Focus: Change of Location

Text: 2Sam.9:23

"So Mephibosheth dwelt in JERUSALEM: for he did eat continually at the king's table; and was lame on both his feet."

Mephibosheth suffered a severe fall that cost him the loss of his legs. He was crippled on both feet by the accident. It happened while his nurse was escaping with him upon hearing that David had become the king of Israel.

She ran away with the child for fear that the new king might order for him to be killed. Ah! What we do out of fear! Fear is quite crippling. Make sure your actions are constantly and consistently prompted by faith, not by fear.

The nurse carried him to a remote place in Gilead, the east of the Jordan, a place known as Lodebar. It's a kind of hideout where David would not be able to find him. He lived there for years under the care of one Machir.

Then suddenly David remembered the house of his former master, Saul, and his covenant friend, Jonathan, and that was after the Lord had consolidated him as the king of Israel. The Bible says, "Then king David sent, and fetched him out of the house of Machir, the son of Ammiel, from LODEBAR" (2Sam.9:5).

He brought Mephibosheth from Lodebar to Jerusalem. That is change of location. God never leaves you where he meets you. God takes people from where they use to be to where they ought to be.

Lodebar means in Hebrew a place of no word, oracle or communication, no pasture or shepherd, a place of barrenness. It's a kind of good-for-nothing place - a place of lack and neediness. David took Mephibosheth from there to Jerusalem - God's own city, a place of peace and rest, and of wholeness and wellness. He lived there and fed fat from the king's table always.

The word 'dwelt' in our text means 'to permanently reside.' He wasn't in Jerusalem for a few days visit. He was brought to Jerusalem to permanently reside.

Mephibosheth experienced change of place and status. David changed his whole life from top to bottom, in and out. David adopted Mephibosheth as his son and cared for him. He restored to him everything that once belonged to his father and grandfather, both men and means. Mephibosheth lived like a king and lacked nothing.

Jesus has done much more for us. God has delivered us from the power of darkness and translated us into the kingdom of His dear Son. God has blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heaven. He has changed our condition, location and position. He has taken us from death to life, from hell to heaven, from sin to righteousness, from grass to grace, from rags to riches, from this sin-sick world to a world in which righteousness is at home. Christ has taken us from the Lodebar of this earth to the heavenly Jerusalem.

In Christ we have change of location and position, and change of life and story. In Christ the old is gone and the new has come. Thank you Jesus! We are eternally grateful. Amen.

by Bishop Moses E. Peter