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Chapter 9: David's Kindness to Jonathan's son
2 Samuel 9:1-13 ~ David brings Meribbaal into his Household
None of David's courtiers know of surviving member of Saul's family so they bring David a former servant from Saul's household. Ziba served the household of Saul as a steward or majordomo, a freeman who was in charge of Saul's household servants and slaves. He informs David that Jonathan's son is living at the home of a man named Machir at Lo-Debar, a city in Gilead on the east side of the Jordan River in northern Transjordan near Jabesh.(4) Ziba's mention of Meribbaal's disability is probably meant to assure David that Jonathan's son is no threat to him and no challenge to his throne. Meribbaal is now probably a man in his early twenties.
We first heard of Jonathan's son Meribbaal in 2 Samuel 4:4. He was five years old when his father, grandfather, and uncles died in the Battle of Mount Gilboa. When his nurse heard the news, she tried to flee with him but either dropped him or fell with him, breaking his feet and leaving him a cripple. His name in the Hebrew Tanakh is rendered "Mephibosheth," man of shame, but in the LXX and the DSS texts of Samuel it is rendered in its original form as Meribbaal. David generously returns all of Saul's ancestral lands to Jonathan's son. Ziba is to manage Meribbaal's estate, but Meribbaal is to live as a member of the king's household.
Question: Why might this gesture of including the adult Meribbaal as a member of David's household be more than simple generosity?
Answer: He is an heir of the former royal family and as such he and his son are threats to David's dynasty if there was an attempt to reinstate the family of Saul to kingship. It is prudent for David to keep Meribbaal and Micha/Micah within his control.
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A Daily Defense
Day 127 The Star of Bethlehem and Astrology
CHALLENGE: “Doesn’t the star of Bethlehem imply the practice of astrology?”
DEFENSE: The fact that the Magi recognized the star’s significance implies that they practiced astrology, but it doesn’t imply we should.
The ancients did not know what the stars really are, and many regarded them as divinities that ruled the fates of men. Thus the sun, moon, and wandering stars (planets) had the names of deities: Sol, Luna, Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn. The names varied from culture to culture, but in paganism they were worshipped as deities.
This practice was explicitly condemned in the Old Testament (Deut. 4:19, 17:3; 2 Kings 17:16; Jer. 19:11–13; Amos 5:26–27), and the author of Genesis demythologizes it by describing the heavenly bodies merely as lights created by God (Gen. 1:14–16).
This does not mean God can’t use them as signs of major events in his plan. He is omnipotent and can do so if he chooses. Thus in the book of Joel God states: “I will give portents in the heavens. . . . The sun shall be turned to darkness, and the moon to blood” (Joel 2:30–31).
In Acts, Peter interprets this in terms of the dawning of the Christian age (Acts 2:14–21). It is noteworthy that darkness covered the land (“the sun shall be turned to darkness”) during the Crucifixion (Matt. 27:45), and—providentially—there was a lunar eclipse that made the moon appear red (“and the moon to blood”) on April 3, A.D. 33, the probable date of the Crucifixion.
If God chose to mark the death of his Son with an unusual celestial sign, then he might have done the same to mark his birth, and he may have further allowed the Magi to recognize its significance based on the ideas present in their culture.
However, this would be an exceptional event and not an endorsement of the practice of astrology in general. The stars are not divinities that rule our lives, and they have no power over us. God may providentially use them as markers of certain events in his plan of the ages, but that does not mean we can infer things about the events of our own lives from them. This is what the modern practice of astrology does, however, and so the Church rejects it (CCC 2116).
Jimmy Akin, A Daily Defense: 365 Days (Plus One) to Becoming a Better Apologist
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