91 And David said, Is there still anyone of Saul's family living, so that I may be a friend to him, because of Jonathan? 2 Now there was of Saul's people a servant named Ziba, and they sent him to David; and the king said to him, Are you Ziba? And he said, I am. 3 And the king said, Is there anyone of Saul's family still living, to whom I may be a friend in God's name? And Ziba said, There is a son of Jonathan, whose feet are damaged. 4 And the king said to him, Where is he? And Ziba said to the king, He is in the house of Machir, the son of Ammiel, in Lo-debar. 5 Then King David sent, and had him taken from Lo-debar, from the house of Machir, the son of Ammiel. 6 And Mephibosheth, the son of Jonathan, came to David, and falling down on his face, gave him honour. And David said, Mephibosheth. And answering he said, Your servant is here. 7 And David said to him, Have no fear: for truly I will be good to you, because of your father Jonathan, and I will give back to you all the land which was Saul's; and you will have a place at my table at all times. 8 And he went down on his face before the king, and said, What is your servant, for you to take note of a dead dog such as I am?
9 Then the king sent for Ziba, Saul's servant, and said to him, All the property of Saul and of his family I have given to your master's son. 10 And you and your sons and your servants are to take care of the land for him, and get in the fruit of it, so that your master's son may have food: but Mephibosheth, your master's son, will have a place at my table at all times. Now Ziba had fifteen sons and twenty servants. 11 Then Ziba said to the king, Every order which you have given to your servant will be done. As for Mephibosheth, he had a place at David's table, like one of the king's sons. 12 And Mephibosheth had a young son named Mica. And all the people living in the house of Ziba were servants to Mephibosheth. 13 So Mephibosheth went on living in Jerusalem; for he took all his meals at the king's table; and he had not the use of his feet.
101 Now after this, death came to the king of the children of Ammon, and Hanun, his son, became king in his place. 2 And David said, I will be a friend to Hanun, the son of Nahash, as his father was a friend to me. So David sent his servants, to give him words of comfort on account of his father. And David's servants came into the land of the children of Ammon. 3 But the chiefs of the children of Ammon said to Hanun their lord, Does it seem to you that David is honouring your father by sending comforters to you? has he not sent his servants to go through the town and make secret observation of it, and overcome it? 4 So Hanun took David's servants, and after cutting off half the hair on their chins, and cutting off the skirts of their robes up to the middle, he sent them away. 5 When David had news of it, he sent men out with the purpose of meeting them on their way, for the men were greatly shamed: and the king said, Go to Jericho till your hair is long again, and then come back.
6 And when the children of Ammon saw that they had made themselves hated by David, they sent to the Aramaeans of Beth-rehob and Zobah, and got for payment twenty thousand footmen, and they got from the king of Maacah a thousand men, and from Tob twelve thousand. 7 And hearing of this, David sent Joab and all the army and the best fighting-men. 8 And the children of Ammon came out and put their forces in position at the way into the town: and the Aramaeans of Zobah and of Rehob, with the men of Tob and Maacah, were by themselves in the field. 9 Now when Joab saw that their forces were in position against him in front and at his back, he took the best of the men of Israel and put them in line against the Aramaeans; 10 And the rest of the people he put in position against the children of Ammon, with Abishai, his brother, at their head. 11 And he said, If the Aramaeans are stronger and get the better of me, then you are to come to my help; but if the children of Ammon get the better of you, I will come to your help. 12 Take heart, and let us be strong for our people and for the towns of our God, and may the Lord do what seems good to him. 13 Then Joab and the people with him went forward to the fight against the Aramaeans, and they went in flight before him. 14 And when the children of Ammon saw the flight of the Aramaeans, they themselves went in flight from Abishai, and came into the town. So Joab went back from fighting the children of Ammon and came to Jerusalem.
15 And when the Aramaeans saw that Israel had overcome them, they got themselves together. 16 And Hadadezer sent for the Aramaeans who were on the other side of the River: and they came to Helam, with Shobach, the captain of Hadadezer's army, at their head. 17 And word of this was given to David: and he got all Israel together and went over Jordan and came to Helam. And the Aramaeans put their forces in position against David, and made an attack on him. 18 And the Aramaeans went in flight before Israel; and David put to the sword the men of seven hundred Aramaean war-carriages and forty thousand footmen, and Shobach, the captain of the army, was wounded, and came to his death there. 19 And when all the kings who were servants of Hadadezer saw that they were overcome by Israel, they made peace with Israel and became their servants. So the Aramaeans, in fear, gave no more help to the children of Ammon.
111 Now in the spring, at the time when kings go out to war, David sent Joab and his servants and all Israel with him; and they made waste the land of the children of Ammon, and took up their position before Rabbah, shutting it in. But David was still at Jerusalem. 2 Now one evening, David got up from his bed, and while he was walking on the roof of the king's house, he saw from there a woman bathing; and the woman was very beautiful. 3 And David sent to get knowledge who the woman was. And one said, Is this not Bath-sheba, the daughter of Eliam and wife of Uriah the Hittite? 4 And David sent and took her; and she came to him, and he took her to his bed: (for she had been made clean;) then she went back to her house. 5 And the woman became with child; and she sent word to David that she was with child.
6 And David sent to Joab saying, Send Uriah the Hittite to me. And Joab sent Uriah to David. 7 And when Uriah came to him, David put questions to him about how Joab and the people were, and how the war was going. 8 And David said to Uriah, Go down to your house and let your feet be washed. And Uriah went away from the king's house, and an offering from the king was sent after him. 9 But Uriah took his rest at the door of the king's house, with all the servants of his lord, and did not go down to his house. 10 And when word was given to David that Uriah had not gone down to his house, David said to Uriah, Have you not come from a journey? why did you not go down to your house? 11 And Uriah said to David, Israel and Judah with the ark are living in tents, and my lord Joab and the other servants of my lord are sleeping in the open field; and am I to go to my house and take food and drink, and go to bed with my wife? By the living Lord, and by the life of your soul, I will not do such a thing. 12 And David said to Uriah, Be here today, and after that I will let you go. So Uriah was in Jerusalem that day and the day after. 13 And when David sent for him, he took meat and drink with him, and David made him the worse for drink: and when evening came, he went to rest on his bed with the servants of his lord, but he did not go down to his house.
14 Now in the morning, David gave Uriah a letter to take to Joab. 15 And in the letter he said, Take care to put Uriah in the very front of the line, where the fighting is most violent, and go back from him, so that he may be overcome and put to death. 16 So while Joab was watching the town, he put Uriah in the place where it was clear to him the best fighters were. 17 And the men of the town went out and had a fight with Joab: and a number of David's men came to their death in the fight, and with them Uriah the Hittite. 18 Then Joab sent David news of everything which had taken place in the war: 19 And he gave orders to the man who took the news, saying, After you have given the king all the news about the war, 20 If the king is angry and says, Why did you go so near the town for the fight? was it not certain that their archers would be on the wall? 21 Who put Abimelech, the son of Jerubbaal, to death? did not a woman send a great stone down on him from the wall, putting him to death at Thebez? why did you go so near the wall? Then say to him, Your servant Uriah the Hittite is among the dead. 22 So the man went, and came to David, and gave him all the news which Joab had sent him to give; then David was angry with Joab and said, Why did you go so near the town for the fight? was it not certain that their archers would be on the wall? who put Abimelech, the son of Jerubbaal, to death? did not a woman send a great stone down on him from the wall, putting him to death at Thebez? why did you go so near the wall? 23 And the man said to David, Truly the men got the better of us, and came out against us into the open country, but we sent them back to the very doors of the town. 24 And the archers sent their arrows at your servants from the wall, and some of the king's servants are dead, and among them is your servant Uriah the Hittite. 25 Then David said to the man, Go and say to Joab, Do not let this be a grief to you; for one man may come to his death by the sword like another: put up an even stronger fight against the town, and take it: and do you put heart into him. 26 And when the wife of Uriah had news that her husband was dead, she gave herself up to weeping for him. 27 And when the days of weeping were past, David sent for her, and took her into his house, and she became his wife and gave him a son. But the Lord was not pleased with the thing David had done.
11 And he said, A certain man had two sons: 12 And the younger of them said to his father, Father, give me that part of your property which will be mine. And he made division of his goods between them. 13 And not long after, the younger son got together everything which was his and took a journey into a far-away country, and there all his money went in foolish living. 14 And when everything was gone, there was no food to be had in that country, and he was in need. 15 And he went and put himself into the hands of one of the people of that country, and he sent him into his fields to give the pigs their food. 16 And so great was his need that he would have been glad to take the pigs' food, and no one gave him anything. 17 But when he came to his senses, he said, What numbers of my father's servants have bread enough, and more, while I am near to death here through need of food! 18 I will get up and go to my father, and will say to him, Father, I have done wrong, against heaven and in your eyes: 19 I am no longer good enough to be named your son: make me like one of your servants. 20 And he got up and went to his father. But while he was still far away, his father saw him and was moved with pity for him and went quickly and took him in his arms and gave him a kiss. 21 And his son said to him, Father, I have done wrong, against heaven and in your eyes: I am no longer good enough to be named your son. 22 But the father said to his servants, Get out the first robe quickly, and put it on him, and put a ring on his hand and shoes on his feet: 23 And get the fat young ox and put it to death, and let us have a feast, and be glad. 24 For this, my son, who was dead, is living again; he had gone away from me, and has come back. And they were full of joy. 25 Now the older son was in the field: and when he came near the house, the sounds of music and dancing came to his ears. 26 And he sent for one of the servants, questioning him about what it might be. 27 And he said to him, Your brother has come; and your father has had the young ox put to death because he has come back safely. 28 But he was angry and would not go in; and his father came out and made a request to him to come in. 29 But he made answer and said to his father, See, all these years I have been your servant, doing your orders in everything: and you never gave me even a young goat so that I might have a feast with my friends: 30 But when this your son came, who has been wasting your property with bad women, you put to death the fat young ox for him. 31 And he said to him, Son, you are with me at all times, and all I have is yours. 32 But it was right to be glad and to have a feast; for this your brother, who was dead, is living again; he had gone away and has come back.
(Read Luke 15:11-16)
The parable of the prodigal son shows the nature of repentance, and the Lord's readiness to welcome and bless all who return to him. It fully sets forth the riches of gospel grace; and it has been, and will be, while the world stands, of unspeakable use to poor sinners, to direct and to encourage them in repenting and returning to God. It is bad, and the beginning of worse, when men look upon God's gifts as debts due to them. The great folly of sinners, and that which ruins them, is, being content in their life-time to receive their good things. Our first parents ruined themselves and all their race, by a foolish ambition to be independent, and this is at the bottom of sinners' persisting in their sin. We may all discern some features of our own characters in that of the prodigal son. A sinful state is of departure and distance from God. A sinful state is a spending state: wilful sinners misemploy their thoughts and the powers of their souls, mispend their time and all their opportunities. A sinful state is a wanting state. Sinners want necessaries for their souls; they have neither food nor raiment for them, nor any provision for hereafter. A sinful state is a vile, slavish state. The business of the devil's servants is to make provision for the flesh, to fulfil the lusts thereof, and that is no better than feeding swine. A sinful state is a state constant discontent. The wealth of the world and the pleasures of the senses will not even satisfy our bodies; but what are they to precious souls! A sinful state is a state which cannot look for relief from any creature. In vain do we cry to the world and to the flesh; they have that which will poison a soul, but have nothing to give which will feed and nourish it. A sinful state is a state of death. A sinner is dead in trespasses and sins, destitute of spiritual life. A sinful state is a lost state. Souls that are separated from God, if his mercy prevent not, will soon be lost for ever. The prodigal's wretched state, only faintly shadows forth the awful ruin of man by sin. Yet how few are sensible of their own state and character!
(Read Luke 15:17-24)
Having viewed the prodigal in his abject state of misery, we are next to consider his recovery from it. This begins by his coming to himself. That is a turning point in the sinner's conversion. The Lord opens his eyes, and convinces him of sin; then he views himself and every object, in a different light from what he did before. Thus the convinced sinner perceives that the meanest servant of God is happier than he is. To look unto God as a Father, and our Father, will be of great use in our repentance and return to him. The prodigal arose, nor stopped till he reached his home. Thus the repenting sinner resolutely quits the bondage of Satan and his lusts, and returns to God by prayer, notwithstanding fears and discouragements. The Lord meets him with unexpected tokens of his forgiving love. Again; the reception of the humbled sinner is like that of the prodigal. He is clothed in the robe of the Redeemer's righteousness, made partaker of the Spirit of adoption, prepared by peace of conscience and gospel grace to walk in the ways of holiness, and feasted with Divine consolations. Principles of grace and holiness are wrought in him, to do, as well as to will.
(Read Luke 15:25-32)
In the latter part of this parable we have the character of the Pharisees, though not of them alone. It sets forth the kindness of the Lord, and the proud manner in which his gracious kindness is often received. The Jews, in general, showed the same spirit towards the converted Gentiles; and numbers in every age object to the gospel and its preachers, on the same ground. What must that temper be, which stirs up a man to despise and abhor those for whom the Saviour shed his precious blood, who are objects of the Father's choice, and temples of the Holy Ghost! This springs from pride, self-preference, and ignorance of a man's own heart. The mercy and grace of our God in Christ, shine almost as bright in his tender and gentle bearing with peevish saints, as his receiving prodigal sinners upon their repentance. It is the unspeakable happiness of all the children of God, who keep close to their Father's house, that they are, and shall be ever with him. Happy will it be for those who thankfully accept Christ's invitation.
