I have come to find that one of the common denominators of the human race is the table. No matter your ethnicity or your social class or your beliefs. We all sit at the table and eat.
So I think there is something sacred about eating at a table. It’s through eating at a table Annie and I have been able to build the most relationships. It’s through the table we have been able to give and receive love. It’s at the table that we have been able to pray and encourage others. And it is at the table where we have been able to introduce people to Jesus.
Long ago there was a story about a different table, it involved a man by the name of David and another man by the name of Mephibosheth. David was the King and Mephibosheth was a crippled man who happened to be the son of David’s best friend Jonathon. The story can be found in 2 Samual 9:
“David asked, “Is there anyone still left of the house of Saul to whom I can show kindness for Jonathan’s sake?”
Now there was a servant of Saul’s household named Ziba. They summoned him to appear before David, and the king said to him, “Are you Ziba?” “At your service,” he replied.
The king asked, “Is there no one still alive from 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 lame in both feet.”
“Where is he?” the king asked. Ziba answered, “He is at the house of Makir son of Ammiel in Lo Debar.”
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 honor.
David said, “Mephibosheth!”
“At your service,” he replied.
“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.”
Mephibosheth bowed down and said, “What is your servant, that you should notice a dead dog like me?”
In this story David is looking for someone from the family of his friend Jonathan that he can show kindness too. He finds out that there is a son of Jonathan by the name of Mephibosheth. He is crippled in his feat, he is technically an enemy of the King because he’s related to Saul and he is afraid and self-loathing. Yet, because of his friend Jonathan, David shows him kindness and lets Mephobosheth sit and eat at his table, the Kings table. Mephibosheth did nothing to deserve that kindness. It was a free gift.
“So Mephibosheth ate at David’s table like one of the king’s sons.” 2 Samuel 9:11
We have all been in the same place as Mephibosheth – scared, spiritually crippled, and an enemy of God. Yet God, in his great loving kindness has prepared a seat for us at his table, not because of anything that we have done, but because what his son Jesus did for us.
Hundreds of years later a descendent of King David walked the earth, his name was Jesus. And He spent the last years of his life, eating and drinking with tax collectors and sinners. Healing the sick and teaching the people. He was constantly eating at the table with the people in society no one liked. Eventually he was hated by the religious leaders of his time and accused and put on trial for crimes he did not commit. He was treated terribly, yet was the most innocent of all. He was nailed to a cross and bruised for our transgressions. But three days later he rose again defeating sin and death. All those who put their faith in him will have everlasting life, and a seat at the Kings table.
So God is offering all of us a seat at the table, not because of anything we have done, only for the sake of his son Jesus and what he did.
–
Brett Balsley, GEM Missionary
If you’d like to support Brett and Annie as they serve with GEM in Juquila to share the gospel with this unreached town, you can do so HERE. You can also contact them directly to talk further about what it means to be on their support team and find out how you can be praying for them!