Lo Debar means a place of no bread. Jesus is the bread of life. The Word is our bread. Lo Debar to us is the place of no Word. In the story, Mephibosheth lived in Lo Debar. He was withering away because he had no Word, even in view of the fact that he was the lawful recipient of a blood covenant with a king.
Jesus connected the Word with His covenant love.
John 6:50-51 says,
50 “This is the bread which comes down from heaven, that one may eat of it and not die.
51 I am the living bread which came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever; and the bread that I shall give is My flesh, which I shall give for the life of the world.”
Later, in verse 6:63, He said that His Word is His flesh and blood, the transmitter of the covenant.
Jesus made it clear that the Word was the main issue.
Matthew 4:4 says,
4 “But He answered and said, ‘It is written, ‘Man shall not live [sustain their very life] by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.’”
Most people do not understand covenant, especially blood covenant. It is the strongest relationship that exists and it carries the most responsibility! Also, most people do not relate the blood covenant to the Word of God.
David blessed Mephibosheth out of covenant love. The word for covenant love is checed. Checed, a Hebrew word, means covenant love. In Greek the same covenant love is agape. The First Testament gives checed a very weak translation, usually calling it loving kindness or mercy. It can only be described in terms of a blood covenant.
Psalm 23:6 says,
6 “Surely goodness and mercy [checed] shall follow me all the days of my life…”
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). That was the cry of David, but it is also the cry of Jesus.
Ephesians 2:4 (Amplified Bible) says,
4 “But 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.”
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.
Who was Mephibosheth?
It all started with the tremendous love between David and Jonathan. Jonathan was King Saul’s son. Saul was jealous of David who had been anointed king. Saul was trying to kill David. In spite of this tension, David and Jonathan had a strong respect and a deep love for one another. I don’t think that we can even compare it to something in our lives today, because they had a different culture then.
Jonathan, Mephibosheth’s father, had made a covenant with David.
1 Samuel 18:1-4 (KJV) says,
1 “And 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.
2 And Saul took him that day, and would let him go no more home to his father’s house.
3 Then Jonathan and David made a covenant, because he loved him as his own soul.
4 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.”
Notice, as we have discussed in previous lessons, how the weapons were swapped in the blood covenant.
Many times, as recorded in 1 Samuel, Jonathan incurred his father’s wrath because he constantly defended and protected David. His father Saul had even threatened to kill Jonathan, his own son.
David was a man after God’s own heart, I believe, because he had such strong respect for the blood covenant.
Do you recall when David was going to fight Goliath that Saul offered David his belt of armour? That was a covenant act. However David did not need a covenant relationship with Saul in order to kill the giant, he referred to the fact that he already had a covenant with God the creator! He called Goliath an “uncircumcised Philistine.” In other words, “You may be a giant, but you don't have the covenant that I have with my Giant.”
The following is some historic background about fighting with Philistines, and war in the divided kingdom.
There was intense war between Israel and the Philistines during this time. Also during this time, Saul was continually trying to kill David out of jealousy. Even though David had been anointed king, he respected Saul’s present position as king and submitted to him. David passed up several chances to kill Saul out of respect for Saul’s position. Perhaps he had respect not only for the office of king, but for the covenant he had cut with Saul’s son Jonathan.
In 2 Samuel 1:1, David learned about the death of Saul and Jonathan during the war. Saul had seen his defeat with the Philistines, so he asked an Amalekite to kill him.
After the death of Saul and Jonathan, David was anointed king over Judah, but Saul’s family anointed Ishbosheth king over Israel. Abner was the commander of Saul’s army. He anointed Ishbosheth (his name means, to boast or act proudly) king because he was Saul’s 40 year old son.
The kingdom was divided, and Israel and Judah went to war. Joab was David’s general, and Abner was the general for Israel. They had bitter battles in 2 Samuel chapters 2-3. I believe that this war was a continuation of Saul’s hatred, and his family’s hatred for David.
Joab ended up killing Abner, but only after Abner came to David to try to make peace. David not only felt bad about Saul and Jonathan dying, but also about Abner. How could David have such a love and respect for the people who were trying to kill him?
Ishbosheth was murdered (2 Samuel 4). David was made king over both kingdoms.
It is with this bloody background that fear hit the house where Mephibosheth was living and the nurse dropped him and made him crippled for life. Fear of David caused the accident. But David was not after them to hurt them. David actually mourned for Abner, and Saul (2 Samuel 3:33). This was the heart of checed, covenant love.
It was with this historic background that King David cried out to bless someone in Saul's household.
Can you imagine after all of the abuse David received from the house of Saul, that he now is aching to bless one of Saul’s descendents?
2 Samuel 9:1-13 (NIV) says,
1 “David asked, ‘Is there anyone still left of the house of Saul to whom I can show kindness for Jonathan’s sake?’
2 Now there was a servant of Saul’s household named Ziba. They called him to appear before David, and the king said to him, ‘Are you Ziba?’ ‘Your servant,’ he replied.
3 The king asked, ‘Is there no-one still left of the house of Saul to whom I can show God's kindness?’ Ziba answered the king, ‘There is still a son of Jonathan; he is crippled in both feet.’
4 ‘Where is he?’ the king asked. Ziba answered, ‘He is at the house of Makir son of Ammiel in Lo Debar.’
5 So King David had him brought from Lo Debar, from the house of Makir son of Ammiel.
6 When Mephibosheth son of Jonathan, the son of Saul, came to David, he bowed down to pay him honour. David said, ‘Mephibosheth!’ ‘Your servant,’ he replied.
[Makir means salesman, a merchandiser, as if to sell a daughter into a marriage of slavery. Ammiel means a clan of the people of God. Put them together and we see that we can be people of God who are sold into the slavery. This is Lo Debar, the place of no supplies, no bread of God, a place where our own self sufficiency has made us slaves to Satan even though we are children of God.]
7 “‘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.’
8 Mephibosheth bowed down and said, ‘What is your servant, that you should notice a dead dog like me?’
9 Then the king summoned Ziba, Saul’s servant, and said to him, ‘I have given your master’s grandson everything that belonged to Saul and his family.
10 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.’ (Now Ziba had fifteen sons and twenty servants.)
11 Then Ziba said to the king, ‘Your servant will do whatever my lord the king commands his servant to do.’ So Mephibosheth ate at David's table like one of the king’s sons.
12 Mephibosheth had a young son named Mica, and all the members of Ziba’s household were servants of Mephibosheth.
13 And Mephibosheth lived in Jerusalem, because he always ate at the king’s table, and he was crippled in both feet.”
Mephibosheth’s disability is a picture of our spiritual disability. His name means a dispeller of confusion and shame; one that scatters and breaks into pieces. Apparently God was using this name to indicate that when one finally gets to Jerusalem and understands that he has a blood covenant with the King, all the shame of the past is dispelled and broken into small pieces and cast out forever. Shame is a killer because it lies against who God made you to be. Shame attacks your very being and says that you will never be worthy or any good. You may have done some terrible things, which brings guilt, but God is not casting shame on you. He says to you that you are His, that you are righteous and His son/daughter.
Remember, Mephibosheth was Jonathan’s 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 Lo Debar, which means a place of no bread. He was actually living in fear of David, the king of Judah and Israel. His maid dropped him when he was young as the family was fleeing. They thought that they were fleeing the wrath of David. However they were mistaken.
The Bread of Life is the Word of God. If we don’t know the Word, if we are living in Lo Debar, we don't know who we are.
One day, the covenant love 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.
He sent for Mephibosheth to tell him of his love. Jesus is sending for us to tell us of His love, and He is sending us to tell others of His love for them. I can only imagine the entourage that the king must have sent for Mephibosheth. I can only imagine what fear Mephibosheth must have felt when he saw all of the army and weaponry of Israel at his front door.
David made sure that Mephibosheth was served the rest of his life by Ziba and his family. They ran the farm for Mephibosheth. David already had possession of Saul’s wealth; the rest of Saul’s family had pretty much melted into the desert. David could have kept this wealth, but he chose to exercise his covenant love, his checed.
David exercised all of his kingly authority for this covenant, and Mephibosheth ate at David's table the rest of his life.
Did Mephibosheth deserve this? Why do we need a blood covenant with a king?
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 intermingles the life of both partners and creates a new common life.
Do you cut your wrist and drink blood? No! The spiritual blood is transferred by words!
John 6:63 says,
63 “It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing. The words that I speak to you are spirit, and they are life.”
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 His Words are spirit and they are life. Read the story in John 6.
Words are the only medium that transfers life between the spirit and natural realm.
Luke 4:4 (KJV) says,
4 “And Jesus answered him, saying, ‘It is written, That man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word of God.’”
Jesus is aching to bless you and me with His covenant love. It says in Ephesians 2:4 (Amplified Bible) that He is aches to “satisfy the great and wonderful and intense love with which He loved us.” His primary method of transferring His life, His blood, His blessings, is through His Word. He does not just dispense blessings like in a cafeteria line; today I need funds, next week I need healing, etc. No. He dispenses Himself, His very life; that is the blessing! He does that through His Word anointed by the Holy Spirit. He reserves His blessings for the simple, the childlike, the desperate, and hides them from the proud and religious intellectual people.
God delivers everything we need to make it in this life and everything we need to develop godly character by giving us His promises in the Word. Then we stand on that Word until its own power does the work. That is blood covenant! That is His power and not ours! That is grace!
2 Peter 1:3-4 says,
3 “as His divine power has given to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him who called us by glory and virtue,
4 by which have been given to us exceedingly great and precious promises, that through these you may be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.”
Listen closely! This is a mystery that Jesus unveiled for us.
Mark 4:11 says,
11 “And He said to them, ‘To you it has been given to know the mystery of the kingdom of God; but to those who are outside, all things come in parables.’”
Notice, He said the mystery, not a mystery.
Here is how you can move from Lo Debar to Jerusalem.
This parable in Mark chapter 4:1-20 is one of the most important passages in Scripture. It shows us how the Word of God transfers covenant benefits to us.
Mark 4:1-15 says,
1 “And again He began to teach by the sea. And a great multitude was gathered to Him, so that He got into a boat and sat in it on the sea; and the whole multitude was on the land facing the sea.
2 Then He taught them many things by parables, and said to them in His teaching:
3 ‘Listen! Behold, a sower went out to sow.
4 And it happened, as he sowed, that some seed fell by the wayside; and the birds of the air came and devoured it.
5 Some fell on stony ground, where it did not have much earth; and immediately it sprang up because it had no depth of earth.
6 But when the sun was up it was scorched, and because it had no root it withered away.
7 And some seed fell among thorns; and the thorns grew up and choked it, and it yielded no crop.
8 But other seed fell on good ground and yielded a crop that sprang up, increased and produced: some thirtyfold, some sixty, and some a hundred.’
9 And He said to them, ‘He who has ears to hear, let him hear!’
10 But when He was alone, those around Him with the twelve asked Him about the parable.
11 And He said to them, ‘To you it has been given to know the mystery of the kingdom of God; but to those who are outside, all things come in parables,
12 so that ‘Seeing they may see and not perceive, And hearing they may hear and not understand; Lest they should turn, And their sins be forgiven them.’’
13 And He said to them, ‘Do you not understand this parable? How then will you understand all the parables?
14 The sower sows the word. [The sower is God, through Jesus, the Word and the Holy Spirit, perhaps through the agency of man]
15 [heart condition number one, a hard heart] And these are the ones by the wayside where the word is sown. When they hear, Satan comes immediately and takes away the word that was sown in their hearts.”
Satan is real!
His only real weapon is to steal the Word. He is a liar and deceiver. He knows that the Word defeated him, so he convinces people in general and even Christians that they do not need to live on the Word of God. He portrays it as a rulebook, a guide to live by, something we are obligated to read in order to be good Christians. He hides the supernatural qualities of the Word.
Mark 4:16-17 says,
16 [heart condition number two, a shallow heart] “These likewise are the ones sown on stony ground who, when they hear the word, immediately receive it with gladness;
17 and they have no root in themselves, and so endure only for a time. Afterward, when tribulation or persecution arises for the word’s sake, immediately they stumble.”
Tribulation and persecution will come after you receive the Word.
Satan attempts to make us think that we did not hear the Word. He makes us become ashamed of the Word through persecution. He tells us “See, the Word is not working.” However if you know that this is the script of life, then you can endure. Tribulation of some sort will come into your life when you depend upon the Word!
Mark 4:18-20 says,
18 [heart condition number three, a worldly heart] “Now these are the ones sown among thorns; they are the ones who hear the word,
19 and the cares of this world, the deceitfulness of riches, and the desires for other things entering in choke the word, and it becomes unfruitful.
20 [heart condition number four, an honest heart] But these are the ones sown on good ground, those who hear the word, accept it, and bear fruit: some thirtyfold, some sixty, and some a hundred.’”
Luke 8:15 says,
15 “But the ones that fell on the good ground are those who, having heard the word with a noble and good heart, keep it and bear fruit with patience.”
As we practice intimacy with Jesus through prayer and His Word, He plants the Word-seed into the ground of our hearts, and His purposes are realized through us in the fruit bearing process.
Here in this parable we see all three applications of the Word.
Sit, Walk, and Stand. Sit represents our position in Christ as in Ephesians 2:6. He made us who we are by His own blood. We had nothing to do with that. That is our identity. Walk is in Ephesians 4, which states that now that we know who we are, we should walk or live our lives in accordance with who we really are. That is our responsibility. When we do not measure up in our lifestyle, we repent and the grace of God kicks in with its power to make our lives conform to the Christ in us. Stand is in Ephesians chapter 6, and indicates that we are in a war to keep the Word planted in our hearts. We cannot stand unless we are living right, and we cannot live right unless we know who we are. They are all interdependent.
The Word is our seed or promise, and we must Walk and Stand in order to keep Satan from stealing our seed. When all three combine, fruit comes. Fruit of character, fruit for temporal needs and fruit for reaching others for the Kingdom.
This is the overcoming process.
It usually entails much pain. Seeds, even though silent, work with much violence.
Matthew 11:12 says,
12 “And from the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven suffers violence, and the violent take it by force.”
The word violence has a Greek definition that infers the type of violence that occurs when something is growing.
Knowing that the seed has been planted in your heart is like being pregnant. You can praise God for the victory before you see the actual event take place, just like a pregnant woman can praise God for her baby before she sees it with her eyes. If you know it is in there, take care of it and it will bring fruit.
Faith comes by hearing the Word of God. Faith cannot be worked up by trying hard. Faith just comes when the Word is planted in your heart. You just know that you know! Satan will try to steal the Word and cause an abortion with doubt, but you can stand!
Hebrews 11:1 says that faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not yet seen. The evidence is the Word. You know that there is a seed substance in your heart.
This whole thing seems so unreligious and simple, and it is. It is not for the intellectual and the religious; it is for simple childlike desperate people. Jesus even said that He has hid the Kingdom from the wise and revealed it to children. I have seen people in the very worst conditions one could imagine, bear fruit for their lives following this lifestyle.
Do you think that God would say, “Oh my goodness, I can’t bless those people in war-torn Africa, there are no jobs there?” Do you think He would say, “Your situation is just too difficult and complicated for Me?”
Does the small fish worry that the sea will run out of water, does the sparrow worry about there not being enough air to fly?
No, God is saying, “In Lo Debar you will die, but come to Jerusalem like Mephibosheth did and eat the Word of covenant at the King's table.”
If you are not trusting in God’s Word to be planted in your heart, in order to supply your every need, you are living in Lo Debar. You need to move to Jerusalem!
Now pack your bags and move from Lo Debar to Jerusalem. You will be blessed and be a blessing.
Mephibosheth’s last days.
2 Samuel Chapter 16:1-4 reveals the story of how Ziba, Mephibosheth’s servant successfully attempted to steal his inheritance, the entire estate that belonged to Saul, his grandfather. Ziba lied to David about Mephibosheth, accusing him of attempting to take the king’s throne from David.
David went along with it for awhile until he encountered Mephibosheth personally as told in 2 Samuel 19:24-30. The record was set straight and the lie that Ziba told was revealed. David, in an effort to restore the inheritance to Mephibosheth, declared that Saul’s estate be divided between Mephibosheth and Ziba. Mephibosheth answered with a most remarkable statement. He told David to let Ziba have the entire inheritance, and that all he wanted was to be with David. He was just happy that David had survived and that being with him would be enough.
What have I to do any more with idols?
When you have spent time with Jesus, the King, houses and lands lose their luster. Just to be with Him is enough! That is what the blood covenant can do for you!
Click here to return to the beginning of this book Click here to Go to Chapter 18