Correcting Ziba: 2 Samuel 9:9-13
God chooses mercy and grace when dealing with sin. God offers us relationship because of His grace. He offered us Jesus because of His mercy. Our salvation is fully accomplished through both mercy and grace.
Having claimed Mephibosheth for his own table, David reorganizes Mephibosheth’s estate. The Hebrew Law has strict stipulations for who retains ownership over particular land. Children were supposed to inherit the land from their parents so they would always have something and some place.
Mephibosheth, however, has been passed off onto Machir, who had an estate across the Jordan river. Saul’s power had been strongest across the Jordan, so it made sense for his family to also be present there. When Saul and Jonathan died, Mephibosheth remained in their care.
This circumstance left a power vacuum over Saul’s land. With Saul’s sons dead and Mephibosheth away under the care of another, Ziba stepped in to fill the vacuum. Ziba manages Saul’s land well enough to grow his family to care for fifteen sons and twenty servants. He took the opening Saul’s death provided and built himself quite an estate.
There isn’t any issue with Ziba’s management of the land. There is nothing wrong with taking land and using it productively instead of letting it remain untamed. The issue with Ziba’s choice is how he didn’t share the wealth with the proper owner of the land. Ziba was effectively a tenant whose landlord couldn’t come claim his dues. Ziba took the land, managed it, kept the profits, and never gave Mephibosheth another thought. Not only did Ziba fail to demonstrate hospitality to Mephibosheth, he absolutely disregarded Mephibosheth’s God-given right to the land.
This is why David steps in to set the record straight. David comes to Ziba and makes sure he knows the proper owner of the land is Mephibosheth. Ziba is welcome to continue managing the land. He can continue to build his family and care for them. However, Zeba would be required to remember his place. He became Mephibosheth’s servant under David’s authority. The land was not Ziba’s, but he could continue to manage it. Mephibosheth would prosper from Ziba’s work, but Ziba could continue to provide for his sons and servants.
David handles this situation with compassionate authority. He corrected Ziba’s mismanagement, but he could have corrected it far more harshly. Instead of confronting Ziba’s sin absolutely, David found a way to correct the wrong while allowing Ziba to save face and continue in his role.
In David’s action we see a reflection of God’s grace as He comes to us and corrects our behavior. God sees us in our sin frequently, but He seldom pronounces irrevocable condemnation. God comes to us, corrects our behavior, and allows us to continue in our life in a corrected trajectory. That doesn’t mean what we did in the past was acceptable, it means our past sin has been dealt with mercy and grace. God chooses mercy and grace when dealing with sin.
