Saturday, August 19: “Scheming Servant”
2 Samuel 16: 2, 3: “The king said to Zeba, ‘Why do you have these?’ And Zeba said, ‘The donkeys are for the king’s household, and the bread and summer fruit are for the young men to eat, and the wine, for whoever is faint in the wilderness to drink. Then the king said, ‘And where is your master’s son?’ And Ziba said to the king, ‘Behold, he is staying in Jerusalem, for he said, “Today the house of Israel will restore the kingdom of my father to me.”’”
The relationship between the duplicitous Ziba and the opportunistic Mephibosheth is very … interesting; and neither party has been reluctant to involve the very king of Israel in their squabbles. Everything Ziba is telling David here is a lie, but knowing that his master Mephibosheth is crippled and can’t be there to defend himself, he fibs away. In the end David gives up and washes his hands of the whole thing (2 Samuel 19: 24-30), which is usually the best way to handle such schemes.
