David’s Compassion To Mephibosheth
Good morning. Our text for today is 2 Sam. 9:1-8. Twice in this text, David asks if there are any left of the house of Jonathan that he might show kindness to him. David was king. Saul was dead. David had been victorious over many enemies. Now he turns to a promise that he had made to Jonathan. The record of that promise is in 1 Sam. 20. Of all of the things that could have weighed on David’s mind as a new king, he thought compassionately of Jonathan’s family. No matter what circumstances we are in, our hearts of compassion should be open. It should become part of our character. David had already, in his young life seen much hardness, suffering and death. But he had not lost his compassionate heart. In Job 29, Job outlines some of his compassionate acts. One of the things he said was, “the cause that I knew not, I sought out…” Like Job, David sought out a cause in which to help.
Remember that compassion is not only pity or just sympathy, but is action. Whenever Jesus had compassion, he did something to remedy the situation. David’s love for Jonathan motivates his compassion and help toward his family. In our lives, our compassion should reach out to our friends as well as strangers. Some circumstances of need are close to us. We see them every day. It might be like a nurse who works with hurting people daily. Or it might be a social worker whose task is to equitably help the poor. It may even be someone in our immediate family who has a disease or has suffered an accident. In such circumstances, that very closeness and commonness may cause us to lose our compassion for the situation. We must ever be vigilant to not become hard-hearted toward suffering.
Compassion makes a difference.
Mike