How was Mephibosheth from the Bible a good example of strong faith and perseverance? What can I learn from his story?

Mephibosheth, after he met with King David, is a type of every believer in Christ. Everyone who believes in God the Father of our Saviour Jesus Christ falls into one of two groups based on two stages of Mephibosheth's life:

1.       Before he met with David and lived in a place called Lo Debar (meaning “no word” or “no pasture”)

2.       After he met with David and ate continually at David's table.

But first, a quick background to help us see the foundation for the above: here's what Christ did on resurrection day as He walked with the two despondent disciples (Cleopas and his companion) on the road to Emmaus in Luke 24:27-

“And beginning at Moses and all the Prophets, He expounded to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning Himself."

That same evening, Jesus appeared to the disciples in Jerusalem (the same Luke 24;) check out what He did in verse 45 (MSG)- “He went on to open their understanding of the Word of God, showing them how to read their Bibles this way.”

The New Testament hadn't been written at this time. Paul who wrote most of the NT was not saved yet. Christ teaches us to read the Scriptures by expounding in all the Scriptures the things concerning Himself. All.

From Moses’ lifting up the serpent in the wilderness (a picture of Christ lifted up on the cross for our salvation from sin and death - John 3:14-16) to David's victory after Goliath's demand for “one man” to fight him on behalf of Israel (by one Man's obedience many will be made righteous - Romans 5:19,) and our ongoing walk in the Spirit reflected in Abraham (God the Father) sending his servant (the Holy Spirit) to get a bride (the church- you and I the bride of Christ) for Isaac (Christ our Bridegroom,) the Old Testament is filled with shadows/faith pictures that have as their substance our Saviour Jesus Christ as well as our salvation and life in Him.

By God’s grace, when we study the Old Testament, we get to see these faith pictures; we get to see Christ — our love story with Him and how our salvation is entirely by Grace through faith.

Here's the Mephibosheth connection.

See our Salvation (Jesus Christ) brought out of the shadows in the life of David (a picture of God the Father) who cut a covenant with his beloved Jonathan (a picture of Jesus Christ who came to save the world as the Son of Man.) Recall that in the Book of Genesis, the Lord God cut a covenant with Abraham. But He put Abraham to sleep when the time came to seal the pact as Abraham would never have been able to uphold his end of the covenant. Christ took Abraham's (and our) place and died the death that we all should die to freely give us life. Now see 1 Samuel 20:42:

"At last Jonathan said 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 town."

This "forever" covenant between David and Jonathan is a picture of the "forever" covenant that we who believe have with God our heavenly Father through Jesus Christ. Just as Jonathan's son Mephibosheth was a beneficiary of the covenant blessings only through Jonathan and not by anything that he did, we who are in Christ are beneficiaries of God's covenant blessings only through Christ Jesus our Lord and Saviour.

Saul (a picture of Adam and mankind in general) and his son Jonathan died. Jonathan left a son behind- Mephibosheth (a picture of the world that God so loved.) When Saul's house heard that their king was dead, they feared for their lives. Was this not David that their father Saul had tried to kill several times? Surely David must hate Saul's household. They had no idea about the sorrow in David's heart at the news of the death of Saul and his beloved Jonathan. They thought David was coming to unleash his wrath on them. So they fled. This is a picture of many who profess Christ today thinking that God is still angry with them and wants to punish them for their sins and those of their fathers when all He wants to do is pour out His love and save.

With sycophants going about killing Saul's family members in the name of David and against David's wishes, even Joab, David's army captain, who murdered Abner of the house of Saul for his own personal vendetta (see 2 Samuel 3,) Saul's family members were certain that David wanted to kill them. How wrong they were!

Joab misrepresented David to the house of Saul with his killing of Abner, the same way many preachers today wrongly present God as a hard, angry Taskmaster who is just waiting to catch you in sin and whose desire is to rain punishment on the sinner. David's heart was to bless Saul's house just as God's heart is to bless mankind. He does not want any to perish but He wants us to have everlasting life. He gave His own beloved Son to die for us because He loves us so. But because of the preaching of a mixed message that is neither Law nor Grace (neither cold nor hot) by false preachers in many churches today, many churchgoers are oblivious of God's love for them and His desire to save the world from a well-deserved judgment in that He gave His own Son to die for us.

Such preachers wield the letter that kills (law) and throw accusations like Satan the Accuser right from the pulpit, killing their congregation softly with the law that they tell them to "obey, or else...." and threats of God's wrath for failure to obey. Such never point you to Christ as Saviour from sins. They tell you to save yourself from your sins, or else. These killers are those who condemn the struggling sinner that God loves and sent His Son to save, even salvation from sins.

But David (a picture of God the Father) was angry at these sycophants who thought he wanted Saul and his kin to die. He killed all those who came to give him the "good news" that Saul (mankind) was dead or to tell him that they had a hand in the death of Saul and his sons. See his response to two such men who killed one of Saul's sons in his sleep in 2 Samuel 4:9-11-

"9 David answered Rekab and his brother Baanah, the sons of Rimmon the Beerothite, “As surely as the Lord lives, who has delivered me out of every trouble, 10 when someone told me, ‘Saul is dead,’ and thought he was bringing good news, I seized him and put him to death in Ziklag. That was the reward I gave him for his news! 11 How much more—when wicked men have killed an innocent man in his own house and on his own bed—should I not now demand his blood from your hand and rid the earth of you!”12 So David gave an order to his men, and they killed them."

It is not God's wish for mankind, even the sinner, to perish but for all to have everlasting life in Christ. God does not delight in judgment. He delights in mercy.

Jonathan's son, Mephibosheth (a picture of the world that God so loved) was dropped by his nurse as they fled from the “wrath" of David who was not even in pursuit and the boy became lame in both feet. This is a picture of trying to escape God's wrath by human effort aka trying to obey the law in order to be godly, the various "fast and deliverance sessions" and good works done to escape punishment and to get right with God. This is being under law- dependence on human effort at escaping God's wrath or living a godly life. It has dire consequences. Romans 7:5 says having this old nature - trying to obey the law in order to be godly - leads to the production of "a harvest of sinful deeds that result in death" -

“When we were controlled by our old nature, sinful desires were at work within us, and the law aroused these evil desires that produced a harvest of sinful deeds, resulting in death.”

So Mephibosheth became lame in both feet. Lameness is a picture of acts of sins and imperfections in man, a consequence of trying to escape God's wrath by keeping the Law. Remember he became lame because he was trying to escape the wrath of a David (a picture of God the Father) that was not even in pursuit and whose heart was to bless the house of Saul. This is a picture of believers trying to obey the law in order to be godly and doing all sorts in order to escape God's wrath or get His blessings. Romans 5:9 tells us-

"And there is still much more to say of His unfailing love for us! For through the blood of Jesus we have heard the powerful declaration, “You are now righteous in My sight.” And because of the sacrifice of Jesus, you will never experience the wrath of God."

Also Romans 8:32- "He who did not spare His own Son but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things?"

Mephibosheth the lame (a picture of the world that God so loved) forgot or had no idea about the covenant that his father Jonathan (a picture of Christ) had with David (a picture of God the Father.) Likewise, many churchgoers are unaware of how God sees the body of Christ as righteous because of His sacrifice for us; how, because of His sacrifice, we will never experience the wrath of God and how with Christ, God gives us all things FREELY and not because we did anything to deserve it.

Mephibosheth was lame in both feet. Imagine him hearing that the one he fled from (David) hates the blind and the lame, a rumour that started when David and his men attacked the Jebusites to conquer Jerusalem. See 2 Samuel 5-

6 "David then led his men to Jerusalem to fight against the Jebusites, the original inhabitants of the land who were living there. The Jebusites taunted David, saying, “You’ll never get in here! Even the blind and lame could keep you out!” For the Jebusites thought they were safe. 7 But David captured the fortress of Zion, which is now called the City of David. 8 On the day of the attack, David said to his troops, “I hate those ‘lame’ and ‘blind’ Jebusites. Whoever attacks them should strike by going into the city through the water tunnel.” That is the origin of the saying, “The blind and the lame may not enter the house.”"

David only used the words "blind" and "lame" in a sarcastic manner because the Jebusites taunted him with those exact words, but people started peddling the false rumour that he hated the blind and the lame to the extent that “The blind and the lame may not enter the house” became a saying in Israel.

For us today, the blind and the lame in David's story represents sinners/imperfect people - aka all mankind: see Romans 3:23 -

"23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, 24 being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, "

Today, right inside the church, the descendants of those false rumour-mongers ignore verse 24 above and are still saying that “The blind and the lame may not enter the house” aka you cannot come to freely receive salvation from God through Jesus Christ His Son because of your sins and imperfections. Like the chief priests and scribes, such say that God our Father in Christ (typified by David in his story) hates the world/sinners because of their many sins and imperfections. Such contradict the most popular Bible verse: "For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son..." John 3:16.

Lame Mephibosheth (here, a picture of the sinner) the son of Jonathan (a picture of Christ) knew that twice over, there was no hope for him with David (a picture of God the Father.) He was of the house of Saul (just as Adam's sin made all of his descendants sinners - see Romans 5:19) and he was lame in both feet, not even just one foot (imperfect- all have sinned.) The message he heard was that David's wrath will fall on him if he does not do something to save himself, much like what we hear in many of our churches today. Many in the church today think that God is out to condemn and punish the sinner for his sins. But we see the truth about our God in Matthew 1:21-

“She will bear a Son; and you shall call His name Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins.”

God sent His own beloved Son to save us from our sins because He so loved us! But just like the Pharisees who dragged the adulteress to Christ expecting Him (Grace) to fail, false teachers always put up the law (what man must do to be deserving of God's blessing) as a barrier to prevent the sinner from freely receiving Christ's salvation. They take the helpless sinner to Christ and tell him to expect judgment unless he rights himself with God by himself. No amount of good works or obedience could have saved that adulteress from the death that the law demanded, just as no amount of law-keeping and obedience can save anyone today from sin and death. Christ has no condemnation for the blind and the lame aka the helpless sinner. Only salvation from sin and death.

See what is written of Christ the Root and Offspring of David concerning the blind and the lame in Matthew 21:14 -

"The blind and the lame came to Him in the Temple, and He healed them. 15 The leading priests and the teachers of religious law saw these wonderful miracles and heard even the children in the Temple shouting, “Praise God for the Son of David.””

Like David whose heart was to bless Jonathan, God's heart is to heal blind and the lame who come to Him (save His people from their sins) and He sent Jesus Christ the Son of David to do just that. But false preachers teach that His heart is to punish the sinner for his sins. Like lame Mephibosheth who thought David hated the lame, many are being led to believe that God wants nothing to do with them because of their sins and imperfections. No friend! God gave His own Son to save us from our sins and imperfections! He knows we cannot obey the law or overcome sins by human effort! Churchgoers who think they can "at least try" to not commit some simple sins have no idea that the reason why we are not committing particular sins is because God did not allow us ti get tempted beyond what we can bear in those areas. Bible Gateway passage: 1 Corinthians 10:12-13 - The Passion Translation

Recall that Mephibosheth became lame as he was trying to escape the wrath of David whose heart was to bless the house of Saul. Carried by his nurse (a picture of preachers who preach escaping God's wrath by human effort at doing things,) he was made lame and cut off from David. This is what happens when one is trying to obey the law in order to be godly and so escape God's wrath:

"For if you are trying to make yourselves right with God by keeping the law, you have been cut off from Christ! You have fallen away from God’s grace." Galatians 5:4.

Because of the wrong opinion that lame Mephibosheth had about David, he was cut off from David and dwelt in a place called "Lo Debar" meaning "no word” or “no pasture" or "not having."

But see our Abba Father's heart for the world that He so loved: David (a picture of God the Father) remembered his covenant with Jonathan (a picture of our Lord Jesus Christ who died for our sins.) God always remembers the covenant He cut with Christ on our behalf. The New Covenant that makes we who are in Christ a new creation. In 2 Samuel 9:9 David asked,

“Is there anyone still left of the house of Saul to whom I can show kindness for Jonathan’s sake?”

Many of us do not yet realise that our invitation to eat at the Lord's table is only because of the covenant that we have with God through our Saviour Jesus Christ and not our puny efforts at obedience. This is not to say that God only loves and blesses us because of Jesus’ sacrifice. Remember “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son…” He gave Christ to die for us out of love. God is the righteous Judge and His righteousness demands that every sin be punished to the uttermost. By sacrificing His own beloved Son for us, He took care of our sin problem once and for all, utterly destroying every barrier that prevented us from experiencing His lavish love.

It is for Christ's sake only that God saves us and shows us kindness, not because of our filthy rags righteousnesses from keeping the law and our carnal (fleshly/human) efforts at pleasing Him or avoiding His wrath, which will only cause lameness and death. See Romans 7:5. Remember Mephibosheth fell while trying to escape David's wrath.

Recall that at the time of David's remembrance of Saul's house, Mephibosheth was dwelling in Lo Debar, meaning "not having" or "no pasture." Also recall from Psalm 23's first few lines-

“The Lord is my Shepherd, I shall not lack. He makes me lie down in green pastures"

Mephibosheth lacked when he should not have lacked and had no pasture to lie down much less "green pastures" because he was not made aware of or he forgot the covenant that David had with his father, Jonathan. He was under a constant cloud of fear that David would visit punishment on him for being a grandson of Saul and for being lame, much like how many Christians today are more conscious of God's anger and their sins than they are about the Grace (undeserved, unearned, unmerited favour) of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Mephibosheth thought David was out to punish him but his enjoyment of David's grace was not based on what he did. It was based on Jonathan's relationship David. Believers, this is a shadow and type of the covenant that we (today's Mephibosheths) have with our heavenly Father through our Saviour Jesus Christ. In Christ, we are a new creation. The Lord is our Shepherd. We sheep can do nothing without Him. Please beware of such who teach that your salvation, including the Rapture, is in your own hands: based on what you do and not what Christ has done. If it was up to us, no one will make it. God cannot lie. The arm of flesh will fail.

The account of the meeting between David and Mephibosheth is in 2 Samuel 9. See verse 7-8-

“Don’t be afraid,” David said to him, “for I will surely show you kindness for the sake of your father Jonathan. I will restore to you all the land that belonged to your grandfather Saul, and you will always eat at my table.” 8 Mephibosheth bowed down and said, “What is your servant, that you should notice a dead dog like me?"

This is a picture of God's Grace (undeserved, unearned, unmerited favour) through Christ and Christ alone. David gave Mephibosheth all that he promised,

13 "And Mephibosheth lived in Jerusalem, because he always ate at the king’s table; he was lame in both feet."

But wait. Shouldn't verse 13 read the reverse? Shouldn't it be: "Mephibosheth always ate at the king's table because he lived in Jerusalem?"

How can always eating at the king’s table cause him to live in Jerusalem?

Living in Jerusalem is a picture of our salvation in Christ, our holiness and our living a righteous life. Many believers think we must first be holy and live right by our own efforts in order to eat at the Lord's table. Not so! Eating at the Lord's table, being conscious of His presence and love for us, is what causes us to live right. When you continue to eat at His table, even with your lameness (sins, addictions, oppression) you will be made whole! This is the story of all who received from Him when He walked the earth. From Zacchaeus the thieving tax collector to the woman with the issue of blood.

Again, 13 "And Mephibosheth lived in Jerusalem, because he always ate at the king’s table; he was lame in both feet."

Mephibosheth who was lame in both feet ate at the king's table because of Jonathan. He ate with David, even with his lameness (imperfection) that false preachers told him disqualified him from being loved by David who was alleged to have hated the blind and the lame. Likewise we who believe in Jesus Christ have been made right with God by Christ's sacrifice. We get to be one with Christ and partake of every blessing on the Lord's table, “even though we are guilty of many sins" -

"And the result of God’s gracious gift is very different from the result of that one man’s sin. For Adam’s sin led to condemnation, but God’s free gift leads to our being made right with God, even though we are guilty of many sins." Romans 5:16.

And with God's abundance of Grace and His free gift of righteousness in Christ, we never remain lame. The self-righteous who think they can cure their lameness by their own human striving at attaining godliness (be like God) reject this truth. But God's word shows us that in union with Christ, we get to live in triumph over sin and death-

"And the result of God’s gracious gift is very different from the result of that one man’s sin. For Adam’s sin led to condemnation, but God’s free gift leads to our being made right with God, even though we are guilty of many sins. 17 "For the sin of this one man, Adam, caused death to rule over many. But even greater is God’s wonderful grace and His gift of righteousness, for all who receive it will live in triumph over sin and death through this one Man, Jesus Christ." Romans 5:16-17.

Beloved of God, we don't get good to get Christ; we get Christ to get good, His kind of good! This is Grace- undeserved, unearned, unmerited favour. He saves from sin and death.

So many more faith pictured of our Lord Jesus Christ in the Old Testament: see God's love revealed in His sacrifice of His own Son for us in the story of Abraham and Isaac; the church as the bride of Christ in the story of Boaz and Ruth the Moabitess, a woman from a cursed people; our Lord God's abundance of grace to Zerubbabel and His gift to righteousness to Joshua the high priest that enabled them complete the Temple of God - the very same gifts that we have in Christ through whom we reign in life; and the Ark of the Covenant, Christ Himself! Christ (the real Ark of God) dwells in us today. In Christ, we are the Temple of God.

The Holy Spirit will teach you all things.

Believe Right and you will Live Right.