An Unexpected Guest
“Don’t be afraid!” David said. “I intend to show kindness to you because of my promise to your father, Jonathan. I will give you all the property that once belonged to your grandfather Saul, and you will eat here with me at the king’s table!”
Mephibosheth bowed respectfully and exclaimed, “Who is your servant, that you should show such kindness to a dead dog like me?” 2 Samuel 9:7-8
Perhaps Mephibosheth is an unusual character to consider as we approach Easter. However, through this incident, David gives us a picture of God as the One who sees us and restores us to eat at the King’s table—his salvation banquet. Jesus’ death and resurrection secure our place at his table.
A childhood accident left Mephibosheth, Jonathan’s son, and Saul’s grandson, crippled. When he was five years old, the report came that Saul and Jonathan had been killed in battle. “When the child’s nurse heard the news, she picked him up and fled. But as she hurried away, she dropped him, and he became crippled” (2 Samuel 4:4). Usually, the incoming king arranges for any rivals to the throne to be killed. Consequently, the child’s nurse made every effort to protect him from harm, but her efforts left him permanently handicapped. Mephibosheth considers himself nothing more than a “dead dog.”
A Personal Reflection
I can relate to Mephibosheth’s low self-esteem. As a child, I was shy and not particularly talented. I grew up in an unchurched environment and an emotionally distant family where I couldn’t imagine that my life had any value to God. From my perspective, God investing in my life didn’t seem like a good use of his time and effort. I couldn’t see any gifts or talents in me that would help advance his cause. I wouldn’t be the next Billy Graham or Mother Teresa. I didn’t have an extensive network of family or contacts as potential candidates for faith. Surely, others had more ability and would better serve his purposes. I couldn’t believe that God would bother seeking me out for a relationship, and yet he did. Just as David deliberately sought Mephibosheth, God sought me.
Compared to God’s holiness, we’re nothing more than dead dogs, yet that’s not how God sees us. No one is a dead dog in God’s eyes. David doesn’t see Mephibosheth this way and completely ignores his comment. He doesn’t waste his breath trying to correct his perspective. Perhaps he knows it will take him some time to feel comfortable with his change of status. Likewise, it may take us some time to feel comfortable with our change of status. “For you are a chosen people. You are royal priests, a holy nation, God’s very own possession” (1 Peter 2:9).
The Promise of the Cross
King David understands God’s unmerited acceptance of him. God chose him as the next king when he was a most unlikely candidate. David extends this unmerited acceptance to Mephibosheth. And in Jesus, God extends his unmerited acceptance to us.
David and Jonathan had made a promise of friendship. He now honours this commitment by rescuing Mephibosheth from his dismal existence at Lo Debar (2 Samuel 9:4). Even the name of the place sounds depressing. It means “no pasture.” It was an empty and barren place. Likewise, God honours the commitment he made to Adam and Eve in the Garden (Genesis 3:15), and rescues us from our barren existence with the promise of abundant life through Jesus (John 10:10 NKJV).
God thought us so valuable that he sent his son to die a cruel death on our behalf. Our faith in all that God accomplished through the cross moves us from dead-dog status to children of God. At the moment of our conversion, he “rescued us from the kingdom of darkness and transferred us into the Kingdom of his dear Son” (Colossians 1:13). A permanent change in our status. No longer sinners, God regards us as his “holy people” (Ephesians 1:1; 2 Corinthians 1:1; Philippians 1:1; Colossians 1:2).
Sadly, many Christians still see themselves as sinners—dead dogs. Yet Paul writes, “You also should consider yourselves to be dead to the power of sin and alive to God through Christ Jesus” (Romans 6:11).
A Permanent Position
What does it mean to consider ourselves dead to sin and alive to God?
Well-regarded theologian F. F. Bruce comments on this verse in his commentary on Romans: “This is no game of ‘let’s pretend’; believers should consider themselves to be what God in fact has made them … The Spirit has come to make effective in them what Christ has done for them.”
We don’t pretend. God is the God of all truth. His perspective is the accurate one, regardless of how we may feel. We are born again, children of the living God, made holy by the blood of Jesus’ once and for all sacrifice (Hebrews 10:10).
This Easter, may our change of status—from dead dogs to having a seat at the King’s table, from sinners to children of God—cause us to respond with wonder, astonishment, and gratitude for all God has achieved through Jesus’ death and resurrection.
Links from my blogging friends who have also written about Easter:
Steph Penny – https://stephpenny.com.au/no-condemnation/
Jo-Anne Berthelesen – https://joanneberthelsen.wordpress.com/2026/03/31/a-truly-good-friday
Christine Wood – https://www.livingwithmargins.com/blog/unchanging-hope-in-christ-easter-devotional
Tamara Harpford – https://www.tamaraharpford.com/post/recognition
Thanks for this thoughtful, insightful post, Susan. So glad we’re not still ‘dead dogs’! Rather, through God’s amazing love, we are now God’s children, as my favourite verse, 1 John 31 says, and have been invited into God’s family – and indeed to the King’s feast, as you point out. God bless!
Great verse: “See how very much our Father loves us, for he calls us his children, and that is what we are!” Thanks Jo-Anne for dropping by
Awesome reminder of the place we now have at the King’s table. We are all welcome, one in Christ, forgiven and whole. As you pointed out, there’s no pretence or fakery here—we really are God’s children. It never gets any less profound!
Sometimes, I take it for granted, but I really am God’s child and that is remarkable! Thanks Steph for dropping by.
Thank you, Susan, for this beautiful Easter reminder: We have a place at the King’s table. I can imagine my name written on a placecard at the banquet table, completely undeserved, but 100% real. What a privilege to be called a child of God.
That’s a lovely thing to imagine, my name on a placecard at the banquet.
Thanks, Christine for dropping by and also for your article about the unchanging hope of Easter.
This part of the story of David I was not familiar with! I have looked into the story of David a little further these last few days and reading this has really added to my understanding of the culture at the time, and how low self-worth is present amongst us all. What a wonderful promise David made to Johnathan and what a wonderful promise God makes with us – His loved children.
Yes, we are indeed his beloved children. How amazing that the God of the Universe calls me his child. Thanks Tamika for dropping by.
Thanks for highlighting this Susan. It’s everything I lean on in my relationship with Jesus – that He looks through everything to see the beautiful, wanted children He made us to be.
That’s a great perspective, Tamara, I love it.
Thanks for your comments.