June 23 - A Soldier's Story
June 23
A Soldier’s Story
Bible Reading: II Samuel 9:1-13
1Now David said, “Is there still anyone who is left of the house of Saul, that I may show him kindness for Jonathan’s sake?” 2And there was a servant of the house of Saul whose name was Ziba. So when they had called him to David, the king said to him, “Are you Ziba?” He said, “At your service!” 3Then the king said, “Is there not still someone of the house of Saul, to whom I may show the kindness of God?” And Ziba said to the king, “There is still a son of Jonathan who is lame in his feet.” 4So the king said to him, “Where is he?”cAnd Ziba said to the king, “Indeed he is in the house of Machir the son of Ammiel, in Lo Debar.” 5Then King David sent and brought him out of the house of Machir the son of Ammiel, from Lo Debar. 6Now when Mephibosheth the son of Jonathan, the son of Saul, had come to David, he fell on his face and prostrated himself. Then David said, “Mephibosheth?” And he answered, “Here is your servant!” 7So David said to him, “Do not fear, for I will surely show you kindness for Jonathan your father’s sake, and will restore to you all the land of Saul your grandfather; and you shall eat bread at my table continually.” 8Then he bowed himself, and said, “What is your servant, that you should look upon such a dead dog as I?” 9And the king called to Ziba, Saul’s servant, and said to him, “I have given to your master’s son all that belonged to Saul and to all his house. 10You therefore, and your sons and your servants, shall work the land for him, and you shall bring in the harvest, that your master’s son may have food to eat. But Mephibosheth your master’s son shall eat bread at my table always.” Now Ziba had fifteen sons and twenty servants. 11Then Ziba said to the king, “According to all that my lord the king has commanded his servant, so will your servant do.” “As for Mephibosheth,” said the king, “he shall eat at my table like one of the king’s sons.” 12Mephibosheth had a young son whose name was Micha. And all who dwelt in the house of Ziba were servants of Mephibosheth. 13So Mephibosheth dwelt in Jerusalem, for he ate continually at the king’s table. And he was lame in both his feet.
DAVID KING, a successful American businessman, waited in the lobby of a Hanoi hotel. Over twenty years had passed since he had been in Vietnam as a soldier fighting the North Vietnamese in a war that cost him one of his legs.
Since that time, he had become rich and had learned to walk without crutches, using a prosthetic leg that enabled him to walk with only a slight limp.
A man wearing an American-made business suit entered the hotel lobby from the street and approached King. "I think I have good news for you," the man said.
"I'm glad to hear that, Ziba," King said, fastening his eyes on his assistant, Jack Ziba.
"I've located one of Lo Dong's sons," Ziba said. "He lives in Haiphong."
"Excellent!" King said. "Let's go!"
Ziba hesitated. "Do you mind if I ask you a question?" When King shrugged, Ziba asked, "Why all this trouble to locate the family of a Vietnamese man you haven't seen in twenty years?"
King inhaled deeply and let out a long sigh. "Because Lo Dong saved my life. If he hadn't dragged me into a hut during a firefight, I would have bled to death. Now that I'm richer than I ever thought possible, I plan to show God's kindness to his family in any way I can, out of respect for Lo Dong."
King and Ziba drove the fifty miles from Hanoi to Haiphong and, after three days of searching, found the son of Lo Dong, the man who had saved King's life. The Vietnamese man bowed to the American, and King bowed back. Then King explained in broken Vietnamese why he had come to Haiphong. The eyes of Lo Dong's son filled with tears; he bowed again when he understood.
Eventually, Lo Dong's son became an executive in King's multinational company, and the two men became close friends--so close, in fact, that King was once quoted in a magazine article as saying, "If I had never made that trip to Hanoi, I would never have known my best friend in the world--the son of the man who saved my life."
REFLECT: The story of David King and Lo Dong's son didn't really happen. But it is based on a true story. How is it like the events described in 2 Samuel 9:1-13? How is it different?
Do you think treating people with respect will give you more friends or more enemies? Will it make your friendships better? If not, why not? If so, how?
ACT: Remember the experiment you began yesterday in which you were going to make a special effort to treat everyone you met or talked to respectfully? Make today the second day of that experiment. At the end of the day, review the results. Have you had more good results than bad results? You may want to consider extending the experiment indefinitely!
PRAY: "Thank you, God, for the friends I gain when I'm kind, patient, and respectful."