Text: 2 Samuel 9:1-7
Introduction
The story of Mephibosheth is a testimony of overnight increase. It is a story of how you can be suffering and weeping today and tomorrow you are smiling and dancing for joy (Psalm 30:5). It is a story of how you can be living with someone today because you can’t even afford to rent a place of your own, and tomorrow you are the owner of not just a house but a massive estate and different plots of land. It is a story to assure every believer that if you are truly a child of God and the King of glory is your father, your tomorrow will certainly be brighter and better than your today. The story of Mephibospeth is the kind of testimony God wants to give you and I in this season of enlargement.
Mephibosheth story is the kind of story that makes headlines – CRIPPLED MAN BECOMES MILLIONAIRE OVERNIGHT. Every newspaper and soft sell will want to carry the story. Talk show hosts would want to invite the crippled man that has had this kind of breakthrough to come and be a guest on their show. I can imagine Mephibospeth being asked on a talk show ‘so please can you tell our viewers your story. How did it happen, what did you do to experience this kind of overnight increase?’ And he would reply ‘it’s just the grace of God’. The host won’t be satisfied with that answer. She will probably say ‘I know it’s the grace of God but what did you do as a person’? The host won’t want his answer to end with it was the grace of God because most times when people say it’s the grace of God it’s assumed that they don’t want to say the whole story or they are trying to be humble. Apart from that we don’t believe that people get rich overnight. There must be something you must have done either that all your life you had this dream or vision that you would one day own an estate of your own or you have always been a very determined and hardworking person or you came from a very wealthy family. Yes, Mephibosheth came from a wealthy family being the son of Jonathan a onetime prince of Israel and grandson to Saul a onetime king of Israel, but at the time this breakthrough came to him, all that wealth had gone. Both his father and grandfather were dead and everything they had had been taken as David the new king had come to power. Neither his father nor his grandfather left anything for him in their will that we can say he had something he could survive on. He had nothing whatsoever. In fact, things were so bad for him that he was living with someone because he didn’t have money to rent or buy a place of his own.
So what happened that Mephibosheth went to bed as a poor man and woke up the next day as a very wealthy man? Today God wants to open our eyes to three simple things that can give us all round increase and enlargement.
1. Enlargement comes when God’s grace speaks for you
What is grace? Grace is simply a gift from God. It is something you get from God which you didn’t work for or you don’t even deserve (Ephesians 2:8-9). Romans 11:6 tells us that the moment you can point to something you did to get a particular, blessing, promotion or increase, grace has been completely removed from the picture. It’s no longer by grace but by works.
GRACE CAN GIVE YOU WHAT YOU DIDN’T PRAY FOR AND MORE THAN WHAT YOU EVEN PRAYED FOR: Mephibosheth's turn around, his increase and enlargement was a pure gift of grace. He wasn’t the one that asked for the estate and lands that were given him, he didn’t pray for them. It was David that asked “is there anyone still left of the house of Saul to whom I can show kindness...” (2 Samuel 9:1). We see from Mephibosheth story that grace is what gives you more than you could ever ask or imagine (Ephesians 3:20). If David had given him an opportunity to ask the king for something, anything at all, Mephibosheth wouldn’t have even asked for what David gave him. I believe that the thing that would have been uppermost in his mind, the thing he would have asked for would have been ‘now that you are the one in power and everyone knows my grandfather was your number one enemy, just allow me live in peace’.
Anytime a new government comes into power, a lot of people who occupied key positions in the former government usually go into hiding. Some seek asylum from other countries. The belief is that every new government has a witch-hunting agenda. They would want to deal or bring to justice everyone considered to be a threat to their administration or that caused problems when they were in power. It was this mindset that actually led to Mephibosheth becoming crippled and going to live in Lo Debar. When the news came that both Saul and Jonathan had been killed and David was now the one in power, his nurse picked him up as he was just a 5 year old boy at that time, for them to run for their dear lives. It was in the process of running for safety that Mephibosheth fell from his nurse' hands and became crippled (2 Samuel 4:4). This event happened many years before the day David decided to show him kindness. Now Mephibosheth was a grown man. So you can imagine what would have been going through his mind when they came to tell him that David was looking for him and had given instructions that they should immediately bring him to the king. There would have been fear in his heart as he would have been thinking at last David has discovered where I’m staying and wants to take revenge on me for all the atrocities my grandfather committed when he was the one in power. If David had given him an opportunity to ask for something, he certainly wouldn’t have said give me all my grandfather’s estate and lands or from today let me start eating with you at the king's table. The grace of God gave Mephibosheth more than he could ever ask or imagine. David did for Mephibosheth something very strange by all human standards. Today you will receive a pure gift of grace from God which will be more than what you could ever ask or imagine.
GRACE GIVES YOU WHAT YOU DIDN’T WORK FOR: Apart from the fact that Mephibosheth didn’t ask for the lands that were given to him. He didn’t work for them. The Bible tells us that he was crippled in both feet (2 Samuel 9:13). When someone wants to develop a big estate, it’s very unlikely that he will employ a crippled person to be the project manger or supervisor. Even if you want to be employed as an artisan to do menial and odd jobs on the construction site, it won’t be that easy for people to employ you. The reason being that the perception of most people even if it isn’t a true perception, is that people with disabilities will slow down the work, they can’t be very effective. So even if Mephibosheth wanted to work to have the estate and lands that were given him, he wasn’t in a position to do so. Those lands were given to him as a pure gift of grace something he didn’t work for. Today God’s grace will hand over to you a gift and blessing you didn’t work for. God’s grace will give you the kind of breakthrough you can’t even work for.
NO STRUGGLES WHEN GRACE IS INVOLVED: The estate came to him with ease without any struggles. The estate was given to him effortlessly, the person that would manage the estate and those that would work there were given to him without his having to start placing adverts in the newspaper to employ people or going through one interview after the other to get the right staff (2 Samuel 9:9-10). In one day grace handed over 26 staff to him with so much ease. What is given you by grace you don’t struggle to get. It’s good to work, it’s good to be hardworking I’m not advocating laziness here. But the reality of life is that you can labour all your life, struggle to make it and still not have anything tangible to show for all your struggling and hustling if the grace of God is not upon your life (Psalm 127:1-2). When God’s grace comes in, struggling and hustling gives way. I pray for every one of us here today that the grace of God will come into our lives and all those years of struggling and hustling will come to an end in the mighty name of Jesus.
GRACE MAKES AN ORDINARY DAY A VERY SPECIAL DAY: Another important thing about God’s gift of grace which we see in Mephibosheth's life is that God’s grace can turn an ordinary day into a very special day. David just woke up one day and asked “is there anyone still left of the house of Saul to whom I can show kindness for Jonathan’s sake”? That day wasn’t Christmas Day that we will say it was a season of giving, a season that people are encouraged to show love and kindness to other people especially those in need. It wasn’t Easter, it wasn’t David’s birthday or anniversary that we can say he was in the mood to do something nice and kind. Nor was it Mephibosheth 40th, 50th or 60th birthday. It wasn’t his golden or silver jubilee anniversary that we will say David wanted to give him something special to mark a special day in Mephibosheth life. It was just a day of grace. The grace of God turned an ordinary day into a very special day for Mephibosheth. Today may not be your birthday or anniversary, it may not be a special day or a special service like Holy Ghost Service, but because God has chosen to make today a day of grace for you, you are going to leave here with something very special, the grace of God will make today a very special day in your life.
2. The second thing we see in Mephibosheth's life is that increase or enlargement comes when covenants are fulfilled
In 1 Samuel 20:14-17, David entered into a covenant with Jonathan the father of Mephibosheth that for as long as David is alive he would show kindness to Jonathan and the kindness won’t just end with Jonathan it would extend to Jonathan’s family. So there was a covenant of kindness between David and Jonathan. It was this covenant of kindness which David made to Jonathan that he remembered many years later. It was the covenant of kindness that led to David giving Mephibosheth all the lands that belonged to Saul. Mephibosheth was increased, he experienced enlargement, his tomorrow became better than his today the day David fulfilled his covenant.
God too has entered into a covenant of loving kindness with us. In Hosea 2:18-20 NKJV God here uses the strongest kind of covenant that can exist between two people – the covenant of marriage. He says we won’t just be His children, we will be more than children to Him. We will be married to him and in that marriage, we will see and enjoy God’s loving kindness. This promise is fulfilled through Jesus. We are the bride of Christ and because of Jesus the person that binds and unites us together with God, God has covenanted to show His loving kindness to us; the bride of Christ. David showed Mephibosheth kindness not because of anything Mephibosheth did but because of the love David had for Jonathan. God shows us His loving kindness because of the love He has for JESUS not because of anything we have or have done.
In Jeremiah 31:3NKJV God says “I have loved you with an everlasting love; I have drawn you with loving kindness”. If you want a change in your life, what you need is God’s covenant of loving kindness to be established in your life. God’s covenant of loving kindness can make the sinner saved and forgiven, it can make the poor rich, the sick whole, the weak strong, the barren fruitful, the single married. It can change everything about you. It can give you all round increase and enlargement. David understood the loving kindness of God that was why in Psalm 40:11 NKJV he prayed a very serious prayer to God. He told God do not withhold your loving kindness from me. When he committed the sin of murder and adultery he cried to God “Have mercy on me, O God, according to your loving kindness” (Psalm 51:1). If you want increase, if you want enlargement, if you want a change in your life, your prayer and cry to God like David said to God in Psalm 25:6 should be God remember your covenant of loving kindness.
If David a mere human king could remember to fulfil his covenant of kindness, how won’t our God, the King of kings not remember to fulfil His covenant of loving kindness to us. Those years that Mephibosheth was suffering in Lodebar it looked like God wasn’t concerned, God wasn’t doing anything about his situation. But God was watching. God was watching him when he would be saying to himself ‘look at me, a son of a prince reduced to someone that can’t even get a place of my own’. God was watching those nights when he would be crying and saying to himself ‘it is bad enough that I don’t even have money, look at me I can’t even walk, to even get up and have my bath is a big struggle, is it not better for me to die at least I will go and rest in heaven’. God was watching all those years of pain, weeping, shame and sorrow that Mephibosheth was going through that was why the covenant of kindness came to pass in his life. The day Hagar was crying in the desert because she was running away from Sarah as the abuse and insults in the house was too much for her, God was watching. When God found her in the desert and comforted her and encouraged her to go back to her madam she told God “You are the God who sees me” (Genesis 16:3-14). The God who has seen your years of pain, weeping, shame and sorrow will extend his loving kindness to you today and you will experience increase and enlargement. He says in Jeremiah 9:24 that He is the Lord that exercises loving kindness.
3. The third thing that brings increase and enlargement which we can see in Mephibosheth life is that increase comes when you move from ‘Lo Debar’ to the king’s table
2 Samuel 17:27-29 makes us understand something about Lodebar. It is a desert land; a place with no pasture. Food is scare there. It’s not an interesting place to be.
LEAVING LO DEBAR TO THE KING’S TABLE MEANS LEAVING A PLACE OF HIDING TO A PLACE OF SAFETY: For Mephibosheth moving from Lo Debar to the king’s table meant his days of hiding were over. Mephibosheth had gone into hiding because of a new government that had come in. When David gave him an invitation to come and sit at the king’s table, this meant he was now safe; there was nothing to fear anymore, nothing to be ashamed of, nothing to hide from. Who and what are you hiding from? Are you like Adam hiding from God because of a sin you have committed and you are ashamed to come into His presence, ashamed to work for him (Genesis 3:8-10). Are you like David who at a time was hiding from his enemy? There was a time in David’s life that he too went into hiding. In 1 Samuel 19:18 he ran to Samuel to report all what Saul had done to him and they both left for Naioth to hide from Saul. In 1 Samuel 20:24 he ran to another place, he ran to a field still because of Saul. In 1 Samuel 26:1 he was hiding in a hill at Hakilah because of Saul. For a great proportion of David’s life he was hiding because his strong and hardened enemy was after him.
Are you hiding out of pain, out of shame or out of fear? Are you hiding because of sin, hiding from your enemies, hiding from people you owe money? Or is there a particular problem in your life that most times because of what you are going through, you just hide yourself in your house, you don’t even feel like talking, being with people or going anywhere. Today your days of hiding are coming to an end. God is moving you from Lo Debar that place of hiding to the King of Glory’s table; a place of refuge and safety.
LEAVING LO DEBAR FOR THE KING’S TABLE MEANS LEAVING A PLACE OF SHAME TO A PLACE OF HONOUR: Mephibosheth left Lo debar a place of shame to the king’s table; a place of honour. It was a thing of shame that the son of a onetime prince of Israel was now living with someone in one of the dry, barren parts of Israel. It isn’t everyone that can dine with the king or President. It’s an honour just a few people enjoy. Mephibosheth left Lo Debar a place of shame to a place of honour. Today because God is extending His grace and loving kindness to you, He is removing everything from your life that has caused you shame, He is removing everything in your life that doesn’t bring honour to His Holy name and God is setting you in a place of honour.
LEAVING LO DEBAR FOR THE KING’S TABLE MEANS LEAVING A PLACE YOU ARE NOT OPPORTUNE TO DISCUSS WITH THE KING TO A PLACE YOU CAN DISCUSS WITH THE KING AND GET SOME SPECIAL FAVOURS FROM THE KING: Being at the King’s table means you are close to the king and you can ask him to do certain things for you. It was while Esther was at the kings table that she asked him to spare the life of the Jews and the king granted her requests (Esther 8:1-6). Special requests are granted at the king’s table. You have special favour when you are at the king’s table. Moving from Lo Debar to the king’s table means you are being given a special kind of favour to get the answer to your requests. Moving from Lo Debar to the King’s table is an assurance that your requests will be met as requests that are discussed while at the king’s table are usually met. Things Mephibosheth could never discuss with David when he was at Lo Debar he was now in a position to discuss. Today the Lord will move you from Lo Debar to the King’s table; to a place where the King of glory will grant your requests, to a place that you will get some special favours from the King of kings that will lead to your increase and enlargement.
LEAVING LO DEBAR TO THE KING’S TABLE MEANS LEAVING A PLACE WHERE YOU ARE FAR AWAY FROM THE KING TO A PLACE YOU CAN HAVE A VERY CLOSE RELATIONSHIP WITH THE KING: If David a human king was not just concerned that Mephibosheth have lands – physical, material and financial increase but he also sit at the king’s table so Mephibosheth could be close to him and they could converse together and have a better relationship, imagine how the King of glory feels when we aren’t concerned about our relationship with Him, when we are more concerned with what we can get from God and not our relationship with God. David wasn’t just satisfied with giving physical blessings to Mephibosheth. He wanted more, He wanted a closer relationship with Mephibosheth. By agreeing to come to the king’s table and for the rest of his life eat at the king’s table (2 Samuel 9:13), Mephibosheth was committing himself to a life of walking closely with the King.
So what is the summary of Mephibosheth's story of overnight increase, of a better tomorrow? It is simply that when you agree to sit, eat, fellowship and walk closely with the king, enlargement is guaranteed; the kind of testimony you can’t even ask or imagine will be given you. It may not come how or when you want but it will surely come. Everyone who eats with the King of Glory; everyone who has a close relationship with Him, the Lord will surely increase and give a better tommorow. Leaving Lo Debar for the King’s table means committing yourself to a close and intimate relationship with the King of king’s the ultimate kind of increase anyone can ever have. For what would it profit a man to receive lands, money and all other physical blessings from the King of kings yet not have a relationship with the Everlasting King. Are you ready to commit yourself to a life of walking intimately with the King of Glory? The Lord is calling you to make that commitment today so you can have a better tomorrow.
