Theological Commentary: Click Here
Discipleship Focus: Challenge, Invitation
- Challenge: God does not merely wish us to be in relationship with Him as we are. He challenges us to grow, stretch, and transform as we take on the mantle of being His representatives to this world.
- Invitation: God is always inviting us into relationship with Him. He desires that we know Him and that we know His desire for us.
This is a great chapter to look at the concept of invitation and
challenge. Clearly this is a chapter
where there is an abundance of invitation.
David seeks to remember and honor Jonathon’s name. So he seeks out and invites Jonathon’s son
and literally welcomes him into his family.
By inviting Mephibosheth to eat as his table, David is inviting him into
the family permanently. You don’t get
much more invitation than that.
However, the invitation comes with a bit of challenge. As I explain in the theological commentary
from three years ago, Mephibosheth was born into this world under the name
Meribaal – which means “Ba’al is the advocate.”
Remember that Ba’al is the chief Canaanite god. When this son of Jonathon comes to stay with
David and becomes a part of David’s family, David changes his name. Mephibosheth is a name that means “Scatterer
of Shame.”
So while David invites this son of Jonathon into his household, he
is also giving him a challenge. David
asks him to give up any part of his life that touches Ba’al. David asks this son of Jonathon to focus on
God and live according to God’s ways.
David gives us a great model here of how challenge and invitation can be
calibrated properly.
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