“And David said, Is there yet any that is left of the house of Saul, that I may shew him kindness for Jonathan’s sake? 2 And there was of the house of Saul a servant whose name was Ziba. And when they had called him unto David, the king said unto him, Art thou Ziba? And he said, Thy servant is he. 3 And the king said, Is there not yet any of the house of Saul, that I may shew the kindness of God unto him? And Ziba said unto the king, Jonathan hath yet a son, which is lame on his feet. 4 And the king said unto him, Where is he? And Ziba said unto the king, Behold, he is in the house of Machir, the son of Ammiel, in Lodebar. 5 Then king David sent, and fetched him out of the house of Machir, the son of Ammiel, from Lodebar. 6 Now when Mephibosheth, the son of Jonathan, the son of Saul, was come unto David, he fell on his face, and did reverence. And David said, Mephibosheth. And he answered, Behold thy servant! 7 And David said unto him, Fear not: for I will surely shew thee kindness for Jonathan thy father’s sake, and will restore thee all the land of Saul thy father; and thou shalt eat bread at my table continually. 8 And he bowed himself, and said, What is thy servant, that thou shouldest look upon such a dead dog as I am? (That is a picture of all of us. Look, we were all dead in our trespasses and sins. So why would God waste His time to even look upon us? But this story is one of the most beautiful pictures of God’s Grace in all the Bible. We provided the sin and God provided the Grace!) 9 Then the king called to Ziba, Saul’s servant, and said unto him, I have given unto thy master’s son all that pertained to Saul and to all his house. 10 Thou therefore, and thy sons, and thy servants, shall till the land for him, and thou shalt bring in the fruits, that thy master’s son may have food to eat: but Mephibosheth thy master’s son shall eat bread alway at my table. Now Ziba had fifteen sons and twenty servants. 11 Then said Ziba unto the king, According to all that my lord the king hath commanded his servant, so shall thy servant do. As for Mephibosheth, said the king, he shall eat at my table, as one of the king’s sons.
What a picture of God’s Grace. My problem in dealing with this passage of Scripture is how in the world does my finite mind describe the infinite Grace of God? That’s like taking my arms and trying to hug a mountain – there’s no way to get it done. It’s like trying to describe a sunset to a blind man. So please understand with me that I am attempting to do through this message what I am incapable of doing, and that is try and describe to you the Grace of God, the unmerited favor of God. As the song Reckless Love says, “I couldn’t earn it and I don’t deserve it. Still You give Yourself away. Oh the overwhelming, never-ending Reckless love of God.”
As best as I can, I’d like to share four things with about God’s Grace from a simple man’s perspective.
GRACE LOVING
“For God so loved the world that He gave His only Begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”
“Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us, and gave His Son to be the propitiation of our sin.”
“But God commended His love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.”
This is a picture of Grace Loving – God loving the unlovable.
I have no problem at all understanding how God can love children. I love children, so I have no problem understanding how God does.
I have no problem understanding how God can love those old saints that have given their lives to serve Him and worship Him. There are some old saints of God that have had a huge impact on my life. So, I have no problem understanding how God can love those old saints.
But what I have a problem understanding, is how God could love a wretched sinner like me. That is the Gospel message in a nutshell, isn’t it? God loving the unlovable.
- But brother Joe, you don’t even know me! I don’t care – God loves you.
- Brother Joe, you don’t know what I’ve done! I don’t care what you’ve done, God loves you.
- Brother Joe, you don’t know where I’ve been! I don’t care where you’ve been – God loves you.
It doesn’t matter who you are, where you’ve been, or even what you’ve done, GOD LOVES YOU. That is Grace Loving.
GRACE GIVING
God gave the very best that He had. John 3:16, “For God so loved the world that He GAVE His only Begotten Son . . .” Grace is God giving.
I have no problem understanding how someone would donate their kidney to a loved one or donate their bone marrow to a loved one.
As a parent, I have no problem understanding how a parent would give their life for their children. I have no problem understanding that at all.
As a former soldier, I don’t even have a problem understanding how a soldier would give his own life to save his fellow soldiers.
But what I do have a problem comprehending, is how a perfect, sinless Savior would leave His throne in Glory, come to earth and die a death on Calvary’s Cross that you and I should have died.
I have a problem understanding how He who knew no sin, would take on my sin so that I could have a right standing before God the Father.
“For God so loved the world that He gave His only Begotten son . . .”
- For the righteous and for the unrighteous.
- For the saint and for the sinner.
- For the good and for the bad.
- He gave his son for the alcoholic, for the drug addicts, for the prostitutes, for the murders.
“For God SO loved the world that He GAVE His only Begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.”
Folks, that is Grace Giving.
GRACE LIFTING
When I was paralyzed in my sin. When I couldn’t lift myself out of the miry clay that had entrapped my life, God’s Grace lifted me our of the miry clay and He set my feet on a solid rock. He established my goings. He did for me what I could not do for myself.
Folks, that is Grace Lifting.
GRACE ILLUSTRATED
Now let’s look at this story in II Samuel 9 that illustrated God’s Grace. This passage was written around 1000 A.D. So, in this passage, we find that King David is sitting on his throne in his palace that he had built in Jerusalem. He is remembering, he is recalling his old friend Jonathan. Now Jonathan was the son of King Saul. King Saul had sought to kill David. Yet David and Jonathan were best friends. Before Jonathan died, he asked David to remember his family and to show mercy on his family.
And so David, remembering the promise he made, is seeking all the servants that were of the House of Saul, so that he could show mercy to them, so that he could show kindness to them – not because of what King Saul had done – but for Jonathan’s sake.
So, David calls In Ziba, who was a servant to the House of Saul. And David asked him if there were any of the House of Saul that were living so that he could show kindness to them.
Ziba says to King David (and I’m paraphrasing here), “King, Jonathan has a son who’s paralyzed and been in hiding down in Lodebar, named Mephibosheth.”
Lodebar means “A Land of no bread.” So David says to Ziba, “Well go down there and fetch him out of that dreaded place of Lodebar and bring him to me.”
Now let me give you a picture of how I see this playing out.
David, the King sends Ziba with the King’s chariot, and the Kings horses and the Kings escort to go down to Lodebar to fetch this broken little boy who was the son of his best friend Jonathan.
Lodebar was a desolate place, where I imagine this little crippled boy, whose daddy had been killed, whose momma had been killed, was sent to die alone.
So I can see this entourage arrive in Lodebar, all the folks to come out to see and they say to themselves, “Isn’t that the chariot of King David? Isn’t that the King’s escort?”
I see Ziba as he enters the house of Macchar, the son of Ammiel, and he sees that little broken boy, laying there is that unkept bed. And Ziba says to him, “I’ve been sent by the king to bring you to the Palace.”
Can you image the fear that little boy felt? Probably thinking that he was being brought there to be put to death. I can imagine him saying to Ziba, “Why would the King want me? I am broken, I have nothing to offer the king?
I can see the servants of the King as they reach down and pick that little crippled boy up in the arms of mercy and carry him to the King’s chariot and they turn that chariot around and head back to the King’s Palace.
I can see that entourage as they arrive back at the Palace and they carry that boy in front of the King’s table. I imagine that it was silent in that room as everyone waited to see what the King would say. And David said one word. He said “Mephibosheth.”
He responded, “Here I am LORD, your servant.”
David, sensing the fear in his heart said, “Son, don’t be afraid. I didn’t bring you here to harm you. I brought you here because of your father. From now on, you will eat at my table forever. From now on, you’ll be treated like one of the King’s kids.”
I am grateful for the day the LORD saw me broken in my trespasses and sin, He picked me up in the arms of Mercy and gave me a place at the King’s table. And now I’m one of the King’s Kids.
THAT is Grace Illustrated!
Fighting for My Pea Patch 