A Place to Belong: The Rescue of Mephibosheth

Dr. Richard Guillermo and Dr. Jesse Gill*

One of our favorite stories in the Bible recounts the harrowing and heartbreaking experiences of Mephibosheth in the book of Second Samuel. The movements of pain, shame, and fear are followed by an incredible act of redemption which brings us hope in this fallen world. As with most Scripture the deeper meanings of the narrative are more profound than the given story, which is powerful in its own rite.

Mephibosheth came from the lineage of his grandfather Saul, the first King of Israel. We first meet Mephibosheth during the chaotic transfer of power that occurred when his grandfather Saul and his father Jonathan were both killed by a rival kingdom at the Battle of Mount Gilboa.

Mephibosheth was only 5 years old. His nurse, fearing for Mephibosheth’s life, scrambled to rescue him from the palace where his life was in peril. Although she rescued his life, he sustained a terrible fall amidst her haste. This fall crippled him, and he was unable to walk for the rest of his life.

He went to live in secrecy and obscurity in the town of Lo-debar for the next two decades.

Devastating. In one fateful day the entire path for his life completely changed!

Mephibosheth fell from riches and royalty into crippling pain, shame, and a land of exile. His society was cruel and blaming towards people with disabilities, so he simultaneously received in his body the marks of scorn and shame.

Yet it appears that this crippling fall was not the first injury to Mephibosheth’s soul. Mephibosheth’s name is translated in the Hebrew “from the mouth of shame”(1). We don’t know the whole story, but we might infer a couple things from the narrative. There seems to be some tension between his parents contributing to his name “of shame”. We wonder if he was a planned pregnancy and whether he was fully embraced by his parents. We also see that he was not in his mother’s care at the crucial time of the power transfer of Saul’s kingdom. His nurse was looking over him instead.

Something is wrong with this story!

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