Ziba’s deceipt

When David had passed a little beyond the summit, Ziba the servant of Mephibosheth met him, with a couple of donkeys saddled, bearing two hundred loaves of bread, a hundred bunches of raisins, a hundred of summer fruits, and a skin of wine. And the king said to Ziba, "Why have you brought these?" Ziba answered, "The donkeys are for the king's household to ride on, the bread and summer fruit for the young men to eat, and the wine for those who faint in the wilderness to drink." And the king said, "And where is your master's son?" Ziba said to the king, "Behold, he remains in Jerusalem, for he said, 'Today the house of Israel will give me back the kingdom of my father.'" Then the king said to Ziba, "Behold, all that belonged to Mephibosheth is now yours." And Ziba said, "I pay homage; let me ever find favor in your sight, my lord the king." – 2 Samuel 16v1-4

I am including this thought today mostly because I am intrigued more than inspired. We remember Ziba as being the one who told David about Mephibosheth. As a result David has all of Saul’s land and property transferred to Mephibosheth. When I read this account I have to wonder about Ziba’s motivation though.

From all appearance it appears that Ziba betrayed Mephibosheth and lied to David. He claimed that Mephibosheth was thinking that the people would make him king of Israel.

With this claim David gave all of Mephibosheth’s possessions to Ziba.

Ziba used lying and deceit for his personal gain. David didn’t check out the facts and Mephibosheth suffered.

I guess there is a lesson for us. Before we act lets be sure that we check out all the facts. There are, in fact, two sided to every story. Our tendency is to believe the first side we here. Lets be sure we don’t act rashly based on only one side.