0212. Grace Designating

Grace Designating

"Jonathan hath yet a son, which is lame on his feet.

"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 Lo-debar" (2Sa_9:3-4).

Let us observe the condition of Mephibosheth. How wonderful it all is! Grace designates its blessings to one so helpless and impoverished as poor Mephibosheth, the lame son of Jonathan.

1. He was at Lo-debar. Lo-debar means "no pasture." This is just where the sinner dwells. He is living in Egypt with its onions, and garlic, and melons. He knows nothing of Canaan with its finest of the wheat, its olives and pomegranates, its milk and honey.

The sinner is "filling his belly with the husks that the swine did eat." The sinner is starving for the Bread of Life and dying in thirst for the Water of Life.

Grace stands and cries to the one who dwells at Lo-debar: "Ho, every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters, and ye who have no money come ye, buy and eat; yea, buy wine and milk, without money and without price."

Grace stands and calls to the thirsty: "If any man thirst, let him come unto Me and drink." To the hungry, grace says: "I am the Bread of Life. He that eateth of Me shall never hunger."

2. He was in the home of Machir. The word means "sold." That is where the sinner is today. Sold under sin. But Machir was the son of Ammiel, and Ammiel means, "People of God."

How striking is the analogy. Mephibosheth, a son of Jonathan, who was the son of Saul, king of Israel; Mephibosheth, who should have been heir to a kingdom–sold, impoverished.

3. He was lame in both of his feet. His nurse had dropped him as she fled with him, when the news of Saul’s and of Jonathan’s death in the battle had come to her. In her haste, she had dropped him. He was lame in both of his feet.

The sinner too is lame. He has no strength to get to God. How beautiful it all is. "When we were yet without strength, Christ died." When Mephibosheth was without strength, David sent and fetched him from Lo-debar.

God’s grace is designated toward the ungodly, the unworthy. Christ came into the pool of Bethesda, the house of God; and said to the man thirty-eight years sick, "Arise, take up thy bed and walk."

Illustration: One day Dr. Bernardo was accosted by a dirty urchin, asking admission to the shelter of his great London Orphanage. Dr. Bernardo questioned the lad: "My boy, I do not know you. Who are you? What have you to recommend you?" Immediately the youthful waif held up the threads of his torn and ragged coat and said: "If you please sir, I thought these here would be all I needed to recommend me." No wonder that the man of God caught the lad in his arms and received him. He had appealed to grace.

Autor: R.E. NEIGHBOUR