15. The Little Lame Prince

(2 Samuel 4: 4; 9: 1-13)

One afternoon, long ago, a little boy prince five years old, was playing with his toys in his father’s palace, and his nurse was watching him. Suddenly a messenger ran up to the house and rushed in, bearing the sad news that a terrible battle had been fought between the Hebrews and the Philistines in which King Saul and the little prince’s father, Jonathan, David’s friend, had been slain. “Yes,” he said, “Saul and Jonathan are dead! Flee for your lives!” The nurse picked up the little boy in her arms to carry him away quickly, when, in her haste and fright, she stumbled and fell. In the fall the little boy’s ankles were broken, and ever after he was a helpless cripple. The little lame prince was hidden away in a friend’s house so safely that almost everybody supposed the Philistine soldiers must have slain him too. A few years afterward, David said: “Is there yet any left of the family of Saul that I may show the kindness of God to him for Jonathan’s sake?” One of the servants said, “Jonathan hath yet a son who is lame in both his feet.” “Bring him to me,” said David; and when he was before the king, David said: “Fear not; for I will surely show kindness to you for Jonathan, your father’s sake. I will give you his farm lands; and you shall eat at my table as one of my own sons.” So David’s friendship for Jonathan was shown to this lame prince who was crippled in both his feet, and whose name was Mephibosheth.