Transcription
Imagine for a moment that you were the young grandson of the king of Israel. You were born into the royal family. You grew up in the plush palaces of Jerusalem. Your father Jonathan was the prince and your grandfather Saul was the king. And even as a young boy, your future was already planned out for you, already laid out for you. It was a future of royalty, privilege, wealth, status, and power. But then one day when you were just five years old, your entire life changed and all of that went away.
This story is about a man in the Bible that many Christians have probably never heard of. His name is Mephibosheth. And by the time we're done with this video, you will understand the grace of God that has been showered upon your life like you have never before. And here's what's going to blow your mind. There's a detail in this story that most Christians, even if they have read about Mephibosheth a hundred times, have never noticed. A detail that changes everything about how you see yourself in front of God. So stay with me to the end. Let's get into it.
Okay. So as always, in order to really understand and appreciate Mephibosheth's story, try to say his name three times in a row, we have to go back way back before he was even born. Because what happens to him in 2 Samuel 9 won't make any sense unless we go back and understand what happened decades earlier in 1st Samuel chapter 20. So let's set it up. Israel has its first king. You probably know him. His name is Saul. And Saul started out good, but over time his heart turned away from God. He became disobedient, jealous, insecure, paranoid. And so eventually God was like, "I'm going to reject you as the king." And so he sent the prophet Samuel to anoint a new king, a young shepherd boy from Bethlehem named David. And you know what happens next? David kills the Philistine giant Goliath. And this puts David on the map. He begins winning battles. And the people start singing songs about David. "Saul has slain his thousands, but David has slain his tens of thousands." And so instead of celebrating David, Saul became consumed with jealousy. And he decides David must die.
And so for the next several years, David is on the run. He's hiding out in caves, sleeping in the wilderness, dodging the spears that come from Saul's palace, worried that Saul and his armies would hunt him down like an animal. But here is where the story gets interesting. Because you see, Saul has a son whose name is Jonathan. And Jonathan is supposed to be the next king of Israel. And so naturally, Jonathan should hate David. I mean, at the end of the day, David is the rival. David is the threat. David is the one who is going to steal his crown right from beneath his feet. But instead of hating him, the Bible says that Jonathan loved David. Their souls were knit together like two best friends. So much so that when Jonathan discovers that his father Saul is trying to murder his best friend, he decides to protect David even at the expense of his own relationship with his father Saul.
And that brings us to a powerful moment in 1st Samuel chap 20. Jonathan and David are saying goodbye. They both know that David has got to run. In order to save his life, he's got to flee the royal palace because Saul is coming for his life. And they both know that they may never see each other again. And before they part, Jonathan asks David just one thing. Listen carefully to what he says. Jonathan asks David, "And may you treat me with the faithful love of the Lord as long as I live. But if I die, David, would you just do me this one thing? Would you promise me, treat my family with this faithful love, even when the Lord destroys all your enemies from the face of the earth?"
Did you catch that? Jonathan is saying, "David, I know one day you are going to be the king. I know you're going to rule this entire land. You are going to be in charge of everything. And I may or may not be around to even see that day. So my friend, my brother, my best friend, I'm asking you that you would make a covenant promise to me that you will always show kindness to my family and that you'll promise me under oath, under covenant, that you will provide for them, that you will protect them. My brother David, can you do that for me? Can you promise me that?"
Now, this phrase kindness or faithful love in Hebrew is the word *hesed*. And this is not some basic promise. It's actually the same word that is used for the type of love that God has for the nation of Israel and for us. This is the type of covenant love that says, "It doesn't matter what you do or how you act. I have covenanted. I have put myself under an oath to continue to love, protect, and provide for you, *hesed*." And David agrees. The Bible says they swore an oath and made a covenant together. And in verse 42, Jonathan says to David, "Go in peace, for we have sworn loyalty to each other in the Lord's name. The Lord is the witness of a bond between us and our children forever." Then David left and Jonathan returned to the home.
Do me a favor and pay attention to that phrase, "between our children forever." Because this is where the story becomes personal. You see, Jonathan eventually has a son. Now, the Bible doesn't tell us exactly when he had this son, but we know from 2 Samuel chapter 4 that Jonathan and his wife have a little boy named who? Mephibosheth. And this boy, this precious little boy is the one this entire video is about. Now, for now, just remember that everything that's about to happen to Mephibosheth, every act of kindness, every restoration, every seat at the king's table, every blessing, every protection flows out of a promise made long ago, long before he was ever in the picture.
So, now let's fast forward several years. Okay, so David is still on the run. Saul is still chasing him. And Jonathan is still walking that impossible line between honoring his father and protecting his friend. And then one day, everything changes. The Philistines, the enemies of the nation of Israel, declare war and Saul leads his army out to face them at a place called Mount Gilboa. And sadly, not only did Israel fall, but both Jonathan the prince along with two of his older brothers were killed. And Saul, wounded, surrounded with no hope of escape from his enemies, decides to fall on his own sword. Why? Because he would rather fall on his own sword than be captured by his enemy. And he dies.
In a single afternoon, the entire royal family of Israel was wiped out and it eventually reached the palace where Jonathan's wife and his little boy Mephibosheth were staying. 2 Samuel 4:4 says this. "Saul's son Jonathan had a son named Mephibosheth who was crippled as a child. He was 5 years old when the report came from Jezreel that Saul and Jonathan had been killed in battle. When the child's nurse heard the news, she picked him up and fled. But as she hurried away, she she she dropped him and he became crippled."
Can you imagine what young Mephibosheth is experiencing? In one day, he lost his father, Jonathan the prince. He lost his uncles. He lost his grandfather. And now, as this nurse is panicking, thinking that it's only a matter of time before the new king, David, who they anticipate to take the throne, is going to come and try to destroy the only living heir of Saul and his kingdom. And in haste, she says, "We've got to get out of here. We've got to find a way to get out of here. I've got to protect this child. I've got to get him to a place of safety." And in her haste, she drops him and he becomes crippled for the rest of his life. He gets dropped.
Now, why did the nurse panic? Well, it's simple. In the ancient Near East, this is how kings and kingdoms worked. In order to make sure that there was no living heir of the previous dynasty to rise up and try to overthrow the throne of the current king, there was a custom where oftentimes the current king would make sure that all living heirs of the previous king were executed. And so this nurse understood that. As a matter of fact, everyone in the household of Saul knew that David was going to be the next king. They also knew that Saul had dedicated his life to try to destroy David. And so, the assumption is that if David is going to be the next king and he's on the throne, he's going to be coming for us. And so, we've got to get to safety.
I don't want to rush by this tender moment too quickly. So, let's just sit with it for just a moment. His life was altered because of the decisions of the family members who came before him. Here's the first lesson. Our lives can be negatively impacted by the decisions of those before us. His grandfather failed God. His grandfather had been rejected as king. His grandfather was jealous and insecure and paranoid and as a result had hunted David like an animal for years. And now because of his grandfather's sin and the fallout from his grandfather's choices, this little boy's body would never work right again. And maybe you're watching this video and you can relate to Mephibosheth. There are things that just don't seem to be working right in your life right now. Maybe it's your parenthood. Maybe it's your singleness. Maybe it's your business. Maybe it's your marriage. Maybe it's your purity. I don't know what it is for you because primarily the people who were supposed to care for you dropped you. Maybe it was a parent, maybe it was a coach, maybe it was a spouse, maybe it was a pastor. And even though you did nothing wrong, like Mephibosheth did nothing wrong, your life has now been negatively impacted. It's been shaped and molded because the people who were supposed to care for you and be responsible for you and your heart have carelessly handled it in a way that's left you negatively impacted. And now you are trying to figure out how to live the rest of your life with a limp.
This was the situation that Mephibosheth was in. So the nurse keeps running. She crosses the Jordan River, heads east away, far away from Jerusalem. The Bible tells us in 2 Samuel 9 that she brought Mephibosheth to the house of a man named Machir, the son of Ammiel. And the town where Machir lived is called Lodebar. You see, the meaning of this city, this name carries more weight than you would think. In Hebrew, the name Lodebar is actually two words. The word "lo" means no or not. And the word "debar" can actually mean three different things and all three of them are loaded. You see, *debar* can mean word. So Lodebar could mean "no word." A place where the word doesn't reach. A place of silence. A place where you've been forgotten. *Debar* can also mean thing. So Lodebar means "no thing" or "nothing." A place where you have nothing. But *debar* can also mean pasture. So Lodebar could mean "no pasture." A place with no provision, no green grass, no place to feed, a barren place. And so when you put these three meanings of Lodebar together, it's clear that Mephibosheth, the boy who was born in the palace, the grandson of the king, is now hiding in a place of nothingness. And this is where Mephibosheth would grow up. This would be where he would live out what he thought were the remaining days of his life. And so he makes his home there and years pass. Well, he gets married and he even has a little son of his own, a little boy named Micah. And he had lived there for so long, he stopped expecting more out of life. He got comfortable in Lodebar. Although he deserved and was destined for more, he settled in Lodebar.
Here's my next lesson. Don't settle for Lodebar. Some of you watching this video, you've settled for a life far beneath where God wants you to be. You've been hanging out in your own personal Lodebar, convinced that God is done with you and that nothing will ever change in your life. So why even try? Why should I try to date? I'll never get married. Why should I try to keep myself looking as best I can because nobody's going to want me? Why should I try to start that business? It'll just fail. Why try to lose weight? I'll just gain it back again. Why try to get out of debt? I'll never pay it off. Lodebar, a place where you just live beneath the purpose that God has for you. And the longer you stay in Lodebar, the more Lodebar starts to feel like home.
But notice what happens next in his story. While Mephibosheth was settling into Lodebar, something was about to happen back in Jerusalem that he had no idea was coming. And it was going to change his life forever.
All right. So now let's turn our attention from Lodebar to Jerusalem and several years have passed and a lot of things have changed. David is no longer running for his life. He's no longer hiding in caves, no longer dodging spears. He is now the king. The crown that God promised him through the prophet Samuel, David is now wearing it. The throne that Saul once sat on, David is now sitting on it. The kingdom of Israel is finally completely in David's hands. And by every measure, David has arrived. And it's right at this moment when David has every reason in the world to forget that promise he made to his best friend Jonathan in 1st Samuel 20 decades ago. But most people would have long forgotten. But not David. Not the man after God's own heart. It says in 2 Samuel 9, "One day David asked, 'Is anyone in Saul's family still alive? Anyone to whom I can show kindness for Jonathan's sake?'"
Now watch what happens next. It says, "He summoned a man named Ziba, who had been one of Saul's servants." "'Are you Ziba?' the king asked. 'Yes, sir, I am,' Ziba replied." The king then asked him, "Is anyone still alive from Saul's family? If so, I want to show God's kindness to them." Ziba replied, "Yes, one of Jonathan's sons is still alive. He's crippled in both feet." "'Where is he?' the king asked. 'In Lodebar,' Ziba told him. 'At the home of Machir, son of Ammiel.'" Don't miss that detail. Even though Mephibosheth is hiding in Lodebar, the king knows how to find him.
Let's keep going. "So David sent for him and brought him from Machir's home." So the king's men, they they they get on the road. They they cross the Jordan. They make their way to Lodebar and they walk up to a house in a forgotten slum and they knock on the door. And on the other side of that door, sitting in a place that meant no word, no thing, no pasture, was a man who had no idea that the king of Israel was about to change his life. Can you imagine what may have been going through his mind? He's probably thinking four words: "They finally found me." And on the road from Lodebar to Jerusalem, I can imagine that his heart is pounding. He's probably thinking that there is a strong possibility that he may never see his wife and his precious son Micah again because he knows that when a new king sits on the throne, it's the custom to execute all living heirs of the previous king. This was the moment he was hoping to avoid for the rest of his life.
And so they arrive in Jerusalem, a city he hasn't seen since he was 5 years old. And so here he is, unable to walk. He is he's he's carried to the king's palace and brought before the throne of David. Verse 6 says, "His name was Mephibosheth. He was Jonathan's son and Saul's grandson. When he came to David, he bowed low to the ground in deep respect." David said, "Greetings, Mephibosheth." Mephibosheth replied, "I I am your I I am your servant." He doesn't just bow. He falls down. He shows King David every possible sign of submission, every possible sign of surrender. He's thinking, "I I know what's coming. I know it's coming, David. I I won't fight you. I'm sorry. I promise. Just just just whatever you're going to do, just do it quickly."
And then David opens his mouth and speaks some of the most beautiful words in the entire Old Testament. He says, "Don't be afraid. I intend to show kindness to you because of my promise to your father Jonathan. Mephibosheth, I will give you all the property that once belonged to your grandfather Saul, and you will eat here with me at the king's table."
Wow. Did you catch the very first words out of David's mouth? "Don't be afraid." Notice that the first thing grace takes away is fear. He's on the floor. He's waiting to die. And the first words to him are, "Don't be afraid." Then he says to him, "Mephibosheth, I will show you *hesed*." Now, no doubt Mephibosheth perked up because he he knew what that word meant. Love based on covenant, loyalty, kindness. As a matter of fact, I'm giving you back all of the land that once belonged to your grandfather Saul. And on top of that, you're going to stay here with me now, Mephibosheth, you and your family, your whole household in my palace, eating at my table like one of the royal sons.
Now, I want you to put a pin in that line, "You will eat at the king's table," because we're going to return to it in just a moment. But here's the lesson. When you've experienced grace, you are under a divine obligation to extend it to others. Now, you would think that Mephibosheth would rise up and celebrate and say, "Praise the Lord. Today is my day." But no, instead, we have some of the saddest words ever recorded in scripture. Verse 8 says, "Mephibosheth bowed respectfully and exclaimed, 'Who is your servant that you should show such kindness to a a a dead dog like me?'"
Mephibosheth calls himself a dead dog. Now, I know many of you watching this video, dog owners, dog lovers, but in the ancient Near East, dogs were not pets. Dogs were not man's best friend. They were scavengers. They roamed the street eating garbage. They were considered unclean, and they would certainly never be allowed into the palace. So to call somebody a living dog was already insulting. But a dead dog was the lowest insult you could throw at someone. And this is how Mephibosheth sees himself. Despite being born into royalty, he sees himself as a dead dog. No value, no use, no purpose. Unworthy. Unclean, unlovable, undeserving. That is how Mephibosheth saw himself. He was saying, "I don't deserve anything more than where I'm at right now."
Here's your lesson. Stop seeing yourself as a dead dog when the king calls you a son or a daughter. I need to pause here because so many Christians, they may not even realize it. They have a dead dog mentality. You don't believe you're worthy of love. You believe you've done something or something has been done to you that disqualifies you from God's best for your life. You don't deserve happiness like other people experience. You don't deserve forgiveness. You see, David saw Mephibosheth as royalty, as the son of his best friend Jonathan, but he saw himself as a dead dog. And in the quietness of our minds, we often might think, "God could never use me after what I've done. If people knew who I really was and what I've done, I'll never be able to be fully known and fully loved." Or, "God, I'm just an addict. I don't deserve to serve you." But what I love is that no matter how Mephibosheth saw himself, it didn't change what David was getting ready to do for him. He saw himself as worthless. And David said, "You're worth everything."
So much so that I'm going to restore the land that has been taken from you from your grandfather Saul. Notice the next verse. "Then the king summoned Saul's servant, Ziba, and said, 'I have given your master's grandson everything that belonged to Saul and his family. You, Ziba, and your sons and servants are to farm the land for him to produce food for your master's household. But Mephibosheth, your master's grandson, will eat here at my table.'" Ziba had 15 sons and 20 servants. Then in verse 11, Ziba replied, "Yes, my lord the king. I am your servant and will do all that you have commanded." And from that time on, Mephibosheth ate regularly at David's table like one of the king's own sons.
This is such an important revelation that the Holy Spirit inspired it to be written four times in this passage: verse 7, verse 10, verse 11, and verse 13. But there's a detail in this story that I told you about earlier that most Christians miss that we cannot skip over. You see, when Mephibosheth sat down at King David's table, when he took his place among the king's own sons, when he was treated like royalty, when he ate the same food the princes ate, his crippled feet were hidden underneath the table. Think about that for just a moment. Mephibosheth was still crippled. Even though grace had been extended to him, he had not yet been healed. Yet what everyone in the room saw was the son of a king. Because what was crippling him was hidden, out of sight, covered under the table. You see, above the table: honor. Below the table: brokenness. And the brokenness was covered by the king's table.
Well, in any good story, there is always some drama. And this story is no different. But what is going to happen next is going to show you just the kind of man Mephibosheth was. So now, let's fast forward several years, and Mephibosheth has been living the good life. He's been eating at the king's table every single day. He's been treated like a son in the royal household. The grandson of Saul, the crippled man from Lodebar, is now part of David's family. And life is good. But unfortunately, David's own family is now falling apart. Absalom, David's own son, turns on his father and he begins to plot against David, his own father. He starts to steal the hearts of the people and eventually Absalom launches a full-scale rebellion to take the throne by force. And in 2 Samuel 15, the situation gets so bad that David, the king of Israel, has to flee again. Flashbacks from when he had to flee from Saul decades earlier in his life. He has to abandon his own palace. He has to run for his life from his own son.
And this is where the story of Mephibosheth picks back up because as David is fleeing Jerusalem, the Bible tells us in 2 Samuel 16 that someone meets him on the road and it's not who you would expect. Oh, Ziba's back. So Ziba shows up and he brings supplies, donkeys, bread, wine, fruit, summer produce, everything that David's men needed on the run. And David is touched. But then David asks the obvious question, "Ziba, where where's your master Mephibosheth?" "Well, he stayed in Jerusalem," Ziba replied. "He said, 'Today I will get back the kingdom of my grandfather Saul.'"
All right. Do you see what's happening here? Ziba is straight up lying on Mephibosheth. Ziba is trying to convince David that Mephibosheth, the man David rescued from Lodebar, the man David invited to sit at his table as one of the royal sons, that Mephibosheth is now back in Jerusalem plotting to overthrow David's throne and steal the kingdom from him. Mephibosheth is being betrayed by Ziba, the very man that was assigned to serve him. Now, David in a moment of pain and stress and exhaustion, he doesn't know who to believe. He's got a lot of stuff going on. So, he makes a quick decision. It says here in verse four, "Okay, well, in that case," the king told Ziba, "Ziba, okay, fine. If that's the case, he's trying to take everything, then I give you Ziba everything that Mephibosheth owns." In one sentence, in one moment of crisis, in one impulsive judgment based on incomplete information, Mephibosheth loses everything David had given him. The land gone, the inheritance gone, the household gone. Everything that grace had restored, Ziba just walked off with it.
Couple of lessons here. First, be careful not to make important decisions with incomplete information. David made a decision that impacted generations and he didn't have the complete picture. But a more important lesson is this. When grace shows up, expect the enemy to show up too. You see, when God restores your marriage, your purity, your peace, your purpose, your identity, expect the enemy will send a Ziba or something or someone into your life to try and steal what God has restored. And it may even come from someone you never expected. Grace doesn't exempt you from the spiritual attacks of the enemy.
But my friend, hold on because the story isn't over. Eventually, Absalom is defeated. Absalom is killed. David's enemies are scattered. And David returns to Jerusalem to take back his throne. And when David crosses back over the Jordan River, guess who is there waiting for him? Waiting for him? Mephibosheth. The Bible says, "Now Mephibosheth, Saul's grandson, came down from Jerusalem to meet the king. He had not cared for his feet, trimmed his beard, or washed his clothes since the day the king left Jerusalem."
Can you picture this for just a moment? Mephibosheth hasn't bathed. He hasn't groomed himself. He hasn't trimmed his beard, washed his clothes since the day David left Jerusalem. Brother, it stunk, I mean, I I don't know how long it was, but he's been in mourning for the king who saved his life. Why does this matter? Because it absolutely destroys Ziba's lie. Think about it logically. If Mephibosheth was looking to steal the kingdom away from David, he would have been doing the opposite. He would have been grooming himself to be the next king. He would have been bathing himself. He would have been putting on royal robes trying to look like someone fit to be the next king. But instead, he did the opposite. He let himself go. He stopped caring about his appearance. He stopped caring about himself entirely. Why? Because the only thing that Mephibosheth cared about was that the king he loved so much had been driven out of his own city. And Mephibosheth was grieving. He was mourning. This is a man who loved David more than what David could do for him.
And David sees him now. He understands. And now he realizes he needs to figure out what he's going to do about this property situation because he had given everything to Ziba based on Ziba's lie. So David says, "Ah, all right. All right. All right. Mephibosheth, you've said enough." David replied, "I've decided that you and Ziba will divide your land equally between you." Now, I ain't going to lie. If I'm Mephibosheth, I'd be saying, "But hold on a second, David. That's not really fair. I mean, at the end of the day, Ziba is a liar. Uh, and he he betrayed me. I should be getting back everything that belongs to me, not just half. Why do I have to divide it with him?"
But notice what Mephibosheth says instead. "David, my king, my lord, just give all of it to him." Mephibosheth said, "I am content just to have you safely back again, my lord the king." When I read that, it broke something in me. It broke something in me and it and it surfaced this next lesson. Never love the gifts more than the giftgiver. Mephibosheth says, "David, I don't even care about the land. I don't care about the inheritance. Let Ziba have it. He can have all of it. David, I'm just content to have you home again, my king." That's the mark of a true son. That's the mark of someone who experienced the grace of God. He understood he wasn't worthy. That the king had rescued him from Lodebar, a place of nothingness. He understood that the king restored his life and he didn't deserve any of this. He understood that the King David gave him his inheritance and because he recognized that the things that King David could do for him were secondary.
Have we gotten to the point where we love the king himself more than what he can do for us? Even if the things he's given us are taken away, we still love him. And I'm I'm going to be transparent with you. I am wrestling with that. I wrestle with that. A lot of Christians today are in love with the gifts of God, the blessings of God, the open doors, the favor, the provision, the answered prayers. But what if any or all of those things were taken away tomorrow? Would we still love him? But Mephibosheth would have. He says, "David, just give it all to him. It was never about all that stuff. I just wanted you."
And this brings us to the most important part of this entire video. Because everything I've just told you, every word, every story, every detail was never just about a man named Mephibosheth. It was about you. Listen to me carefully because what I'm about to show you is going to change how you see grace for the rest of your life. This entire story was a picture. A picture painted by the Holy Spirit thousands of years ago to help you and to help me understand what God has done for us. You see, the truth is that I am Mephibosheth. You are Mephibosheth. And let me show you what I mean.
Look at this with me. Mephibosheth was born into a fallen house. His grandfather was Saul, a king whom God had rejected. The whole family was under the weight of that rejection. He didn't choose that house. He was born into it and so were we. The Bible says in Romans 5:12, "When Adam sinned, sin entered the world. Adam's sin brought death. So death spread to everyone, for everyone sinned." You did not choose to be born into a fallen race. None of us did. But every single one of us came into this world under the weight of Adam's failure. Just like Mephibosheth came into this world under the weight of Saul's failure.
Look at the next line. Mephibosheth was crippled by a fall not his own choosing. He was 5 years old. He didn't ask for that nurse to drop him. He didn't make a sinful choice that resulted in his disability. He was a victim of someone else's panic in a moment he had no control over. And so were we. We were crippled by a fall we never asked for. Adam fell and we have been limping ever since. The Bible says all have sinned and what? Fall short of the glory of God. You and I are walking around with a spiritual limp we did not choose. We cannot deny that we have it.
Let's keep going. Mephibosheth lived in Lodebar, a place of no word, no pasture, no thing, a place of barrenness, a place of silence, a place where the king's voice didn't reach. And so did we. The Bible says that we were living in this world without God and without hope. That is the spiritual Lodebar. That's the place every human being is born into. No word from heaven, no spiritual pasture, no real relationship with the king, just silence.
Next, Mephibosheth called himself a dead dog. He believed he was worthless. He believed he was unclean. He believed he had nothing to offer. And so were we. The Bible says in Ephesians 2:1, "Once you were dead because of your disobedience and your many sins." Not sick, not struggling, not weak, dead, spiritually dead like a dead dog. We could no more save ourselves than a dead dog could save itself. We had nothing to offer, nothing to contribute. We were dead.
Let's keep going. David sought Mephibosheth out. Mephibosheth didn't come knocking on the palace door. David the king, on his own initiative, sought him out. And so did God seek us. Jesus said in Luke 19:10, "For the Son of Man came to seek and save those who are lost." You didn't find God, God found you.
Next line. Mephibosheth could offer nothing in return. He was crippled. He was poor. He had no political influence. He had no wealth. He had no army. He had no status. He had nothing to contribute to David. The kindness flowed in one direction only. And so it is with us. Ephesians 2:8-9, "God saved you by his grace when you believed. And you can't take credit for this. It is a gift from God. Salvation is not a reward for the good things we have done, so none of us can boast about it." You did not earn your salvation. You contributed nothing. You did not save yourself. You did not even meet God halfway. Grace flowed in one direction only from heaven to you.
Let's keep going. Mephibosheth was restored to his inheritance. David gave him back everything that belonged to his grandfather Saul. And so were we. In Romans 8:17, "And since we are his children, we are his heirs. In fact, together with Christ, we are heirs of God's glory." Did you catch that? We are not just forgiven. We're not just rescued. You are an heir, co-heirs with Christ himself.
Next line. Mephibosheth was seated at the king's table like one of the king's sons. And so are we. Ephesians 2:6 says, "For he raised us from the dead along with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms because we are united with Christ Jesus." You have a seat right now. If you believe in Christ, you are seated in the heavenly realms around the king's table. He has set a place for you at his table and calls you a son. He calls you a daughter.
Keep going. Mephibosheth's restoration was based on someone else's covenant. He didn't make the covenant. He wasn't even born when it was made. He benefited from a promise that David made to Jonathan long before Mephibosheth ever drew his first breath. Now, do you remember at the beginning of this video when I told you to hang on to that detail? Do you remember when I said a covenant was made for him before he was even born? Here's where it pays off. Because Ephesians 1:4 says what? "Even before he made the world, God loved us and chose us in Christ to be holy and without fault in his eyes." Before the world was made, before the stars were lit, before Adam was formed, before sin had ever entered the picture, God chose you in Christ. A covenant was made for you before you were born. Grace for you was secured before you ever drew a breath.
And finally, Mephibosheth's crippled feet were hidden under the king's table. And my friends, so is your brokenness. Colossians 3:3. And we'll end here. "For you died to this life, and your real life is hidden with Christ in God." Your sin is covered. Your shame is covered. Your past is covered. Your limp is covered. And when the Father looks at you, he doesn't see that brokenness only. More importantly, he sees the son. The tablecloth of Christ's righteousness covers what's still broken about you.
Now, do you see it? Do you now see yourself in Mephibosheth's story? This story was never about just him. It was about the grace of God. It it was about the most beautiful picture of the gospel in the Old Testament. It's my story. It's your story. It's the story of every Christian who's ever been saved.
All right, my friend. If you've enjoyed this video and the grace of God moved you, then I want to encourage you to watch this video next. It's a video that I did on the most wicked queen in the entire Bible. And no, it's not Jezebel. Most Christians, once again, have never heard of her name. And here's why I want you to watch it after this video. Because she is the exact opposite of what David did in this story, where David showed *hesed* to a rival's grandson and seated him at his table. This queen slaughtered her own grandchildren to seize the throne for herself. She did the unthinkable. And what God did to preserve his covenant in the middle of her wickedness is one of the most shocking stories in the entire Old Testament. And you can find that video here. I'll put a card up here, put a link in the description. Go watch it next.
Until then, if you want me to do more videos like this on different Bible characters, where I dramatize them and extract different biblical lessons and principles that we can apply to our lives, let me know. Like this video. Give me a big thumbs up. And let me know which character you want me to cover next. Hope you enjoyed. I'll see you in the next video. Bye for now.