This is it!

Monday 5-4-15  (Gobernador Costas, Argentina)

Scripture reading:     2 Sam 8-9     1 Chron  18-19      Matt 21

S.  2 Sam 9:3-6  Ziba replied, "Yes, one of Jonathan's sons is still alive, but he is crippled." "Where is he?" the king asked. "In Lo-debar," Ziba told him, "at the home of Makir son of Ammiel." So David sent for him and brought him from Makir's home.  NLT

O.  David was the exception, but it was common for kings in those days to murder all the sons of a former king to protect his future generations from usurping the throne.  Mephibosheth, Jonathan’s son and Saul’s grandson, was 5 years old when his nurse, thinking that he would be a target for murder, snatch him up and fled to save his life.  But she fell with him in her arms and seriously injured both his feet.  Apparently broken bones were not set and he grew up an invalid.  Now years later David contemplates what he would do if he could locate any of Saul’s descendants.  He sends a guard to bring Mephibosheth to his palace.

Knock-knock.  Who’s there?  It is a uniformed officer of the king.  “Does Mephibosheth live here?”  Mephibosheth thinks, “This is it!  I can hide no more.”  He is married and has a family, but the king’s authorities have finally caught up with him.  He limps over to his wife to kiss her good-bye forever and gives a final hug to each of his children.  He fully expects execution.  But David has called for him to honor him and bless him and his family.  Instead of a violent death, he is given a new life.  He and his family will dine for a lifetime at the king’s table.

A.  I immediately thought of a woman in the New Testament.  She was captured in the act of adultery by the legal authorities of Jesus’ time.  She is thinking, “This is it!  They have finally caught me.  I will certainly be stoned to death.”  She is pushed and dragged along to the Jerusalem temple where Jesus is teaching.  The air becomes tense as the authorities present their case.  The law of Moses says, “Guilty!  She must die!”  But the Judge of all the earth stoops down beside her to write with His finger in the sand… and with a few words from His sacred lips, her captors slink away in shame.  Instead of certain death she is given forgiveness and a new life.  (John 8:1-11)

A limping cripple named Mephibosheth, an unnamed adulteress woman… and a young sinner named Ralph… were each set free to begin a new life… with a reserved place forever at the “King of kings’” table.

P.  Precious Savior, what can I say?  Words cannot express it.  Just as much as the worse sinner on this globe, I deserved shame and death… but You, My Creator and Lord, filled with love and compassion, took upon Yourself my shame and death and gave me Your new, blessed… eternal life.  And I can only give You my love.  Amen.

Ralph

I’m a Child of the King

I’m a child of the King,
A child of the King:
With Jesus my Savior,
I’m a child of the King

My Father’s own Son, the Savior of men, Once wandered on earth as the poorest of them. But now He is pleading our pardon on high, That we may be His when He comes by and by.

I once was an out-cast stranger on earth, A sinner by choice, and an alien by birth; But I’ve been adopted, my name’s written down, An heir of salvation, the kingdom and crown.

Though poor on this earth, oh, why should I care? Since glorious things for me God doth prepare; Though trials abound, yet, still I may sing: All glory to God, I’m a child of the King.