¹⁴ He put garrisons throughout Edom, and all the Edomites became subject to David. The Lord gave David victory wherever he went.

2 Samuel 8:14

The king asked, “Is there no one still alive from the house of Saul to whom I can show God’s kindness?”

Ziba answered the king, “There is still a son of Jonathan; he is lame in both feet.”

2 Samuel 9:3

⁷ “Don’t be afraid,” David said to him, “for I will surely show you kindness for the sake of your father Jonathan. I will restore to you all the land that belonged to your grandfather Saul, and you will always eat at my table.”

⁸ Mephibosheth bowed down and said, “What is your servant, that you should notice a dead dog like me?”

2 Samuel 9:7-8

Wow, I had goosebumps. But we’ll get into the why in a bit.

The entire chapter of 2 Samuel 8 talks about David’s victories everywhere. The chapter refers to his victories as God-given, rather than earned on his own. This includes defeating:

• Philistines
• Moabites
• Hadadezer, son of Rehab, king of Zoba and 20,000 foot soldiers
• Arameans of Damascus – 22,000 of them
• Edomites

David then dedicates the “articles”, taken from those he had defeated, to God:

¹¹ King David dedicated these articles to the Lord, as he had done with the silver and gold from all the nations he had subdued:

2 Samuel 8:11

In the following chapter, 2 Samuel 8, David doesn’t stop honouring God. He seeks to return the favour by also paying it forward. He wanted to honour Jonathan, his friend who passed away in a previous war with the Philistines. He tries to find if Jonathan has relatives remaining and finds out that he had a son who was still alive and lame on both feet. His name is Mephibosheth.

So David returns all of Saul’s property, taken by the Philistines, whom he has defeated, in Mephibosheth’s name. He also invites him to eat at his table. During this time, David was already king, so this invite was a rare one.

I had goosebumps because my sister-in-law is lame on both feet, and I haven’t spoken to her recently. God has been blessing me in my career like good crazy, I should say, and today’s reading (2 Samuel 8-9) reminds me that I need to pay forward kindness for the successes I achieve, just like David did to Jonathan’s son.

To my dear reader, I encourage you to pay forward kindness. Successes, big or small, we should dedicate to the Lord by giving back to society.