Series: Youth for Jesus
Number: Vol. 9, No. 25
“Then David asked, ‘Is anyone still left from the family of Saul, so that I may extend kindness to him for the sake of Jonathan?’” (2 Sam 9:1 NET)
Why was David interested in showing kindness to any member of the family of King Saul that he could find at the time mentioned in our opening text? It was because he wanted to appreciate Jonathan’s kindness to him.
Truly, King Saul behaved very wickedly towards David. He did all that he could to get rid of him, even though David had done nothing evil to him or to the kingdom of Israel. But King Saul’s son, Jonathan, treated David with great love, kindness, compassion and respect. He was, in fact, willing to sacrifice his own claim to the throne for him and ready to risk his life for him, so that David might be king over Israel, as God had determined.
Therefore, even if David did not feel obligated to look out for the welfare of any member of Saul’s household because of the man’s wickedness towards him, as long as he could remember the love, kindness and sacrifices of Jonathan for him, he would want to help. That, of course, was why he asked his servants, as we equally see in our opening text, to find out if there was anyone among Saul’s family that he could show kindness to, for Jonathan’s sake.
Now David did not take this step because Jonathan was alive to benefit from it. Rather, he took the step because it was the right thing for him to do. As I already mentioned, Jonathan was very good to him when he was alive. Mind you, David’s own testimony was that the love of Jonathan for him was more wonderful than the love of women. That, of course, had nothing to do with homosexuality. Rather, it had to do with his experience, through Jonathan, of the true love of God that honours, protects and preserves. (Cf. 2 Sam 1:26)
Yet he had no opportunity to repay Jonathan for all his acts of love and kindness to him before he died. But then, he could still find a living member of the man’s family at the time that he could show kindness to. And when he made an effort to find one of them, he found Mephibosheth, a crippled son of Jonathan. So, through him, David was able to repay Jonathan’s acts of kindness in a splendid manner. (Cf. 2 Sam 4:4; 2 Sam 9)
What is all this teaching us? First, it is that we must always remember to appreciate those who have been good or kind to us. Life would probably have been very hard or rough for many of us if some people had not been there for us at certain periods in our lives. Such people, then, should always be remembered and appreciated by us for the roles God used them to play in our lives.
Now how we appreciate them, of course, should be based on how God has blessed us in life, not on what we don’t have or have access to. But we should make up our minds to appreciate them adequately and appropriately. Otherwise, God may not lead other helpers like them to us again in life.
Second, appreciating people does not always have to be direct. That is because those we want to appreciate may not be available at the point we want to appreciate them. Or we may not even have enough substance to appreciate them adequately at the point we want to do so. But we may be able to show our appreciation to them by doing good to others who are close to them or who are in their lives.
Therefore, there is no valid excuse for not paying any debt of appreciation we owe others. That is because if we think hard and look carefully, we will see how we can appreciate them based on what God has done for us at each given time. And may your eyes be opened by the Spirit of God to see all the people that you need to appreciate for what they have done for you, and may you also be strengthened to begin to appreciate them adequately and appropriately. Amen.
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