Who God Is ...105. God is a covenant person!

David asked, "Is there anyone still left of the house of Saul to whom I can show kindness for Jonathan's sake?" That was the cry of David, but it also the cry of Jesus. Ephesians 2:4 says, ãbut God - so rich is He in His mercy! Because of and in order to satisfy the great and wonderful and intense love with which He loved us.ä David was an example of the heart of God showing that He has an ache to bless His covenant people. David was a callused warrior, but he cried out to bless his blood covenant family.

2 Samuel 9:1-13 says, ãDavid asked, ÎIs there anyone still left of the house of Saul to whom I can show kindness for Jonathan's sake?â Now there was a servant of Saul's household named Ziba. They called him to appear before David, and the king said to him, ÎAre you Ziba?â ÎYour servant," he replied. The king asked, ÎIs there no-one still left of the house of Saul to whom I can show God's kindness?â Ziba answered the king, ÎThere is still a son of Jonathan; he is crippled in both feet. ÎWhere is he?â the king asked. Ziba answered, ÎHe is at the house of Makir son of Ammiel in Lo Debar.â So King David had him brought from Lo Debar, from the house of Makir son of Ammiel. When Mephibosheth son of Jonathan, the son of Saul, came to David, he bowed down to pay him honour. David said, ÎMephibosheth!â ÎYour servant,â he replied. ÎDon't be afraid,â David said to him, Îfor 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.â Mephibosheth bowed down and said, ÎWhat is your servant, that you should notice a dead dog like me?â Then the king summoned Ziba, Saul's servant, and said to him, ÎI have given your master's grandson everything that belonged to Saul and his family. You and your sons and your servants are to farm the land for him and bring in the crops, so that your master's grandson may be provided for. And Mephibosheth, grandson of your master, will always eat at my table.â (Now Ziba had fifteen sons and twenty servants.) Then Ziba said to the king, ÎYour servant will do whatever my lord the king commands his servant to do.â So Mephibosheth ate at David's table like one of the king's sons. Mephibosheth had a young son named Mica, and all the members of Ziba's household were servants of Mephibosheth. And Mephibosheth lived in Jerusalem, because he always ate at the king's table, and he was crippled in both feet.ä

Mephibosheth was limp and lame like us. His name means a dispeller of confusion and shame. He was Jonathanâs son, the grandson of Saul, who had tried to kill David. He had been living beneath his rights. He had a covenant with the king and did not know it. He was living in Lodibar, which means a place of no bread. The Bread of Life is the Word of God. If we donât know the Word, we donât know who we are. We need to know it.

One day the covenant love just hit David so hard he could not stand it. He just had to bless someone. So he called to find out who was a survivor of his covenant with Jonathan.

David made sure that Mephibosheth was served the rest of his life by Ziba and his family. They ran the farm for Mephibosheth. David poured out his entire household for this covenant, and Mephibosheth ate at Davidâs table the rest of his life.

1Samuel 18:1-4 says, ãAnd it came to pass, when he had made an end of speaking unto Saul, that the soul of Jonathan was knit with the soul of David, and Jonathan loved him as his own soul. Then Jonathan and David made a covenant, because he loved him as his own soul. And Jonathan stripped himself of the robe that was upon him, and gave it to David, and his garments, even to his sword, and to his bow, and to his girdle.ä

Questions

Did Mephibosheth deserve this?

Why do we need a Blood Covenant with a king?

We inherit curses and blessings through blood. The Law of Inheritance is that we inherit blessings and curses from our family, going back many generations.

Exodus 34 :6-8 says, ãAnd The Lord passed by before his (Mosesâ) face and called out: The Lord! The Lord God! Merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and great in goodness and truth, keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, and not leaving entirely unpunished, visiting the iniquity of fathers on sons, and on sons of sons, to the third and to the fourth generation. And Moses hurried and bowed to the earth and worshipped.ä

Romans 6: 23 says, ãFor the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.ä Galatians 5: 7 says, ãDo not be deceived, God is not mocked. For whatever a man sows, that he also will reap.ä

Both. That is why people look like their parents. But the invisible part of what is inherited in the spirit fools most people. There are two parts of a person that can have life or family inheritance.

John 3:5-6 says, ãJesus answered, Truly, truly, I say to you, Unless a man is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.ä

The spiritual life is the life that carries the inheritance of blessings and curses.

That doesnât seem fair, but there is a solution; the Law of Substitution. This is the Good News!

Example: The law of gravity keeps an airplane on the ground. But when the plane taxies down the runway fast enough another law takes over and nullifies the law of gravity; that is the law of lift. In the same way, the law of substitution nullifies the law of inheritance. This basically means that people may be born into a certain family and from that family lineage they will receive blessings and curses as their inheritance, but that those can be changed. Tribes in Africa, in American Indian culture and other Asian type societies have always looked for ways to swap or trade blessings and curses with other people.

Before the Foundation of the World, God prearranged to have Jesus crucified according to the ETERNAL Spirit, which means that the substitution principal was in effect before any man was created.

Revelation 13:8 says, ãAnd all those dwelling in the earth will worship it, those of whom the names had not been written in the Book of Life of the Lamb having been slain from the foundation of the world.ä

A good example of the law of substitution was the Passover. Exodus 12:13-14 says ãAnd the blood shall be a sign to you upon the houses where you are. And when I see the blood, I will pass over you. And the plague shall not be upon you for a destruction when I smite in the land of Egypt. And this day shall be a memorial to you. And you shall keep it as a feast to the LORD throughout your generations. You shall keep it as a feast by a law forever.ä

How does the blood do anything? I was not there when Jesus died; that blood is dried up by now. Iâm glad you asked, just hang on and find out!

The blood is eternal. Hebrews 9:14 says, "How much more, then, will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself unblemished to God, cleanse our consciences from acts that lead to death, so that we may serve the living God!ä The life is in the blood. Leviticus 17:11 says, For the life of the flesh is in the blood. And I have given it to you on the altar to make an atonement for your souls. For it is the blood that makes an atonement for the soul."

Since the beginning of creation, man was the subject of blood covenants. Adam had a covenant with God that he broke. Many primitive cultures still believe that blood covenant brothers are closer relatives than those born of the same mother. A blood covenant actually intermingles the life of both partners and creates a new common life. A marriage is a blood covenant Ephesians 5:31 says, ãFor this cause shall a man leave his father and mother, and shall be joined unto his wife, and they two shall be one flesh.ä

The blood of Jesus makes us partakers of the divine nature and He was made a partaker of our sinful nature. The result is intimacy and oneness with God!

2 Peter 1:4 says, ãThrough these he has given us his very great and precious promises, so that through them you may participate in the divine nature and escape the corruption in the world caused by evil desires.ä

Not only the divine nature, but we also become partakers of the resurrected nature, over which death has no more dominion.

We have an absolute guarantee that God will care for us. He cannot break the blood covenant! It is the most powerful guarantee mankind could ever have. It is guaranteed by the very life of Jesus, and He cannot die again!

John 6:63 says ãIt is the Spirit that makes alive, the flesh profits nothing. The words that I speak to you are spirit and are life.ä Jesus told the poor people in this chapter that they needed to get rid of their curse. They needed to eat His flesh and drink His blood. Then He made the transition to the spiritual. He said the flesh profits nothing, but My Words are spirit and they are life. Read the story in John 6:63.

Words are the only bridge of communication between the natural and the spiritual worlds.

Jesus IS the Word John 1:1-3 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was in the beginning with God. 3 All things came into being through Him, and without Him not even one thing came into being that has come into being.

Romans 10:8-11 But what does it say? "The Word, is near you, even in your mouth and in your heart"; that is, the Word, of faith which we proclaim; 9 Because if you confess the Lord Jesus, and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you shall be saved. 10 For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth one confesses unto salvation. 11 For the Scripture says, "Everyone believing on Him shall not be put to shame."

You could summarize it this way

The Power of God is in His Word

Mystery # 6

Why doesnât this always work?

In order to complete a blood covenant, it takes two deaths

Luke 9:23-24 Then he said to them all: "If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will save it. What good is it for a man to gain the whole world, and yet lose or forfeit his very self?

Deny means to say no to something. The word life used here means soul, or our will, mind and emotions. We must say no daily to those things of our will, intellect and emotions that are out of line with Godâs will and character.

Is this difficult? NO - YES ! No, it is not difficult to bow and worship a loving creator God who gave His life for you. Yes, it means giving up all rights to your own life to the Word of God and the Holy Spirit. This is not a ãreligious or churchä thing. This is becoming one with the creator of the universe.

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