba.

What happened to Ziba in this story, what we just read, what happened to him?

Okay, let me read a little bit of it again.

Then the king called Saul's servant, Ziba, and said to him,

All that belonged to Saul and to all his house I have given to your master's grandson,

and you and your sons, your servants, shall cultivate the land for him.

You shall bring in the produce so that your master's grandson may have food.

Nevertheless, Mephibosheth, your master's grandson, shall eat at my table regularly.

He had fifteen sons and twenty servants.

So what do you think? In this story, what happened to Ziba?

Okay, he was assigned, he and his family, anybody want to finish that?

Say it again?

No, he wasn't murdered.

He and his family, where are we at?

Okay, he and his family, WMTE.

They would manage the estate.

It's like a noun verb or adjective.

I could do that, you're right. Sometimes I'll do that, I'll think about that.

Okay, would manage the estate of Saul.

So they're going to run it all. It's a big deal.

This is a big estate. It's wealth. It's a lot of money.

So they're essentially the main boarders then?

Well, they're going to do everything.

In fact, the only reason you could say that they don't own it all is because Mephibosheth owns it all.

Mephibosheth is not going to work the fields.

You're not going to find him out walking in the fields making sure they're doing the right thing.

These people are given all of the authority, but they are given the authority under Mephibosheth.

So he and his family, all those 15 sons and 20 servants, will now manage all of Saul's previous estates.

This is a huge honor.

But Mephibosheth would, it's a verb, eat.

At the king's table.

I used an F. It probably should have been an R.

Frequently.

Frequently, that's right.

Frequently.

And actually in another translation it does say frequently.

Regularly.

This translation uses the word regularly twice.

That's why I probably should have used an R, but I didn't notice that.

I read it in a different translation. It said frequently.

So Mephibosheth would eat at the king's table frequently.

So what we have so far, if you look in the middle where it says Ziba, there's a line.

And the title of this actual lesson about Ziba is One Timely Service.

Remember, he's a servant of Saul.

A lot of bad things happened to servants of Saul right after David took over.

Because if they remained loyal to Saul and Saul and his family were losing power, they were running.

But Ziba's still there and he provides one timely service, which in this case was to locate Mephibosheth.

That's what he did.

But that's not the one timely service that we're actually studying about.

Because we're talking about what happened during the period of time when David was ousted from Jerusalem.

Okay?

So now we're going to follow that arrow down.

And we're going to stop there right under where it says Ziba.

And you see the number two?

You see the number two there?

You got a reference.

So we know the book, right?

Yep, 2 Samuel.

And now we're in the present day of the story when David was ousted from Jerusalem.

And we probably want to just kind of drill this one into our heads.

The chapter is 16.

So chapters 15 and 16 are Absalom's conspiracy.

It's when Absalom takes over in David's place.

It is 16, yep.

And it really goes through 7.

So 15, 16, and 17 are the story of the whole time that David is out of there.

So right in the middle of that we have a story about Ziba.

Okay?

So it's just four verses.

So it's 16, 1 to 4.

2 Samuel 16, 1 to 4.

And here we go.

It says, now when David had passed a little beyond the summit.

So this is during that period of time when David's running away.

So back up the story.

Just make sure we understand this for one second, okay?

Remember Absalom is coming into Jerusalem.

They get word he's coming and the people are declaring him as king.

This is either going to be a huge civil war,

which if the numbers panned out David would lose, or he can run.

And so he runs.

And then people are encountering him as he's running.

Remember Zadok the priest came out.

They brought the Ark of the Covenant out.

David said, no, take it back.

Take it back into Jerusalem.

And if God really wants me to come back, I'll be back.

And me and you and the Ark will all be together in Jerusalem again.

That's what he said to Zadok.

We studied him a couple weeks ago.

And there were others.

One guy mocked him.

It was a guy who, Itai, who became a very important general,

even though he was not even in Israel.

He was from Gath, right?

And so he became a very important character.

And he stayed loyal to David during this period of time.

We're following these different characters.

So David has crossed the brook Kidron.

The backside of Jerusalem, I showed you a map at one point.

Jerusalem, there's a valley.

And then that valley is a brook.

Now in the rainy season, it runs big, like a river, right?

But most of the year, it's not like that.

So off the backside of Jerusalem, down through the valley,

across the brook.

And now you're getting over the horizon, away from Jerusalem.

And it says, now when David had passed a little beyond the summit,

so he's getting away from Jerusalem, behold, Ziba, the servant of Mephibosheth,

the servant of Mephibosheth.

Notice he's no longer called a servant of Saul, right?

Because David assigned him to Mephibosheth.

So Ziba, the servant of Mephibosheth, met him with a couple of saddled donkeys.

And on them were two hundred loaves of bread, a hundred clusters of raisins,

a hundred summer fruits, and a jug of wine.

And the king, as David, said to Ziba, why do you have these?

And Ziba said, the donkeys are for the king's household to ride,

and the bread and summer fruit for the young men to eat,

and the wine for whoever is faint in the wilderness to drink.

Then the king said, and where is your master's son?

And Ziba said to the king, behold, he is staying in Jerusalem,

for he said, today the house of Israel will restore the kingdom of my father to me.

Now notice, or check the phrase real quick, because I want you to catch that.

He says, where is your master's son? Who's he talking about?

Mephibosheth. But notice, is Ziba Saul's servant now?

David placed Ziba under Mephibosheth.

So then he says, where is your master's son?

So that sounds like he's talking about Mephibosheth, but he's not.

He's talking about Saul. He sees Ziba and he identifies him as Saul's servant,

even though he previously placed him under Mephibosheth.

So he's asking him, where is Mephibosheth?

Why didn't Mephibosheth come out here?

The one that ate at my table all this time that I thought I could trust,

who's a friend, blah, blah, blah.

Why didn't he come? Or why didn't he?

Did he send a message? Basically is what he's asking.

And he's identifying him as a servant of Saul and asking, where is Mephibosheth?

Verse 4 said this, so the king said to Ziba,

behold, all that belongs to Mephibosheth is yours.

And Ziba said, I prostrate myself. Let me find favor in your sight,

my lord the king. So now, because of this one act,

this one timely service of bringing two donkeys for David

and all this food and wine and fruit and all that,

David asks about Mephibosheth and Ziba sort of throws him under the bus, right?

And then now Ziba gets all of the estates for himself.

And Mephibosheth is out. One timely service. That's what happens.

So here we go right under that. It's 2 Samuel 16 verses 1 to 4 on the two point.

2 Samuel 16:1–4

And the Z is Ziba. And what did he do?

B.S. in two different words. Say it again?

That's right. Ziba brings supplies.

They're fleeing. They do not have the luxury of a lot of supplies.

They don't have the luxury of a lot of animals, whatever.

So him bringing supplies is a big deal.

He's supplying them at a very important hour of their need.

And then it says Ziba and then there's a verb.

And then the M is Mephibosheth. So what goes there?

What did Ziba do to Mephibosheth?

Okay. Slided or slandered was the word I was looking for.

He slandered Mephibosheth.

Now we're going to talk about slander for a minute.

The biblical term of slander is when you talk bad about somebody.

The legal term of slander is when you talk bad about somebody incorrectly or it's a lie, right?

So in the newspaper, on TV, if you slander somebody, you can be sued

because you talked bad about them and you were lying.

You weren't telling the truth.

But biblical slander is when you talk bad about somebody even if you're telling the truth.

Now what we'll find out here or what was probably true is that he's not really telling the truth.

What did he say about him?

He said that he waited there in the hopes that the kingship would be returned to him, right?

Now we have not seen that in the character of Mephibosheth at all.

And I submit to you that David never saw that when he was sitting at his table.

So probably Ziba is slandering him in the traditional sense, which is that he's lying about him.

Remember that Mephibosheth ate frequently with David from the time of his blessing to the time of this day.

They had constant interaction.

Say again?

Yeah, I think so.

But it's sort of a mix, right?

Because he is blessing David.

He is bringing out the supplies.

But he wasn't ordered to do so.

Kind of.

Yeah, I guess you could say that.

So he is doing a good thing right now.

This one timely service is a blessing.

But at the same time, he's not really trustworthy.

Certainly not to Mephibosheth.

And because of what he's done here, Ziba is awarded the estate or everything.

Really.

He says everything that belonged to Mephibosheth now belongs to you because of the one timely service.

So this service happened when?

It happened when David is fleeing Jerusalem.

And the power structure of Jerusalem is...

People are rising stars.

They're coming to the top of the crop right away.

Or they're falling out.

Their lives are being destroyed.

Think about the ten concubines.

Their lives were destroyed.

And we haven't even studied them specifically.

And we might just to make sure we understand what happened there.

But Ziba, one timely service, he's now elevated to rule everything that Saul once ruled.

That's huge.

Right?

Okay.

Now we're going down to number three.

Second Samuel.

The reference here is chapter 19.

Isaiah 19 · chapter mention

Chapter 19.

And the verses are 24 to 30.

Okay.

So this is during the wrapping up period.

So David is getting back on the throne.

He's back in Jerusalem.

He's going to be king again.

So I didn't really speed the clock forward per se.

It is a little bit forward.

But it's really like days forward.

Right?

Okay.

So 19, 24 to 30.

So this is after Absalom is hung in the tree.

Hung by his hair and run through the heart with spears.

This is after all of that.

Yeah.

No.

Pounds.

But yeah, about five pounds.

Okay.

So verse 24 says this.

Then Mephibosheth, okay, there he is again.

So he's not gone.

Then Mephibosheth, the son of Saul, came down to meet the king.

And he had neither cared for his feet, nor trimmed his mustache, nor washed his clothes from the day the king departed until the day he came home in peace.

So in other words, he's been mourning David's terrible situation.

Which when both your feet are crippled and it's a combat situation, that might be the best you could do is pray for him and mourn the situation.

I don't know if it's the best he could do, but that's what he did.

Verse 25.

And it was when he came from Jerusalem to meet the king that the king said to him, Why did you not go with me, Mephibosheth?

So he answered, Oh, my lord, the king, my servant deceived me.

Uh oh.

He definitely paints a bad picture of what Ziba did.

For your servant said, I will saddle a donkey for myself that I may ride on it and go with the king because your servant is lame.

So he was going to come out.

And remember, Ziba did bring two donkeys, exactly two, not three, not one.

He brought exactly two donkeys.

He said, my servant, I said, I'm going to saddle a donkey and go.

That's what he's alleging is that he was going to come with David because your servant is lame.

27 Moreover, he has slandered your servant to my lord, the king.

But my lord, the king is like the angel of God.

So in other words, he's like a messenger.

That word angel means messenger is like a messenger of God.

He's an agent.

Therefore, do what is good in your sight.

So he's pitching himself on the mercy of David.

For all my father's household was nothing but dead men before my lord, the king.

Yet you set your servant among those who ate at your own table.

So he's making an argument for why he would never betray David.

When David found out that he was still alive and Ziba outed him to David, he could have killed him.

He had every right to.

He killed most of the rest of Saul's household, but he was trying to be a blessing to Jonathan.

And so Mephibosheth is saying, gosh, I owe you everything.

Right? Goes on a little bit more.

What right do I have yet that I should complain any more to the king?

So why should I be allowed to come to the king and even complain about what's been done to me or seek justice?

I was a dead man and now I am alive.

Does this sound kind of like an important biblical message here?

You hear the theme?

Verse 29 says, So the king said to him, why do you still speak of your affairs?

I have decided you and Ziba shall divide the land.

So in other words, he's like, don't concern yourself.

You had nothing.

You had the entire estate.

Ziba slandered you.

And so I gave the entire estate to him.

But now I'm going to take half of it back and I'm going to give it to you.

So he's going to have half and you're going to have half.

Verse 30 says, And Mephibosheth said to the king, let him even take it all since my lord the king has come safely to his own house.

In other words, he's saying, I'm grateful that you give me half of it back.

But the truth is, it doesn't even matter to me.

All that matters to me is that you're OK.

Now, David does give him half.

Once that decree was spoken, it's settled.

He's going to get half.

So maybe that's kind of a nice gesture that he said, I don't really need it.

But he doesn't have a choice.

It's already settled.

OK.

All right.

So now we're under that tax right there.

Second Samuel 19, 24 to 30.

So it's Mephibosheth came to David.

That's an easy one.

Good job.

OK.

SS of M.

It's a little trickier.

It's a verb first.

Nope.

Nope.

Focus on the M for a second.

Nope.

And I did capitalize it.

So I apologize for that.

I didn't mean to.

OK.

He showed signs of mourning.

When he came to David, it was clear that he was mourning.

You can't like, oh, no, gosh, David's coming back to the throne.

I've got to real quick grow out my hair and stuff like I was mourning.

You can't do that.

He didn't take care of his feet.

He didn't care of his mustache, his hair, his clothes the whole time David was gone.

So when he came out and all the hair is all grown out and he's not properly groomed, that's

been going on for the months and years that David has been.

So he looks really like he's been mourning.

Sloppy.

Right?

You can't fake that.

Go again.

What did you say?

Did you have something?

I was just comparing him to David.

OK.

Yeah.

So he showed signs of mourning, which is strong testimony that he cared about what was going

on with David.

You understand?

He didn't just come to David now with lip service and say, well, you're king again.

I really I was really sad when you were gone.

He's been mourning the whole time.

And if he'd go and ask you go and ask the other servants, wherever they would say, yeah,

he hasn't got his hair.

He's been in the same clothes for months or he's changed like three times in two years

or he's clearly been mourning the whole time.

And that David doesn't have to tell.

He's been mourning.

There's no way of faking it.

OK.

And then Mephibosheth P.L. we did this one before professed loyalty.

OK, he says, I have been loyal.

And by the way, when he said, I have been loyal, do you think David believed him?

Yeah, you did believe him.

He did.

Because he'd been eating at David's table all that time.

So you can eat with you.

You talk to people while you're eating.

You spend years with somebody.

If somebody betrays you after you spend years with them and they've been loyal and you know

their their secrets, you know their emotions, you know how they respond to things, you know

all their phobias and you know they're you know, you've been eating with them constantly

for years.

You know who they are.

Then if they betray you, it's like, oh, that cuts so deep.

Right.

But then when they don't betray you, that's no surprise because you know who they are.

He professed loyalty and David believes him.

But there's a problem still.

Right.

So then he what did he do here?

Mephibosheth did what?

That Z in the middle is Ziba or actually Ziba apostrophe S.

Ziba's and we want to finish the sentence.

What was he doing?

Okay.

He reported Ziba's betrayal.

That's right.

So he was explaining to David.

They mainly by way of what David asked him.

Why didn't you come out?

And he said, well, I was going to come out, but my servant betrayed me.

Right.

He wasn't throwing Ziba under the bus like Ziba was throwing him under the bus.

He wasn't saying you need to punish him.

Right.

He was saying it didn't work.

The plan was I was going to come out here.

He was going to settle the donkeys and we were going to come out here.

And then next thing I know he's gone.

That's what he's saying.

He's explaining why he didn't make it out while David was fleeing.

Once David got past the summit, there wasn't any time he couldn't have flee.

Don't saddle donkeys again the next day and gone.

He never would have found David.

Right.

This was his chance and he missed his chance because Ziba betrayed him.

That's what he argues.

Okay.

And then this one's kind of funny.

So I'll just give it to you.

David assigned Hafsies.

That's what he did.

He said, well, you're going to have Hafs and he's going to have Hafs.

Okay.

So we'll finish it and then we'll talk briefly about that because I think that's does that

not seem like a strange decision a little bit?

It's a little odd because it seems like he really just got rewarded.

Right.

Okay.

Skip over to the left for a second.

Number four.

The first word is Ziba and then Ziba was what?

Starts with a T.

Nope.

Nope.

It is a weird word.

It's a verb.

It's a past tense verb.

Okay.

He was thwarted.

What was his goal?

Well, listen to the story.

What was his goal?

Go ahead and say it again.

He wanted the whole estate.

Well, now you do.

Thwarted.

T-H-W-A-R-T-E-D.

Thwarted.

Okay.

And so he wanted the whole estate.

He wanted to be blessed by the king.

He wanted David on his side.

Right.

But when Mephibosheth comes out, he doesn't get the whole estate.

He does get something.

His situation is still better off in a way.

Right.

So he's not only thwarted, Ziba is thwarted and awarded.

You see that?

Because he's not a servant of Mephibosheth anymore.

He's his own man now.

His own man over only half the estate but still his own man.

And then the next words are pretty obvious.

G-H.

Given half.

Given half.

Now consider he, follow with me on this, consider he actually lost on the deal.

Somebody explain to me why that's true.

Ultimately he lost on the deal.

He got half of the estate and he's no longer a servant.

But why did he lose?

Because he doesn't have all of it.

He wanted all of it.

He didn't get all of it.

But it's a little worse even than that.

What did he really have when Mephibosheth was his master?

All of it.

All of it.

He really had all of it.

Because Mephibosheth crippled in his feet and ate at the table with David all the time.

How much time did Mephibosheth really go out and check and see what was going on?

He had all of it.

Now he didn't have the title.

He didn't have the word.

Like he's master.

He didn't have that.

He didn't have the long term investments.

Like he could take the money and put them in there for his retirement maybe.

He didn't have the bank.

He didn't have the bank account.

He didn't have the signing.

But he probably had the signing ability on everything.

He was literally running everything.

And in the end he only winds up with half of everything.

But he gets the title.

Kind of.

Yeah, it does.

Very much.

Yeah, I didn't catch that.

Okay.

So here's what I want you to see then.

Because I think the decision of David to give half to each man is a strange one.

Because if Ziba really betrayed Mephibosheth and left him behind on purpose, tricked him if you will,

then slandered him to David, I'm kind of like, dude, he should be in trouble.

I don't know about killing him, but giving him half of the estate seems like a reward for bad behavior to me.

Except something happened.

What happened that's super, super important?

Say it again.

He had the supplies.

He had the supplies.

He fed David's men.

He brought donkeys for David's family.

So no matter how you slice it, he blessed them huge.

Right?

Even if he did it without Mephibosheth's exact desire or he went 15 minutes ahead of time so Mephibosheth couldn't get on the donkey or whatever.

Even if he did it with a little bit of duplicity, he performed the timely act of service.

And so when a person performs a timely act of service, even if they do it kind of wrong a little bit, they should be rewarded.

It makes sense.

People could starve to death.

Right?

So it's a pretty big deal.

Okay.

So Ziba actually had one timely service.

And along with that one timely service, you'll notice there he had one event of slander.

He spoke badly of Mephibosheth.

And the end result of that is he is rewarded in status.

What is a person trying to get when they slander somebody else anyway?

What are you trying to make yourself look better or people think, well, you know, oh yeah, you know, you know that person.

You got them nailed.

Right?

Or you're the person I'm going to come to listen to from now on or whatever.

Right?

So he one timely act of service, one event of slander, and he got the status.

But let's be realistic.

He lost half his kingdom.

Mephibosheth, on the other hand, was dead when Saul went, broken feet.

He had nothing.

And David gave him everything.

And when David fell away from the throne, when he was pushed away from the throne by Absalom, Mephibosheth mourned.

And he begged God.

And all he really wanted was to see David come back to the throne.

He was loyal in that regards.

And when he lost everything in the middle, didn't he?

David said, I take it all from Mephibosheth, I give it all to you, Ziba.

So he lost everything.

And then he came back and he got half.

So this is what Mephibosheth had.

He had zero.

Then he had everything but didn't really need any of it.

You following?

Guys, listen.

He had zero.

Then he had everything but didn't really need any of it.

And then he had half and didn't really need any of it.

Actually, it's a lot like Christianity because we were dead in our trespasses and sins.

And we were given life.

We've been given everything.

We think we need, oh, I don't know, you need a job and money and bills paid.

We always think of health and life and creativity and art.

We can absorb things that we experience.

Life is amazing.

Jesus came back.

We may have life and have it more abundantly.

But the truth is we don't need any of it because we have an eternal kingdom somewhere we're going where we're going to have the everything that we really want and need.

So whatever you collect here and now is worthless to you.

That's why we don't store treasures on earth but rather in heaven where moth and rust and steel and thieves cannot break in and destroy and steal respectively.

So we store it all up in heaven, in the storehouses of heaven.

So Mephibosheth is an archetype of us.

But be careful, be careful, because Ziba is also an archetype of some of us.

We say we are a servant and we are very good stewards of that which God has placed under our management.

But the first opportunity we get to advance ourselves, we might slander or betray another servant in order to get ahead.

But the thing about Mephibosheth was in the end he had half of what he once had and he needed it.

And the question is what do you need?

And what you really, do you think about what you've got and how much of it do you really need, especially considering you're going to heaven when you die?

So the story of Ziba is to remind us that one timely service and you'll be rewarded.

God is wise and he's just and he's merciful and he's kind and he'll reward.

But one event of slander to try to get ahead and you can wind up with less than what you need.

Okay, alright, so I'm going to ask some questions and then we'll be through.

Do you have any questions?

Alright, we have several characters in this story to look deeply into yet before we're through.

One of them is Joab. He is famous.

If you all could take some time, are you with me, Kashawn?

If you could take some time before we get to him to read a little bit about Joab, that would be helpful because he's a big deal.

And I think we're going to have to do him in two weeks as it is, two separate times.

And then we haven't talked about David.

So there's a couple of guys in here that are big deals that we have to talk about.

Alright, here we go.

I got a big old hand full. When it's gone, it's gone.

Alright.

At the beginning of the story, raise your hand so I can call on you.

At the beginning of the story, Zibba was a servant of who? Jason.

incorrect.

Solo was next.

Incorrect.

Someone else?

Go.

Saul.

Pay attention.

Here we go.

Alright.

In the early segment of the story, Zibba was reassigned to be a servant of who?

First hand was Caleb.

You have to be able to say it. Sound it out.

Yes, I'll give it to you. Very good.

Okay.

Alright.

David wanted to bless someone or be kind to someone for this person's sake.

Jonathan is correct. Jason was the first hand I saw.

I'm sure that's what you were going to say. I'm going to give you the candy.

Sorry, Natalie.

Okay.

Alright.

Okay. Not on your paper. This is for three.

This is for three. Not on your paper.

Zibba had this many sons. Raise your hand.

Haley.

15 is correct.

Okay.

Alright.

Okay.

When Zibba brings out the supplies, this is the beverage.

Correct.

Yep. That's what I do.

Yeeting Bible study. That's what we're going to call this.

The Yeeting Candy Bible study.

Them's the deets, baby.

Absolutely not.

Alright.

Okay.

In this story, these two men professed loyalty to David solo.

You know what I'm saying?

Shut up.

This is Zibba's son.

Yes.

And this is Zibba's son.

It's not David.

No.

Proffessed, loyal, yes.

Say it. You got it.

By the way, those are the only two men in the story.

So anybody who was wondering, they are the only two.

Okay.

Okay.

Expressed as a percent, this is the amount of the estate that Zibba would eventually rule over.

Hannah.

That's correct.

You got neither one.

This is like, they're like, you throw the candy and then fetch the candy.

That's what it's all about.

Okay. We're going to do one more. Let's see here.

Alright.

According to this story, this was the final end of Zibba.

Jason.

It was, say it in a sexy way, when he brought the donkeys to David.

That is incorrect.

Caleb, go.

He got half of the.

That's where he ends in this story, but what was his final end?

Josh.

He tells unknown.

He tells unknown. Good job.

No.

And he caught both of them.

What a finish.

We are across the line.

Alright, we're going to pray together.

So we have some special snackage.

Cookies.

It's baked cookies and garlic bread, right?

In the cafeteria.

Let's keep the food in the cafeteria and try to help govern the children to keep the food in the cafeteria.

And let us calmly enjoy our snack and social time so that we do not provoke the children to bad behavior.

Okay. Thank you very much. Let's pray together and then we'll be through.

Before we pray, we should sing Happy Birthday to Dan.

Three, two, one.

Happy birthday to you.

Happy birthday to you.

Happy birthday dear Dan.

Happy birthday to me.

And you have given me one of the greatest presents of all being here so we can learn about this Goofy Dude Zibba.

Yay.

Let's pray.

Thank you.

By the heaven, we thank you for the story that we have studied today and the reminder that we had nothing.

We were nothing.

We were dead in our trespasses and sins and you gave us everything.

And it is even more than we need because we have everything there with you already.

We pray we will be good stewards.

We pray we will be found on our face before a holy God to serve, to always provide a kindly service,

to receive a reward and to have that reward stored up for us in heaven protected by you.

I'm reminded where Paul said, wrote to Timothy, that I know in whom I have trusted and that he is able to keep unto that day that which I have entrusted to him.

And so Lord I pray that we, gathered in this room tonight, will always remember as we go out from here to trust you with it all.

Bless our sick and hurting, those who are traveling, those who are struggling in whatever way.

We desire your presence in our lives.

And we pray it in Jesus' name.

Amen.