Revelation of God’s goodness when we are least expecting it in our lives.

“God’s Goodness”

Tonight I want us to once again pay our attention towards God’s goodness in the lives of those vessels that are chosen according to His grace for favor. In describing this ultimate virtue of our God and Redeemer we would need to return to the Old Covenant story of one man’s election of grace to receive God’s redemptive power of love.

This man is none but Mephibosheth the grandson of King Saul and the son of Jonathan with whom King David had previously entered into an oath of friendship before the Lord. This incredible friendship has been the greatest story of brotherhood in the Old Covenant, since it portrayed many facets of God’s love for His own chosen vessels of mercy. David and Jonathan were more than friends; they were bonded by an oath as blood brothers.

When King Saul died the scriptures in 2^nd Samuel chapter 4 speaks of this thrilling event in the life of his grand child from Jonathan.

In this way it is recorded in the scriptures. “And Jonathan, Saul’s son, had a son that was lame of his feet. He was five years old when the tidings came of Saul and Jonathan out of Jezreel, and his nurse took him up, and fled: and it came to pass, as she made haste to flee, that he fell, and became lame. And his name was Mephibosheth.” In this tragic story we read how a flight for their saving their lives brought a permanent injury to this grandson of the former king. The flight was to protect the child’s life from the possible danger of the change in the monarchy of King Saul of Israel. The nurse trying to provide safety for this child caused him to lose his power to stand on his both legs permanently, and in this way this son became crippled in both of his legs. This could stand as an example for when men are trying to protect us in their own human haste in frailty of fear.

I could only imagine the pain and suffering of this child, yet the nurse must have suffered a greater deal of remorse looking back at her ways of trying to protect that child. I trust they both were permanently damaged for life. One for her failed challenge to save the royal grandchild for the coming possible wrath of the new king and another one in both physical and emotional realm. However the story is not finished here. This story is continued in the 9^th chapter of the book of the 2^nd Samuel. Here are few of its details.

“After King David Summoned Mephibosheth, the son of Jonathan the son of Saul, he came to David and fell on his face and prostrated himself. And David said, “Mephibosheth.” And he said, “Here is your servant! “ David said to him, “Do not fear, for I will surely show kindness to you for the sake of your father Jonathan, and will restore to you all the land of your grandfather Saul; and you shall eat at my table regularly.”

Again he prostrated himself and said, “What is your servant, that you should regard a dead dog like me? This response from the late king’s grandson is the core of our discussion tonight. Even though this is an Old Covenant story, yet we learn many lessons about the true identity of godly men’s character, which represents their identity with God and His eternal virtues of love and goodness for His subjects, even when they no longer believe  that they have any worth and value before God and men. Mephibosheth a lame man had lived in this condition for almost all of his life. Machir the man who had become his adopting parent after the death of Jonathan his father and Saul his grandfather had cared for him as a child being lame, but God had yet another great surprise for him of which he had no idea. But the fact in Mephibosheth’s eyes were the years of his suffering from being lame from his both feet and a constant fear of execution by which he lived daily by

This new king called David. Can you even try to understand the pain in this young man’s life carried with him from childhood? Can you even try to think the magnitude of his low self esteem? This was a man with a huge amount of inner turmoil, even though an heir to the royal throne yet abandoned like a total nobody and that with a constant fear of death. I believe this fear alone was enough to mentally cripple him. As with many, before we are physically incapacitated we are mentally driven there. In this I am reminded of the children of our former Shah of Iran, who two of them were driven to committing suicide. Just like the late Shah’s younger son who was very young when his father left the seat of monarchy being exiled to be driven out got mentally challenged, so could have been with  Mephibosheth I presume. Why am I thinking in these lines, since when King David sent for him and found him his response to the king’s act of kindness was why, since your servant is  nothing but a dead dog. Here is a man who is in his lowest point in life, yet the Lord remembers him as his vessel of glory. King David in offering to show favor to him on behalf of his oath to Jonathan and his faithfulness to his father King Saul was demonstrating God’s unconditional love to them in oath. The covenant of love and friendship between Jonathan and David was in force much after Jonathan’s death, and in this Christ atoning death could be reminded to us, by which we are placed in a higher state of love and the unmerited favor with God. What King David promised to do for Mephibosheth was a complete act of unmerited favor and it was more validated when he meaning Mephibosheth called himself a dead dog before the king.

Sometimes God has to allow our pride and human self-esteem to dissipate so much before his uncommon favor begins to flow in our lives. God hates arrogance and loves to extend grace to the humble. He many times wait until His people whom He wants to bless become broken in more than one way, before He pours on them the blessing of the kingdom. While they believe they are self deserving and outright righteouss in their own eyes they are not yet ready for God’s abundance in their lives, since they would not see it as mercy, but an answer to their boldness of their prayers and that in self arrogant human pride. The scriptures say God hates the proud and gives grace to the humble. This young man had a healthy prospective in regards to his unworthiness in receiving so much favor. Ofcource today’s physiological teachings which are rampant even in the Church would have a lot to argue with me. In today’s teachings of the last day Church such a humble position is considered as irrelevant and as a sign of weakness. Men in of these days want to be carried away in God while they are living in prideful arrogance of the flesh. However the Lord works absolutely opposite to what men think. He once has tasted the bitter sting of the pride in Lucifer’s rebellion and He will oppose any signs of it when it is surfaced in His people. When feeding the five thousand Jesus first took the bread towards heaven and blessed it. This spiritually could signify a believer when first is saved, but secondly after blessing it for durability and sustenance in trials He brakes us, and it is only then when the Lord gives us away to blessings or begins to carry us for kingdom blessing’s. A man could not be truly favored with many blessings, when God sees in his heart there are many unchallenged issues in regards to lack of  true humility. Remember the prophetic scriptures of Hosea chapter 2 especially starting from verses 14 to 17. “Therefore, behold, I will allure her, and bring her into the wilderness, and speak tenderly to her.
2:15  I will give her vineyards from there, And the valley of Achor for a door of hope; And she will respond there, As in the days of her youth, And as in the day when she came up out of the land of Egypt.
2:16  It will be in that day,” says Yahweh, “That you will call me ‘my husband,’ and no longer call me ‘my master.’
2:17  for I will take away the names of the Baals out of her mouth, and they will no more be mentioned by their name.

Here once again the Lord says He wants to bless us like David did with this young man, but not until after we are saved and had gone to the valley of trouble. Meaning not after all prideful arrogance is discovered and confessed by us. When we truly see ourselves not deserving anything from a good and a righteous God we would not see that happen.

And in the end coming back to Machir who was Mephibosheth’s adopting parent, this man was very rich living in Lo Debar by today’s Jordan river, but David gave the Land that Ziba was planting in it as an inheritance to Mephibosheth. This act of extreme kindness spoke of the power of restoration of all things, when the Lord sees that the climate of our  life is fit for it the He sends true blessings. David being a type of The Lord Jesus gave this man the land that was taken away from him in the past. Along with this David said to Mephibosheth that from now on you would eat bread at my table, which was to mean a restorative and redemptive act in placing him back on the royal position for the rest of his life. To live as one of the king’s son, and even to eat at the king’s table. All these are the exact virtues that are in our Lord Jesus Christ. We are redeemed and restored to royalty when we least expect it to happen, when we see ourselves as no value to Him, then He does it.