April 26 - God's Kindness

Chuck Swindoll – Story of Mephibosheth – favorite display of God’s grace in the Old Testament. (Great Lives: David)

2 Samuel 9:1 (NET)
David Finds Mephibosheth
9:1  Then David asked, “Is anyone still left from the family of Saul, so that I may extend kindness to him for the sake of Jonathan?”

A picture of Christ: David shows kindness to someone because of his love for Jonathon.

2 Samuel 10:1–5 (NET) 
David and the Ammonites
10:1 Later the king of the Ammonites died and his son Hanun succeeded him. 10:2 David said, “I will express my loyalty to Hanun son of Nahash just as his father was loyal to me.” So David sent his servants with a message expressing sympathy over his father’s death. When David’s servants entered the land of the Ammonites, 10:3 the Ammonite officials said to their lord Hanun, “Do you really think David is trying to honor your father by sending these messengers to express his sympathy? No, David has sent his servants to you to get information about the city and spy on it so they can overthrow it!”
10:4 So Hanun seized David’s servants and shaved off half of each one’s beard. He cut the lower part of their robes off so that their buttocks were exposed, and then sent them away. 10:5 Messengers told David what had happened, so he summoned them, for the men were thoroughly humiliated. The king said, “Stay in Jericho until your beards have grown again; then you may come back.”

Kindness – connected to one’s desire to implement a covenant with someone or to honor an already established covenant with someone.

• Often a close connection between kindness and covenant
• Could be because David wants to honor covenant David had with Nahash or to build a covenant with Hanun.

David’s kindness is because of Nahash

• Only time we hear about Nahash is 1 Samuel 11 where Nahash is threatening Israel and Saul needs to rescue them.
• Whatever good thing Nahash did, David did not forget.

Spiritual amnesia is the tendency of believers to forget God's past faithfulness, provision, and kindness — even when they have personally experienced or testified to it.

It's not a loss of belief in God, but a practical forgetfulness of what He has specifically done, which then quietly erodes gratitude, trust, and zeal in the present. The danger is that it doesn't feel like forgetting — it just feels like dryness, frustration, fear, or indifference.

Its symptoms can include:

• Serving God out of obligation rather than overflow
• Murmuring or anxiety when facing new trials, despite having been delivered before
• A critical or ungrateful spirit toward the people and communities God used to bless you
• Feeling like you are doing God a favor rather than responding to His grace

The antidote to spiritual amnesia is discipline.

• People will leave the church…many times one bad experience or feeling replaces all the good.
• Same with relationships. Have you ever been burnt out on showing kindness?

2 Samuel 10:2-4
Leviticus 19:27

Biblical principle: practice holy separation through visible identity.

David’s act of kindness was repaid with an attack of humiliation on his men and their God.

Galatians 4:13–16 (NET)
Personal Appeal of Paul
4:13 But you know it was because of a physical illness that I first proclaimed the gospel to you, 4:14 and though my physical condition put you to the test, you did not despise or reject me. Instead, you welcomed me as though I were an angel of God, as though I were Christ Jesus himself! 4:15 Where then is your sense of happiness now? For I testify about you that if it were possible, you would have pulled out your eyes and given them to me! 4:16 So then, have I become your enemy by telling you the truth?

How do you think God feels? How is God's kindness repaid?
– He knows the cost to showing kindness.

Romans 2:4 (NET)
2:4 Or do you have contempt for the wealth of his kindness, forbearance, and patience, and yet do not know that God’s kindness leads you to repentance?

Don’t run out of KINDNESS.

Ephesians 4:32 (NET)
4:32 Instead, be kind to one another, compassionate, forgiving one another, just as God in Christ also forgave you.

When death entered Hanun’s world, David sent consolation. When death entered our world, the Son of David sent salvation.