(Covenant Series) 1. David and Jonathan — Al Whittinghill

Several years ago, who lived in another country and all his life had dreamed of moving to North America. And for years and for years he saved his money to go there, and all he could really afford was transportation by ship.

And that was a dream of his, to move to America. And so he saved and saved, and finally when he bought his ticket, years later, it took every penny he had to buy this large price ticket. Well, so he didn't have any money for necessities on the trip.

He put some cheese and some crackers into a little bag and went onto the ship and went to his little cabin. He couldn't go what he thought was first class in the upper deck, but so he would go in and eat his little cheese and crackers and then walk around the deck.

And as he walked, he would look into the stateroom and he would see all these people in there with their bottles of champagne and their caviar and their wonderful food and steak and all these things. And his mouth would just drool.

And he would then go back to his little room and have cheese and crackers. And he did this for the length of the entire journey, almost a week. And finally, when they docked at the port in North America, he was getting off the ship and the captain said to him, sir, we are so sorry that you haven't been with us during the voyage.

Have you been ill? He said, oh, no, no, I haven't been ill. I've just been in my my room. Well, why haven't you joined us for the meals? The captain asked. And the man said, well, you don't understand.

You see, it took all of my money to just buy the ticket for this voyage. And the captain had this pained look on his face as he looked at this man and said, I'm so sorry. Oh, didn't someone tell you that the meals are included in the price of your ticket?

And the old man, you see, had bought the ticket and he had really paid for the meals and they were his. He just didn't really enjoy them, even though they were included in the package. Well, that's like a lot of Christians today in a real sense, this picture who are in the family of God and who long to experience the abundant life of the Lord Jesus.

And they go to church and they admire as they see people who are rejoicing in the Lord and having victory. And they long for this. But then they go back and they live on cheese and crackers, you might say, in terms of their Christian experience.

And they don't really know that in the price of redemption, the banquet was paid for. And everything that Jesus died to give us is ours if we'll just dare to believe him for it. Sitting with Jesus at his table was included in the price of redemption.

We don't have to have a cheese and cracker mentality. So tonight I'm asking the Holy Spirit to make that really clear to us as we look in the word of God at what I believe is one of the richest truths in the word of God.

And that's a big statement and a big claim, but I believe it really is. And it will bless your heart. I believe like it's blessed my heart through the years. Let's just pray and ask the Holy Spirit to open our eyes.

Father, we commit to you now this time and ask you to move us out of that cheese and cracker existence as Christians into that abundant life, into the meat that God has for his children that the world knows nothing about, the heavenly delights, the banqueting table of Jesus, the Jesus food served by him.

David’s Confidence in God’s Covenant

Move us out into those wonderful things that only you can give. And we just thank you in advance in Jesus name. Amen. If you turn in your Bibles to Psalm 25, I want to read several verses from there, and then we'll turn quickly to another Psalm and read verses from there.

And we'll be moving rather quickly tonight. Someone said once the Lord never moves in a hurry, but when he moves it's quickly. So we have scriptural justification for not being in a hurry, but moving quickly through the scriptures, Psalm 25, and it's David's confidence in prayer.

What is the basis of his confidence here as he's praying for help and sustenance? He says in verse one unto thee, O Lord, do I lift up my soul? Oh my God, I'm trusting in thee. Let me not be ashamed. Let not mine enemies triumph over me.

Yea, let none that wait upon thee be ashamed. Let them be ashamed, which transgress without a cause. Show me thy ways, O Lord. Teach me thy paths. So he's calling out to God to be taught the ways of God.

Lead me in thy truth and teach me for you are the God of my salvation. On thee do I wait all the day. Remember, O Lord, your tender mercies and your loving kindnesses. Remember that word, loving kindnesses, for they have been ever of old.

Remember not the sins of my youth nor my transgressions. According to thy mercy, remember thou me for thy goodness sake, O Lord. Good and upright is the Lord, and therefore will he teach sinners in the way.

The meek will he guide in judgment, and the meek will he teach his way. We're the paths of the Lord, our mercy, and they are truth, unto such as keep his covenant and his testimonies. For thy name's sake, O Lord, pardon my iniquity, for it is great.

What man is it that reverences or fears the Lord? Him, he, or he is the one that the Lord will teach in the way that he shall choose. His soul shall dwell at ease, and his seed shall inherit the earth.

Verse 14, the key verse, for the secret of the Lord is with them that fear him, and he will show them his covenant. The word secret there means intimate counsel, deep understanding, personal communion, deep fellowship.

God has a secret that he wants to teach. Who does he teach it to? Those who fear him. Verse 14, it means those who reverence him, those who stand in awe of him in his person. To those who stand in awe and revere him and respect him, he will tell secrets.

God does have secrets, and he doesn't just tell them to everybody. He tells them to those that he can trust with those secrets, and those whom he can trust with this truth tonight are those who revere his name.

Psalm 111 brings this out. We read several verses, verses 4 and 5, and then we'll read verses 9 and 10, talking about his covenant. In Psalm 25, David is praying to be taught the way, and it's the way of covenant.

The secret of the Lord is his covenant, and he shares this secret with those who fear him. In Psalm 111, verse 4, he has made his wonderful works to be remembered. The Lord is gracious and full of compassion.

He has given meat unto those who fear him, and here it is. He will always be remembering his covenant. Verse 9, he sent redemption unto his people. He has commanded his covenant forever. Holy and reverend is his name.

So, the logical conclusion to those who fear him, the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and a good understanding have all of those who do his commandments. His praise endures forever. He will share things with those who respect him and teach them in the way of holiness and truth.

The Bible’s Central Theme of Covenant

I believe tonight that an understanding of the blood covenant or the covenant principle in Scripture is absolutely essential. I'm not talking about covenant theology. I'm talking about covenant as it is as an act, as it is as an institution in the Scripture.

It's possible to be blessed by God and not really understand why you're being blessed. It's very possible to receive many, many things from him without ever really understanding his word in a real sense.

He opens up the word and he opens up his character, but I may not understand it in full bearing. To understand covenant, I believe, is one of the main keys to the Scripture. If you allow the Lord to open up the covenant to you, you will begin to understand the Scriptures as never before.

In the Old Testament, Israel lost sight of what it meant to be in covenant with God, and so the prophets came and cut them with the word and had to remind them over and over, calling them back, calling them back.

Therefore have I hewed them by the prophets, it said, because they forgot the covenant that they had with God. I believe the church of the 20th century has lost sight of the covenant, the new covenant, the blood covenant.

So covenant living is a rarity today in our environment that we live in, and without this, Christianity is reduced very much in many people's experience to cheese and crackers and to a superficial thing.

It's possible not to understand but still be blessed. To rediscover the truth of the blood covenant for some of us would be the very gate to heaven for God's people. It would really be the institute that opened blessing to us.

Now, the whole Bible is about covenant. In fact, it's divided into two covenants, the Old Covenant, which means testament, and the New Testament. That's what it means. It's a Hebrew word and a Greek word that means covenant, and every single promise in the word of God is a covenant promise.

Every single relationship that a godly person has is a covenant relationship. Every single salvation that a Christian on earth is ever saved is a covenant salvation. When we pray, we use covenant words, and we may not understand it, but covenant pervades the Scripture, and if I don't understand the covenant, a lot of the Bible will really be closed and sealed to me.

Every person who preached in the Bible operated out of a revelation of the covenant, so I need to investigate this truth. Once you see the covenant, the Bible will open up to you in a new way. God's got to reveal it.

It's not just knowledge. It's a revelation. He'll have to show you, and it comes to the heart before the head. Well, let me just say some things as background, and we'll look in some Scriptures about covenant, and we can look at the whole book and find things on covenant, but union is the essence of covenant.

It's when two things that are separate become one. The closest thing we have to it in the West is marriage, but it falls short in our society because in a day when half of the marriages end in divorce, it's a caricature of what covenant really means.

Two become one. The Hebrew word bereth is very mysterious. You can look at different books, and they'll tell you what it means. Some will say that it means to cut, and that means with the shedding of blood.

Others will tell you that it means to divide, to make separate, to cut down the middle. Others will tell you that it means to bind together so that it can't come apart. It's very mysterious to cut with the shedding of blood, but in that cutting to bind together as well.

Entering the covenant is called cutting the covenant in the Bible. You'll see where it says they made a covenant, but it means in the Hebrew they cut a covenant. It's an unbreakable bond. It is a total commitment of two parties, one to another, an endless partnership, an intermingling of lives.

When two become one, they're joined in one essence. Independence turns into total dependence and reliance on one another, and there's a permanent bond that is totally unqualified. Once you're in it, you're in it, and you can never get out of it.

It's forever, and it's more sacred than my life. It is more important to honor the covenant than it is to even continue my physical existence. Now, the concept of covenant is older than man. The reason is, is because it has its roots in the Godhead.

We just read about the secret of the Lord, and it infers to a covenant made before Genesis 1 .1, how the Father swore to the Son, and the Spirit set His seal to have a vast family of children. We'll take that another week and study that in detail, but it can all be traced back to the Father heart of God.

Now, wherever you go in the world, you'll find in societies, no matter how primitive they are, traces of blood covenant, traces of men shedding blood in sacred, solemn pledge, giving their lives to one another, two becoming one.

You'll find in the Bible the Mosaic covenant, the Edenic covenant, the Davidic covenant, and on and on, different covenants. You'll find all of these, even in societies today. But in the West, it's a foreign concept.

The Bible is an Oriental book, and the Oriental mind today really understands the concept of covenant. Well, wherever you go in anthropology, you'll find, whether it be China, Australia, wherever it is, you'll find blood covenant.

Where men haven't been, quote, civilized, away from the truth of it, you'll find that it goes all the way back further than men's history, shedding of blood. Livingston and Stanley, both of these men in Africa, found the power of blood covenant when they went in and saw hostile tribes, primitive tribes, become close friends to them when they shed blood and they had a total difference of attitude.

There's a book that I'll be recommending in coming weeks called The Blood Covenant that will take you into these institutions worldwide that will help you if you really want to go deeper in study. Let me just take you now to in Bible days, if I were going to enter covenant with one of you, what we would do.

Symbolic Actions in Ancient Covenant-Making

And if you understand these steps that I'm going to give you now, how to cut a covenant for a Hebrew, a Semitic right, an ancient Semitic right, you would find that this would be the general way that it was done.

It would vary sometimes, but this is the basic way. And you'll see steps of these throughout the scriptures. Let me suppose that Andy Cataldo and I were going to enter into blood covenant and I would check him out very carefully before I ever did such a thing, just like he's made really sure that he's going to marry Laurie before he ever engaged himself to her.

You really make sure that this person is one you want to give your life to. And so we would check each other out and I would make sure that he had integrity and that I could trust him to give my life to.

Then we would come together in a public place or a field where we'd have witnesses, people who would witness the covenant. And as we would come together, we would know that this is an irreversible act.

We would then do certain symbolic things. I would take off my coat and give it to Andy and he would give me his coat. This would be saying all of my possessions belong to you from this day on. If you need my car, my house, it's yours as your need.

It will belong to you. All that I have is yours. And so secondly, I would take off my belt or the scriptures would say girdle doesn't mean the same thing as today, but for the ladies. But I would take off the belt as a symbol of the abdominal strength, the strength of a man.

And as I took this off, it would be saying all of my strengths are at your disposal. Andy, all of me is yours. If you need to build a house, my strength is available. I will get behind you and help you with my belt would be my weapon, which would be a sword or a bow or a spear, something such as that.

And it would be saying from now on, all of your enemies are my enemies and all of my enemies are your enemies. I'll fight for you and your enemies will know there's another half of you, even though it's invisible.

And so we would exchange coat, belt and sword. And by doing this symbolically say that all of our time and talent and ambition and strength is totally exchanged and two souls have become knitted together in a indissolvable union where two are one.

Now, then we would come to the solemn part of the ceremony where for the Hebrew, we'd take a clean animal. We would sacrifice this animal unto the Lord, and then we would split this animal right down the backbone.

They did this as late as the day in Jeremiah. You can read in in Jeremiah, chapter 34, how they cut a calf in half and tried to make a covenant with God to deliver the city. We would cut an animal right in half and make two stacks of fresh meat.

They'd be blood all over the ground and it'd be a very gory sight. It was meant to be fearful. And as we would stand there facing one another with the walls of freshly slain meat with blood everywhere, we would then walk a sacred figure eight.

I would walk around those pieces and he would walk and would say the familiar words of Scripture. The Lord do so to me and more. If I go back on this covenant, you'll find it over and over in the Bible.

The Lord do so to me and more. We'll look at it tonight, too. In other words, if I break this, let it be to me as this animal and more. And as we walk those halves of blood, then we'd stop after that facing one another.

We'd take our weapon and we'd make an incision, the barret, the cut, and blood would flow. In the Scriptures, it's hinted at when it says Jehovah has made bare the arm of his strength in the presence of all nations.

I would slice my arm and hold it up to the sky and swear by him who lives forever and ever, Mizpah. That means the Lord watch between me and thee while we are absent one from another. In other words, God, you have marked this down.

We're giving our life to one another and I would swear myself away to you. You know, we still raise our hands in the courtrooms, going all the way back to that ancient custom of swearing in the presence of God.

We still do many of these things without knowing why. You know why a bridegroom carries his bride across the threshold? You know why there's a fireplace in the living room? Well, I just salt your oats and say it all goes back to covenant.

Years and years ago, it all goes back to covenant. We'll cover it before we're through in these next couple of weeks. But then as we cut our wrists, we would make the oath and then we would clasp our hands.

In the scriptures, it's called striking the hands. Our bloods would mingle and we would become in that moment blood brothers. In some pagan societies, they would drink that blood with a cup of empty cup beneath their bloods and they each take a drink of it and they would say that they're becoming part of each other.

But the Hebrew would never drink blood such as that. But shaking hands, we still do this and we become friends and we don't make the incision. If we had to, perhaps we'd have less friends, maybe. Then after we made the incision and shook hands, we would then get salt or some dark powder, placing it in that wound.

And at that point, we would then have what we call a mark, a seal. It was the seal of the covenant. And from that day forward, that seal would remind me of privilege. He's my blood brother, but also of responsibility.

I've sworn in the name of God that I will stand for him and I will fight for him. I will be his, he will be mine and we will be blood brothers. So the seal born in my body, another half of me, it was a real mark of ownership.

Then we would exchange blessings and cursings. I would say to him, Andy, blessed are ye when you go in your house and when you come out, may your fruit be plenteous on your farm. And I would just give him all kinds of blessings.

May you have long 200 ,000 miles on your car and just pronounce all these things. May when you get married, you and Laurie be so happy and have many, many children. But then it'll end if you break this covenant.

May your tires pop every day. May your wife nag you morning, noon and night. And may you have athletes foot and and all these curses. And you know something for the Hebrew, they believe that once you spoke these things, it was done.

Remember when Jacob was blessed, he tricked his father and he says, I've spoken it. I can't take it back. The power of life and death are in the tongue. God honors those things in a very real sense. It's such a solemn time, like he honors the vows at a marriage for a man and a woman.

We would then pronounce them blessings and cursings. I would show him my bank account. He would show me his. And if you need it, it's there. That's what we do. And then there'd be a name change. I would become Al Cataldo Whittingill.

That would throw him for a loop, Italian and whatever English. And he'd become Andy Whittingill Cataldo. That would really throw him for a loop. And we would then be known as blood brothers. After we changed our name, we would then have a covenant meal, which for the Hebrew would consist of bread and wine.

I would break bread, putting it in his mouth. We still do this at our marriage ceremonies where the husband and wife put food in each other. It's a big joke, but it goes all the way back to covenant feeding each other.

And from the one cup, I would feed him. He would feed me. We'd become part of each other drinking from one cup. It's like communion in our day. But I would feed him a dual personality. We would become two becoming one.

Then there would be at the end, an exchange of gifts, something very precious, something very dear, something that was a memorial to what we had just done. In the Bible, you'll see Jacob and Laban exchanging a flock of sheep.

You'll see another place, a well being dug, Beersheba, the well of the oath, it's called. Or in another place in Abraham's day, an oak, the oak of memory, the plane of fatness. It's a covenant term. You'd find that there might be a large stack of rocks put there to be an Ebenezer to say, this is a covenant we've made, like Jacob and Laban made a large stack of rocks and then had a meal at the top of it.

That's strange, you see, unless you know what they're doing in terms of covenant. So from that day on, Andy and I would become friends. Any time you see the word friend in the Bible, it means someone who's done what we've just said.

David was the friend of Hiram, the king of Tyre. They did what we just said. They walked in covenant together. Therefore, when it came time to build the temple, Solomon called upon his father's covenant man, and he sent him all the materials from Tyre to build Solomon's temple.

You see, the Arabs have an expression that blood is thicker than milk. That means that if I'm in covenant of blood with Andy, then my relationship to him is even closer than my flesh and blood brother who nursed at my mother's breast along with me.

Blood is thicker than milk. That's why the Bible says in Proverbs 18, 24, there is a friend that stick a closer than a brother. There is a friend, one who's in covenant with you. And I have an obligation to you from this day on.

The obligation is a well-known Hebrew term called Chesed. It means loving kindness. It means mercy. It means grace. It's a it's a big, big term. But in the Old Testament, it's translated different ways.

Compassion, greatness of heart, but mostly loving kindness. Whenever you see that word, it's a covenant attitude. All of my plans must be made in light of you. All that I am must be planned in the light of you.

I'm bound to you, brother of mine, to fulfill the oath of covenant, regardless whether I feel like it or not. It's a sacred choice sworn and sealed by blood in the presence of God. So a friend fulfills all the blood covenant guarantees.

David and Jonathan’s Covenant After Goliath

Now, the example of this I want to cover is in the scripture in 1st Samuel, chapter 18. You'll never understand what we just what we're going to read unless you know what we just went through those steps.

It's the account of David and Jonathan. That's what my wife and I named our first son for, because this truth is so precious to us. Well, the background for this chapter 18 of 1st Samuel is that David, the shepherd boy, has just slain Goliath.

He's the only one in all of Israel that remembers the covenant. All the rest of them are shivering in the boots. They're afraid of the enemies of God. He's out there mocking them and saying, Oh, you bunch of women.

No offense, ladies, but you wouldn't go up against the giant either, maybe unless you knew the covenant. But as as he mocked the armies of God, David heard this and he knew the covenant, God, and he'd killed a bear and he'd killed a lion.

And he says, who is this uncircumcised Philistine that we should let him mock the armies of God? Why doesn't somebody go out there and teach him a lesson? And they said, who will do it? He says, I'll do it.

You know why he did that? Because he was trusting God and not himself. Well, he went out there and he took five smooth stones. Somebody says, why? Because Goliath had four brothers. You can check it out in the Bible.

He was ready for for anything that might come in case they came along. And he took back that sling. And Goliath says, you little punk, you're coming out against me. I'm going to make bird seed out of you.

And David said, you come to me with a spear and a sword and a shield, but I'm coming to you in the name of the living God whom you're defying this day. I'm going to take your head off and you'll be bird seed, not me.

And he threw that rock and such a thing had never entered Goliath's head before that he would be defeated like that. And as he toppled headlong, he was beheaded. Well, needless to say, it put them in amazement as they saw someone operating in covenant.

It always does when the religious crowd sees a person operating in the power of the covenant. It'll baffle them. And so King Saul says, bring that boy to me. I want to question him. They talked. And then Saul's son, Jonathan, when he saw David coming with the head of Goliath banging at his side, his heart was knitted to King David and they really became one in the spirit.

And so they made a very special arrangement here. And let's read it in the first couple of verses of chapter 18. It came to pass when he had made an end of speaking to Saul, that's David speaking to Saul, that the soul of Jonathan was knitted with the soul of David.

And David loved Jonathan as Jonathan, excuse me, and Jonathan loved him as he loved his own soul. And Saul took David that day and wouldn't let him go home anymore to his father's house. And now God's secret here.

Look at this. And Jonathan and David made a covenant. The word means blood covenant because he loved him as he loved his own soul. And Jonathan stripped himself of the robe that was upon him and he gave it to David and his garments and even to his sword and his bow and his belt.

This account will make no sense to you unless you know what we just went through. And we know that they made a covenant there and they swore sometime around this time. How do we know that? Well, because later we see over in chapter 20 some things that confirm that.

Jonathan is committing himself to David. In the making of a covenant, he's saying my allegiance is to you, David, even before my own father. And I'm yielding my right to you, David, to be king. Jonathan was a prince.

And so you know what happened. They came back to the city and as they did, the ladies were singing. Saul has killed his thousands, but David has killed tens of thousands. And Saul's ego just couldn't take it.

And so it's that javelin effect. Do you know what it is? Those who you welcome at first when they displace you. Saul threw a javelin at David while he was sitting, playing the instrument for him in the court, chasing away Saul's demons.

And so David had to run for his life and he was going to be killed. He went out of the way and Jonathan met David out in a field in the evening by prearranged signal. And there they confer as two friends.

Look at what it says in verse eight. David is speaking. Chapter 20. David is using covenant language and he's saying to Jonathan, therefore, you shall deal kindly with your servant, for you have brought your servant into a covenant of the Lord with you, notwithstanding if there is iniquity in me.

If I'm not walking in it, slay me yourself. Why should you bring me to your father? And so Jonathan went on and said some things. Verse 11. Look what Jonathan said to David. Come, let us go out into the field.

Out they go to a field, both of them. And Jonathan speaks to God and to David at the same time. A solemn pledge. Look at this. Jonathan said to David, O Lord, God of Israel, tomorrow when I've tested out my father, anytime the third day.

And if there's good toward David and I don't send to tell him or let him know and show it to him, the Lord do so much and more to Jonathan. What's he doing? Well, you can't prove it, but it seems like he may be pointing to something.

But he's calling down a curse on himself. Nevertheless, if he doesn't honor what he's saying, if it pleases my father to do evil and I'll show it to thee and send thee away, David, that you may go in peace and the Lord be with you as he's been with my father.

And you, Jonathan says to David, while I'm living, shall not just show me the kindness of the Lord that I die not, but you shall not cut off your loving kindness from my house forever. No, not even when the Lord has cut off the enemies of David, everyone from the face of the earth.

What a confession for the prince to say to a vagabond fugitive, when you become king, remember that our children are in this covenant and unborn children are to be honored. So verse 16, Jonathan made a covenant with the house of David, saying, Let the Lord require it at the hand of David's enemies.

Jonathan calls David to swear again that sworn before because he loves him. He loved him as he loved his own soul. Look at verse 23, as touching the matter which you and I have spoken. Behold, Mizpah, the Lord be between me and thee forever.

Look at verse 42. You see covenant language again. Jonathan said to David, Go in peace for as much as we have sworn both of us in the name of the Lord, saying the Lord be between me and thee forever. Between me and thee and between my seed and thy seed forever.

And there they left one another. Now, this includes children. Then this covenant is born to Jonathan is a little boy and he grows up. And during this time, David is pursued by Saul. Saul begins to tell lies to the people about David, and they begin to believe those lies.

They chase David out into the wilderness of Maon and Ziph and Ongedi. And they, as his own words, he's but a step between him and death. Saul is on his case day and night, just ahead of his clutches. David is praying and writing psalms.

And as Saul is threatening and hating David, he is determined to rid himself of David. So Saul tells lies and says, hate David, hate David. If David ever gets you, Mephibosheth, Jonathan, he's trying to lie to everyone.

He'll take your head off. He wants to be king. He distorts the character of David. So just as Saul is about to get to David and kill him, there's an incredible thing that happens. The Philistines rise up and come up in battle against King Saul and his kingdom.

Now, everyone hates David or thinks that he's a criminal, except for Jonathan. He's different. He's in covenant with David and he knows David. So as Saul leaves off his chase of David, he runs to a place called Jezreel.

And there he fights the Philistines and they lose the battle. And Saul and several of his sons, including Jonathan, their lives come to an end. They die there. Well, word comes to David in 2 Samuel chapter 1.

He says, oh, Jonathan, oh, Jonathan, exceedingly wonderful was your love toward me, greater and deeper than the love that a man has for a woman was the love. You see, it's even deeper than a marriage love.

This this kind of covenant of God that we're talking about here that Saul is that David is lamenting over. So news of this death reaches the palace back where Jonathan and Saul had lived. And the nursemaid of little Mephibosheth, who is now five years old, hears and they're evacuating the palace.

They're afraid now that King David will come and off with the head of all the intended heirs. That's what they did in those days. You'd cut off all the heirs. So you'd be king without a threat. They weren't afraid of the Philistines.

They were afraid of David. They run away. And in the process of running, this nurse, this unnamed nurse drops the little prince Mephibosheth. And as she tells about in 2 Samuel 4, for this one verse, as she's evacuating, she drops him and falls on him or something.

But he crushes his legs and he becomes a cripple from that day forth. Therefore, his name is Mephibosheth, which means despised thing. And from that day forth, he is a man who is supposed to be born for royalty.

But he's walking with a limp. He's unable to walk in the way of his intention. His legs are paralyzed for life. And surely he is ashamed of himself in that sense that he's away in a place called Lodibar.

Saul's aides take Prince Mephibosheth out to a place called Lodibar. You know what the name means? Lodibar. No brand. They take him out way out east of the River Jordan. It's a desert place. They have old black goat's hair tents and it's hot.