Daily Manna, Year Two · Day 109 · April 19
Brought From Lodebar
“And he bowed himself, and said, What is thy servant, that thou shouldest look upon such a dead dog as I am?”
They carry him into the throne room, set him down, and he puts his face on the floor. He cannot get up without help. Soldiers came to the house he was living in and brought him a long way to a king he has every reason to fear.
Mephibosheth was five when the news came from Jezreel that Saul and Jonathan were dead. His nurse took him up, and fled: and it came to pass, as she made haste to flee, that he fell, and became lame. One fall, one panicking woman, a lifetime on two ruined feet. He is Saul's grandson, which in that century is a death sentence waiting for an administrator.
So he had been living at Lodebar, over the Jordan, in another man's house, out of the way.
Back in the capital David had asked, Is there yet any that is left of the house of Saul, that I may shew him kindness for Jonathan's sake? Nobody appears to have told Mephibosheth that on the road. He arrives knowing only that he has been found.
And he bowed himself, and said, What is thy servant, that thou shouldest look upon such a dead dog as I am? That was court language for a man with no claim on anybody, and David had used it himself once, shouting up a hillside at Saul: after whom dost thou pursue? after a dead dog, after a flea. Mephibosheth is not fishing for reassurance. He is telling the king he understands his position exactly.
David does not argue with him. No speech about self-worth, no correction of the sentence. He turns to Ziba and gives instructions about land and servants and harvests, and the phrase that keeps repeating is about furniture. Thou shalt eat bread at my table continually. He shall eat at my table, as one of the king's sons. The chapter ends by putting both facts in one line: he did eat continually at the king's table; and was lame on both his feet.
Set a place this month for somebody who cannot return the invitation, and do not repair them first, and do not make the meal conditional on their thinking better of themselves.
Daily Manna runs on a two-year cycle. The year one reading for day 109 is Power to the Faint (Isaiah 40:29).