2nd Samuel 9:3 reads “…Jonathan has a son still living. He is crippled in both feet…”
An interesting book in the Bible is 2 Samuel which talks about the life of David. After taking the throne through God’s will, he asked if there was any relative of Saul, the previous king who, in jealousy, had tried to murder him. David wanted to show Saul’s family kindness because of his bond with Jonathan, Saul’s son, who had died in war.
Johnathan had a son who was crippled and living in hiding because he was afraid that David would kill him. In those days it was common for a new king to kill the rest of the royal family, so that there would be no other challenger to the throne.
Beloved, what I want to emphasize is the description of Ziba, the servant who was asked if there was anyone in the household of Saul, to be favored. Ziba’s response wasn’t to promote Mephiboseth. It was to disparage him and to discourage David from favoring the cripple, by not lying, but hyping Mephiboseth’s true and actual situation. But David was determined to do what he wanted to do. So he sent for Mephibosheth, so he could, “show the kindness of God to him” (2 Samuel 9:3).
When Mephibosheth came to David, he was expecting to be killed and fell on his face and paid homage to him. David responded and said, “Do not fear, for I will show you kindness for the sake of your father Johnathan and I will restore to you all the land of Saul your grandfather and you shall eat at my table always” (2 Samuel 9:7). Brethren, we have many Ziba’s around us who bad mouth us at places where we aren’t there to defend ourselves. When there is an opportunity for our favor, appointment and promotion, they are the ones who are asked in our absence and oftentimes, out of envy and jealousy, they won’t say the right things about us. Sometimes, like Ziba did to Mephiboseth, they would hype our known disadvantaged situations and weaknesses to our “David’s” just so we may be refused the nod, but that’s up to them.
Ours isn’t to fight such Zibas. Ours is to be assured that the grace of God and the decision of God to elevate and bless us, like it happened to Mephiboseth, isn’t contingent on any human recommendation. Sometimes, we hear through gossips about how others spoke against us when we were being considered for something, and get annoyed with them. But if Ziba’s description of Mephiboseth did not change the mind of David, then let us be assured that no amount of derogatory descriptions of man can change the plan of God for us.
If we live right with God and someone’s bad recommendation makes us lose an opportunity, it would probably be because our time isn’t up for that opportunity. At the right time, God would speak and no disparaging description from any Ziba would stop God from doing what He want to do for us. Beloved, Mephiboseth was a cripple but David said he would dine with him. What could Ziba do? Donald Trump may not be your ideal or model President but Americans say they want him to lead, what can you do? Similarly, we may be crippled in several unique ways per our weaknesses and challenges and our “Zibas” may seek to highlight these as disqualifications. But these won’t stop God from doing what He wants to do for us. All we need to do is to do our best to live right with God, for He would handle our “Zibas” Himself such that they can only keep wondering. Thanks be to God that He’s not human and He’s not Ziba, Amen!
Source: newsthemegh.com