The Power of Covenant Love

We are longer the outcasts of fear - we are seated at the covenant table of God the Father who has accepted us in His Beloved Son. 

“So the two of them made a covenant before the LORD; and David stayed at Horesh while Jonathan went to his house.”  1 Samuel 23:18

Although Jonathan along with his father Saul were now dead - the covenant was still in effect. Jonathan’s covenant brother was now David the King - no longer an outcast. So the survivor implored...

A Remnant

David asked, “Is there anyone still left of the house of Saul to whom I can show kindness for Jonathan’s sake?” 2 Samuel 9:1 God always has a covenant remnant - ‘Isaiah cries out concerning Israel: "Though the number of the Israelites be like the sand by the sea, only the remnant will be saved.”’ Romans 9:27 

Ziba answered the king, “There is still a son of Jonathan; he is lame in both feet.” 2 Samuel 9:3b  (Jonathan, the son of Saul, had a son who was crippled in his feet. He was five years old when the news about Saul and Jonathan came from Jezreel, and his nurse took him up and fled, and as she fled in her haste, he fell and became lame. And his name was Mephibosheth. 2 Samuel 4:4)

We are lame (with fear) in our feet - we are unable to come to Him - He must come to us. 'This is what the Sovereign LORD says: “Come, breath, from the four winds and breathe into these slain, that they may live.'" Ezekiel 37:9 

He Bids

When He bids us come He also provides the means to come.  Mephibosheth was not the only son of Saul remaining - but he was the one chosen.  “We are not chosen because we are choice - we become choice as a result of being chosen.” D.A. Carson 

“So King David had him brought from Lo Debar, from the house of Makir son of Ammiel.” 2 Samuel 9:5

“Oh God, grant what Thou commandest, and command what Thou dost desire,” St. Augustine  What the King commands He provides the will to do and the corresponding strength. For we are born again not by the exercise of our “free-will” but by the will of God. 

"All that the Father gives Me will come to Me, and the one who comes to Me I will certainly not cast out.” John 6:37

Love Conquers

For love conquers fear every time.  “There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear. For fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not been perfected in love.” 1 John 4:18 

“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.” 2 Samuel 9:7

Later when vengeance was exacted on the remaining sons of Saul for what he had done to the Gibeonites there was one who was spared.  “But the king spared Mephibosheth, the son of Saul’s son Jonathan, because of the oath of the LORD that was between them, between David and Jonathan the son of Saul.”  

A Seed 

So that a seed may sprout it is the chosen ones who remain as it was with Mephibosheth who was a son of covenant. In the Biblical narrative the ones that are taken are the ones that are destroyed. “Having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end.” John 13:1 

Chosen ones - you are children of the Covenant cut on your behalf by Great David’s Greater Son.  And He decrees to you - ‘This was to fulfill the word that he had spoken: “Of those whom you gave me I have lost not one.”’ John 18:9  

As for Me,” says the LORD, “this is My covenant with them: My Spirit who is upon you, and My words which I have put in your mouth, shall not depart from your mouth, nor from the mouth of your descendants, nor from the mouth of your descendants’ descendants,” says the LORD, “from this time and forevermore.” Isaiah 59:21 

Solus Christus