Keep The Blessings Flowing!

I have been young, and now am old; yet I have not seen the righteous forsaken, nor his descendants begging bread.  He is ever merciful, and lends; and his descendants are blessed. Psalm 37: 25, NKJV

Dear Lord, please help us to learn from Your Word, the things that are necessary for our salvation; for Christ’s sake!  Amen

What a wonderful promise!  Notice the snowball effect – from parent to child.  This observation by David sounds absolute, or greatly generalized.  Many of us would argue that this is not a completely true statement, because we have knowledge of the contrary.  And in our experience we are right.  But in David’s experience he had seen this principle in effect.  I prayerfully submit the following for your consideration:  Under spiritual conditions of cause and effect, this is the way it is.  Under normal conditions, in a world where justice is not the code of conduct, we could witness the contrary.  That is not proof that God’s Word has failed.

In the friendship of David and Jonathan, I believe, we have a very good example of this principle at work.  In 2 Samuel, chapter 9, we find a rather tender story of the kindness that David the king, showed to Mephibosheth, one of Jonathan’s sons.  The Bible says that Mephibosheth was “lame in both his feet” (13).  When he was five years old, word came from Jezreel that his father Jonathan, and his grandfather Saul had both been slain in battle.  As his nurse, in haste, picked him up to flee, he fell, and became lame (2 Samuel 4: 4).  Years passed.  Then one day, God moved upon David’s heart, to go and inquire about any possible survivors among Jonathan’s offspring.  That was when he discovered that his friend Jonathan had a son  that was being cared for by Ziba, one of Saul’s servants.

One of the most touching stories of friendship in the entire Bible, I believe, is that of David and Jonathan.  I can never read about it without becoming teary eyed!  Jonathan put his head on the chopping block in order to protect the life of David.  What was so unusual about that, (and unusual it was, indeed!) was the fact that the next in line for the throne of Israel, in the event of Saul’s demise, was Jonathan!  Jonathan knew that God had already chosen David as king, in preference to his father, so as long as David was alive, he had not the slightest possibility to become king (1 Samuel 20: 31).  But that was not important, because “he loved [David] as he loved himself ” (16, NIV).  They had made a covenant between the two, that David would never “cut off [his] kindness from [Jonathan’s] family” (15).  Now the time had come, and God reminded David of his oath.  Because Jonathan had been “merciful to David,” and God would “bless his descendant.” 

“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…. [David said to Mephibosheth], ‘Don’t be afraid… 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: 3, 4, 7).

I mentioned the snowball effect at the beginning.  Let me close with a thought to that effect:  Remember Saul in his better days, when, at the beginning of his reign, he rescued the people of the city of Jabesh who had rejected him from being king over them (1 Samuel 10: 27; 11: 4-11)?  After Saul rescued them, the other Israelites wanted to have them killed, but Saul refused, “…Saul said, ‘No one shall be put to death today, for this day the Lord has rescued Israel” (13).  God remembers the good we have done, even if we should turn away from Him later in life.

So Saul’s blessings fell upon Jonathan.  Jonathan’s blessings fell upon Mephibosheth.  May God help us to start the blessings flowing!