“When he came to Yerushalayim to meet the king, the king said to him, ‘Why didn’t you go with me, M’fivoshet?’ He answered, ‘My lord king, my servant deceived me. I, your servant, had said, ‘I will saddle a donkey for myself to ride on and go with the king,’ since your servant is lame. But he slandered me, your servant, to my lord the king. However, my lord the king is like an angel of God; so do whatever seems right to you.”-2 Samuel 19:26-28
Today, we’re going to delve into the heart of our discussion about how Tziva and Mephibosheth point to Yeshua’s future relationship with His own people, the Jews, and with the eventual grafting in of the Gentile church.
Alrighty, let’s get into it.
So, a couple of weeks have passed since Absalom was killed.
As David is returning home, Mephibosheth suddenly appears.
David accuses him of betrayal.
Mephibosheth defends himself, saying he had planned to join David but couldn’t because Tziva deceived him.
Mephibosheth was in the process of saddling up his donkey so he could go with King David into exile.
But because he was lame, he moved slowly.
Tziva saw what he was doing, grabbed (basically stole) Mephibosheth’s goods and his donkeys, and presented them to King David as a gift from himself.
But that was only the beginning of the humiliation.
He then said Mephibosheth had placed his bets with Absalom and was hoping the kingdom would be restored to his grandfather, Saul.
That was a flat-out lie.
Mephibosheth wanted to go with David, but he couldn’t move fast enough due to his lame feet.
So Tziva made him out to be a traitor when he had really been loyal all along.
David believed Tziva’s lie.
The result was that the scheming gentile Tziva took control of an estate that was always meant for the Hebrew Mephibosheth.
As we look back over the centuries, we see that Biblical history has unfolded according to this very pattern.
The gospel (the Hebrew estate) was delivered through the Jewish Messiah to Israel.
But then, eventually, the Gentiles took over and dominated.
In other words, they are the equivalent of the gentile servant Tziva, who stole what rightfully belonged to the Hebrew people.
This happened despite Yeshua making it crystal clear that his priority has always been his own people.
“He answered,
‘I was sent only to the
lost sheep of Israel.’“
-Matthew 15:24
The gentile church has lied about the Jews.
They falsely claimed they rejected their messiah.
The gentile church accused the Jews of deicide (those who murdered God) and called them “Christ killers.”
This is equivalent to how the gentile Tziva lied about the Hebrew Mephibosheth, and said that he betrayed David.
The truth is, when Yeshua, the son of David, and the anointed king, came to his people, many of his Jewish brethren accepted him as Messiah, but the ruling religious establishment at that time didn’t.
The New Testament testifies to the fact that there were thousands of Jewish believers.
In fact, you know that event the Gentiles call Pentecost?
Well, Pentecost is just the Greek word for the Jewish feast called Shavuot, which means “Weeks.”
On that eventful day when the Holy Spirit came down in power, guess how many Gentiles were in that upper room?
The answer is exactly zero.
So it is complete BS that the Jews rejected Yeshua (even if the majority did).
However, a big shift happened once Paul’s mission to the Gentiles got underway.
Gentiles not only started accepting Yeshua in droves, but these homies began to outnumber the Jews.
In less than a century after Yeshua’s death, the Gentiles had taken over Israel’s spiritual estate.
They had become masters of a Hebrew house that does not belong to them.
By the first half of the 2nd century AD, things got really bad.
The gentile Bishops who controlled the institutional church decided that Jewish believers in Jesus needed to do away with their Jewishness completely.
They needed to stop observing the Biblical feasts and Shabbat and embrace an unkosher gentile lifestyle.
So here’s your takeaway.
Just as Mephibosheth was robbed of what was rightfully his, the Hebrew people were robbed of their spiritual inheritance.
Yeshua came first to Israel, yet over time, Gentiles claimed authority over an estate that was never theirs to take.
Remember, to the Jew first, and then the Gentile.
Gentiles are grafted into the Olive Tree.
They don’t become, nor do they replace the Olive Tree.
Knowing this truth challenges us to honor the Messiah’s original plan and the people He first came to save.
And that’s exactly what this blog is all about.
Ya feel me?
See ya all next time.
CONNECTING THIS TEACHING TO THE NEW TESTAMENT
For I am not ashamed of the gospel.
For it is the power of God
unto salvation to every one
that believeth,
to the Jew first,
and to the Greek.
-Romans 1:16
For, brothers,
I want you to understand this truth
which God formerly concealed
but has now revealed,
so that you won’t imagine
you know more than you actually do.
It is that stoniness, to a degree,
has come upon Isra’el,
until the Gentile world enters in its fullness;
and that it is in this way
that all Isra’el will be saved.
-Romans 11:25-26
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