“CONTINUALLY”
E. C. Burr
I am just wondering, beloved, about ‘continually’. The Lord is very good to us. I think, to refer to no other occasions, that everybody who has been in the meetings last weekend would have felt that they ate at the King’s table; I think that at our fellowship meeting in February we ate at the King’s table, and that on the corresponding occasion in January we did also. I have recently been reviewing the reading with our beloved brother, now with Christ, on the Lord’s day, and there is no doubt that the King’s table was touched there. Solomon’s superintendents let nothing be wanting (see 1 Kings 4: 27). What they had in mind was the king’s table, and the King’s table is available. In the Song of Songs the spouse says, “While the king is at his table” (Song of Songs 1: 12).
Beloved, the King is always at His table; the question is whether we are there. He is always there; it is very richly supplied. There, there is nothing wanting, because He, as it were, represents in Himself all the superintendents, the princes, and the singers, and all the other servants; but He is all the superintendents and He brings what will supply His table abundantly. And Mephibosheth was there continually. Beloved, I would like to ask whether we could be there continually. Do we have to eat anything lower than the King’s table? Do we have to eat at anything lower than the King’s table? Do we have to have any other nourishment than this?
David was occupied with this thought. He said it to Mephibosheth and he said it to Ziba, and it actually happened in Mephibosheth’s case. He said to Mephibosheth, “Thou shalt eat bread at my table continually” (2 Samuel 9: 7), and he said to Ziba, “Mephibosheth … shall eat bread at my table continually” (2 Samuel 9: 10), and of Mephibosheth it says, “he did eat continually at the king’s table”. All I am really concerned about, beloved, is to raise an exercise with us all that our food might always be on this level. It requires that we contribute to it. We cannot just sit and let other people contribute to it. We are there to be contributors and also to enjoy, and to let our enjoyment be manifest. Think of what our beloved brother referred to at the beginning of the reading on Lord’s day, that he had in his mind the thought of enjoyment. The King’s table is for enjoyment, but it is “continually”. Mephibosheth dwelt in Jerusalem. He did not dwell in the outskirts, or in some village, or in some place of sorrow or reproach; he dwelt where the king was, and that is our portion, to dwell where the King is, where the King manifests Himself. The Lord is among us, and therefore we may dwell where He dwells, and we eat at His table continually.
I am attracted by this thought, and what I often feel after meetings which have been very stimulating is why should the level ever drop to
anything lower? He ate continually at the king’s table. It is not that I can say very much about it, save to seek to promote the exercise. One thing I note is that in the case of at least two kings in the Bible there was a cup-bearer at the table. Pharaoh had a cup-bearer, someone who contributed joy, and in a day of breakdown and disintegration Artaxerxes had a cup-bearer; it was Nehemiah himself, and one day Nehemiah was incompatible with the cup, that is to say, he should have come joyfully and he came with a long face. The king, of course, enquired into that, and it opens up a great deal for us, but I think the thing is to come as a cup-bearer and to come like a cup-bearer. Pharaoh’s cup-bearer was restored to his office.
What a great thing if all the cup-bearers in the city had that sense, that they have been restored to office in order to contribute joy and enjoyment among the brethren. A bit later on in Nehemiah they had abundance of wine only every ten days (Nehemiah 5: 18); but, beloved, we could have it every day. And there is no scope for a diet or anything like that at the King’s table. He ministers what He has and no one will refuse the delight of what He provides. It says of Asher “he will give royal dainties”, Genesis 49: 20. Well, the King does that; at His table there are things like that and they are for our enjoyment.
It says “he was lame on both his feet”, but you could not have noticed. How often it has been remarked on that if he was at the king’s table his feet would not be visible. Beloved, let none of us make lameness visible. If we have exercises and sorrows, and things that we carry, let us nevertheless be at the King’s table and be there in the spirit of what the King has provided for us. According to Mark’s gospel, Jesus Himself has a guest-chamber, “my guest-chamber”
(Mark 14: 14).
In “my guest-chamber”, I think, is the King’s table.
Beloved, really all I had in mind is a feeling that there would be sorrow if the level of what we enjoy on particular occasions was lost, that is, if the leaves did flutter up and merely fluttered down again. The Lord gives us the ministry to stimulate us, not to entertain us; He gives it to stimulate us in order that the testimony may be maintained in the vitality which is its characteristic. I just leave the scripture with the brethren, and would draw attention to this again, that David said it twice and that Mephibosheth enjoyed it. It was what was in David’s mind—“Mephibosheth shall eat bread at my table continually”. Well, beloved, let us see to the continuance of that.
Word in meeting for ministry, London
7 April 1981