ARE YOU LIVING BELOW THE BAR?

Preparing for a message on an entirely different subject, I ran across this short little passage in 2 Samuel 9:11 (NIV)…“So Mephibosheth ate at David’s table like one of the king’s sons.” 
I just love some of the Old Testament names. They are nearly impossible for a southern Illinois boy like me to pronounce without needing to change my shirt. Anyway…I hadn’t paid a lot of attention before to Mephibosheth, and I thought this might be a good time to try to find out just who is the world is Mephibosheth,…and whatever in the world possessed his momma to give him such a name? Well, I can’t answer the second question, but I read something in John Ortberg's "The Me I Want to Be" that might be able to shed some light on the first.

Mephibosheth was a man who was living way below his potential. He was the grandson of King Saul, and he also was the son of Prince Jonathan. Yet, Mephibosheth lived like a pauper. We find in 2 Samuel 9 that when he was a boy, his nurse dropped him while fleeing from their enemies. As a result, he was crippled in both feet.

When David began his reign as King of Israel, he wanted to know if there was anyone in Jonathan’s household to whom he could show kindness. Jonathan had been David’s best friend and he loved him as a brother. A servant told David about the crippled Mephiboseth, and he was summoned to the king immediately. Now, Mephiboseth lived in a place called Lo-Debar which means “a pasture less land.” It is a good thing I am not called upon to translate these names, because to me the natural (and certainly very unofficial) translation of Lo-Debar has just got to be “below the bar”…Get it?

Mephiboseth was indeed living below the bar. He was the grandchild of a king, but he was living in a pasture less land like a pauper. When he came before King David he said, “What is your servant, that you should notice a dead dog like me?”  Wow!…a dead dog like me? David didn’t even bother to answer him. He simply turned to his servant and commanded that all the land that had been Saul’s be given back to his grandson, and that Mephibosheth should eat at the king’s table everyday.

Maybe you are walking around like a crippled because of something that has happened to you as a child. Maybe you feel like a “dead dog.” And yet, our King…our Almighty God is looking for ways to bless you, and to restore all that has been taken away from you, and invite you to feast at His table everyday.

Mephiboseth was a grandchild of King Saul…he was a potential heir to the throne. But, he saw himself as nothing more than a “dead dog”…unworthy to receive even the smallest crumb of kindness from King David. But, it was David’s desire to restore to Mephibosheth all the land that would have been his inheritance, and invite him to feast at his table daily. You see…Mephibosheth didn’t see himself as he really was. He was living “below the bar” while in reality, he was royalty. A dead dog?….REALLY?…. I think not!

How about you? Do you see yourself as you really are? You are a chosen, dearly loved, child of God. You have been blessed with every spiritual blessing. According to the words of the Apostle Paul in Ephesians 2, “…you were once an alien and stranger …having no hope…and without God in the world. But, now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off… (maybe even “below the bar”) have been brought near by the blood of Christ!”

YOU, MY FRIEND ARE A CHILD OF THE KING!


Father, how often we walk around with an emotional limp like a wounded animal, while the truth is,… I am a child of the King and I should act like one! Thank you for inviting me to feast at Your banquet table every day by feeding my soul from Your Word and drinking in the Holy Spirit’s power. In Jesus’ name…Amen