***Audio Version: The Waiting Room Audio 522
Today’s Devotional Scripture: And it came to pass after many days, that the word of the Lord came to Elijah in the third year, saying, Go, shew thyself unto Ahab; and I will send rain upon the earth. - 1 Kings 18:1 KJV
6 Now when Mephibosheth, the son of Jonathan, the son of Saul, was come unto David, he fell on his face, and did reverence. And David said, Mephibosheth. And he answered, Behold thy servant!
7 And David said unto him, Fear not: for I will surely shew thee kindness for Jonathan thy father’s sake, and will restore thee all the land of Saul thy father; and thou shalt eat bread at my table continually. - 2 Samuel 9:6-7 KJV
***Audio Version: The Waiting Room Audio 522
It’s hard to believe that God has breakthrough on the other side of our waiting moments. When looking at the issues of life, it may feel like some things are just meant to be the status quo, that they may never change as we walk through our days, as we walk through our assignments, as we walk through our tasks, and our to-do list.
Life just looks at us as we’re looking at life, and we’re wondering, have we truly walked fully in it? Have we truly walked with God? Have we truly done what we could do, or have we been overwhelmed with the issues of life and in those waiting seasons where it felt like there was no end?
After The Valley, The Brook Dried Up
The same could be said for both Elijah and Mephibosheth. Elijah, in 1 Kings 18, was just coming out of years of sitting in the valley where the Lord fed him with crows and gave him a drink from a brook. Once that brook dried up, God directed him in 1 Kings 17 to go and spend time with a widow who would make bread, and he would bless it.
Once the bread was made, there was bread in her house for many days. So here, you’re seeing that even in the transition from the valley to 1 Kings 18, that Elijah was given a pit stop with the widow who was making bread and was going to just make the last piece of bread she could for her and her son, and they were going to eat and die. So the Lord had other plans for her.
In 1 Kings 17, Elijah blesses her and spends time with her for many days until the word of the Lord comes to him now and says, Go and show thyself unto Ahab. So the waiting period there is evident that there was a time for him that even in his waiting, he was blessing the widow, right? He was, you know, blessing the widow and pronouncing divine multiplication over what little she had.
Restored After The Fall
In the second cornerstone scripture, which is 2 Samuel 9:6-7, we see the story of Mephibosheth. Now Mephibosheth is the son of Jonathan and the grandson of Saul. And when the new king came in, when David came in, when the new king comes, typically, the thing in history is that everybody from the opposing king’s line would be slaughtered. All the sons, all the grandsons, there will be no one else to take the crown.
In this case, when Mephibosheth was a child, his nurse, in anticipation that he was going to be killed, decided to pick him up and run with him, but she did not secure him, and he fell and broke both legs. So, as a victim of circumstances, Mephibosheth was crippled almost all his life. From that fall to the moment that David calls him in 1 Samuel 9, he is crippled.
He is disabled. He is dependent on alms and dependent on others to care for him, to keep him, because that was the nature of being disabled in that time. You would sit by the city gate, or you would ask for alms.
In this case, Mephibosheth was in hiding, and when David called him, his first reaction was to be afraid that he would still be slaughtered so that there could be no claim on David’s throne. However, David and Jonathan were knit together on the soul level, and Jonathan loved David as his own soul, as we see in 1 Samuel 19.
After winning the battle against Goliath, David and Jonathan were knit together by the Lord, and so that Jonathan loved David as his own soul; it’s what the scripture says.
So because of Jonathan, because of the love that Jonathan had for David and that David had for Jonathan, he showed kindness to Jonathan’s son, Mephibosheth. So after years of just dealing with life, he had actually been in this state his whole life. And so you can see that his attitude was not one of royalty. It was one of one who was dispossessed, exiled, and crippled.
And in this case, we see that that entire period was truly the waiting room because we see in 2 Samuel 9:7, that David showed kindness to him by restoring all the land that belonged to his grandfather and his father, and as you continue reading, all of the servants of Saul’s house were also given unto Mephibosheth.
So, although he had gone years without the privileges of being the son and the grandson of kings, he was indeed royalty, and David showed kindness in restoring him. So that entire period where he had to depend on others, where he was crippled in both legs, and where he was not living a life of royalty, that ended at this moment.
David ended that. That hallway moment, his entire life was just in that space where it was before the breakthrough. It was this space where he thought it was done, but God wasn’t finished yet. God had a greater purpose for him, and God had restoration in mind for Mephibosheth.
So out of love, David said two crucial things: that they restore all the land of Saul. So to restore the land meant restoring the wealth, restoring the food thereof, and the servants to work it, so there was complete restoration of property, of lineage. But then he says something that truly shows that this is more than just a transaction.
This is true restoration, even in the lineage, even in the relationship, as he says, thou shalt eat bread at my table continuously. And so to eat bread at the table of the king would be to eat as one of his own sons. So it was as if David restored Mephibosheth to the life he would have had, had his father remained alive, had Jonathan not been killed, and had David not become the rightful king of Israel.
So this is a beautiful demonstration of how God shows us his heart through the stories in scripture. Through the stories of Elijah and the stories of Mephibosheth, we can see through their stories that the Lord had more for them, that even though many might have thought that Elijah was dead, the Lord had hidden him so that they could not find him when they went searching because he pronounced that there will be no rain and there was no rain for three years.
So they were looking for Elijah, but the Lord covered him in that moment, in that season, for those years where he was simply in between, in those years where he was just waiting for the word of the Lord to give him his next instruction, and Elijah was in the waiting room.
He was in that period where it didn’t even feel like the waiting room. It was simply just being in the presence of the Lord. It was simply being covered by His Spirit. Simple. Simple restoration and the Lord kept Elijah in those years. But when Elijah came forth, he came forth with power and was able to defeat 850 false prophets at Mount Carmel in 1 Kings 18. So the Lord had a purpose for him. It was not the end for Elijah. It wasn’t the end.
And with Mephibosheth, we see that although he had relegated himself to living the life of one disabled and living that entire life of just dealing with that issue, David summarily in moments, turned him from one state of being a dispossessed heir to the king to now being at the king’s table as a son to eat continually.
So this is the grace and glory of God, that when it’s time for God to change your life, when he has on his divine schedule the moment that things will begin to change for you after seasons of rest, seasons of waiting, seasons of cultivating in your own waiting room, the Lord turns things around suddenly.
In this season, do not be afraid and do not be overwhelmed, for the Lord our God is with you. He is mighty to save and mighty to deliver. As you walk through the issues of life, as you see challenges to you, personal attacks, things that seem to undermine you, do not stop doing what God said do.
Remain on the wall. Remain in faith. Remain obedient to the word of the Lord and continue to walk that walk of faith with him, knowing that God is more than able, that he can restore everything. He can keep you in all of your ways when you walk with him and when you trust him.
The waiting room is only temporary. It’s not forever. It is easy to get lost in it when it’s years and years and years of being in that waiting room. Five years, six years, seven years, eight years, 10 years. But God is not a man that he should lie, nor the son of man that he should change his mind. What God has said is so; Numbers 23:19 shares that with us, that what God says is so, that time and distance does not change the power of His word. He is still God.
So the waiting room moments in our lives, when it’s time for them to change, we can be sure of this very thing, that the Lord will finish the work he started in us and that we can trust in him to walk fully in the word of the Lord.
Closing Devotional Prayer
My Prayer for You:
Father, in the name of Jesus, thank you. Thank you, God, for goodness and mercy. Lord, I thank you, God, that all things are being made new. I thank you for the grace and the glory of the mighty woman of God. I thank you, oh God, that every word here be pleasing to you.
I thank you, God, that as the message went forth, I thank you, God, that this morning, the word is just going to sit with her. It’s going to break up the fallow ground. It’s going to prepare her for her new season. For Lord God, you are God and Lord, you are faithful and you are more than able.
And so we know that we can’t always determine the time or the hour, but we can trust that you are with us. And as you begin to change things around, as you begin to turn the tables, we can trust that everything that we’re called to do, you’ll be right there, that we’re provided for, that we are secure, and that we are well loved. I thank you, Lord, and I pray in Jesus’ mighty name. Amen.
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