God’s Adopted Children

Bible passage: 2 Samuel 9:1-13, Ephesians 1:3-8

Mephibosheth is not the best known character in the Bible - Illustration of God’s love in the story of Mephibosheth.

At the time of 2 Sam 9 Mephibosheth was in hiding. M. was the son of Jonathan and grandson of Saul, first King of Israel.

Both King Saul and Crown Prince Jonathan had been killed in battle. God had rejected Saul as king and the two men had both been cut down defending Israel from the Philistines.

When the royal court back home heard that the king and his son had been killed the royal family fled for their lives. Little Mephibosheth got dropped in the rush and was crippled in both legs. He had to live the rest of his life without his father and with a severe disability – whenever he is mentioned in the Bible from then on, his disability is mentioned as well. Being disabled meant not being able to earn a living or have status in society.

Worse situation than that. As part of the defeated royal family he was also an enemy of the state. Would have been a potential rival for the kingship – the sort of person Saul’s supporters would have rallied round in opposition to the new king, David. Because of that his life was in danger from David’s’ supporters – although David was a fair king he had thousands of warriors who were passionate for him and wanted to get rid of anyone who posed a threat to him.

Mephibosheth went into hiding in an obscure town called Lo Debar which was in Galilee a long way from the capital.

David didn’t know about Mephibosheth, but he loved Jonathan and grieved for him. So once the dust had settled he wanted to find out if anyone from Jonathan’s’ family was still to be found.

One old servant at the palace remembered Mephibosheth and knew where he was. So David sent for Mephibosheth and had him brought to the palace in Jerusalem.

Mephibosheth arrived and thought he was in for it. He bowed before the king, scared that he was about to be killed, to put an end to the family of Saul once and for all. Most kings at that time would kill all of their rivals’ family as a matter of course to make sure their throne was secure.

But David said this in v. 7: “Don’t be afraid, for I will surely show you kindness for the sake of your father Jonathan. I will restore to you all the land that belonged to your grandfather Saul, and you will always eat at my table.”

You can imagine how Mephibosheth felt. He had lost all status in society and had run away far from his family home and now he thought he would be killed. Instead David says that Mephibosheth won’t be killed, in fact he would be treated like a son and not like an enemy. He would get a royal pardon, get his family’s land restored, and even more amazing would have a place at the king’s table – become a member of the royal family.

Being accepted by David meant three things to Mephibosheth:

Status as a son
A royal inheritance
Fatherly care

Given by the gracious act of the king.

Good news of Jesus is that we, like Mephibosheth are accepted by God’s grace into his family. Given status as sons, a royal inheritance and God’s fatherly care.

Ephesians 1:4-5: “God chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love he predestined us to be adopted as his sons through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will”

We are forgiven and chosen and adopted into his family.

Status as sons

In Jesus we are adopted sons of God. In these days of equality it might be more acceptable to says sons and daughters – and yes of course men and women have the same status before God. But in the Bible’s terms our status is as sons. In the time of the Bible sons and daughters weren’t equal. Sons were the ones who had the status. Sons in the royal family had a position just less than the king himself, daughters didn’t.

True today Princess Anne is junior in rank to Prince Edward even though she’s older. One law that should and will be changed. To be a princess is not the same as to be a prince. But in the royal family of God we are all, both men and women of the rank of royal princes. We are his sons and daughters with the status of sons.

Story of a little girl who was born badly disfigured, so much that even her own parents found it difficult to love her. Teased at school and had a miserable life. The only person who really cared for her was her schoolteacher. One day the teacher was testing the children’s hearing. Each child got called up to the teacher’s desk and the teacher whispered in their ear. The girl who was disfigured came to the teacher sand the teacher whispered in her ear something that would change her life. She said, “ I wish you were my little girl”.

When we are believers in Christ, God whispers in our ear: you are my daughter, you are my son. That gives us status and it gives us assurance of his love.

A royal inheritance

Roms 8: “we are heirs of god and co-heirs with Christ”.

We as children of God will share the inheritance of Jesus. We will inherit on our death a resurrection body, a heavenly kingdom and all of its riches. 1 John 3:2 says, “we are children of God and when Jesus appears we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is”.

Much of this inheritance we have to wait for, but it is already ours. Paul says our adoption was prepared before time and we will remain God’s sons and daughters for ever.

We get insurance on our house so we can restore what we lose is things go wrong, but also to give us peace of mind every day.

Having God’s royal inheritance gives us security in the here and now as well as hope for the future.

Fatherly care

Third part of adopted into his family is that we receive every day the fatherly care of God. God is the best loving father. He gives us food for each day, forgives our sins and protects us from the evil one. Sometimes as a good father he will discipline us.

When we have faith in Christ and are forgiven and redeemed and justified and all the other things we have looked at in this series, we are also adopted into the royal family of God, made his sons and daughters, give a the status of sons, a royal inheritance and his constant fatherly care.