Spring of Hope

The story of David and Mephiboshet is not well known, but is a powerful story. Mephiboshet was the son of Jonathan, the grandson of King Saul. Even though Saul considered David to be an enemy and wanted to kill him, Saul’s son Jonathan was a friend of David. One time, Jonathan and David made a covenant before God that they would always love each other and be good to the family of each other for years to come (1 Samuel 20:16). Mephibosheth was five years old at the time when both King Saul and Jonathan were killed in battle with the Philistines. The nurse took Mephiboshet and ran in panic and fell and the boy became lame in both feet. David later became king and after assuming his throne, he asked his servants to locate anyone from Jonathan's family to show kindness. They located Mephibosheth living in obscurity and in poverty in a remote and barren corner of the kingdom. When he was taken before David, Mephiboshet thought, “I’m going to be killed because of Saul.” But David ...

Around 600BC, King Nebuchadnezer of Babylon invaded Judah and people were taken as captives to Babylon. The city of Jerusalem and the temple were destroyed into a heap of stones. Around 500 BC, a leader by name Zerubbabel went to rebuild with about 50,000 Israelites but got discouraged and quit. Later, Haggai and Zechariah tried and could not finish. Around 400 BC, the Persians took over Babylon and Nehemiah was chosen as a cupbearer to the King and later a governor (Nehemiah 1:11). His life in a foreign land was going well. When he heard about the condition of Jerusalem, he sat down and wept; he fasted and prayed. Then gathered his leaders and said, "come, let us rebuild Jerusalem so that we will no longer be in disgrace". When news of shame and disgrace come upon us, as much as we should fast and pray we must rise up and regroup. We can look at the burned stones and be 'content with the way things are' or we can decide to use the stones to build monuments of su...