There is such a thing as divine propriety, and the action that would suit one time will not do for another. We must know that time, and let our action be in harmony with what the Lord is either doing or permitting if we are to observe the suited proprieties of the situation.
When King David was in his palace at Jerusalem, the proper thing for young Mephibosheth to do was to have his feet nicely dressed, his beard properly trimmed, his clothes cleanly washed, and be sitting in his privileged place at David's royal table, eating bread there continually as one of the king's sons; but when David was thrust forth from his kingdom by the rebellion of his unnatural son Absalom, and was an exile from Jerusalem, the suited thing for Mephibosheth, who had tasted of the royal grace of David, and had been living in his palace, was to go into mourning, and sit apart from those who had cast him out, and had usurped his throne and kingdom; and this was just what he did. He could not accompany him in his flight because of his lameness, or perhaps because of Ziba's perfidy; but we read this of him (2 Sam. 19:2424And Mephibosheth the son of Saul came down to meet the king, and had neither dressed his feet, nor trimmed his beard, nor washed his clothes, from the day the king departed until the day he came again in peace. (2 Samuel 19:24)) when the king returned, that he came to meet him "and had neither dressed his feet, nor trimmed his beard, nor washed his clothes, from the day the king departed until the day he came again in peace." He observed the conduct suited to the sorrowful character of the time. He went into a state of self-imposed mourning until the king returned; for he it was who had won and kept his heart all through the time of his rejection and exile.
This too is the suited conduct for us who are in the place of our Lord's rejection. They have crucified and slain Him, and God has raised Him from the dead, and set Him at His own right hand. And Jesus said, "Ye shall weep and lament, but the world shall rejoice; and ye shall be sorrowful, but your sorrow shall be turned into joy.... Ye now therefore have sorrow: but I will see you again, and your heart shall rejoice, and your joy no man taketh from you." John 16:20, 2220Verily, verily, I say unto you, That ye shall weep and lament, but the world shall rejoice: and ye shall be sorrowful, but your sorrow shall be turned into joy. (John 16:20)
22And ye now therefore have sorrow: but I will see you again, and your heart shall rejoice, and your joy no man taketh from you. (John 16:22). If this had its immediate fulfillment in the case of His eleven disciples, the principle of it holds good for the saints of the assembly who still stand in the place of their Lord's rejection. We are waiting for God's "Son from heaven,... even Jesus"; and it is ours to wear the garments of mourning and be in the place of rejection with Him until He shall come again.
There is a spring of joy in the Holy Ghost opened so that we can be filled with all joy and peace in believing, and rejoice in the Lord always, and thus show the Christian enigma, "sorrowful, yet always rejoicing." Yet if we are to be in harmony with the sad and solemn circumstances in which we are placed as associates of the murdered Prince of Life whom they "slew and hanged on a tree," our place necessarily is that of lonely mourners until our Lord returns. As Mephibosheth had no place in Absalom's kingdom, so we have no place here below under "the god of this world." Our hopes and joys are all bound up with the coming back of the King, the advent of our long-exiled Savior and Lord. Are we, indeed, all sitting apart in the place of separation, or are we mixing with the world that rejected and crucified Him?
"We rejoice in hope" when we look heavenward, for the day of His coming draws nigh. The cry has gone forth: "Behold, the bridegroom cometh; go ye out to meet him." Are we all truly rejoicing in the anticipation of seeing Himself, and being like Him and with Him forever?