Not For Human Consumption - Ziba And Mephibosheth

“And where is Mephibosheth, Saul’s grandson?” the king asked him. “He stayed in Jerusalem,” Ziba replied. “He said, ‘Today I will get back the kingdom of my grandfather Saul.’”

2 Samuel 16:3

On October 30, 1938, thousands of calls flooded East Coast newspaper offices and police stations. Scores of people required medical treatment for shock and hysteria while countless others cowered in their homes, too terrified to go out. They had all heard the radio reports: The Martians had arrived with destruction on their minds.

It was all a hoax—a well-intended hoax but a hoax all the same.

That night, thousands of people misinterpreted a convincing radio adaptation of H. G. Wells’s The War of the Worlds as an actual news report of an alien invasion. Panic-stricken listeners who heard only part of the story were convinced that the world was coming to an end.

Gossip often works that way. When you spread gossip or listen to it, you probably tell or hear only part of a story and in turn damage another person. When Ziba, a servant in Saul’s house (see 2 Samuel 9:2), gave King David some juicy gossip about Mephibosheth committing treason, he did very real damage.

Ziba’s gossip damaged Mephibosheth’s reputation and his standing in David’s kingdom. When David listened to Ziba’s hearsay, he stripped Mephibosheth of what rightfully belonged to Saul’s heir and gave it to Ziba instead (see 2 Samuel 16:4).

Mephibosheth eventually met with David and cleared his name. He restored his relationship with the king, but only after enduring the pain and humiliation that Ziba’s false reports inflicted on him.

Ziba’s slander stands as a reminder of the damage that gossip—even with some factual basis—can cause you, your family, your friends, and your brothers and sisters in faith.

Are you often tempted to gossip about someone? One way to combat the temptation is to remind yourself that what you say can significantly damage another person. Blunt the temptation by choosing to speak of (and listen to) only things that build up your brother and not what might tear him down.