1 Samuel 1:1 - 28
J.E.B. Samuel is spoken of as a prophet in the New Testament. What bearing would that have on this portion of Scripture?
C.A.C. I suppose the prophetic word definitely began with Samuel. Peter says in Acts 3:24, "And indeed all the prophets from Samuel and those in succession after him, as many as have spoken, have announced also these days", bringing Samuel into this sphere.
J.E.B. Is there not a break in the Old Testament Scriptures at this point?
C.A.C. Yes, a break which is occasioned by the thought of the kingdom being introduced and Jehovah's Anointed coming into view. God had in view not only helping people in their distresses and delivering them as in judges, but He had in view the bringing in of something that was entirely of Himself in connection with which His strength, power and glory should be known.
H.B. Was it not a new departure in the ways of God?
C.A.C. It was, publicly. God had in mind the introduction of a king. The very fact that he is introduced in connection with the prophet rather suggests the present position, namely, the kingdom as introduced morally. What is in my mind is that it is rather the kingdom in the character that we know it now, not in its millennial aspect.
H.B. Do we get first Christ in rejection and then Christ in power?
C.A.C. Yes. 1 Samuel carries us to the death of Saul, making way for God's anointed; then 2 Samuel carries us
on to the offering of the sacrifices in the threshing-floor of Araunah the Jebusite; that brings us to the house. I think we might find great profit in looking at these books with that as the governing thought as spiritual instruction. It would help to see how we come into the kingdom in a spiritual way and how the kingdom leads to the house and the service of God. We might find great instruction in pursuing these lines. The basic principle of the kingdom is obedience.
-.F. Is obedience a characteristic of a prophet?
C.A.C. I think so. The prophet is not one who has a mind of his own. The thing about a prophet is that he has the mind of God and can bring in moral power so that the people of God may be prepared for the kingdom. It is the kingdom in a moral way.
H.B. Are you thinking of prophetic ministry?
C.A.C. Prophetic ministry is the most important thing we have at the present time. The prophet as having the mind of God would pray for the people. In the light of that Samuel said in chapter 12 of this book, "Moreover, as for me, far be it from me that I should sin against Jehovah in ceasing to pray for you" (verse 23). The prophet prays in communion; as having the mind of God, he would pray on that line.
-.F. In this day, conditions were there that Samuel could pray for the people, but later on we read, "Though Moses and Samuel stood before me, my soul would not turn toward this people" (Jeremiah 15:1).
C.A.C. Thank God the time has not come in church history for God to refuse to hear. We are still in the time when a feeble and despised remnant can secure things morally.
H.B. In that way you feel that this has a bearing on the present moment?
C.A.C. Yes, the circumstances here are very instructive.
Here is a Levite who was occupying a position that was then of God. He was occupying his local position in Ephraim but occupying it in the light of Shiloh. He was occupying a position locally in the light of what was universal; that is a great matter for us. Shiloh was where the ark was and the tabernacle. It represented what was universal and also a state of things that God was about to reject on account of the corruption that was there. We are living in times when the universal idea has been brought into discredit by the conduct of those identified with it. There are a vast number in christendom who occupy the universal position, and they bring discredit on it. Notwithstanding that, the man of faith does not give up the universal thought because it is discredited, he clings to it and goes to Shiloh every year.
H.B. Was Hannah in contrast to what was outward?
C.A.C. Quite so; we get intense exercise in Hannah. Elkanah is presented to us as having two wives who were of a very different spirit. The one was more outwardly favoured of God than the other, but that only leads to boastfulness. Hannah refers to that in the next chapter, "Do not multiply your words of pride, let not vain-glory come out of your mouth" (verse 3). A woman under reproach does not seem to have as much favour from God as her rival. Peninnah seemed to have the favour from God; she had sons and daughters, and it looked as though God was more favourable to Peninnah than to Hannah. Sometimes people talk of great numbers and great blessing and it seems as if all were right with them but we see here another woman who was outwardly sorrowful and going through the deepest exercise because she wanted something for God. It is open to us all to take up that exercise. That which is outward and is prosperous and successful always despises and looks down with contempt on that which is lowly in spirit and that only seeks something for God. We
have to be prepared to face that exercise.
-.F. Would you connect this with the end of judges?
C.A.C. I think it is rather the beginning of a new chapter. We see the corruption in Shiloh and faith in Elkanah in that he goes up yearly to Shiloh; he could not give up the divine thought because it was publicly discredited.
A.B. I should like help as to Shiloh. We sometimes say that if we name the name of the Lord we must depart from iniquity; if so, why was it faith to go to Shiloh?
C.A.C. Because God had not abandoned Shiloh. The time came when He did, when He had to forsake Shiloh and then it had no claim on faith. But at this time God had not forsaken Shiloh or given "his strength into captivity, and his glory into the hand of the oppressor". In this part of the book Shiloh was owned of God and represented the universal thought which we are to cling to however much it may be discredited. The thought of the one church is discredited, but we are not to give up the divine thought because it is discredited; that is important.
H.B. Would the beginning of Luke correspond with this?
C.A.C. Yes, I think so. The remnant in Luke had profited by a long course of prophetic ministry from Samuel to Malachi. They had profited and come to realise that the time of fulfilment was at hand.
J.E.B. The link with Luke makes this book very valuable.
C.A.C. Yes, we are slow to take it in, but the kingdom has actually come into being. It is not an altogether future thought because God's King has appeared, 'Hosanna, Jehovah's Anointed has been exalted'; these are present facts. The books of 1 and 2 Samuel show us how we can come into the good of these blessed divine facts; they give us the moral history of how we come in. We are feeble in
the service of God because we are feeble in the kingdom. If we were more in the good of the kingdom, we should be more use in the house. It is a great thing to have this exercise, to have a man-child. Hannah wanted a child that would develop into a man and be in life-long Nazariteship for God, and would maintain among the people of God what was suitable to the kingdom and to the Anointed. That is the object of all prophetic ministry.
H.B. She surrendered her natural ties for God?
C.A.C. She wanted a man-child who would be wholly for God; she wanted something better than was there. God can put that into our souls, that we may desire to have something better than anything we have got. There was nothing in Shiloh that was distinctively for the pleasure of God. The ark was there and the priests were there but the priests were sons of Belial and they caused the people to transgress. In such conditions Hannah had a longing for a man-child, something that was better. The exercises she went through were great spiritual gain to her because they developed in her the spirit of a vow. I do not think that success develops that spirit. It is defeat that develops the spirit of a vow. Her defeat was that she had no child and her rival had. It caused intense grief and that developed the spirit of a vow -- she makes a vow, 'If Jehovah will give me a man-child I will lend him to Jehovah all the days of his life to be a Nazarite'. That is an exercise that we can all take up, that something may be brought in that is not adulterated by any human element. We should all be zealous in desiring this. Hannah sets forth the state that should be found in a spiritual remnant. Peninnah had a place as in association with Elkanah; she profited by her nearness to a faithful man, but she had not the depth that was in Hannah. Peninnah represents an unspiritual believer; a spiritual person thinks of what is for God, that there should be something for God. Hannah got into the
secret of the divine ways. God's way is to kill, "Jehovah killeth, and maketh alive" (chapter 2 verse 6). God brings low before He lifts up, "He bringeth low, also he lifteth up", (chapter 2 verse 7). Some of us get lifted up before first being brought low! Sometimes when I have been brought low I have taken courage by the thought that it was God's way and that He had got something on the other side for me. Paul speaks of the God of encouragement.
J.E.B. Hannah means grace and Peninnah means coral. You cannot do much with coral, it is showy but there is no substance.
C.A.C. That is very interesting. It is an exercise for us as to whether we are on the line that has real value for God -- are we seeking that? It is the privilege of every brother and sister to seek something that will be distinctively for God. It would be wonderful to have even one brother or sister in every meeting who was definitely set for God; it would be a wonderful thing. One who overcomes in an assembly would be sufficient to save the assembly. Hannah was a woman of a sorrowful spirit; it is a great thing to be brought to that experimentally. Hannah was brought to it experimentally by the consciousness of utter inability in herself and the deep consciousness of the state of things in Israel generally. In her sorrow and distress she pours out her soul before Jehovah, and He answers as He always will answer a soul like that.
-.F. She speaks in verse 11 of "Jehovah of hosts".
C.A.C. That brings in the thought of a great company.
-.F. However small things may appear outwardly, faith always looks beyond.
C.A.C. Yes, it is a great thing to be in the greatness of things. The smaller we are outwardly the more the necessity to be in the greatest things inwardly. In a morning meeting one does not care for a reference as to our being few or small. Scripture speaks of our being many. A
brother prayed the other day about the little upper room, but the Lord says, "He will show you a large upper room"! We like these small ideas but the Lord speaks of the greatness of things. This thought of greatness was in Elkanah's mind also when he went up yearly to sacrifice to "Jehovah of hosts". It is very striking as it was a remnant time but these two had a thought of the thousands of them that love God and of the Lord who shall "come amidst his holy myriads". It is wonderful while in actual smallness to get into the wide range of the divine thought so that we can think of the many sons that He brings to glory. Faith always has great thoughts because, as the old divine said, 'Faith thinks God's thoughts after Him'.
J.E.B. Elkanah did not enter into Hannah's exercise.
C.A.C. We often find that those in the path of faith do not always understand the exercises of those who want something for God. Hannah had an ideal before her that had not come into the soul of Elkanah. He thought that she should be content with him. He was a man of faith, standing in the testimony but he did not share this deep exercise that Hannah had. She wanted something altogether different from what was at that time in evidence; the existing state of things did not satisfy her, she wanted something more. Paul was like that; he was an insatiable man. He was never satisfied with the brethren; he was always wanting something more! He encouraged them to abound more and more. That is the true exercise of faith that there should be more for God than there is now; that is never to flag until the King is set up in power and Jesus comes. We are never to flag; there is always to be something more in me and in all the brethren. It comes about in intense lowliness and deep sorrow of heart. Hannah got what she wanted. I believe what is asked for in reality for God and the Lord Jesus will always be answered. The Lord has that in mind when He says, "Whatsoever
ye shall ask in my name, this will I do", John 14:13.
F.B. She got the answer to her prayer before she got the child.
C.A.C. Yes, indeed. The whole history of these books of Samuel, Kings and Chronicles is summed up in, "Of the increase of his government and of peace there shall be no end", Isaiah 9:7. Samuel's service was to anoint David; that was the greatest service he did. From that point we see a continual increase until we reach the climax in the glorious reign of Solomon and the temple is seen in its magnificent service, all divinely ordered. It is a wonderful history of increase.
-.P. All is seen to come from the godly exercise of a woman.
C.A.C. That is very fine. If we knew the secret of God's ways during the last 100 years when there has been such a flow of ministry going on we should find that it probably started in the prayers of some obscure unknown individual. It is wonderful to get behind the scenes as we shall by and by.
H. B. Hannah looked onto the day when Samuel would anoint the king.
C.A.C. Yes, she was not occupied with Samuel; her song was not about Samuel but about Christ. She understood that Samuel would be instrumental in the coming in of Jehovah and that is the secret of all prophetic ministry. All the prophetic ministry from Samuel to Malachi had in view the coming in of Christ, and that is so in the prophetic ministry of the church today. If this is not being worked out, prophetic ministry, as far as we are concerned, has been in vain.
Well, Hannah gets the man-child and then the next thing is she must have him weaned. She will not go up to Shiloh until then.
F.B. She brings him according to God.
C.A.C. Yes, weaning is an essential exercise if there is to be a man-child for God. There are two great weanings in Scripture, Isaac's and Samuel's. Nothing is said as to the weaning of Christ, there was no need for it in Him for Psalm 22 tells us that from the earliest moment of His history in this world He was entirely cast upon God. He never had to be weaned from other sources of supply. The thought of weaning is that the time has come when you have to take up things on your own exercises before God, apart from natural or even spiritual sources. Whatever spiritual help we have had there comes a time when we have to take up things in our own personal exercises. There is no man-child for God apart from that. Perhaps few believers reach it but it is a very important thing to reach. Samuel has now a definite spiritual history of his own. Weaning is the breaking off from what is legitimate and helpful to a certain point. The moment comes when things have to be taken up for ourselves. Timothy had a lot of help and comfort from the faith of his mother and grandmother, but the moment comes when he had to take things up on his own personal faith. Paul said, "I am persuaded that in thee also", 2 Timothy 1:5. One is sustained in one's relations with God in the power of one's own exercises. Having weaned him Hannah brings him to Shiloh with three bullocks and one ephah of flour and a flask of wine. She dedicated him in all the greatness and preciousness of Christ, as if to say that nothing of the natural goes to Shiloh. He goes there in the preciousness of Christ -- it is wonderful. The bullock is the largest sacrificial animal.
H.B. What would the flask of wine represent?
C.A.C. The ephah of flour would be for the oblation, and would bring in the perfection of the life of Christ. The bullock sets forth His sacrificial capability in its largest
measure, and the flask of wine the drink offering, the absolute devotion of Christ to the will of God. Hannah brings the full setting forth of Christ so that the boy, who does not yet know Jehovah, is identified in his mother's faith with all that.
-.F. Would the wine be for joy?
C.A.C. No doubt it would. The offerings seem to be sacrificial, and I thought the wine stood in relation to the drink-offering, absolute devotion. Paul said, "I am already being poured out" (2 Timothy 4:6); that is like the drink-offering. These books, 1 and 2 Samuel, are much marked by increase. David was not marked by full growth all in a minute; it was a gradual process of increase. That is the process which divine grace is carrying on with us all. We begin with small thoughts of Christ; we begin as babes, not grown up. The principle of increase goes on all the time and develops in these interesting and valuable parts of Scripture.
1 Samuel 4:21, 22; 1 Samuel 5:1 - 3, 9 - 11; 1 Samuel 6:1 - 3, 6 - 10, 16, 19, 21
-.F. What is the force of the glory having departed from Israel?
C.A.C. The ark was the true glory of Israel and it was looked at as that which was committed to the guardianship of God's people. The ark is in itself purely of God, but the time came when God had to give it up into the hands of the enemy because of the state of those who should have been its guardians. It is a very solemn thing when God cannot support what is of Himself because of the moral state of those identified with it.
-.F. Phinehas' wife gives her reasons for the glory having departed. She says, "Because the ark of God was taken, and because of her father-in-law and her husband".
C.A.C. Yes. If the ark goes, the priesthood goes too.
J.E.B. What would correspond today with the ark being taken?
C.A.C. What has happened in christendom through the unfaithfulness of God's people; what is precious and holy has passed into the hands of the world; publicly the ark is taken. The idolatry of the people of God led to this condition of things. God's anger was kindled so He forsook the tabernacle at Shiloh. The ark at Shiloh represented the place that God gave to Christ in the faithful affections of His people at the beginning. That has been lost; the glory in that sense has departed. All the present activities of God are really to secure the restoration of the ark to a suitable position, not to go back to Shiloh but to be
brought back to a suitable position. It was not suitable for the ark to return to Shiloh for the priesthood was corrupt and the Lord could not identify that with the ark. What we find in the addresses to the seven churches in Revelation, until we come to Philadelphia, is that the glory is departed. He has to call on five of those assemblies to repent and bring a trespass-offering. Christ had left His place, there was no suitable place for the ark. We are today in the dispensation that has lost its glory; it is very solemn.
All that is precious has gone into captivity, all the precious truth of God has remained in christendom, the Bible is there and a lot remains that is of Christ but it has passed into Philistine hands.
H.B. What do the Philistines represent?
C.A.C. The Philistines were a people who came out of Egypt and were in the land of Canaan but they did not come out of Egypt by divine deliverance and they were not in Canaan by divine gift. They are a sort of imitation; they are like spiritual wickedness. David was one who really subdued the Philistines and secured a place for the ark. It never got its own place until David spread a tent for it in the city of David. It is so interesting to see in these books how the kingdom results in a suitable place being prepared for the ark. In spite of all, there is a suitable place for the ark -- for Christ. No doubt these Philistine priests were led of God in the way they proposed to send the ark back.
It is one of those instances where you find God coming in with a Balaam or a Caiaphas. What the Philistines proposed to do with the ark was the right way for it to be brought back.
Ques. Why were the men of Beth-shemesh punished for looking into the ark, for it says they were glad when they saw it?
C.A.C. There may be a great lack of reverence even with those who are glad to see the ark come back, as the
men of Beth-shemesh were. It is a solemn warning to us. The lesson of this part of Scripture is the holiness of God and the jealousy of God as to Christ. The question is raised as to whether we are suitable persons to have anything to do with the ark. Are we spiritually able to bring the ark back? Have we the character of milch kine? That is an exercise for us tonight. The Philistines were quite right to put the ark on a new cart; it was the acknowledgement that there was not a man among them who was fit to carry it. They had no Levites. Even David had to learn the holiness of God and we all have to. One feels often what a lack of becoming reverence there is in the handling of the holy things of God, particularly as to Christ.
-.F. In Exodus 19 this kind of carnal movement is guarded against. We all should be careful how we take up divine things.
C.A.C. Yes. God knows how to give a testimony, even among the Philistines, to His thought of the ark. We see here that the ark was greater than their gods; Dagon falls down before it and is broken.
H.B. Are we sometimes like the Corinthians in the way we handle things?
C.A.C. Yes, they were taking up holy things in a fleshly way. Most of them were true believers but the ark was not being handled reverently.
-.T. Would not John 18 be the fulfilling of this? They took the Lord and we see Him standing in His holy dignity and they have to fall to the ground.
C.A.C. Yes, indeed. God knows how to give testimony to Christ, even when Christ is taken captive. The Philistines were glad to get rid of the ark.
-.F. In a certain way did they value the ark?
C.A.C. No doubt it was a great triumph for them to get the ark. It was a kind of glory for the world when it became possessed of Christ through the unfaithfulness of the
people of God. He is in captivity there. We do not get the ark in its liberty there. God is working to liberate the ark; He is calling to those who can move in a spiritual way for its liberation. We should all like to contribute to the bringing back of the ark.
H.B. Would the beginning of Luke come in in this connection?
C.A.C. Yes, there were those there who had the character of milch kine. They represented those who could move in the Spirit of Christ. It had all a sacrificial character. Milch kine were clean creatures, they were suitable for sacrifice and were in moral keeping with the ark because they moved under a moral impulse in a way contrary to what would be natural. It ended in their being offered as a burnt offering. If I am going to help to bring back the ark I must be prepared to suffer. What am I prepared to surrender to give expression to the Spirit of Christ? We have, through grace, a sense of the holiness of Christ who is the image and glory of God. Everything is going to work up to the point where He will have His right place in the temple but in the meantime He is to be brought back, not to Shiloh, but brought back in a suitable way to a suitable place. It is something we all have to be exercised about. What a suitable Levite Mary was! How suitable she was to carry the ark! Christ does not come amongst people who do not appreciate Him. He came amongst a priestly company. That is the beauty of the beginning of Luke; you see a priestly company waiting to receive Him. All Israel had become Philistines, so to speak, but there was a little company of circumcised people who were able to cherish and carry the ark. We have that privilege today; the public profession has lost Him.
H.B. He has never ceased to be the Ark of God.
C.A.C. No. Whatever may go on in the land of the
Philistines the true lovers of the ark would want it back. The truth was that God gave His strength into captivity. It is a solemn judgment that Christ has passed into the hands of the world. All these big cathedrals are the judgment of God; they tell us that Christ has passed into the hands of the world. The world does not know how to value Him though they may be compelled to own that Christ is greater than anything they have. God will compel them to own that. The Philistines did not want to give up their own gods. If christians had been true to Christ from the beginning the world would never have taken up christianity. It was the unfaithfulness of christians that led to the world taking it up.
J.E.B. Would not Dagon's fall indicate the break-up?
C.A.C. It was a testimony that all that was idolatrous must give way. The Lord said, "I beheld Satan as lightning falling out of heaven". He saw the great overthrow of Satan. I think there are dealings of God with the christian part of the world that are different to those with the heathen world. God thinks of Christ. Many of the terrible visitations that come on the christian part of the world are the result of how Christ is treated by those who profess His name and are in the place of the Philistines. God makes His hand felt in connection with Christ and we cannot get away from it.
The Philistines had to acknowledge that their god had been overthrown. One feels how instructive this section of the book is as to the ark. There is great spiritual instruction for us. We are challenged as to how far we are prepared to move on lines that give Christ His suitable place. There are frequent references to the place of the ark in this book. The Philistines let it go to its own place, and David prepared a tent and brought the ark to its own place. It is a great thing that there should be a place for Christ, that holy conditions should be maintained. Beth-Shemesh was
not a suitable place; there was no reverence, they looked into the ark. They represent true people of God who appreciate Christ but who do not realise the holiness of the ark or the seriousness of having to do with it. It is a fleshly thing to look into the ark.
-.F. Was it a wrong action to fetch it from Shiloh?
C.A.C. Yes, it showed they did not understand that it was the glory of God. They brought it out as a kind of charm to secure victory for them but there was nobody there fit to have to do with it.
A. S. Does the place of the ark involve what is collective?
C.A.C. The tent David spread for it involves what is collective. It is only then you get its place -- he brought it up to its place. The divine thought is that there should be a place where Christ gets His place among the people of God collectively. The houses of Obed-Edom and Abinadab do not give the full thought; they show how God can work so that Christ is appreciated by individuals. It requires the truth of the kingdom to secure a collective place for Christ. The tent is provisional before the temple is built. The temple is what looks on to the day of Christ, but before that time comes there is a tent -- a provisional place. Philadelphia is very like the tent thought. How delightful it is to God to have a few persons who have a due sense of the greatness of Christ, who have been subdued to Him. There is a holiness about them that is suitable to Christ; priestly conditions are there. There are delightful suggestions on God's part brought before us in these chapters. God's thought in the kingdom is to prepare suitable conditions for the ark. It is a very necessary exercise for us.
J.E.B. Why did the Philistines bring a trespass-offering?
C.A.C. The thought of a trespass-offering was suitable. Of course we know that they could not bring anything
that was pleasing to God, but the spiritual suggestion of it is beautiful. If Christ has not been rightly regarded a trespass-offering is needed. We cannot get Him back to His right place without a trespass-offering. He had not been rightly regarded or worthily handled among either the Philistines or the Israelites. Probably the place He had in Israel was more offensive to God than the way He was handled among the Philistines because the Israelites should have known better.
Every one of us can do something to bring the ark back, every one of us can provide a suitable place for Him. It must begin individually, and then there is the collective exercise to provide such a place for the ark so that that blessed One may be cherished and honoured in a way that is pleasing to God. It depends on spiritual state; an unspiritual people cannot provide a suitable place for the ark.
2 SAMUEL CHAPTERS 5 and 6
2 Samuel 5:17 - 25; 2 Samuel 6:1 - 11
It seems to me that the Philistines coming up to seek David would be typical of the false brethren coming in to spy out our liberty in Christ Jesus as referred to in Galatians 2:4. They were met in stern combat by Paul and their images were taken away by the decree of the apostles and elders. But they come up yet again and have to be met in a new way. "Turn round behind them" would be more like Paul writing to the Galatians and his rebuke to Peter. In each case he took them up on the ground of their own past. There had been a real work of God there which could be counted on. The mulberry-trees would speak of taking advantage of what is favourable in meeting the enemy. Any work in souls is a divine growth and He moves in relation to that. Amongst true believers there is always that to be counted on; the "sound" of marching will be there.
But then there is a third Philistine attack which is more successful than the other two and it comes in where we might have least expected it. When we feel quite sure that we are doing what is right there is often a lack of dependence and of care in making sure that we are going about it in a way that God can support. David was assured that his city was the place for the ark, and he would bring it there. But his way of doing it was not a spiritual way and it brought out that there was an unjudged Philistine element in himself. There may be a Philistine element in that
which truly desires to make much of Christ. In Chronicles we get much more of the spiritual exercises of David and the recognition of what is priestly and levitical and of hallowing for this great service. There is a due order in handling what is holy and if that order is not observed some Philistine expedient is almost certain to be adopted.
The ark had never had the honour in Israel that was due to it from the time when the Philistines had taken it. It had been cherished in private but before it could have its public place Zion had to be taken and the lame and the blind removed. All that had in view a place for the ark. It is as the saints occupy Zion and understand what it is to dwell in the city of David in the fulness of what is secured in Christ on the ground of His victory, and from whence the lame and the blind have been excluded, that the exercise can have place in relation to the ark. But how often in Scripture we have the thought of a first which does not answer to the mind of God and then a second which does. I believe this enters into nearly all spiritual exercise. We do not at first understand the holiness of what we are taking in hand to do. We think that what can be done in the way that first suggests itself will do for God. But we have to learn that what is priestly and levitical must take the place of what is Philistine. There are a great many now professedly gathered to the name of the Lord, and most of them, we may admit, have a true desire to honour Him and to provide a place for Him. But if things are not done in a truly priestly and levitical way we may be sure that something of the "new cart" character will be found in evidence. We find that in the house of Abinadab he hallowed Eleazar his son to keep the ark of Jehovah (1 Samuel 7:1), but that hallowed man does not appear in 2 Samuel 6. It was just the absence of that hallowed state that made all the difference between pleasing God and displeasing Him. What strikes one in Philadelphia is that the Lord presents
Himself as the Holy and the True, and He speaks of the overcomer as being made a pillar in the temple of His God. The holiness of the position is emphasised. It is possible to have the light of all that is proper to Philadelphia without the state in which alone it can be carried out for the pleasure of God. This is a great exercise for us all. We can only have the ark with us on its own conditions. Even so great a servant as David had to learn this. And even Paul had to learn how deadly the Philistine element was if once allowed a footing. David was afraid, and it is well when such a holy fear comes into the heart. But God gives Him a lesson in grace, as He always does when we are in danger of becoming legal under rebuke.
2 Samuel 6:12 - 15
The 'ark of God' is the term applied commonly to the ark in Samuel where it is, we may say, more exposed to unholy handling than anywhere else. That is, it is viewed according to its essential divine character, not in the relations of grace which would be signified by the name 'Jehovah' or when the covenant is definitely brought in. It is very much like the difference between 'God' and 'the Father' in John 4. God is a spirit; it is what He is essentially, and this must never be forgotten in worshipping Him. Indeed, if we lose the sense of this, and the reverence suitable to it, we shall miss the sweetness of the name of 'Father', and all that goes along with it. Christ as the Ark of God would be regarded as the One who maintains, or in whom is maintained, all that is due to God, and in whom is set forth all that God is morally. He has declared God who is light and love: "In him is no darkness at all", 1 John 1:5. He sits between the cherubim; there is perfect discrimination between good and evil.
When the ark is affectionately entertained, as in the house of Obed-Edom, it is spoken of as the "Ark of Jehovah". The houses of Abinadab and of Obed-Edom represent what is unofficial, but they gave testimony to God's readiness to be entertained, and show that He could provide suitable conditions for Himself in a sovereign way. Abinadab hallowed his son, Eleazar; he understood that holiness was necessary. In Obed-Edom's case no adjustment was necessary; the ark brought only blessing. Its true normal character came out, so that David was
encouraged and his heart was established with grace. He had accepted the lesson. There is always an element of severity in God's ways when His order has been disregarded. But David's restoration was brought about by the confirmation in grace which was afforded when Obed-Edom's house was blessed. God said, as it were, 'I have not changed My thoughts of blessing; though you have changed and brought in an offence, I am unchanged'. So David brought up the ark with joy. The city of David was a new place for it; it was not restored to its original place in the tabernacle. Zion was a new beginning, and referred to what God would establish on the ground of Christ's victory, where all is of the power of God's kingdom. That place was holy enough for the ark. The saints, viewed as having come to Zion and having been established in Christ and in grace, are suitable to entertain the ark assemblywise. Much of the work of God is to bring us collectively to the city of David. All there is of Christ and in Christ, but it is in view of there being a place for Christ.
When they had gone six paces death came in again, but how different from the first time! Now they must move in accord with the death of Christ. An ox would speak of Christ in spiritual energy and the fatted beast of matured excellence. What a contrast to the new cart! Then we see great energy in David, but of a priestly kind. Our meetings should be full of that kind of energy.
Then the communion side comes in. We need Colossians and Ephesians to fill out the thought of fellowship.
2 Samuel 7:1 - 29
In 2 Samuel 7 we see David as the spiritual man, having been greatly favoured of God and given rest from all his enemies. Now he thinks of the ark of God dwelling under curtains while he dwells in a house of cedars. He did well that such a thought was in his heart but he wanted to go beyond what was allotted to him. There was a preparatory course which he had to take in God's school, and it is a course which many of us need to take. God, as it were, said through Nathan, 'You are going too fast, David, I have something else in My mind first. I have not dwelt in a house and I have never spoken about having a house of cedars. You must learn first what I have done for you and what I will do for you'. There is first God's personal election, taking David from the pasture grounds to make him great. We need to think first of the greatness that God confers and the place which He appoints for His people, "a place of their own" where they will "be disturbed no more". It is really the blessed place in Christ which He accords to His people through grace. He plants "them, that they may dwell".
Then Jehovah makes us a house. Ephesians 2 is a wonderful chapter to read; it is all God's actions for us. We are slow in learning that this is the great matter. Ephesians 1 and 3 are both on the same line. Before the house can be built there must be secured the kind of persons which are to occupy it. This is what we see in 2 Samuel 7, persons who go in and sit before God in the restfulness of what He has done. It seems sad to think that believers may be on
the wrong line in thinking what they can do for God, and may be diverted thereby from the blessedness of what God has done for them. It is only as we are in the restfulness of knowing this that we can go in and sit before Him. That is what He wants. He not only does this greatness but He longs to make His servants know it (verse 21). This is spiritually greater than Solomon building the house. I think that we can see that there is a loftier note in this chapter than there is in Solomon's prayer at the dedication of the temple.
Then Christ is spoken of as David's seed, God's Son (verses 12, 14). We are brought to think of Christ as the true builder and as God's Son whose kingdom God will establish for ever, Christ effecting all for God and being established by God for ever. One can understand after this chapter those great celebrations of God which David voiced in the Psalms. Some of our own choice utterances have come into our mouths from David. Such are, Jesus in the fulness of joy at God's right hand having seen no corruption, crowned with glory and honour, now singing God's praise in the midst of the assembly, and as Son giving effect to the whole counsel of God, and, in particular, building the house. He is the builder of the house and He is over it as Son.
David, representing the spiritual believer, accepts the adjustment of all this. He went in and sat, or tarried, before Jehovah. This is what we want more of. What we have here is one of the most worshipful utterances that we have in Scripture. "Who am I?" at the commencement is a blessed disallowance of all that he was naturally. It is now altogether what God had done and what God would do.
"Thou hast brought me hitherto". How blessed to be brought to God! "A great while to come" -- as we take this up it goes on into eternity. We shall "be conformed to the image of his Son"; "we shall be like him, for we shall see
him as he is", 1 John 3:2. There was a greater building in David's soul than ever Solomon built of stones and timber.
Then, "Who is like thy people ... ?" (verse 23). Notice the word 'went' is in the plural -- a beautiful hint of the Trinity being engaged in this wondrous redemption, "to make himself a name". Verse 24 is the covenant established. Then the thought of David's house is much before him as blessed of Jehovah. There is a striking scripture in Zechariah 12:8, "He that stumbleth among them at that day shall be as David; and the house of David as God, as the Angel of Jehovah before them". It is striking that this is reached through the deep sorrow and mourning that they pass through when they see how they have wounded Christ. I believe that God is building David a house at the present time in the sense that He is securing a family after the pattern of David, those who can sit before Him in the deep worshipful appreciation of what He is for His people and what He is in Himself. Have we found in our hearts such a prayer as this?
2 Samuel 7:4 - 17
There is a wonderful vision brought into view in what Jehovah said to Nathan in 2 Samuel 7:4 - 17. It is spoken of specifically as a "vision". In Balaam's third parable he speaks of himself "who seeth the vision of the Almighty" (Numbers 24:4) and also in the fourth parable (Numbers 24:16). It is said of Zechariah that he "had understanding in the visions of God" (2 Chronicles 26:5); if we understand the vision which Nathan had, and which he communicated to David, it will have the same effect upon us that it had upon David. It will make us worshippers.
"He chose David his servant" (Psalm 78:70) and made him "a great name, like unto the name of the great men that are on the earth". David could say, "Thy condescending gentleness hath made me great", 2 Samuel 22:36. In applying this to ourselves how much more exalted is the outlook. We are chosen to heavenly greatness and to heavenly blessing. We have our appointed place in which God has planted us -- a place of our own in Christ.
But the great theme of the vision is what God would do for David. "Jehovah telleth thee that Jehovah will make thee a house". David himself was a dying man -- he would sleep with his fathers (verse 12) but his Seed would have His kingdom established. This is in contrast with David sleeping with his fathers. I have no doubt it contemplates what would be made good in resurrection. It is the risen One who would build a house for Jehovah's name, and the throne of whose kingdom Jehovah would establish for ever. David's house and kingdom would be made firm for ever before him, and his throne established for ever. That is, Christ would come in as David's Seed, but as God's Son, and the house made for David would be made firm by the coming in of Christ in resurrection power. David's house represents those who come into blessing solely by God's election, and through the One of whom God says, "I will be his father, and he shall be my son".
Abraham built altars and called upon the name of Jehovah, but we have no utterance of praise or worship from him. He was blessed on the principle of faith and he is the father of all them that believe, so that Abraham's house is a large one, the household of faith. Moses was the first one to sing to God, but he did not institute any service of song. The song which he taught the people (Deuteronomy 32) was a witness for Jehovah against the children of Israel. David has a remarkable place as "the sweet psalmist of Israel". Seventy-four of the Psalms were written
by him, and probably others which are not directly attributed to him. He ordered the service of song, and made the instruments (1 Chronicles 23, 25). That great element in the service of God is connected with David; he was raised up and anointed to be the sweet psalmist of Israel. When the ark was brought into the city of David, he delivered first this psalm to give thanks to Jehovah through Asaph and his brethren (1 Chronicles 16:7). 2 Samuel 7 is David's private utterance, personal to himself, which seems to me to underlie all that was more public subsequently. Jehovah gave the knowledge of Himself to David in His great designs of sovereign love so that David went in to sit as a worshipper before Him. I think in this character David is the head of the worshipping company -- a wonderful type of Christ, but also in some sense personally head of a family whose occupation is to praise. I have no doubt that in this sense the assembly is the true house of David today. So that we are in the "great while to come" of verse 19. There is a generation who can bring up the Ark to the city of David, and who can appreciate the way in which God has made Himself known to them.
"For thy word's sake, and according to thine own heart, hast thou done all this greatness, to make thy servant know it" (verse 21). God known as doing what is according to His own heart is the highest point that creatures can reach. God will have a house where He is known and praised as having done things according to His own heart. So we read in Ephesians 1 of "the good pleasure of his will" and "the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure which he purposed in himself", and then "being marked out beforehand according to the purpose of him who works all things according to the counsel of his own will". Have we ever considered what is according to God's own heart? How it would lift us up to God, and enable us truly to be of David's house. It would enable us to speak more directly
to God of what He is as known in love. True worship is produced when we see the actings of God in Christ. When Jesus healed the child possessed by a demon we read that "all were astonished at the glorious greatness of God", Luke 9:43. That was what they saw in Jesus. Greatness in Hebrews is evidently that of God Himself (Hebrews 1:3; Hebrews 8:1). This is what is celebrated in 2 Samuel 7:22, "Wherefore thou art great, Jehovah Elohim; for there is none like thee, neither is there any God beside thee, according to all that we have heard with our ears". This would confirm that David is here the spiritual man, the head of the praising company as filled with the Spirit of Christ, rather than Christ Himself typically. It is what the Spirit of Christ would voice in all David's house.
Then in verses 23 and 24, God's people Israel are brought in as those redeemed to be a people to Himself and to whom He has become their God. We are here on covenant ground evidently. It is not the same as the house built for David; the latter is, I have no doubt, a small circle with a peculiarly favoured place. We see the house of David distinguished from the inhabitants of Jerusalem and from Judah in Zechariah 12:8, "the house of David as God, as the Angel of Jehovah before them", but they are brought in through deep moral exercises, as we see in that chapter and the next. "The key of David" in Revelation 3:7 is in Isaiah 22:22, "the key of the house of David", which would show how the thought is linked with the assembly. And the reference by James in Acts 15:16 to the prophet's words, "After these things I will return, and will rebuild the tabernacle of David which is fallen, and will rebuild its ruins ..." is to the same purpose, as showing that God had in mind from eternity to bless the nations as known in the tabernacle of David. That is, God would be known there (Amos 9:11, 12). So that it appears that in a spiritual sense the house of David has the
blessing of the nations in view, as it is known now in the assembly. The blessing of the house of David would go, I think, beyond the covenant blessing of "thy people ... Israel". It is more intimate as being in the fullest way according to God's own heart. I think verse 14 would show that sonship is included and verse 29 the eternal thoughts of God. If the house of David is for God one could hardly have anything higher stated. So that it seems to reach out, as far as the Old Testament could go, to the whole counsel of God. And David can speak suitably to God about it all. This is the great service of the assembly as the true house of David. So that He builds a house where He can dwell in the affectionate praises of those who not only love Him, but have sons' intelligence and maturity. The assembly takes up the new covenant, as it were, before the time, and it also takes up the blessing of the house of David. This is a peculiar and unique portion to be known and enjoyed in restfulness.
2 Samuel 8:1 - 18
The key to 2 Samuel 8 lies in its connection with chapter 7, for it is "after this it came to pass". The chapter speaks of the victories of a spiritual man, and their results for God in what is dedicated to Him. My impression is that while David is often distinctly a type of Christ, he is more often a type of what is spiritual in saints. His psalms are, as we well know, often the personal utterances of the Spirit of Christ as developed in saints -- particularly in the remnant. Solomon is the seed, Jehovah's son, in chapter 7, and David worships as in presence of the counsel of God established by Him. In one sense Christ can be spoken of as the great Worshipper, singing praise to God, but it would seem that He sings as identifying Himself with the praising company, all of whom praise as having His Spirit. If He identifies Himself with them He must necessarily be in their midst as the pre-eminent One, undoubtedly the Chief Singer. The saints as a praising company constitute His house.
But we come in chapter 8 from the sanctuary to the region where overcoming is needed, and David is seen as the great overcomer. The Lord's last word to His own before going forth to the garden was, "In the world ye have tribulation; but be of good courage: I have overcome the world". He was the great Overcomer, and His saints have to be overcomers; the thing true in Him has to be true in them, so that it is not easy in the types to draw a very sharp line between what sets forth Christ and what sets forth actions or victories which are true, or which may be
true, of His saints. It is certain that if we came from the sanctuary we should be overcomers, and it seems to me that is the thought suggested in 2 Samuel 8. Here we find the Philistines, who had come up again and again, subdued, and the power of the capital taken out of their hand. They are effectually brought under, and I do not think they appear again until the time comes that David has weakened, so that in conflict he becomes exhausted (chapter 21). Here the bridle or curb is taken out of their hand; they are deprived of control. "The capital" means the influential place. The Philistine represents what is in the land -- that is, it is professedly christian but it is hostile to divine thoughts. It is a great thing when its influence is entirely broken.
Then David measures the Moabites with a line. They represent, as we may gather from the prophets, the pride and arrogance of man. But the power of the kingdom is known now by ability to subdue that which is contrary to God, so that it may become serviceable to Him. The measuring with a line would seem to be that all are brought down to a common level -- "making them lie down on the ground" -- so that they are subdued to whatever line of dealing God may be pleased to take with them. "He measured two lines to put to death"; God has taken two ways to measure men, first by the law, and then by the prophets, but both bring men to death. They show the hopeless state of men when measured by God. But "one full line to keep alive" would have in view the "full line" of what God is as known in grace, which, when applied to men in power keeps alive. So that even Moabites become David's servants and bring gifts. Men as subdued turn to God to serve Him.
Then we find in verses 3 and 4 how David recovers his dominion by the river Euphrates. The king of Zobah, and the Syrians who helped him, seem to represent what man
is in his natural state as fallen. He would resist the establishment of David's power, but as subdued he becomes tributary. The promise to Abraham in Genesis 15 is "to the great river, the river Euphrates". It represents the wide dominion of David -- "Thou hast kept me to be head of the nations: A people I knew not doth serve me ...", 2 Samuel 22:44 - 46. "The Syrians became servants to David, and brought gifts".
Then we get the prowess of David recognised by Toi, king of Hamath, and he brings vessels of silver and vessels of gold and vessels of bronze. He represents persons not of Israel but not marked by definite hostility; they are thankful for the benefit which accrues to them as the result of David's victories. There are people who are glad when what is of God gets ascendency; they feel that it is beneficial to them, and they become tributary. They have not had to be subdued as enemies; they get relief from the gospel. They have been harassed and perplexed by the evil that is in the world, and they are glad when what is of God gets the upper hand. I have no doubt there are many who are of that class; they contribute what can be dedicated.
Then the Edomites have also to be subdued. They represent those who have an assigned portion from God but who despise what is really the best He has to give. Such are sure to become adversaries in the long run to the kingdom rights of God, and of His Anointed. But as subdued they become servants to David. What marks David all through this chapter is power to subdue all things to himself, and to make all kinds of people tributary to the service of God. It raises the question as to whether we have been so subdued to Christ as to be tributary?
Psalm 60 and Psalm 108 are to be noted in this connection. Psalm 60 comes in when God has cast off His people in His displeasure, but He gives a banner to them that fear Him that it may be displayed because of the truth, that His
beloved ones may be delivered. Then He claims His right, not only to His own people, but to Moab, Edom and Philistia; He claims all to be serviceable to Him. It is God acting in a day when He has had publicly to cast off His people. So that it applies in a very definite way to the present time in the ways of God. But in Psalm 108 it is a fixed heart that learns the mind of God to claim His rights. It is one, we might say, calling upon the Lord out of a pure heart. It is persons of that kind who get the banner. The louder we sing the more God will assure us of His rights, and He will assert them in His own way. In the sense of this, we want all His beloved ones to be delivered.
The things which would hinder us from standing by the banner are set forth in Moab and Edom and Philistia, but they are all to be subdued to God. No one who fears Him or loves Him need give way before them. God has spoken in His holiness; He will assert His rights even where they have been most disregarded. It is something like the Lord saying to Philadelphia, "I will cause that they shall come and shall do homage before thy feet, and shall know that I have loved thee", Revelation 3:9.
"And David made him a name when he returned, after he had smitten the Syrians in the valley of salt". Salt is a figure of the principle of faithfulness in the soul which will not spare anything that is opposed to God. It is a good valley to fight in, but we have always to remember that the fighting in this chapter is not to destroy but to subdue. Our object in following the true David is to get all His rights asserted by every one over whom He has rights. The last four verses of the chapter show His rights in exercise: everything is ordered in the kingdom in a beautiful way.
It is to be noted that while Jehovah spoke to David in 2 Samuel 7 of David's house and his kingdom, when David spoke to Jehovah he dwelt altogether on the thought of the house and never mentioned the kingdom. He had evidently
seized the divine thought that the house was the greater of the two. In the presence of God and for His worshippers the house idea predominates. For the house of David is the praising company Godward, as I understand it, and this is the inside place with God. But we have to come out and deal with enemies here, so that they may be subdued and become tributary to the service of God. We have to follow the lead of David in this matter also; if we follow his lead in going in we have to follow his lead in the subjugation of all adverse elements. We obtain distinction as we do so, for I believe we see David here in a character in which we have to follow him. It cannot be simply that we see the true David doing it, but how will His Spirit in us act in having to deal with elements adverse to the rights of the kingdom? All through the chapter it is what David did. We are told that he reigned over all Israel, and there cannot be a doubt that "the host" (verse 16) was with him in all these military exploits.
2 Samuel 9:1 - 13
The incidents of this chapter present a lovely picture of the grace of God to sinful men. David, after years of wandering and warfare, was at last securely seated on the throne of Israel. With prosperity at home and peace abroad, the king's generous heart sought an object on which to bestow his royal bounty, and hence the gracious inquiry with which the chapter opens, "Is there yet any that is left of the house of Saul, that I may shew him kindness?"
Saul had sought to pierce David with a javelin even to the wall. Again and again he had attempted to lay violent hands on David, and had pursued him upon the mountains like a partridge. He had, moreover, hated him without a cause. Yet when David was established on his throne he said, "Is there yet any that is left of the house of Saul, that I may shew him kindness?" and again in verse 3, "Is there not yet any of the house of Saul, that I may shew the kindness of God to him?"
The kindness of God goes out to His enemies and to the utterly undeserving. Otherwise it would never reach lost and guilty men. "For we ourselves also were sometimes foolish, disobedient, deceived, serving divers lusts and pleasures, living in malice and envy, hateful, and hating one another. But after that the kindness and love of God our Saviour toward man appeared, not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy
he saved us", Titus 3:3 - 5.
A wicked girl, in a frenzy of passion, struck her Christian mother with the poker, crying, 'I would kill your God if I could get at Him'. The kindness of God is toward such a one as that. You may be shocked at such bold wickedness, but remember that a deceitful and desperately wicked heart beats within your own breast. Have you never had hard and rebellious thoughts of God? It is true of all, that "the carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be. So then they that are in the flesh cannot please God", Romans 8:7, 8.
Man's enmity against God was proved at the cross. God was in Christ reconciling the world unto Himself, but it would not be reconciled. God presented His grace to a guilty world, but the world's answer was the rejection and murder of His beloved Son. But, in spite of this, God's attitude towards men is one of "kindness and pity". For well-nigh two thousand years He has continued to proclaim by His servants "repentance and remission of sins" in the name of the Lord Jesus "among all the nations". This is the kindness of God. His attitude towards men is one of infinite grace, and He desires that His grace should be known even by those who have said in their hearts, if not with their lips, "Depart from us, for we desire not the knowledge of thy ways!", Job 21:14.
"And Ziba said unto the king, Jonathan hath yet a son, which is lame on his feet". In chapter 4 we are told how Mephibosheth became a cripple. "He was five years old when the tidings came of Saul and Jonathan out of Jezreel, and his nurse took him up, and fled: and it came to pass, as she made haste to flee, that he fell, and became lame". The present condition of man is figuratively set before us in this fallen cripple.
When God created Adam and Eve, He put them in a
place prepared by His own hands for their reception. Everything in the garden of Eden ('Pleasure') witnessed to the goodness of God. The fruitful tree, the flowing rivers, the golden sunlight, all declared with harmonious voice that God was good.
But man had not been made as a mere machine, or as an irresponsible animal. He was an intelligent and responsible moral being, and to remind him of this, as well as to test his obedience, he was forbidden to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. The penalty of death was attached to disobedience.
While Adam and Eve obeyed the command of God they were innocent and happy. But the serpent came upon the scene and suggested that God was not good, and that He was keeping back from man something that would be for man's benefit to possess. Losing confidence in God, and carried away by lust and pride, our first parents fell from their happy state of innocence, and came not only under the power of sin and Satan, but also under the penalty of death.
Thus, in the very infancy of the race, man fell and became a moral cripple; he cannot walk with God; he cannot run in the way of God's commandments; he has fallen and become lame on his feet. And, like Mephibosheth, he is lame on both his feet. He is defective and incapable in his responsibilities both towards God and his neighbour.
People do not like to admit that they are entirely crippled. They do not mind confessing in a general way that they do not walk quite straight. They will say, 'We are all sinners; we all have our shortcomings', and so on, and many try to remedy their defects by resolutions, vows, pledges, turning new leaves, and other crutches and appliances of similar nature. But human efforts are in vain. It remains ever true that man is "without strength",
(Romans 5:6); he is destitute of power to perform the will of God. How good it is to know that God in grace does not claim from man that which cannot be rendered, but that "To him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness", Romans 4:5.
"And the king said unto him, Where is he? And Ziba said unto the king, Behold, he is in the house of Machir, the son of Ammiel, in Lo-debar".
The sinner's condition we have already dwelt upon, and now we come to his position. Lo-debar means a place of no pasture, and it fitly represents the world. It may seem strange to speak of the world as a place of no pasture, for its things are very attractive to the natural man. The world's things are perfectly adapted to suit the tastes, and gratify the desires, of man as a fallen sinner. But, viewed morally, the world is a desert, because the knowledge of God cannot be found there. The world is a vast system of things in which men seek to make themselves as happy as possible at a distance from God. Thus, in a true and divine sense, the world is a veritable Lo-debar. It contains nothing to minister to the deepest necessities of man; for of what avail are all its boasted stores of wisdom, honour, wealth, and pleasure, if God remains unknown? Sad is the portion of those who are "without God in the world" (Ephesians 2:12), for they are strangers to that in which alone true satisfaction can be found by human hearts!
"And king David sent, and fetched him out of the house of Machir the son of Ammiel, from Lo-debar".
Here we see, in figure, the activity of God's grace. If the sinner cannot remedy his own imperfections, and if he is at a distance from God without desire to seek after God, blessing must come in altogether from God's side. In the gospel of His grace God approaches men as they are and where they are, and makes Himself known as a Saviour
God. It is by the gospel that God brings men to a knowledge of Himself. Then it is of all importance that we should know the true nature of the gospel of God.
Briefly stated, the gospel is (1) the presentation of a Person, (2) the declaration of what that Person has undergone, and of God's actings towards Him and (3) the proclamation of repentance and remission of sins in His name.
1. The Person whom the gospel presents is the Son of God. By sending His Son into the world God presented Himself in grace to men. There was no form of human need that He was not able and willing to meet; there was no kind of pressure upon man that He could not relieve. He "went about doing good, and healing all that were oppressed of the devil; for God was with him", Acts 10:38. He came not to condemn the world, not to impute trespasses to men, but to present in the excellence of His own Person the blessed grace of God.
There was also in Him the complete setting forth of everything that was according to God's good pleasure in a Man. He was the beloved Son, in whom the Father was well pleased. Every divine perfection was brought near to men in pure grace in that blessed and holy Person. And every one whose heart was attracted by His grace, and believed on Him, obtained forgiveness of sins and found the knowledge of God.
2. But this wondrous grace must reign through righteousness, and it could only be presented to men in One who was willing and competent to charge Himself with the liabilities of men. The Lord Jesus could speak of forgiveness of sins because He was about to bear sins in His own body on the tree; He could heal every disease, and rescue men from the power of death itself because He had come in grace to undergo all that was due to men in consequence of sin. In the days of His flesh the accomplishment of all this was future, but it is now past, and the gospel declares
what He has undergone on man's behalf. He has borne and suffered for sins, has been made sin, and has tasted death. He charged Himself with the liabilities of men, and has undergone the holy judgment due to sin. And all this in absolute grace, that the grace of God might flow out in righteousness to men.
Then the gospel declares further how God has acted towards the One who thus came in grace into man's condemnation. God raised Him from the dead, so that He saw no corruption, and He lives for evermore beyond the reach of sin and death. Man, in the Person of the Lord Jesus, has an entirely new place with God, and is found in a state to which no imperfection or condemnation can ever attach. Nothing has been overlooked or compromised. Sins have been borne, sin has been judged, death has been suffered, Satan's power overthrown, and all this by One who is now raised from the dead as the glorious Witness to the complete triumph of grace.
3. Now we get the proclamation of forgiveness of sins. "Be it known unto you, therefore, brethren, that through this man remission of sins is preached to you, and from all things from which ye could not be justified in the law of Moses, in him everyone that believes is justified", Acts 13:38, 39. God thus approaches men in unmingled grace, as One who "desires that all men should be saved", 1 Timothy 2:4. He is made known through the Lord Jesus Christ as a Justifier and a Saviour God. He sets forth what He is that He may be known and believed on in that character. If we believe on Him that raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead, righteousness is imputed to us. "Therefore having been justified on the principle of faith, we have peace towards God through our Lord Jesus Christ", Romans 5:1.
It is by this wondrous and blessed gospel that God approaches man in his ruin and distance. This gospel,
received by faith, gives man the knowledge of God in grace, and brings him away from the world where God is unknown. He leaves Lo-debar for the courts of royal grace.
How blessed to know that the kindness of God is toward men because of what Christ is, and on the ground of what He has accomplished! It has no respect to merit, or worthiness of any kind, in the sinner. David's kindness to Mephibosheth was according to the worthiness of another. "That I may shew him kindness for Jonathan's sake", and "I will certainly shew thee kindness for Jonathan thy father's sake". The excellence and perfection of Christ are now before God, and all His grace to men is according to His estimation of Christ. Can anyone say that such infinite grace as this is not "worthy of all acceptation"? Then why not believe, and receive it now?
Another thought we may gather from the picture before us is that the known grace of God not only separates a man from the world of the ungodly, but it gives him a true judgment of himself. In the presence of David's grace Mephibosheth could only say, "What is thy servant, that thou shouldest look upon such a dead dog as I am?" This is repentance -- the judgment which a sinner has of himself in the presence of divine grace. "Repentance and remission of sins" are both preached in the name of a risen Saviour.
Finally, we see here in picture the purpose which God has in view in making known His grace to men. "As for Mephibosheth, said the king, he shall eat at my table, as one of the king's sons". It is God's purpose and pleasure that we should receive sonship (Galatians 4:5). This is not to meet our need, but to gratify His own heart. He is "bringing many sons to glory", Hebrews 2:10. The love of God will find its satisfaction in having a company "conformed to the image of his Son, so that he should be the firstborn among many brethren", Romans 8:29. And God delights
that even here His children should know, by the Spirit, the liberty with which the Son makes free, liberty to be in the home circle of divine affections, and to respond to those affections with the cry of sonship, "Abba, Father". May God affect our hearts by His grace and love!
2 Samuel 17:27 - 29; 2 Samuel 19:31 - 43; Philippians 3:7 - 13; Habakkuk 3:17 - 19
It is of all importance that we should take account of the close of our journey here, and I desire to present to you what a spiritual finish is. We are very near now to seeing the Lord's face, and we ought to speak together in this hope. The Holy Spirit is giving to the saints today a sense of the expectation of it: we shall see Him come into all His rights, but I am thinking more of the blessedness of His very presence, surrounded with delight by all His own.
Paul writes to the Thessalonians in a different way from what he does to any other assembly. They had just recently been gathered to the Lord's name. Paul writes, not 'to the assembly at Thessalonica', but "to the assembly of Thessalonians in God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ", 1 Thessalonians 1:1. I suppose they were very young, and, as just gathered to the Lord's name, had not been formed in assembly truth and principles, and he writes to them in that simple way. He presents the Lord and the Lord's coming in such a way as to set their hearts right, not only in relation to the testimony, but in the knowledge of divine Persons. He presents not only the public appearing of the Lord Jesus, but also the way we shall meet Him in the air.
In 2 Thessalonians 2:1 Paul beseeches them "by the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our gathering together to him". It is an expression of peculiar sweetness -- think of all saints gathering together to Him -- not to His name, but to Himself, and as 1 Thessalonians 5:10 says,
"that ... we may live together with him". That is our eternity, our full portion with Christ. We are not only to be together but we are to live together with Him. This is really what is to touch our hearts and fill them with that expectancy of love that regards the Lord's coming with supreme anticipation of pleasure.
After presenting the hope of the Lord's coming in the first epistle, the apostle in chapters 1 and 2 of the second epistle gives words of consolation and instruction in view of the coming apostasy: then he says "But our Lord Jesus Christ himself, and our God and Father, who has loved us, and given us eternal consolation and good hope by grace, encourage your hearts, and establish you in every good work and word", 2 Thessalonians 2:16, 17. Nothing, not even the thickness of tissue paper, is to come between the Lord and our hearts; then we should have the enjoyment of our relationship with the Lord Jesus and with our God in service and in suffering for the testimony. It is the consciousness of the immediate support and love of the heart of Christ and the place we have eternally in our Father's heart and purpose that is our proper start: if we are to continue and to finish well we must make this beginning.
Now in speaking of Barzillai, I wish to draw attention to this very serious consideration, that a person may have a good start and make progress, and then go back, the Lord having lost in the heart the place He had at first. There is nothing more sad than departure from the Lord Himself, and I suppose the history of Barzillai has been given to us in Scripture so that we should be able to take account of the sadness of spiritual enfeeblement. Barzillai and his companions met David when he was in reproach, bringing the very best they had, and no mean provision it was. The Spirit of God gives us a list of what they brought, "beds, and basons, and earthen vessels, and wheat, and barley, and flour, and parched corn, and beans, and lentils, and
parched pulse, and honey, and cream, and sheep, and cheese of kine". The Lord does not forget our work of faith and labour of love, and if He has enlarged us and blessed us so that we have been able to minister to Him and to His own, He never forgets it! But how sad if the freshness that prompted it has declined in our souls!
Now in chapter 19, David returns to Jerusalem and Mephibosheth is there to greet him. Mephibosheth's affection has been sustained; he has been feeling the absence of David and the falling away from David of many in Jerusalem and through the testing time of David's absence he has ever remembered him with affectionate regard for his person and rights: his happiness is bound up with God's beloved. David mentions the inheritance, but Mephibosheth replies, 'It is not that I am thinking of. I am not troubled about the inheritance, everything to me is that you have come back'. What a comfort to the heart of David! -- a welcome from a heart that had never declined but had beaten true in his absence. But it is otherwise with Barzillai; he meets the king and follows him over Jordan. David makes a proposition to Barzillai, 'Come up to Jerusalem and I will feed you. I do not forget that when in adversity you fed me, and now I want you to be my guest in Jerusalem, I want to maintain and feed you there'. What an invitation! The Lord proposes an advancement spiritually for us -- that we should go right up into the heart of blessing, where Christ is supreme, that we should dwell with Him in His Jerusalem. We should enjoy now what we are to enjoy eternally with Christ. The Lord finds pleasure in our willing response to that. Although the Lord regards with delight every bit of service towards Himself as it comes out in relation to His people -- caring for them, feeding them, serving Him in His interests here, just as Barzillai and his associates cared for David and his followers -- yet more deeply valued still by the Lord Jesus is the
devoted affection that will follow Him up to Jerusalem where He may share in grace all He possesses with us there, and serve us that we may fully enjoy it all. "He will gird himself and make them recline at table, and coming up will serve them", Luke 12:37. Our being occupied with His interests here is one thing, but it is another His welcoming us into heavenly scenes even now in spirit, to share the fulness of what His ascending there has secured. It is blessed, but if it is to be responded to, it calls for personal spiritual energy. It takes vigour of soul to pass up from Jordan to Jerusalem, and it is just the lack of that which comes out typically in Barzillai's case. David had lost in Barzillai's heart the place he once had. If you watch Barzillai's feet you know where his heart is. He says, 'I am not as young as I was once nor as able to go about: I am superannuated: it is time I retired from the conflict; I will go over Jordan a little today'. It is very good to cross Jordan even for a visit, but David's proposal was that he should go up and reside with him; he said, 'I will maintain thee'. Does your heart incline to follow the Lord over Jordan into the sphere where He is owned as the risen One? If you do, that is well, but He wants you further, He wants to lead your heart up to heaven, that you may know and enjoy heavenly things.
The Lord attracts us over Jordan that He may set our minds on heavenly things. It may be only a visit at the start, but you cannot cross very often without feeling it would be good to follow the Lord up to Jerusalem and remain with Him where He is supreme and where He maintains all. We may come down to this side to serve His interests here, but our centre and home is with Him there.
Barzillai says, 'I am to old, I will go a little way'. Do you think a saint in spiritual energy would speak like that? Remember the walk Enoch took with God -- it was as "the
path of the righteous ... as the shining light, going on and brightening until the day be fully come", Proverbs 4:18. Do any of us feel old spiritually? That once there was a discernment of divine things and an appetite for the things of Christ, and now one is at a loss when one hears others speak of things that one is unable to discern? You have grey hairs and you know it not: age has crept on and you did not observe it, affection for Christ has waned, and the heart has turned to something else, and the Lord Jesus is accorded a second place where once He was first. It is very serious if one is beginning to find a lack of edge in one's taste for divine things. Barzillai said "Can I hear any more the voice of singing men and singing women?" It is important to see that spiritual things are sustained in deep spiritual joy, and saints who are going on spiritually are bound to sing. Wherever saints are sustained in spiritual affection for Christ and for His interests they are bound to sing. When David is having His place in Jerusalem there is bound to be singing there. We should be at liberty, not only to hear the saints sing, but to sing with them. David said, "This man was born there" -- Zion. "Jehovah will count, when he inscribeth the peoples, This man was born there", Psalm 87:6. Christ is the Man who was born there; Jerusalem is His city, and this Psalm speaks of the singers and dancers being there. It is the place God loves, He loves "the gates of Zion more than all the habitations of Jacob". Now the men and women singing tell of the intelligent and affectionate interest of the saints in everything being established in Christ, and that He fills the heart of God and His people so that God should find His pleasure in a company of saints who sing to Him. There is a reference in Job 38:7 to the morning stars singing together and all the sons of God shouting for joy. They saw what God had before Him and delighted in sympathy. What a poor estimate of the heart of David Barzillai had -- "Why should
thy servant be yet a burden to my lord the king?" Affection for Christ would cast you entirely upon all that He gives -- the care and support that would love to carry you across Jordan and up to Jerusalem and set you down amongst His happy company so that you should partake of all the good of the best things in Jerusalem. One feels that unconsciously there was with Barzillai a doubt of the affections of David. Barzillai says, "Behold thy servant Chimham: let him go": Chimham means 'longing' . David must have felt 'Ah, Barzillai, I have lost my supreme place in your affections'. Chimham gets all that Barzillai misses.
I have read the scripture in Habakkuk to illustrate what it is to have a good spiritual finish, what it is to sing in spiritual energy at the close. His day was like the day in which we live; He took account of things as they were among the people of God publicly, and it broke his heart. Habakkuk is a heart-broken man because of the testimony. There had been departure from the Lord: there was no course for him, devoted man that he was, but to stand upon the watch-tower and pray. A broken heart in relation to the testimony first of all isolates you, puts you in a separate path, and there you get a divine start. He is praying and soon light as to the whole mind of God comes before him; he sees that the issue of it is that the Lord will come out in His power and rid the scene of all desolation, and that the whole earth will be filled with His glory. What view have you got from your watch-tower? Habakkuk had a view of things as God had secured them for His own pleasure: "For though the fig-tree shall not blossom, Neither shall fruit be in the vines; The labour of the olive-tree shall fail" -- although desolation shall mark the whole scene before me -- "Yet I will rejoice in Jehovah, I will joy in the God of my salvation". Then he says, "He maketh my feet like hinds' feet, And he will make me to walk upon my high places". What a bright contrast to
what we have been regarding! Here we have spiritual energy, no old age, and a man able to rise to high places. There are for us all the blessed privileges peculiar to the assembly in our high places but it needs hinds' feet, spiritual vigour, to rise to them. Now Habakkuk can sing "To the chief Musician. On my stringed instruments"! That is the end of a man's path who through exercise rose to the possibilities of the day in which he lived. A spiritual man ends with hinds' feet, high places and stringed instruments. You have them all in Philippians 3 in our apostle, and how exhilarating it is to hear his call to us! There is no idea of retiring from the race here, and no note of depression. Instead of decline there is increase -- "But surely I count also all things to be loss"; his taste is with him; there are no grey hairs, no waning of affection or enfeebled vision; he sees clearly. And it is all Christ and Christ in heaven, and so Paul is full of joy. He rejoices in the Lord.
May the Lord encourage us to follow Himself to where He is, and be thus kept amid the ruin of the moment in affection for Himself, and appreciation of heavenly things, with hinds' feet, on high places, and among the singing men and women with stringed instruments.
1 Kings 4:24, 25; 1 Kings 5:1 - 5; 1 Kings 6:1 - 7
I desire to speak a little tonight about the house of God in connection with the kingdom. This looks on, in great measure, to a day that is yet to come, but there is much in it of present value for our instruction.
The tabernacle was movable and provisional. It was intended to be carried about, and was only for the time. It did not represent an established or permanent order of things. The house, properly speaking, could not be built until the kingdom was established. When the kingdom was established and mount Zion secured under David the house came distinctly in view. In Psalm 78:68 - 70 we may see the connection between God's choice of David and of mount Zion and the building of His sanctuary. Jehovah dwelt in Zion as His rest for ever (see Psalm 132:13, 14), and this prepared the way for His sanctuary to be built by Solomon.
The effect of the kingdom being established in the hands of David was that the people were delivered from every enemy. "Judah and Israel dwelt safely, every man under his vine and under his fig-tree". Jehovah put all the enemies under the soles of David's feet, so that when Solomon came to the throne he could say, "Jehovah my God has given me rest on every side: there is neither adversary nor evil event".
At the present moment the kingdom is not set up in
public manifestation, but it has been established in the victorious power of grace. Christ -- the true David -- has laid low every enemy and silenced every foe. He has been made sin in order to put it away by the sacrifice of Himself; He has died for our sins; He has annulled death and him who had its power; He has redeemed from the curse those who were under it; He has spoiled principalities and powers; He has put all our spiritual enemies under the soles of His feet, so that we may have "rest on every side". Through redemption the enemy's power is completely broken.
Then, again, the effect of the kingdom being established was that the people were commanded and ordered according to the pleasure of God. You remember how it is said in the book of judges, "In those days there was no king in Israel; every man did what was right in his own eyes". God raised up saviours for the people in their distresses, but there was no king to order them according to God's pleasure. The king was placed over the people to rule them for God. We read of Solomon that he was set on Jehovah's throne to be king to Jehovah his God (2 Chronicles 9:8). Christ has that place for us now. Not that we know Him exactly as King -- He is Lord to us -- but I speak of the principle. The day of His glory here, of which Solomon's reign was figurative, is yet future, but we sing oftentimes:
It is a great thing to come under the control of that blessed One. He has established His right to control us by going into death for us. We must admit that He has a right to command and order us and it is our happiness and security to be under His sway. We have no business now to do what is right in our own eyes. In the kingdom of God we are put under the blessed control of divine grace and love
expressed in the Person of the Lord Jesus Christ, so that we may do what is right in the sight of God.
But what is all this in view of? If the king destroyed the enemy's power and controlled the people for God's pleasure it was all in view of the house of God being built. It is interesting to see that from the very beginning of David's history he had the house of God before him. I think we may gather this from Psalm 132. In the time of David's afflictions he devoted himself to "find out a place for Jehovah, habitations for the Mighty One of Jacob", and he says in verse 6, "Behold, we heard of it at Ephratah, we found it in the fields of the wood". When he was living in Bethlehem and wandering in the fields -- long before he came to the kingdom -- the house of God was before him, and he came to the kingdom really to prepare for the building of the house.
In connection with this read 2 Samuel 5:3 - 7; 2 Samuel 6:12. David's first act after being anointed king over Israel was to take "the stronghold of Zion, which is the city of David", and one of his next acts was to bring up the ark of God "into the city of David with joy". The Lord had chosen Zion; He had desired it for His habitation. He had said, "This is my rest for ever; here will I dwell, for I have desired it", Psalm 132:13, 14. David acted in victorious power to secure the place that God had chosen, and then he brought the ark to rest there. Zion spoke of the victorious power and supremacy of David and it represents all the grace and blessings that have been secured in a risen and ascended Christ on the ground of redemption. God's purposes of grace had to be established in Christ risen and glorified on the basis of redemption before His house could be built.
It may seem in the actual history of things here as though the enemy held the field, and that nothing of God's will was established. But as a matter of fact the enemy's
power is completely broken and God's purpose and grace are established in the most glorious way in Christ as the risen and exalted One. This is known by faith and in the Holy Spirit, so that it can be said to believers now, "Ye have come to mount Zion", Hebrews 12:22. The house of God is built upon the impregnable basis of a victory which has broken the enemy's power, and a Person who has annulled death and brought life and incorruptibility to light, One in whom God's purpose and grace are established, Jesus Christ the Son of God.
David thought and wrought from the very beginning in view of the house of God, and in this he was a type of Christ. Christ came here to secure a place and material for God's house. He secured a company in order to make them "living stones" for God's spiritual house. Then He accomplished redemption, and went to the right hand of God in order that the Spirit might be given to those who believed and that they might thus become God's dwelling-place here.
It is well to note that when the ark was brought to the city of David there was "gladness", and the people had a good time (see 2 Samuel 6:18, 19). They were caring that God should have His place, and the result was that they were blessed and enriched. If we want to have a good time we must be like David, who set his affection on the house of his God. If we do so we are sure to have prosperity of soul.
In 1 Chronicles 22:7 - 10 we see that it was in David's mind to build the house, but he was not suffered to do so because he had shed blood abundantly. This is an interesting scripture, because it points to a distinction between two characters which are united in Christ. Christ is the Man of war and the Man of rest and peace -- He is the true David and the true Solomon. David came in victorious power to meet and destroy every enemy, and Christ has
taken up this character; He has maintained all the rights of God with regard to sin, and in view of the blessing of man. Then Solomon (peaceable) was a man of rest, and in his day God gave peace and quietness. Christ is now in the blessed peace of resurrection, having vanquished every foe. As the risen One He said to His disciples, "Peace be unto you". No disturbing element can ever reach the shore of resurrection. There is rest on every side, and neither adversary nor evil occurrent.
One might say that typically David was the king of righteousness, and Solomon the king of peace. Both are united in Melchisedec -- figure of Christ as the One who "shall build the temple of Jehovah; and he shall bear the glory, and shall sit and rule upon his throne; and he shall be a priest upon his throne", Zechariah 6:13. In a coming day Christ will be the King of righteousness and the King of peace, and in connection with Him the millennial temple will be built, the glory will be brought in, and everything on earth will be ordered for the pleasure of God. But in a certain way, as I have suggested, we know Him in these characters now -- as the true David who in the victorious power of grace has put every foe beneath His feet so that there might be full blessing for all who believe on His name, and as the true Solomon in the blessed rest and peace of resurrection. These things are hinted at in picture in the Old Testament; we enter by faith and in the Spirit into the reality of them now; and in a quickly coming day they will be publicly displayed in power and glory.
It was reserved to Solomon to build the house, but David was the one who secured the place for it, and who provided the material. He could say, "Behold, in my affliction I have prepared for the house of Jehovah a hundred thousand talents of gold, and a thousand thousand talents of silver; and of brass and iron without
weight, for it is in abundance; and timber and stone have I prepared", 1 Chronicles 22:14. David secured the kingdom when he took Zion, and then all through his reign he was providing for the house, treasuring the spoils of forty victorious years to that blessed end. It suggests to me that all the fruit and spoil of Christ's victory, and all that has accrued to Him as the exalted One, goes to enrich and beautify the house of God. In that way the kingdom contributes to the house.
Then towards the end of David's life he discerned the place for the altar of burnt-offering. Read 1 Chronicles 22:1. The circumstances were most solemn and striking: David had sinned in numbering the people and a plague from Jehovah was upon Israel. Everything on the line of man's responsibility had entirely broken down, and the unhappy king could only plead his own guilt and pray that God's hand might be upon him and his father's house and not upon the people. It was then that in blessed grace and sovereign mercy he was commanded to set up an altar to Jehovah in the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite, and Jehovah answered him there by fire and bade the angel put up his sword again into the sheath thereof. "And David said, This is the house of Jehovah Elohim, and this is the altar of burnt-offering for Israel". It was the place of grace and love and sovereign mercy when human failure was complete and on man's side everything was forfeited. The house as built by Solomon did not therefore stand connected with man's ruin and failure. That failure was indeed complete, but on the ground of the burnt-offering God came out in supreme grace and mercy and made choice of a place where He might dwell in blessing amongst His people.
I desire now to point out one or two things in connection with the temple which have no place in connection with the tabernacle. The temple adds considerably to our conception
of the house of God for in connection with the temple we get the thought of God's house as a dwelling place for men. In the tabernacle there was no provision for men to dwell in God's house; there was not even a seat there for the priests. But in the temple there were chambers which suggest the thought of men dwelling in the house of God. That house was to be not only a place of approach to God but a dwelling place for men. I need not remind you how often this thought is taken up in the Psalms. "I will dwell in the house of Jehovah for the length of the days" (Psalm 23:6); "One thing have I asked of Jehovah, that will I seek after: that I may dwell in the house of Jehovah all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of Jehovah, and to inquire of him in his temple" ('beauty' may read 'graciousness'), Psalm 27:4. Again, "Blessed is he whom thou choosest and causest to approach: he shall dwell in thy courts. We shall be satisfied with the goodness of thy house, of thy holy temple" (Psalm 65:4) and "Blessed are they that dwell in thy house: they will be constantly praising thee", Psalm 84:4.
1 have no doubt that the Lord made reference to the chambers of the temple when He said, "In my Father's house there are many abodes; were it not so, I had told you: for I go to prepare you a place; and if I go and shall prepare you a place, I am coming again and shall receive you to myself, that where I am ye also may be", John 14:2, 3. The Lord turned from the place on which the dark night of His rejection and death was settling down, to speak of His Father's house and a dwelling there for His own. He would have companions in the home circle of divine love. He came here to secure those who should be His companions in the blessed abodes of His Father's house. As we trace His holy pathway through this gospel we see how He secured them. It was by superseding everything else in the estimation of their hearts. He was
here as the great Object and Centre to which the Father was drawing men (see John 6:44, 45).
Everything that had attractiveness or dignity in the estimation of pious people, or that was entitled to their veneration, was eclipsed by the Son of God. Moses was a great figure before the mind of the Jew, and rightly so, but he was put in the shade by Christ. "The law was given by Moses: grace and truth subsists through Jesus Christ", John 1:17. John the Baptist was a remarkable servant of God, and esteemed to be such by the pious, but he spoke of Christ as One whose shoe's latchet he was "not worthy to unloose", John 1:27. The temple is seen to be only a figure of Christ as the true Shrine of divine glory (John 2:21). Jacob's well, a great object of regard to the people of Samaria, was superseded by Christ; He could give "living water" (John 4). The pool of Bethesda with its miraculous healing was a striking witness in the midst of all the failure that God's mercy endured for ever, but Christ was greater and better than the pool, for He could make whole one who was not able to benefit by the pool (John 5). Christ was superior to the manna (John 6:49, 50), and He was superior to the feast of tabernacles, the greatest feast of the Jewish year (John 7). In John 10, as the Shepherd, He displaces the fold, the whole organised system of judaism. Everything that was in any way entitled to have place in the hearts of the people was excelled and displaced by Christ. Then in John 11 and 12 we see Him in His own proper greatness and glory: as Son of God He raises Lazarus, as Son of David He rides into Jerusalem, and as Son of man He is glorified by going into death that He may not abide alone. He displaces every other object for those taught by the Father that He may hold their hearts entirely for Himself by His own mighty attraction. God ministers Him to us now by the Holy Spirit that everything else may be put in the background
for our hearts. God is working to this end, and in this way is securing companions for His Son in the many abodes of His house.
The disciples who were drawn to Christ when He was here gained nothing as to this world. In following Him they came under the shadow of death and became heirs of reproach and hatred. Instead of coming into the light of the day of His glory they entered the dark shadows of a night which reached its deepest gloom in the garden and at the cross. How solemnly suggestive are those words in John 13:30, "It was night"! But in that dark moment the Lord took occasion to speak to them of a new place in His Father's house. He said, "I go to prepare you a place". It was necessary for Him to pass out of this world through death in order that we might have a place of association with Him in the Father's love. Of course we shall not actually be in that blessed place until we are with and like Him in bodies of glory. But His going through death to the Father has prepared a place there for us. Hence in resurrection He could say "Go to my brethren and say to them, I ascend to my Father and your Father, and to my God and your God". What marvellous grace and love! He has secured companions for Himself in the chambers of His Father's house. Our place is there, and it is our privilege to be in spirit there already.
When the house was built, and the ark and holy vessels were brought up into it, "the cloud filled the house of Jehovah", 1 Kings 8:10, 11. And when we consider the Father's house of John 14 we find that glory dwells there. The Father's house is where the Son is, and He says, "Father, as to those whom thou hast given me, I desire that where I am they also may be with me, that they may behold my glory which thou hast given me, for thou lovedst me before the foundation of the world", John 17:24. That is the glory which fills the house. Of old,
"the priests could not stand to do their service because of the cloud"; the glory absolutely excluded man in the flesh. But now we find a blessed company secured by divine love and in divine righteousness able to behold the glory without a veil. The glory that the Father has given to the Son is infinitely great. It is nothing less than the glory of giving effect to all the counsels of divine love. The accomplishment of all the unnumbered thoughts of blessing and grace that filled the heart of God before the foundation of the world, of all the holy counsels which originated in the Father, has been entrusted to the Son; and this is the distinctive glory of the Son given to Him by the Father who loved Him from eternity. It is the glory of the Son to bring out and establish the glory of the Father in the fulfilment of all the purposes of His love. That glory fills the abodes of the Father's house, and we are brought there to behold the Father glorified in the Son. Christ's brethren are the companions of His rejection and reproach in this world, but they are also His companions in the circle of ineffable rest and love where He is with the Father, and where His glory appears. I repeat, we are not there actually yet, but in spirit it is our privilege to taste the holy joy of being brought by the Son into the chambers of the Father's house.
Great is our privilege as called to be dwellers in God's house. We behold there the beauty (graciousness) of the Lord (Psalm 27:4), and we get the consciousness that His place is our place. We have not only a way of approach, but a home, a dwelling place. Christ's place with His Father is ours, the home of our hearts, the place of our rest. The house of God is a place of satisfied desire, of freedom from care, and of continual praise (see Psalm 84:1 - 4). 1 should like the thought to be deepened in our hearts that we have a place in God's house, in the circle where His love and glory are known, that we may be drawn more in spirit to
dwell there, so as to be still praising Him.
This brings me to another thing in which the temple suggests more than the tabernacle. We read in 1 Chronicles 25:6 of many of the Levites who were under the hands of their fathers "for song in the house of Jehovah, with cymbals, lutes and harps, for the service of the house of God, under the direction of the king". There was no song in connection with the tabernacle. The Levites had to carry the tabernacle and the holy vessels. What was typified in this still continues concurrently with the privileges of the house. That is, we have to bear the burden of the testimony of the Lord with all its afflictions in this world. If people think they can serve God without having some burden to carry they are mistaken. There is divine resource and power to carry what is of God in testimony through the world, but it is well rightly to estimate the seriousness of being God's servants here.
In 1 Chronicles 25 we find the three families of the Levites (Asaph, Heman and Jeduthun belonged to the three different families) no longer bearing the burden but raising the song. In figure we may say they had reached the favoured hour when their toil was over and they could happily and restfully raise their song in the house of Jehovah. No doubt this anticipates the day of glory, but there is a sense in which our hearts may know something of it even now. It is possible to retire from the pressure and contrariety of the wilderness, and even from the bearing of burdens in service and testimony here, and to reach a spot in spirit where we can sing as those who participate in the fatness, blessedness, and joy of God's house. If we come under the influence and into the rest of divine love there cannot fail to be a responsive song in our hearts. If the Lord says, "I will declare thy name to my brethren", He also says, "In the midst of the assembly will I sing thy praises". According to God's name so is His praise (see
No doubt there is a day coming when all this will be realised in a wonderful way, when the blessedness of God's house will be the joy of Israel and of the millennial earth. But there is even now what answers to it in a spiritual way. The kingdom of God has been established in Christ at the right hand of God, and in the power of the Spirit down here, and consequent upon this the house of God is here. May we be divinely instructed as to the blessed service and privilege of that house!
1 Kings 6:7 - 22
C.A.C. I think the consideration together of the material of which the house was built would give us to see the exalted character of what has come under the hand of Christ as the great Builder, and it would help us to apprehend the dignity of the service that belongs to such a house. I am thinking more particularly of the materials mentioned in this chapter -- the stone, the cedar-wood, the cypress, the olive wood and the gold -- all marked by excellence. When the tabernacle was finished it was all anointed, but in the house that Solomon built the materials were of such excellence that they did not need to be anointed. When we consider that the saints are the materials with which Christ builds it gives us an exalted thought of the place which they have in relation to Christ as the Builder and in relation to God as the One who dwells in the house when it is finished.
J. S. In that sense the material is worthy to compose the house. We need that view a little more perhaps?
C.A.C. Yes, I think we do. The material is all suitable for Christ as the Son of the Father's love to handle in His constructive operations. There is nothing mean or common about it. The material itself is of great importance. The stone is mentioned first because it is that which underlies the other materials although it was not to be seen (verse 18). What underlies and supports everything in the house of God is that which is not seen. It says distinctly that "there was no stone seen"; what was seen was cedar, but the stone was of basic importance, it was the strength
and stability of the structure, though not coming under the eye of man.
W. G. What does the stone speak of?
C.A.C. My impression is that the stone represents what is solid and permanent; it regards the saints as the subjects of divine purpose and calling. The stones come from an elevated region, the mountains, which would answer to Romans 8:29, 30 and Ephesians 1:4.
V.G. Would that be indicated in the Lord's word to Peter, "Thou art Peter" (Matthew 16:18)?
C.A.C. That shews that the Lord was thinking of building material; when Simon came first into His presence He said to him: "Thou shalt be called Cephas (which interpreted is stone)", John 1:42. It was not exactly what Peter was then actually, but what he was in divine purpose -- "Thou shalt be called Cephas".
Rem. So Peter has that in mind in his ministry, "To whom coming, a living stone ... yourselves also, as living stones, are being built up a spiritual house", 1 Peter 2:4, 5.
C.A.C. I thought so. When Peter confessed Jesus as the Christ, the Son of the living God (Matthew 16), the Lord said: "Thou art Peter". He had come to it constitutionally then. He was a stone in purpose in the first chapter of John -- "Thou shalt be called Cephas" -- he was material in the eye of the Lord for His building work, but when he came out as a confessor of Christ as the Son of the living God he was a stone constitutionally and in character so the Lord said, "Thou art Peter". It was not now simply what he was in purpose but what he had become as the subject of the Father's revelation, and this was a matter of sovereign divine work outside responsibility. It was what the Father had done; flesh and blood had not revealed it to Simon but the Father. Looking at the stone in the light of this it is exceedingly dignified material, and permanent, because
nothing can undo what the Father has done.
Ques. Would you say a word as to the tool and the hammer not being heard in the house?
C.A.C. The point is evidently that the stone was "entirely made ready before it was brought thither; so that there was neither hammer nor axe nor any tool of iron heard in the house while it was being built". There is not only the thought of basic and permanent material in the stone, but a certain process of making ready is suggested, but all is done, as it were, behind the scenes.
Ques. Does it suggest God working?
C.A.C. The best illustration of it that I know is the company of 120 persons in the first chapter of Acts, who were suited material for the Lord to use in His building operations. He actually built the house, we might say, in the beginning of the second chapter of the Acts, but the material was all prepared before. The Lord in His ministry on earth was preparing the material in secret; that is, what He was doing did not exactly come under the eye of man at all but He was making the material ready. As it says here, it was "entirely made ready". It is interesting to consider that in the ministry of the Lord while here He did a great deal which was afterwards the work of the Spirit. Whatever one divine Person can do, Another can do.
V. G. Is what you say confirmed by the remarkable way in which these vessels functioned in the ten days before the descent of the Spirit?
C.A.C. I think so. They shewed that they were "entirely made ready", and it had been brought about by being in the company of the Lord in the days of His flesh and also in resurrection. So that when they had to select one to take the place of Judas, Peter laid it down as a condition that he must be one who had assembled with them "all the time in which the Lord Jesus came in and went out among us, beginning from the baptism of John
until the day in which he was taken up from us" (Acts 1:21, 22); that is, he must be a man whose formation had been completed in the company of Christ.
Ques. Would that thought be included in the Lord's word "I have completed the work which thou gavest me that I should do it", John 17:4?
C.A.C. I think so, because the work given Him to do certainly included the preparation of a company to be material for the house of God, for the temple. In connection with this it was not a question of what might be known to men, because they appealed to the Lord as knowing all hearts after they had appointed two men. They were not prepared to say which was the right one; they referred that to the Lord, "knower of the hearts of all". This matter of what we are as stones does not actually come under the eye of man; it comes under the eye of the Lord and He has His own way of selecting. The material is the Father's work, but it is the Lord's work to make it ready, and in the case of the apostles the work was brought to completion. When the day of Pentecost came the Spirit came down and filled the house, but the material was all prepared before. All this suggests a process which is necessary for us if we are to be as it says here, "entirely made ready". This process goes on as we are found in the company of the saints. I believe it is a great moment in the history of a soul when one begins to assemble with the saints, when one likes to be with them. Peter speaks of those who had "assembled with us all the time in which the Lord Jesus came in and went out among us". "All the time" -- it was a full-time man that was wanted, one that had not missed any impression that the Lord had given to His own when He came in and went out amongst them. As regards ourselves it is well to bear in mind that there is a company still where the Lord comes in and goes out, and so far as our responsibility enters into this matter it would lie in that, that we are
found amongst those who assemble with the saints and who come under the personal influence of the Lord as coming in and going out amongst them. The making ready will go on then according to the plan, according to what is in the divine mind. We love to see souls drawn to the company of believers; it is one evidence that there is material there for the house; there is something of "stone" character there, and the Lord can see it before we can. He saw great possibilities in Simon before anybody else did.
Rem. So that on the day you mention they were all together in one place.
C.A.C. Is not that beautiful? It was the result of being made ready during the three-and-a-half years.
Rem. They had been attracted to Christ really?
C.A.C. Yes, quite so, and it is in being attracted to Him that we give evidence of being living stones. Peter speaks of Christ as a Living Stone, cast aside as worthless by men, but chosen of God and precious, and he says, "To whom coming". Those who come are living stones; they have vitality enough to come. The test is whether we have vitality enough to come to Christ as the One who is of no account in this world, but who is infinitely precious to God. It means leaving every other man and coming to Him. One is a living stone then; it takes the energy of life to come to Christ, because He is of no account in this world. People may build churches and large buildings but there is nothing living in that. But by living stones being found together a habitation is secured for God. There is material which Christ can make use of. It is a wonderful day when He becomes the one Object attracting the heart away from man's thoughts and doings and all his religious observances to the One chosen of God and precious. Then there is basic material for the house, something that the true Solomon can use in His building operations.
Ques. What is the difference between what the Lord is
as a Stone and what the saints are as stones?
C.A.C. There is a certain difference, because as to His Person He is unique, but the saints are the same kind of material morally and that is why they appreciate Christ. No one can appreciate Christ without having something in common with Him; there is a kindred nature. It is instructive to see that in the house "all was cedar; there was no stone seen" (verse 18). What the saints are as "called according to purpose" (Romans 8:28) underlies everything but it does not come into view. What appears publicly is the cedar. The divine sovereign work in saints on the line of God's calling and purpose underlies all that we can see. We cannot see all that the saints are as wrought of God in view of His purpose. We are conscious that that mighty working is there, but what comes into evidence is the cedar. There is no stone seen.
Rem. Tell us a bit about the cedar.
C.A.C. It seems to me that in the cedar we get what is the product of divine planting and growth. Scripture speaks of the cedars of Lebanon which Jehovah hath planted (Psalm 104:16), and it is said of the righteous that "he shall grow like a cedar on Lebanon", Psalm 92:12. The result is something excellent that can be taken account of under the eye of men. The spouse in the Song of Songs, in describing the Bridegroom says, "His bearing as Lebanon, excellent as the cedars", Song of Songs 5:15. That refers to the public bearing of the Lord, and it seems to me that the cedar as seen in the house speaks of the excellence of those features of Christ which can be taken account of publicly. What cannot be seen is the basis of all; what the saints are by the purpose and calling of God underlies everything, and many scriptures speak of the saints from that point of view.
Rem. I was wondering whether we sometimes rest in the 'stone' character of things without being sufficiently
exercised that there should be something seen.
C.A.C. Well, I believe the cedar represents these practical "ways in Christ" which are the product of divine planting and growth and which come into evidence amongst the brethren. Our ways in Christ are a public matter. There was not much cedar at Corinth; it was there potentially because the apostle addresses them as "babes in Christ", but he reminds them of the cedar as they had seen it in himself. He says, "I have sent to you Timotheus ... who shall put you in mind of my ways as they are in Christ, according as I teach everywhere in every assembly", 1 Corinthians 4:17. It is our ways in Christ that the brethren are to see and that is a very exalted character of things that constitutes material for the house.
Ques. You made the remark that in Solomon's building there was no anointing, but the apostle speaks to the Corinthians of the anointing, does he not?
C.A.C. He does, but I think we can understand that they were hardly up to the elevation of the scripture before us. We must bear in mind that in Solomon's temple there is no suggestion of deficiency or defect; every bit of it is perfect; the full mind of God is set before us that we may be exercised to come up to it. It is helpful to distinguish between Solomon as a builder and as an intercessory priest. When he builds, the material is all of surpassing excellence without any deficiency, but when he goes down on his knees to pray it is altogether different. On his knees he says over and over again, "Forgive ... forgive ... forgive". He is considering the people more from the Corinthian standpoint, if we may so say, when he prays.
Ques. Does Psalm 29 suggest anything about the cedars? It refers to the voice of Jehovah breaking the cedars, and in the next verse He makes them to skip.
C.A.C. I think the cedar is often used in Scripture as representing the greatness and excellence of man as in the
flesh, and God is going to break that. The day of Jehovah will be "upon all the cedars of Lebanon", Isaiah 2:13. In that aspect the cedar-wood was cast into the burning of the red heifer in Numbers 19; all that belongs to man's greatness goes into the fire. But Solomon's cedar sets forth what is spiritually excellent. The ways of the saints in Christ develop as they grow. A young convert necessarily comes in as a babe in Christ and the saints delight in what they see in him of ways in Christ but that is a developing thing. Paul began by telling the Corinthians that they were babes in Christ but he did not finish without presenting to them the thought of a man in Christ.
Ques. What are the "ways ... in Christ"?
C.A.C. I think it is all that corresponds with the anointed Man.
Rem. "Righteousness, faith, love, peace".
Ques. Would the cedar be seen in Peter when he says, "Look on us"?
C.A.C. Quite so. We ought to be much exercised as to what can be seen. I have heard people who were wrong say, 'The Lord knows my heart'; but what the brethren know is a very important matter. It is possible to cover up an unwholesome, unrighteous course by saying, 'The Lord knows my heart'. The saints do not know my heart but they know my ways and they are entitled to see that my ways are in Christ; they are entitled to see in me something of the excellent bearing of Christ. His bearing was always excellent; it always had the cedar character wherever it was looked at. Even as a Boy of twelve, how excellent was His bearing! And at every point, right through to the end there was the excellent bearing of the cedar. Now, that is to be seen, and it surely will be seen if the stone is underlying; the cedar will be put upon it.
Ques. As the temple is perfect and we are such creatures
of failure, how do we fit the two thoughts together?
C.A.C. Divine thoughts are presented to us symbolically in the temple, and I believe what is set forth here corresponds with what Christ set up here in the power of the Spirit after His ascension. It was there in completeness initially but now that has passed from public view and we have to come back to learn the mind of God from Scripture. We get in Solomon's temple what gives us the true thought of the house as in the mind of God; so that when we have that view of it before our hearts and minds we do not accept anything less as the truth. If we get the divine thought and have pure and upright hearts we could not possibly accept anything different. We could not accept that any human substitute will do; we may have to repent often in dust and ashes that so little of the cedar is exhibited, but we are not going to accept that something inferior will do.
Rem. It is a question of apprehending what is suitable to God.
Ques. When Peter in his second epistle refers to what they heard when they were with Him on the holy mount, has he in mind what is excellent, in correspondence with the "excellent glory"?
C.A.C. Yes, and there is the potentiality of all this in every saint. It is not like something out of reach. If none of the ways in Christ are seen in a person, you would say he is an unconverted man.
Rem. Peter speaks of growing up to salvation by desiring the pure mental milk of the word.
C.A.C. That is it. We grow up to complete deliverance from the man after the flesh when our heart is attracted and filled with what Christ is, and the fact that we are attracted and filled with that shews that we are kindred with Him.
Now we might have a word about the cypress or fir tree. It seems to me that the way the cypress or fir is spoken of in Scripture suggests the thought of grace abounding where sin has been. We read that "as for the stork, the fir trees are her house", Psalm 104:17. The stork being an unclean bird (Leviticus 11:19) would suggest that a house provided for her by God must be on the principle of grace. And we being what we are there can be no possibility of our being in happy relations with God, or having a place in His house, save on the ground of grace. We have, indeed, no claim or title to anything good save that which grace confers. We are justified freely by grace; we are saved by grace; whatever a saint is and whatever he does, it is by the grace of God. The conditions on our side are such that the element of grace is a necessity at all times. This is brought out in a striking way in the last chapter of the prophet Hosea. It begins, "O Israel, return unto Jehovah thy God; for thou hast fallen by thine iniquity. Take with you words, and turn to Jehovah; say unto him, Forgive all iniquity, and receive us graciously; so will we render the calves of our lips". And then in the eighth verse we read, "Ephraim shall say, What have I to do any more with idols?", and Jehovah says, "I answer him, and I will observe him". Then Ephraim goes on to say, "I am like a green fir-tree"; then Jehovah says, "From me is thy fruit found". There is no more beautiful expression of grace in the Old Testament. Backsliding Israel, having learned their own character by a long course of shameful failure will eventually turn to God and say, "Forgive all iniquity, and receive us graciously", and He will do so, and then they will say, "I am like a green fir-tree". In the appreciation of grace they will become characterised by the freshness of life, and grace becomes fruitful in this way.
Rem. Looking at the figure of the two trees, the cedar I suppose would speak of stateliness and height and dignity,
whereas the cypress would suggest greenness and freshness.
C.A.C. Yes, the thought of that freshness which the continued sense of grace preserves in the soul. The cedar and the cypress are often found together in Scripture. As we grow up in Christ there will always be a deepening sense of grace. Those who lose the sense of grace will surely get into darkness and bondage. It is noticeable that the folding-doors at the entrance of the temple were made of cypress-wood (1 Kings 6:34), intimating to us that access into privilege is a matter of grace. We may observe, too, that the floor of the holy place was overlaid with boards of cypress (1 Kings 6:15). In the most holy place the floor is cedar, but in the holy place it is cypress. It is not exactly new creation in the holy place but what we are according to grace; we are on that footing with God; we approach on the ground of infinite grace. God's favourableness to those personally unworthy is always an element in the constitution of the material with which Christ builds; He takes up persons imbued with the sense of grace; every one, as the parable puts it, has come in as an eleventh-hour man, and gets what he has on the footing of pure grace. We must always retain a sense of that. We come near to God on the ground of His own grace in Christ; we are on that ground with Him. There is nothing more practically important than that we should retain the sense of grace; indeed there has been enough failure in the history of every one of us to make us value grace.
Rem. We have spoken of other features in connection with Peter, and this one is especially seen with him in all he passed through with the Lord. Afterwards he said to others, "Grace to you and peace be multiplied", 1 Peter 1:2.
C.A.C. Yes, how beautiful! So in Luke's gospel the two who came back from Emmaus had been learning grace
and they found the eleven gathered together and saying, "The Lord is indeed risen and has appeared to Simon". The great mark of resurrection in Luke was the grace of it, that He had appeared to Simon, to the one who had cursed and sworn and denied Him! Yes, He had appeared to Simon! That is grace and our souls need to be steeped in grace; we shall fall a prey to the enemy if our souls are not fully established with grace. So we read, "It is good that the heart be confirmed with grace", Hebrews 13:9.
We have only time for a brief word on the olive wood. It is apparent that the olive speaks of what is spiritual. Spirituality is a most important element in relation to the material for the house. The cherubim were of olive-wood (1 Kings 6:23) as were also the doors for the entrance of the oracle (verse 31), and the posts for the doorway of the temple (verse 33).
J.S. I am afraid we need help as to what spirituality represents, because we are liable to confuse it with sentimentality and a sort of unreal, restrained bearing among the saints.
C.A.C. I think spirituality would preserve us from everything of that character. Spirituality means that we have become characterised by the presence of the Spirit of God; this is in one sense greater than anything we have had before us yet. It is a very great and holy thought that saints, human beings, should be characterised by the indwelling of the Holy Spirit of God; to be characterised by His presence is spirituality.
It is not supposed in Scripture that the Spirit is a kind of deposit which one may receive without the whole person being affected. Scripture supposes, and indeed enjoins, that we are to be filled with the Spirit. Now, if we are filled with the Spirit we shall be spiritual. A man in whom the thought of spirituality is developed to its normal degree is a man filled with the Spirit. This is not a fanciful idea; it is
just normal Christianity that we should be filled with the Spirit. What beautiful material for Christ to handle! And it is within the reach of each one of us! All these things are characteristic of saints viewed according to God; the stone and the cedar and the cypress and the olive wood are all characteristic of saints viewed as such and they constitute material which Christ can handle, so that there may be a house suitable for God to dwell in and where God can be served according to His pleasure.
Ques. Does spirituality preserve what is suitable to God?
C.A.C. Quite so, because spirituality is most sensitive. The dove is a scriptural symbol of the Spirit, and the dove is one of the most sensitive creatures. Nothing can be so sensitive as the Spirit of God, and we have to learn to distinguish between natural thoughts and feelings and emotions and those which are of the Spirit of God. It is a mark of spiritual maturity when we can thus distinguish, because we very often mistake our own feelings and sentiments for spirituality. But we have to learn to take on the character that rightly accompanies the presence of the Spirit. The Lord said to the disciples, "Ye know him" -- a wonderful thing! "The world ... does not see him nor know him; but ye know him, for he abides with you, and shall be in you", John 14:17. Now, how far can we say we know the Spirit? We can perhaps all say we know the Lord, but it is important to know the Spirit and to take character from the Spirit.
Rem. In one sense the Spirit has taken the Lord's place here, alongside of us.
C.A.C. Quite so. The cherubim were made of olivewood, and that is a beautiful thought. It is evident that the cherubim in the temple were quite different from the cherubim in the tabernacle. In the tabernacle the cherubim were made of gold "out of the mercy-
seat ... at the two ends thereof" (Exodus 37:8), shewing that the cherubim in the tabernacle were on the divine side, but the cherubim in the temple represent the saints as having a beautiful service for the protection and the safeguarding of the ark. We find that when the ark of the covenant was brought to its place it was "under the wings of the cherubim; for the cherubim stretched forth their wings over the place of the ark, and the cherubim covered the ark and its staves above", 1 Kings 8:6, 7. This supreme treasure of God was overshadowed by the wings of the cherubim, intimating that now it is not only true that God will protect and safeguard all that pertains to Christ, but that He has got men, spiritual men, under whose wings the ark can be placed with every confidence. Do we covet to be trustworthy persons to safeguard in holy affections all that belongs to Christ as the Ark of the covenant and the mercy-seat? What a wonderful thought it is! What spirituality is needed for that!
Finally, all was overlaid with gold, which I understand to convey that, as Psalm 29:9 says, "In his temple doth every one say, Glory!" or as the note reads, 'everything saith'. Every detail in the house is to carry some feature of divine glory. There is to be glory to God "in the assembly in Christ Jesus unto all generations of the age of ages", Ephesians 3:21. The holy city, Jerusalem, will come down out of the heaven from God, having the glory of God (Revelation 21:10). And the glory is to appear now in all service in the assembly. So we read, "If any one speak -- as oracles of God; if any one minister -- as of strength which God supplies; that God in all things may be glorified through Jesus Christ, to whom is the glory and the might for the ages of ages. Amen", 1 Peter 4:11. Whatever is brought about through Jesus Christ, whatever the saints are as in Christ, and whatever service is rendered in a spiritual way will always carry some expression of the
glory of God. So that "the whole house he overlaid with gold" and there is added, as though to emphasise this, "the whole house entirely". The assembly is to be, now and eternally, the vessel of divine glory. So that we gladly sing:
1 Kings 6:5 - 10
In the previous reading we considered the house itself and, particularly, the materials used in its construction, suggestive of spiritual material which comes now under the hand of Christ, the true Solomon, and which is being built up a spiritual house. We referred to the stones, cedar, cypress and olive as representing symbolically various features of the work of God in His people, all combining together to form His house. We noticed that all was presented from the divine side, and presented as perfect; there are no figures of what is defective. What is in the mind of God is presented for our consideration, so that we might be exercised to come up to it by the work of God proceeding in our souls.
But there are many scriptures which give us light as to progress on our side in spiritual apprehension, and I understand that the "side-chambers" present this side of things in a striking way. They are not the house itself, but they stand in close relation to it. They are in three storeys, enlarging as they ascend. There is "the lowest floor", then the "middle one", and then "the third". I believe the consideration of this will be found helpful, for in the truth as set out in the New Testament, particularly in the epistles, we may see what answers to these three grades of elevation and enlargement. The chambers of each floor as they ascend are of larger dimensions, so that they indicate the thought of spiritual progress. The thoughts thus suggested are helpful not only in a general way but in regard of
our service to God in the assembly.
The "lowest floor", I think we may say, is where baptism and the Lord's supper are. That is, it answers to the truth as set forth in Romans and 1 Corinthians. If we are not right on that floor we cannot expect to go higher. It is where our moral relations with God, and with the brethren, and with the world, are divinely adjusted. When we receive the gospel our moral relations with God are put right. On the ground of redemption we are justified so that we have peace towards God through our Lord Jesus Christ, and by Him we have access by faith into the favour of God, and the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit. This blessedness is unfolded in the epistle to the Romans, chapter 5; we also learn that the adjustment of our relations with God involves the adjustment of our relations with the world, and baptism has its place in this connection. We must accept a public position here which is in keeping with right relations with God. The public position is burial with Christ; baptism means that we go out by burial from the life of the world, "in order that, even as Christ has been raised up from among the dead by the glory of the Father, so we also should walk in newness of life", Romans 6:4. That is a new kind of life here on earth. As buried to the former life we yield ourselves to God as alive from among the dead and our members instruments of righteousness to God. That is a kind of life which the Spirit can support. Christ has now a footing in our hearts where He once had none, and if Christ is in us "the body is dead on account of sin, but the Spirit life on account of righteousness", Romans 8:10. The flesh has ceased to dominate: in result we can present our bodies a living sacrifice, so that God's will may be worked out in us in the way of service to the brethren (Romans 12). For we are members one of another to serve; we have many to serve us and we have many to serve, and in taking up this
service in a practical way we find freedom from selfishness. Being in right relations thus with the brethren we are liberated for the service of God. We are "to be like-minded one toward another, according to Christ Jesus; that ye may with one accord, with one mouth, glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ", Romans 15:5, 6. It is evident that this brings us into view of the service of the house, but it is, to use the language of the type, "the lowest floor".
The first epistle to the Corinthians runs parallel with Romans, and it develops our assembly relations. The truth of the fellowship to which we are called comes out in this epistle, as does the Lord's supper as the rallying point of the assembly. Believers come together in their different localities to remember the Lord Jesus in the place where He died, and to share in common the precious fruit of His body being given and His blood poured out. It is the privilege of the saints to come together locally as those who are in the conscious gain of the new covenant, both in the letter and in the spirit of it. We thus enjoy in a corporate way the place and portion which the death of Christ and the gift of the Spirit have brought us into. And as together we find an outlet for our praises to the Lord Jesus and also to the blessed God. We occupy a place in relation to the house of God which answers to the chambers of "the lowest floor".
The normal effect of being in the good of the Roman epistle and of taking up in a practical way the assembly order of 1 Corinthians is that we look for something further. The "lowest floor" truly occupied would ensure collective freedom and the spirit of sonship would give power to ascend. We read that "they went up by winding stairs into the middle floor, and out of the middle into the third". And it is to be noticed that "the entrance to the side-chambers of the middle floor was in the right side of
the house". The right side suggests the thought of power, as we find generally in Scripture. We can only go up to the middle or third floor as there is spiritual power to do so; we must always go up by "the right side". But in the spirit of sonship there is liberty and power to go up. It is to be observed in Romans 15 the power of the Holy Spirit leads to abounding in hope. It fills the soul with bright anticipation of something higher; the closing verses of the epistle would lead the Roman believers to see that there was much more in the apostle's mind than he had unfolded. They would see that there was a great deal more to be entered upon; they would have hope of things more elevated than what he had spoken of. They would recognise that there were "stairs" leading upward to a higher level!
And to the Corinthians also, though the greater part of the first epistle refers to "the lowest floor", the apostle does not end without leading their hearts upward. Chapter 15 is like "stairs" leading upward, for he speaks of Christ as risen being First-fruits of a risen company, and he says, "Such as the heavenly one, such also the heavenly ones. And as we have borne the image of the one made of dust, we shall bear also the image of the heavenly one", 1 Corinthians 15:48, 49. We may remember that the stairs for the house of Jehovah, and the balustrade were made of sandal-wood (2 Chronicles 9:11; 1 Kings 10:12). It was wood that came from a far-off clime; "There came no such sandal-wood, nor was there seen to this day". So I would suggest that the sandal-wood stairs represent what leads up in the direction of the heavenly.
We come together to break bread on "the lowest floor", but it is not the Lord's mind that we should remain on that level. He would have us to go up to the middle floor and also to the third. One feels sure that any christian in the good of Romans and 1 Corinthians would desire to go up, but going up is a question of power. And power for this lies
largely in the affectionate apprehension of Christ as risen and as the heavenly One. The Lord's supper brings before us how He went down, but in the last chapters of the gospels He presented Himself to His disciples as risen.
What they saw in Himself was the way up. Those who saw the risen Christ, and with whom He assembled during forty days, were in flesh and blood condition, but they understood that all that was precious to them was now in resurrection, and that there was no distance between them and the risen One. They did not know as a matter of doctrine that they were risen with Christ; that was left to Paul to unfold; but they had the reality of it in spiritual experience. Everything that had caused distance had been removed by His death, so that we see no fear or trouble or unbelief on their part in Acts 1. The service He had rendered in verifying Himself to them in Luke 24 had been effective. They could be with the risen One, and not only hear Him, but speak to Him with confidence. It was true of them that they were risen "with him through faith of the working of God who raised him from among the dead", Colossians 2:12.
There were "holy and faithful brethren in Christ" in Colosse of whom it is said that they were "raised with him". They were men and women living in a city in Asia Minor, but they had been raised with Christ through faith of the working of God who raised Him from among the dead. This was clearly a faith position. Let us try to understand what this would mean to them. They would know that they could be with God as in company with Christ risen. They would know, in the light of what Epaphras had taught them and what Paul had written to them earlier in his letter, that Christ was "firstborn from among the dead", Colossians 1:18. That is, He was the pre-eminent One, the glorious Head of the company risen with Him. They would know that they were His body, to increase
with the increase of God. What elevation and enlargement there is in this! It answers to the chambers on the middle floor, which are not only more elevated than the lowest floor but are of enlarged dimensions.
If we had never heard of these things before, and it was brought home to us in spiritual power that by faith of the working of God we were raised with Christ, I am sure it would make a great impression on us. We should understand that the great thing now for us is to hold fast the Head, to get suggestions from Christ as Head. He would not fail to minister to the body that it might increase with the increase of God. Christ as Head is the great Source of supply, and He makes use of "the joints and bands" to convey what is of Himself to the body. It is not, in the teaching of the Colossian epistle, the action of gifts, though of course their service is recognised as in Paul and Epaphras and others in chapter 4, but in the teaching of the epistle the Head is held fast as furnishing ministry through joints and bands so that "increase of God" is brought about. I understand "the word of the Christ" (Colossians 3:16) to be the word of the Head, which is to dwell richly in all the holy and faithful brethren in Christ, so that the teaching of the Head becomes available, and this issues in there being psalms, hymns and spiritual songs to God. The thought is that the vast reservoir of wealth that is in the Head becomes available for the body so that God is praised as the great Source from which all has come. It is beautiful to see that ministry from the Head leads to "increase of God"; there is great wealth in the knowledge of God.
When we come together in assembly we begin on the lowest floor, but we should have in mind that there is a way up to another level. We should not forget the "stairs", but be prepared to go up step by step, remembering that power is needed at each step. We must remember, too,
that the stairs are winding; it is impossible to see far ahead; we must be content to go up step by step as we have power in a way of spiritual leading. We cannot see all the way clear before us on any particular occasion. A note to Proverbs 2:9 in the Darby Translation is helpful in regard to "winding"; it says, 'God's path for the saint ... does not always lead where we expect, or so that we can see straight on in it'. This applies also to the steps by which we go up when we are together in assembly. If Christ has His place amongst us as the Mediator of the new covenant He will serve us so that we shall be empowered to go up, but not exactly in a formal way so that we can see all the way by which we are going. In a formal religious service everything goes on in a fixed order from which there is no deviation, but in the spiritual service of the assembly room must be left, surely, for Christ to have His place in the midst as Head, and who can tell beforehand what He will suggest on any particular occasion? He will surely lead upward, but exactly how the steps will go cannot be foreseen when we enter on the upward way. Of course every spiritual movement will be in accord with the truth as made known to us but in the movements of life in the assembly as convened we should expect to find something quite different from a formal order. Holding fast the Head will keep us in touch with infinite resource and variety in relation to the holy service of God. Any company of saints where Christ has His place as Head would look for a lead from Him. There would be joints and bands available through whom great spiritual thoughts would be conveyed which would determine our upward steps. If there is the "increase of God", there will assuredly be increase to God in the blessed service of praise.
I do not think that the spiritual leading on any occasion can go quite beyond the general state of those present; it would hardly be real if it did. That is why the meetings
fluctuate. If there has been a careless walk through the week, if matters have not been what they should be in the household or in the business or the office, or if there has been a measure of slackness generally it is sure to affect the meetings. Even the spiritual elements present cannot rise freely; their upward movements are impeded. This is a great exercise for us all. We can be thankful to know that the Lord does often come in and raise the tone of a low meeting. He can use a spiritual man to do this, so that we often get a touch towards the end of a meeting that we could not have had at the beginning, because He is concerned that God should get His portion, and He gives much help in that direction even when things are low on our side. We get an uplift so that we may be prepared for suggestions from the Head that will lead up the stairs to a higher level.
I think we may see an example of this when He gave that wonderful message to Mary Magdalene, "Go to my brethren and say to them, I ascend to my Father and your Father, and to my God and your God", John 20:17. He did not entrust this message to a great gift but to a woman who was a joint or band through whom He could minister. And in saying "I ascend", He was leading up all their thoughts and hearts to the chambers of the third storey. To be risen with Christ and to hold the Head are wonderful things, but they belong to the middle floor. Colossians prepares us to go higher than this when it calls upon us to "seek the things which are above, where the Christ is, sitting at the right hand of God", and to have our mind on those things. That is a leading up to another level. The epistle to the Ephesians gives us the "third storey", the highest spiritual level. We see there that there is a divine sense in which we can be said to be raised up to a very great elevation. The God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ "has raised us up together, and has made us sit down
together in the heavenlies in Christ Jesus", Ephesians 2:6. This is our full heavenly place as sons with Him who is above. The chambers on the third storey are "seven cubits broad"; that is, they suggest the perfection of the divine thoughts. As there we have come up to the full height of divine purpose and calling. We have come to the thoughts which were formed in Christ before the world's foundation and which are for the supreme satisfaction of the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. What capacity this would give for the service of God! It is there for access by the winding stairs, not only in an individual way, but as a matter of assembly movement when we are together. There is nothing beyond; it is the full height of the thoughts of divine love. Christ as the glorious Head cherishes those thoughts and loves to lead us up to them collectively when convened. If we give place to His leading it will surely be in this direction. But the winding stairs suggest that He would not have us to see all the way up when we begin the ascent. He would have us conscious that He is the Head, and that we must go up step by step as the spiritual leading may be on each occasion. He would have us to know this great service of His love according to which we are enriched and furnished in relation to the house of God.
The sandal-wood was used for the stairs and the balustrade and for harps and lutes for the singers. So that it seems to have special significance in relation to going up and to the service of praise. Being wood I think it suggests what is brought about in men by the work of God -- a suitability as heavenly ones to go up and to praise in a manner that harmonises with what is proper to heaven. It is to this elevation that God would have us brought, and He has furnished us with a Head who is able to bring us there. But on our side we come to it by successive stages of apprehension, each of which is accompanied by an
appropriate service of praise. If Christ has His place as Head there will be spiritual activity; there will be a leading upward and a singing to God. This is something to be known experimentally and confirmed as we are together in assembly.
1 Kings 8:31 - 66
Ques. We were interested to see that Solomon as king and priest was great enough to reach out and take in, in his prayer, a wider circle until the stranger is reached. Would he be a type of the Lord in a day that is to come?
C.A.C. Yes, surely; and you would not object to giving it a present application, would you? It seems to me that what is presented in chapters 7 and 8 very much answers to the two presentations of the assembly in the gospel of Matthew. In chapter 16 the Lord speaks of building His assembly, and the gates of hades cannot prevail against it. It is the assembly viewed in its abstract perfection, where all is of God, answering to the temple as built in chapter 7. The material is all spiritual. It is the saints viewed in their abstract perfection as subjects of the work of God and material which Christ can handle and put together so that there is that which stands for God in this world.
Peter is brought to the confession of Jesus as the Christ, the Son of the Living God. For the moment Peter is abstracted from all that he was in himself, and characterised by the Father's revelation, that is, he is a stone for the divine building. It is a comfort to view the saints from that standpoint. I thought, as I looked around yesterday on that company of sixteen hundred saints, of the substance that is here -- divinely wrought substance. You can look at them apart from what they are according to flesh and nature.
Then when you come to Solomon's prayer, you have chapter 18 of Matthew, the thought of the assembly as the
vessel of the grace of heaven, and yet called upon to bring that grace into contact with many things that are not exactly pleasurable to God. You find that he says again and again, "Forgive". If you view the assembly abstractly as in Christ, there is nothing to forgive; if you think of the assembly as built by Christ upon this rock, it is invulnerable. Forgiveness does not come in at all there, but when you come to the prayer it is taking account of actual conditions, so that it is the assembly viewed according to Matthew 18, where one brother may sin against another; he has to be approached, but he is approached in the grace of heaven. Heaven is God's dwelling place, and in the actual conditions of the assembly down here, things have to be handled in the grace of heaven. We must never forget that. So this prayer is permeated with the grace of heaven. The fact that those are the only two references to the assembly which the Lord made during His life and ministry here on earth show how much they demand our attention. We should consider them very seriously.
If you think of the assembly as in Christ Jesus it is a universal and eternal thought. The assembly is going to be in Christ Jesus to all generations of the age of ages. But when you come to Matthew 18 it is the assembly locally; because you can tell things to the assembly and it is the local assembly that speaks. The universal assembly never speaks. It only says one word that I know of; that word is "Come" to Jesus. But the local assembly can speak if you bring a refractory brother before it, it can speak to him in all the grace of heaven.
Ques. The thought of the assembly in Corinth would be responsible and local?
C.A.C. That is right; and in the assembly viewed locally there are always matters that call for forgiveness. We shall never be in a state, as set here locally, when there will not be things that call for forgiveness. So that we are to
meet everything that arises in the grace of heaven. I think you see Solomon here as a man imbued with the grace of heaven, so that he reflects in his prayer the thoughts and feelings and desires of heaven. It is most important for us locally, because it is locally that we are tried and tested. A man comes on the scene, locally, who sins against his brother; he will not listen to his brother when he goes to him about it, and when the brother takes two more, he will not listen to them; finally the assembly has to speak to him.
Ques. Does Peter give the idea of the local assembly in his epistles?
C.A.C. I think he has in view the abstract idea of the spiritual house. It is written to those who are scattered, and I think he presents the general thought of coming to Christ as the living Stone, and we also as living stones are being built up a spiritual house, a holy priesthood. It is the universal thought. It is the holy priesthood, Godward, and the royal priesthood, manward. That is, Peter has in mind what we should speak of as the morning meeting and the gospel preaching.
Rem. Solomon was anticipating general failure.
C.A.C. Shewing that we can count upon God whatever the conditions may be. He goes over a number of conditions that may arise that call for forgiveness. How many times he says, 'Forgive!', 'Forgive!'. Everything that does not please God has to be forgiven. How much there is in the christian profession that does not please God; and how much there is in me that has not pleased God. All that calls for forgiveness. Now God is in the spirit of forgiveness, and heaven is in the spirit of forgiveness, and if we are not in the spirit of forgiveness we are not in God's assembly properly.
Ques. Is the basis of it all the death of Christ?
C.A.C. Yes, it all stands on that ground and therefore
anything that is inconsistent with the death of Christ is a thing that has to be forgiven. Whatever Christ died to put away is really intolerable in the sight of God, and it ought to be intolerable to us. One earnestly desires that what is displeasing to God may be displeasing to me. Now the assembly is to be made up of people of that kind. Everyone has come in as a little child. Matthew 18 begins with that. You come into the assembly very small, and you keep small in that sense. And therefore everything has to be done by prayer. The great suggestion of this chapter is that all through the history of the people everything was to hang upon prayer. In Matthew 18 the Lord suggests that everything is done on the principle of prayer. He speaks about two of you agreeing to ask, shewing that the thing is effective if you are even reduced to two. It is not only the assembly in its abstract perfection, as in chapter 16, or even the assembly in its entirety, but things may be reduced to two. They have not yet been brought down to two here, but if they had, everything would be effective on the principle of prayer. I believe every word of it! I may fail in maintaining the character of it, but I believe every word of it that the Lord will stand by two. If there are only two left He will make the Third, and that makes the thing effective.
Everything is preserved in the local assembly consistently with the dispensation. Nothing will maintain things but the spirit of dependence. It is the dispensation of grace. The hymn rightly says, 'Grace is the sweetest sound that ever reach'd our ears'. The dispensation of grace is a wonderful thing, and all the spirit of it is enshrined in the assembly viewed locally, viewed responsibly and viewed as having to deal with assembly matters. If people do not surrender to that they are outlaws and have forfeited all title to the name of christian.
Rem. Solomon is bent on recovery and the assembly
C.A.C. Quite so, and God has established all the conditions that will bring about recovery. We have to deal with much that God is not pleased with and which He has to forgive; and He does forgive us a great deal without saying anything about it. We all know that; how He has forgiven us when we expected to get a good thrashing.
C.A.C. That supposes that what is evil is dealt with.
We have to remember that whilst we speak of the assembly as the vessel of the grace of heaven, it is in harmony with the government of the Lord. And conditions arise when that state of things comes into view. That is, if we withdraw from a man it is on the line of the government of God.
It is a question of proving the right and truth of a matter, so that the wicked man is condemned and the righteous man is justified. That is government. But grace is ever supreme; we do not read about government reigning, but we do read about grace reigning. Grace is always supreme.
If the assembly speaks with authority there is a governmental element there which must not be disregarded. If a man disregards it he is an outlaw; you do not look upon him as a brother any longer. If a matter comes before the assembly and the assembly expresses a judgment and the man will not bow to it, you do not regard him as a christian any longer; the Lord says, "Let him be to thee as one of the nations and a tax-gatherer", Matthew 18:17. It is government, but it is because he has refused to listen to the voice of grace.
The government of God goes on even if things are forgiven. David sinned and the moment he confessed it he is told, "Jehovah has also put away thy sin", 2 Samuel 12:13. But look at the government; the government of God went on to the end of his days. He was forgiven on the spot but that did not restrain the action of
divine government. But we have to remember that the moment we begin to go right, the government of God begins to act in our favour. So that the government of God which came upon David, and which followed him to his grave, when he really turned to God, began to act favourably toward him to prepare him to lay himself out for the house of God. The very action of the government became a help to him.
Rem. As to the coming in of Solomon.
C.A.C. That is the supremacy of grace! Grace is superior to every possible sin that there can be on the part of mankind. God knows all about the sin; but He has secured His own glory about all the sin that ever was and He has provided a Head for every man in pure grace. Christ is universal Head for man. There is only one Head for the human family -- Christ. And all that men have to do to be blest is to recognise the divinely appointed Head. Righteousness and love are there for every man in the Head. Romans 5 is wider than 1 Corinthians 11, because in Corinthians He is not the Head of every woman but according to Romans He is Head for every man, woman and child in the world.
Ques. Is there a difference between grace and righteousness?
C.A.C. Righteousness has come in on the principle of grace. It is remarkable, as we have all noticed, that in the first chapter of John it says grace and truth subsists through Jesus Christ; it is a singular verb, showing that grace and truth are one thing, not two. There is no grace without truth and no truth without grace. It is a subsisting thing now in Christ; and that is why you get so little about grace in the gospels. I used to wonder why grace was not mentioned in the gospels more than it is. It is not mentioned in Matthew and Mark, hardly in Luke, and John only alludes to it at the beginning of his gospel, "The Word
became flesh, and dwelt among us ... full of grace and truth;" and "grace and truth subsists through Jesus Christ". You see, the evangelists did not need to use the word grace; the thing itself was there substantially in the Son of God. If you have the thing you do not want the word, do you?
You remember in Hebrews 9 it says that all these types were only given until the time of setting things right -- that is now. God is setting things right and what God sets right cannot be improved upon. So the great thing for us now is to be skilled in the word of righteousness because God has brought in in Christ everything that is right and it is available on the principle of grace for all men. So that righteousness and grace go together. Indeed, Mr. Raven used to say that in Romans 3 grace and righteousness are interchangeable.
Ques. What would you say as to righteousness reigning in the world to come?
C.A.C. When righteousness reigns in the coming day it will be on the principle of grace. Things are not put right publicly now but they are put right for faith. God has set things right and we come into it by faith; by and by they will come into it publicly on the principle of grace.
1 Kings 8 contemplates a dispensation set up in divine perfection according to chapter 7, but which quickly became marked by failure. So it has in view the christian profession and all the failure that has come into it. Kings particularly applies to the present time, Chronicles more to the world to come.
If a man sins he comes under the government of God and he has to reap the consequences of what he has done wrong, but then exercises begin with him and if he is a child of God he is the subject of the advocacy of Christ, showing that grace is predominant, and the man is brought to repent. The man may have to suffer all his life.
Some sins are repented of in a few minutes, but the consequences remain through life; but the man who takes up the exercise of it is gaining something spiritually all the time. David is a great example of that. He was perhaps the most tender-hearted man that ever lived; his psalms bring out his great sensitiveness; he felt things and so he was like God. But then that made him feel intensely when he was brought under conviction of sin. He felt it far more deeply than an ordinary person and therefore the work of God developed wonderfully in him so that he speaks of preparing for the house in his affliction. A man afflicted under the government of God becomes wealthy toward the house.
It is very important for us to recognise the assembly in these two aspects. The assembly is the representative of heaven in judging evil; but then it is in the spirit of grace that it judges evil. I have been in a meeting where evil had to be judged and I think every brother wet the floor with his tears. Now that is the grace of heaven.
Rem. As to "when the heavens are shut up, and there is no rain".
C.A.C. There is a reason for the state of things in the christian profession -- all the worldliness and all the bad teaching is like mildew and canker-worm. Why is it? God's people have sinned; that is the reason. We have to get back to God and confess the sin, and count upon His grace. If two walk together in a sense of how the assembly has sinned those two can count upon the grace of heaven and all that corresponds with Solomon's prayer can be there.
C.A.C. They are eating the sin offering of the people and taking it all on themselves and realising that the death of Christ is needed. Do we feel that when anything wrong happens, 'This needed the death of Christ; Christ had to
die for that'? There is not a single thing displeasing to God that Christ did not taste death for.
Solomon is a priest upon his throne. The more God dominates us in a kingly way, the more competent we ought to be for what is priestly; the priest ought to have compassion on the ignorant and erring; it belongs to priesthood.
C.A.C. Yes, it widens out to the gospel, because God is dwelling here. He has a Gentile habitation now -- "in whom ye also" (Gentiles) "are built together for a habitation of God in the Spirit", Ephesians 2:22. He dwells there so that His grace can go out from there to all men. So that it is incumbent upon the saints as walking assembly-wise that the gospel should be maintained. The gospel preacher thinks of God.
The testimony in the Old Testament was what God looked for in man, but the testimony today is what man may look for in God. What Man can be for God is seen perfectly in Christ, but the testimony is what God is for man and we tell it out at the door of the house. The house of God is an extension to heaven -- another wing built on!
1 Kings 9:10 - 24
Hiram as a general type represents the Gentile as having a great place in relation to what Christ builds, and being largely contributory to it. But I think we see here a typical foreshadowing of the fact that the Gentile would not, in result, appreciate his assigned portion, or rightly value Solomon or the houses he built. Hiram evidently thought more of what he had done for Solomon than he did of Solomon himself and he despised a portion in the land. He represents the Gentile in a very privileged place, an honoured place, but failing to value what was put within his reach. I think the twenty cities would have given him a place in the heavenly land, typically, and a personal part in the house. He never came to Solomon or saw the house so far as we know, so he missed the best that was available at the time. Many are prepared to contribute: Hiram contributed largely, but he did not come himself to Solomon or to the house. One does not doubt that there is much contribution on the part of some who do not know the glory of the true Solomon. They contribute and serve at a distance, and despise what He most delights to give which is a part and portion with Himself in the heavenly land, for Solomon is typically the heavenly One. Solomon would not have been behind Hiram in giving, but Hiram lacked appreciation of what he had been given because he lacked appreciation of Solomon himself. It is the public result in the Gentile profession and "to this day".
Do the cedar, cypress and gold represent what the Gentiles contribute according to Paul's ministry? Every
man presented perfect in Christ, the offering up of the nations acceptable, the fulness of the nations, according to ministry in Ephesians. That is what the nations contribute according to God. But then all this involves that they take heavenly ground as appreciating it. But if the nations do not continue in goodness they will miss all that has true value. My impression is that what Hiram brings afterwards is the wealth of the nations coming up to Christ as King in Jerusalem but in despising what Solomon gave, Hiram is pre-figuring the want of appreciation of the heavenly which has marked the Gentile profession. The seven assemblies in Asia represent the Gentile animus.
Five of them had left the divine position as counting it of no value. So if we look at the nations with God we see immense contribution: if we look at them as in their actual state they have thought the heavenly of no value.
Pharaoh's daughter represents what Christ gets for His own heart from the Gentiles. She brings as a dowry with her a Canaanitish city dispossessed and given to her. She does not despise a portion in the land.
Solomon makes the Canaanites subservient. He is able to bring all into service on the principle of a levy, but the children of Israel serve in the positions of trust. Pharaoh's daughter comes up to her own house. Then he builds Millo as the rampart or citadel. She was put in the city of David provisionally, just as we have come to Mount Zion now, though it is not exactly our own place. When Christ's building is finished the assembly will have her own place. I think in Kings she has a greater place than Zion: she comes up. In 2 Chronicles 8 it is rather that she is not to dwell in the house of David King of Israel because the place is holy to which the Ark of Jehovah has come. It has the kingdom in view. She is not to dwell in holy places. I think it thus is meant that the Gentiles take a place in the coming time as secondary to Israel as not having a part in the covenant.
1 Kings 10:1 - 10
I believe it is right to say that every type of Christ in Scripture is unique; that is it expresses some feature that no other type sets forth in exactly the same way. There are no duplicates. Having this in mind would lead us to pay particular attention to each type so as to be able to distinguish it from all others and to discern the divine wisdom in so presenting that wondrous Person. Solomon is a very full and glorious type of the beloved Son brought to the highest exaltation in order to build the house and to complete its service. All that Scripture speaks of as to the house and its service connects with Christ as Solomon. But Christ is also the wisdom of God to solve all enigmas and to set up an order of things in which nothing can be improved upon because what is in divine wisdom cannot possibly be improved upon; it excels. It is evident that in contemplating such a Person and such an order of things we pass outside all that belongs to the fallen creature and come to what is wholly of God. It is very difficult for us to leave the area of human imperfection and come to what is purely of God unless we get from divine teaching an impression of Christ as the wisdom of God. Indeed it is impossible to get our enigmas solved in any other way. The enigmas all arise out of the knowledge of good and evil which is in every human heart, but in every subject of the work of God there is some conviction that there is a Man who can solve all enigmas. Everyone is welcome to come and prove Him. Every one who comes contributes to Him; every enigma has some corresponding treasure.
The Lord has told us that the queen of the south "came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon", Matthew 12:42. Solomon's fame was in connection with the throne of Jehovah. We read that he "sat on the throne of Jehovah", 1 Chronicles 29:23. The queen represents those of the Gentiles who are divinely taught to come to Christ as the glorified One and to find in Him the wisdom of God. She came to prove him with enigmas manifesting her intelligence; how similar to what we have in the gospels and Acts, "Are ye also still without intelligence?" (Matthew 15:16), "Jesus, seeing that he had answered intelligently" (Mark 12:34) and "The proconsul Sergius Paulus, an intelligent man", Acts 13:7. Christ is the wisdom of God in application to all the complex difficulties that have arisen through the coming in of sin. If there was not a divine answer in Christ to all that has arisen He would not be the Christ of God. The queen came as ministering to Solomon, bringing her best to him. She also spoke to him of all that was in her heart and he explained all to her. She came as having great wealth, like the magi in Matthew 2, and to be an offerer. None come rightly to Christ save as recognising that He is worthy to receive all honours. "They gave themselves first to the Lord", 2 Corinthians 8:5.
The queen does not represent a sinner coming to Christ as the Saviour but typifies a divinely taught person drawn to Him by the Father as having an impression of how He surpasses all others and how He is the wisdom of God. At Corinth "Paul was pressed in respect of the word, testifying to the Jews that Jesus was the Christ", Acts 18:5. He preached Christ as God's power and God's wisdom. The queen was a prophetic indication that God would secure a Gentile company to appreciate Christ, "whom we announce, admonishing every man, and teaching every man, in all wisdom, to the end that we may present every
man perfect in Christ", Colossians 1:28. The glad tidings have been proclaimed in the whole creation under heaven (Colossians 1:23).
We see here, in type, what Gentiles come to when they come to Christ glorified: they come to the truth of the assembly. Solomon's wisdom is the wisdom of Christ as Head of the body, the assembly, and as over the house as Son. She is holding fast the Head. The all-various wisdom of God is made known through the assembly (Ephesians 3:10).
It would be interesting to know some of the things that were in the queen's heart of which she spoke to Solomon. I think we may be sure that her questions were in relation to God and His ways with men and with His people. Solomon was, in a typical sense, the climax of these ways, just as Christ glorified is the actual climax of them. It is a wonderful thing to hear of the fame of a glorified Christ and to be assured that He can answer all questions. A true report of His affairs and of His wisdom has reached us. It has given us some sense of His greatness and worthiness to receive all that we can bring. We feel assured that the queen brought according to her estimate of Solomon's greatness. She is not an empty-handed sinner, but one with a wealthy estimate of the person she was coming to. She was thinking of what he was. The gospel is intended to give us a sense of the greatness of Christ (2 Corinthians 4) and that the most distant can come to Him with a deep appreciation of who He is and how God is expressed in Him. The enigmas and questions only serve to bring out the wealth of wisdom in Christ; He will tell us all things. He "told me all things I had ever done", John 4:29. He is the One into whose hand the Father has put everything and yet I find He has leisure to listen to all that I have in my heart. The extent of what I do not know is the God-given occasion for me to learn what is in Him. Enigmas and
questions bring out His greatness as the Head. It is a matter of interest to Him that I have something in my heart that He alone can explain.
I think the things that the queen saw were connected with the house that he had built. She had such a view of it as we have in the earlier chapters. It depicts the assembly viewed as in relation to Christ glorified. Matthew 16 is not the house of God but Christ's assembly which cannot be prevailed against. The house of God is where He dwells in rest; it is not viewed as in conflict; Christ's assembly is subject to hostile attack but it is invulnerable. We get a view of a structure which is on earth at this moment and which has no human handiwork in it; it is all the work of Christ glorified. If we are in company with the queen of Sheba we shall get a view of that structure and we shall want to walk with our brethren in the truth of it.
She saw the food of his table. The food supply is a very distinguishing mark of a wisely ordered house. The Lord has amply provided for this in the faithful and prudent bondmen to give the measure of corn in season. In what Christ owns as His house there will always be food. His thought is to supply the needed food locally as well as by universal gifts. It would include all the ministry in connection with headship, the house, the assembly, the body, the wife and the bride; all is important as food for His saints whose satisfaction and strength depend on it.
The "deportment of his servants" could be translated 'dwelling' or 'habitation'. It refers to where they serve rather than how. The order of service is the ministry. The cupbearers are those that minister to His joy. Finally, "His ascent by which he went up to the house of Jehovah" suggests that the assembly may first be known as Solomon's house and then He leads up to the house of Jehovah.
1 Kings 10:10 - 29
It strikes me that the sacrificial thought is not brought out in this chapter in what the queen and others brought to Solomon. It seems to typify what can come from Gentile hearts in the way of appreciation of Christ in His personal greatness and exaltation. The gold would represent here, as elsewhere, what is connected with Christ's deity, as in John 1, Colossians 1, and Hebrews 1. The spices would refer to that which pertains to Him as Man: myrrh, aloes and cassia are His garments in Psalm 45; love of righteousness and hatred of lawlessness all brought Him into the exercises of a Man here but all are brought through death to resurrection ground. The Head furnishes every grace to His members here. The precious stones would, perhaps, set forth the distinctive offices which He fills and the character of love which marks Him as Saviour, Shepherd, Friend, Prophet, Priest, Advocate, King and Head.
The queen is perhaps a special type of the assembly in her intelligent appreciation of Christ as in heaven; there were no other spices such as she brought, and no other type gives us this. She is not seen as the bride, the wife, but she has in type what no type of the bride had. What satisfaction Christ has in the assembly in this character! There are more than half-a-million church hymns, most of them addressed to Christ. I think the gold, spices and precious stones are these. We should lose a great deal if we left out the Queen of Sheba from the types. She takes in all that in which her glory appears. She represents the intelligent capacity in the assembly to take in the greatness and
worth of the Lord Jesus Christ as glorified, and to express it to Him in an appropriate manner.
The sandal-wood comes in at this point, apparently in a parenthetical way, but in line with what the queen typifies. I think, as coming from a far-off clime, it represents saints as having ability to go up into the heavenly. Solomon makes stairs of it, balustrades and harps and lutes. I think the balustrade would be for the ascent, which needs power in a nature which belongs to heavenly ones.
If I am not mistaken the house of the forest of Lebanon (1 Kings 7:2) represents the sons in the place of responsible witness in the Gentile world. They are viewed in this type in their public position in that world as set up in divine stability so as to stand against the hostile influences by which they are surrounded. Hence the prominence given to pillars in the description. James and Cephas and John were conspicuous as being pillars. The assembly is the "pillar and base of the truth" (1 Timothy 3:15): "establishes us with you in Christ", 2 Corinthians 1:21.
The first thing here presented (1 Kings 10:16) is that targets and shields of beaten gold were there and a large number of them were made, 200 targets and 300 shields. This gives the idea of protection against hostile power. God said to Abraham, "Fear not, Abram; I am thy shield", Genesis 15:1. Other references are, "The shield of thy help" (Deuteronomy 33:29) and "My shield, and the horn of my salvation", 2 Samuel 22:3.
Of the gold which came to Solomon he makes 200 targets and 300 shields. That is the king furnished a great deal of protection and these are put in the house of the forest of Lebanon which typifies where the saints are as needing protection and as where the porch of judgment is, and the throne. That is we are now in the kingdom side. It is where we are in contact with what is adverse, so we get
many pillars in the house of the forest, speaking of stability, and shields for protection.
It was a solemn thing that in Rehoboam's day Shishak came up and even "took away all the shields of gold that Solomon had made", 1 Kings 14:26. There is no defence against the enemy when the throne of judgment ceases to be there in a practical sense. 'Shield' is used 17 times (21 in the New Translation) in the Psalms. The shield of faith is quoted in Ephesians 6:16. The fact that Shishak took the shields would show that the house of the forest of Lebanon was in Jerusalem.
The great throne was there as I think may be gathered from 1 Kings 7:7. It is the throne viewed as the present place of Christ's judgment in the assembly as the house of the forest of Lebanon. It was of ivory, intimating that the basis of judgment is the death of Christ. It is overlaid with refined gold, the best kind of refined gold (see 1 Kings 10:18 and note). All must come to the test of that throne where there is the utmost possible degree of refinement in a moral sense. The refining process has not gone very far with us perhaps, but how do we think of Christ glorified judging? He is all-perfect so how could He have a lower standard for us? Our eternal Lover will not, we might say cannot, be satisfied with less than perfection in us.
The sons as within the house of the forest of Lebanon are seen as standing in relation to the porch of judgment, not as a failure but according to God's thoughts. If Christ is ministered to there will be shields for His saints. Philadelphia is an example of this. The enemy gets in through unfaithfulness.
"There are three things which have a stately step ... The lion, mighty among beasts, which turneth not away for any", Proverbs 30:30. If Christ had not a perfect and divine standard of judgment we should all feel we had
And the great throne of ivory was there. It is the character of the administration of the Son of the Father's love, but contemplating judgment in the perfect discrimination of good and evil. Ivory being secured through death implies that the throne discriminates according to the standard of the death of Christ. What He died to resolve cannot be tolerated.
The throne had six steps. It is elevated with two lions on each step. Majestic power is there. "We must all be manifested before the judgment-seat of the Christ, that each may receive" (2 Corinthians 5:10). But there is nothing but comfort in this if we are doing what is good and what is in accord with Solomon.
Then we are immediately turned to the thought of how He has reached the throne. It had six steps, and they are to be much considered. 'Who shall sing that path of worth, That led up to the throne?' The steps are how He went up.
He went up by way of obedience until He was perfected in resurrection. The way up is seen in Psalm 16. He speaks of being perfected on the third day. Then the twelve lions on the six steps show what victorious power was there against all evil. There was a sign of power on each step. The lions speak of overcoming (Revelation 3:21). The overcomer's path will correspond with His. He is morally entitled to sit on the throne of judgment because He has overcome every form of evil Himself. I think the two lions standing beside the arms of the throne are a witness that the One who sits there has been Himself an overcomer. He is in rest now but it is in virtue of overcoming. The house of the forest of Lebanon represents the saints as in the place where overcoming is needed and where Christ judges everything in the life and responsible services here.
Fourteen lions in all show how perfectly the power of overcoming has been worked out in Him, and He judges
Then all King Solomon's drinking vessels were of gold and all the vessels of the house of the forest of Lebanon were of precious gold. Would not each of us like to be one of the drinking vessels ministering personal pleasure to Him? All the vessels here are vessels unto honour. That is not what we are as accepted in the Beloved but what we are as overcoming here in a scene of testing and difficulty. The thought conveyed in this type is of the highest possible value. Silver here is not a type of redemption but of something which is, we might say, of second quality. Are any of us content to be second quality saints? We see here that what is not the best is of small account in the days of Solomon. That is, it is a time of superlative excellence, not of things of not much account. It is like the contrast between Philadelphia and Laodicea. He wants Laodicea to have the best. Why should we not have the best?
Does the top of the throne being rounded behind convey that everything in connection with Christ is finished off without any rough corners? There is no thought of any addition being needed to complete what is there.
1 Kings 10:23 - 29; 1 Kings 11:1 - 8
C.A.C. Solomon is regarded as a type of Christ up to the end of chapter 10. After that he becomes an exemplification of sorrowful departure. As having wisdom put in his heart by God he is a type of Christ as Head: we see him here as pre-eminent, "greater than all the kings of the earth in riches and in wisdom".
Ques. Have you any thought why riches are put first -- "riches and in wisdom"?
C.A.C. I suppose the thought of riches is specially connected with the Head. We read of "the unsearchable riches of the Christ", Ephesians 3:8. All the wealth of the Head is available. To the Corinthians Paul could say, "In everything ye have been enriched in him, in all word of doctrine, and all knowledge", 1 Corinthians 1:5. They had not known how to utilise it but it was there for them -- the infinite riches of the Head. And this is true for us all: the riches of the Head are for us, and in a sense for all men.
Ques. Is wisdom connected with the use of the riches? This scripture has, of course, application to Christ personally, but wisdom is necessary for us if we are to make a wise and just use of what riches we have.
C.A.C. And do you suggest that we need to hold the Head in order to have wisdom in the handling of all spiritual wealth? Of some we read that they had departed altogether from the truth and one is warned not to be
"vainly puffed up by the mind of his flesh, and not holding fast the head" (Colossians 2:18, 19) as though to suggest that departure from the truth is the result of not holding the Head. If such were holding the Head they would be characterised by the wisdom of the Head and would not fall a prey to the puffing up which is so natural to the fleshly mind. I think we see here that as Christ is known as Head every one who comes under His influence becomes a contributor. It says, "All the earth sought the presence of Solomon, to hear his wisdom, which God had put in his heart. And they brought every man his present". Is there a practical suggestion here which would help us in the service of the assembly? That is, as coming into subjection to and with reverent affection for Christ as Head we should become inevitably contributors: "they brought every man his present".
Ques. It is interesting to see that the things enumerated as brought were completed things -- many of them things which had been made -- necessitating work.
C.A.C. Things serviceable to Solomon; that is very interesting.
Ques. We read that Christ Jesus "has been made to us wisdom from God, and righteousness, and holiness, and redemption", 1 Corinthians 1:30. How can we acquire this wisdom practically?
C.A.C. The epistle to the Corinthians would help us greatly in this, the cross shutting out the wisdom of the natural man which is all brought to the place of the skull, that is, the cross. There is the end of all the plannings and thinkings and devisings of the natural man. Then there is the bringing in of what is of the Spirit of God. Would not that make room practically for holding the Head? The positive side came in with the Spirit. If I am self-judged in the light of the cross and giving place to the Spirit there is nothing to hinder development. Holding the Head needs
development but these are the conditions for it: that is, the cross shutting out man after the flesh and the Spirit bringing in what is of God.
In Corinthians the apostle is really presenting to them the Head: He is for all men: "All the earth sought", it says here, and in the great epistle of headship Paul speaks of the glad tidings having "been proclaimed in the whole creation which is under heaven" (Colossians 1:23) and he speaks of "admonishing every man, and teaching every man, in all wisdom, to the end that we may present every man perfect in Christ" (Colossians 1:28), but the assembly alone comes into the good of Headship.
Ques. 1 Corinthians 11 speaks of His headship, does it not?
C.A.C. But there is a further thought there. He is Head to every man, not to every woman: man is woman's head. But He is Head of every man. J.N.D. said you could go to any man in the street and tell him that Christ was his Head.
Rem. The type suggests that the wisdom was resident in Solomon and that the benefit was only obtainable by coming to Solomon. Wisdom is never said to be resident in us: it is a question of being in His presence to obtain this wisdom.
C.A.C. With us it is a matter of holding the Head. This is a most important exercise for us in relation to qualification for assembly service. Our poverty and lack of intelligence and competency for spiritual service would all be met if we held fast the Head.
Ques. I am not sure what the term "holding" means. Will you tell us what is the idea of holding fast?
C.A.C. It seems to suggest an energy of soul. Holding fast the Head lies at the root of a great deal. We were speaking last week of Solomon in connection with the great throne of ivory, a type of Christ as Lord, sitting on
the throne of judgment in the porch of judgment, passing scrutiny on everything and giving judgment upon it. That is one side of the truth, which would correct lawlessness, but headship brings in the more positive side of things from God. Think of Christ as being the wisdom of God! What an immensity is in that! Nothing is going to be able to baffle that! Each one who came to Solomon to hear his wisdom derived from his greatness but each became a contributor of something serviceable to Solomon. We are all, I trust, desirous of being qualified to become contributors of something serviceable to Christ. We can scarcely imagine the spiritual quality and moral beauty which would result from holding the Head. There would be increase with the increase of God. That is not a matter of right doctrine and correct procedure but something vital -- of God. The increase of God is a marvellous conception.
Rem. The universe will be subjugated by the influence of the Head more than by a display of power as we think of it.
C.A.C. Hymn 199 is one of the best hymns we have on headship:
Holding fast the Head is a beautiful thought. You hold a Person, a Person who is divine but in manhood, One in whom everything is substantiated for the pleasure of God. There is infinite wealth there.
Ques. Is it an attitude of soul?
C.A.C. It is a spiritual condition at which we have to arrive. Many christians have had very little exercise about it. Many have never heard in any practical sense of the headship of Christ. It is said of some "not holding fast the head", as if that accounted for all the defects and erroneous views, their superstitions and their professing great knowledge of unseen things.
Ques. Does it not involve affection for Christ?
C.A.C. It must be so. One gets some idea of it in thinking of Christ looking up to His Head, "holding" His Head, God. See how every moment of His life on earth He was looking up with reverent affection to God! Not merely did He do the will of God, but He received every impulse from God. Now in the assembly every impulse should come from the Head. After the breaking of the bread, for instance, there should be the holding fast the Head in a particular way, so that an influence would come from Him on each one, to make each a contributor.
Ques. Is Psalm 16 the perfect Man looking up to His Head? "I have set Jehovah continually before me" (verse 8).
C.A.C. Yes. That is much more than obedience. Each would become a contributor; so that in the teaching of Colossians, "From whom all the body, ministered to and united together by the joints and bands, increases with the increase of God", Colossians 2:19. All the body becomes serviceable. We should have before us that the body does not remain dormant at any point in its history, so that in result we would get "teaching and admonishing one another, in psalms, hymns, spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to God", Colossians 3:16. There is a result for God.
Rem. This increase affects every saint, all the members, not merely gifts.
C.A.C. The same thought is in Ephesians, "we may grow up to him in all things, who is the head, the Christ", Ephesians 4:15. As we move on lines of self-judgment and giving place to the Spirit, "the whole body, fitted together, and connected by every joint of supply, according to the working in its measure of each one part, works for itself the increase of the body to its self-building up in love", Ephesians 4:16. Each one part becomes a contributor.
Rem. These contributions are not to be spasmodic in character. Verse 25 says, "a rate year by year".
C.A.C. We can see what freshness then would be maintained
in the service of the assembly. These verses are like a further development of the beginning of the chapter where the queen of Sheba is said to bring precious things to Solomon.
Ques. Does verse 24 imply that we are to seek, that is, I take it, to go after Christ in glory?
C.A.C. Yes, it is a matter we should all be concerned about -- to know Christ as Head, not only as Saviour or as Lord. And this holding Him as Head is to be a daily experience with us, getting fresh new impressions from Him continually. We all have the light of it, but Paul could refer to Timothy as having "fully followed up", 1 Timothy 4:6. If we do not do this we shall not know what it is to take firm hold of Christ as Head.
Ques. Is not headship properly a collective thought rather than individual?
C.A.C. Yes, it is to work out in the assembly. This would bring continual freshness into all assembly service. There is to be no mere repetition about it.
Rem. Intelligence is required.
C.A.C. It is there for us, but we need much exercise. We have not got the full gain of it yet.
Rem. I am glad you say 'no mere repetition', for repetition is sometimes right. You get it in Scripture.
C.A.C. Quite so. I am glad you call attention to that. We may use the same word, perhaps, but if there is impulse from the Head there will be an expansion every time. The question is, What do the words we use mean to us? If we are going on with God, the same words will mean more to us each time we use them. What a breath of life that brings into the assembly!
Ques. Is there an element of originality suggested here in the variety of presents brought? There is different handiwork in each, even the animals being the product of training and care? The spices, too, a certain amount of
Ques. All the result of exercise?
Rem. A measure of completeness, too, was arrived at before anything was presented. Many of our contributions are immature or incomplete, but there is a certain finish about the things mentioned here.
C.A.C. Is not that the practical result of impressions from the Head? There is nothing immature about those!
Rem. As the reality of things and the majesty of Christ come home to us our present would take on the greater finish.
Rem. It is of note that the word is "his present", not 'a present'; it is what the contributor had made his own.
Rem. There is the idea of a minimum, too -- "a rate year by year".
Rem. Under Lordship contributions are prescribed, but great results flow from impressions from the Head.
C.A.C. The Lord's supper belongs to the sphere of commandment. Another sphere, connected with headship, requires nearness. "Holding fast" supposes the Person near and as the assembly is characterised by that we can move in a spiritual order not under commandment.
Rem. The result of hearing wisdom from the Head must be that some divine impression is made.
C.A.C. A military thought comes in, in verse 26. Solomon had military resources.
Ques. For what, when there was no enemy or evil occurrent?
C.A.C. They are there in case of need. It is peculiar that a man of peace should have such a display of military strength.
Ques. Does it not remind one of the Lord's words, "Hades' gates shall not prevail against it" (Matthew 16:18)?
C.A.C. Yes. In the spiritual sphere connected with the headship of Christ we are not immune from attacks of the
enemy. Even in such an epistle as that to the Ephesians there is the armour mentioned. This is one of those hints which show that the type does not apply to millennial conditions but to a time when what is adverse has to be considered.
Rem. The Lord would cherish movement towards Himself on these lines. He would take care of it.
C.A.C. That goes along with the shields and targets. They suggest protection. Chariots and horsemen are more aggressive.
Ques. "He placed them in the chariot-cities, and with the king at Jerusalem". Are the chariot-cities for aggression, on the outskirts, so to speak, to enlarge the kingdom? Do they refer to gospel activities?
C.A.C. Perhaps gospel activities are rather suggested in the king's merchants. They carry on commerce with the world for the king's advantage.
Ques. What do you say about the injunction in Deuteronomy that the people were not to multiply horses?
C.A.C. I think that would work out if we were considering Solomon only as king of Israel. If we look at him as a type of Christ we must seek to find the spiritual import of this as connected with Christ. They are part of the commerce carried on by the merchants for the king's advantage. My impression is that these things are not presented as future but in relation to Christ as Head. There is a certain commerce going on with the world by the assembly through the evangelists who are the King's merchants.
Rem. And we have all been drawn from the world.
C.A.C. This is a kind of intercourse with the world which is legitimate. If we are only seeking to bring out from the world what will be advantageous to our Solomon, that is right.
Rem. That is not going into the world to help them.
C.A.C. The merchants have no business in Egypt,
except to do the Kings business.
Rem. For the greatness of Solomon.
C.A.C. If every preacher of the gospel realised, 'I am one of the King's merchants doing business for the King', how good that would be!
The horse is generally a figure of natural strength; "He delighteth not in the strength of the horse", Psalm 147:10. Chariots, I believe, are generally figurative of human contrivances. "Some make mention of chariots, and some of horses, but we of the name of Jehovah our God", Psalm 20:7. Generally they have that aspect, but the types have to be understood according to their setting.
Rem. Chariots are associated with the saints in the Song of Solomon.
C.A.C. And, of course, horses are not always figurative of natural strength. The Lord comes out of heaven sitting on a white horse. If we do not distinguish between the settings of the types we shall get into strange confusion. For instance, a lion is sometimes the devil, but a lion in some scriptures is representative of the Lord. Solomon as typical of Christ finishes up with this commerce.
Rem. The virtuous woman of Proverbs 31 carries on commerce.
C.A.C. Yes, for her husband. This is a great presentation of the Headship of Christ and the different ways in which it works out, first in the assembly, then in this commerce with Egypt.
Ques. Is holding fast the Head the result of the Supper, or prior to that?
C.A.C. Actually it is the privilege of each, but it works out in a collective way in the assembly. What will go on after the breaking of bread? Are we going to allow Christ to suggest and indicate what is to go on? If we do, we shall not be so casual and haphazard and so up and down!
1 Kings 11:1 to 13: 32
God will not maintain public conditions if the moral state is wrong, so He gives ten tribes to Jeroboam (chapter 11: 31). Outward unity ceases to be of value to God when idolatry comes in. True unity was broken by the idolatry and departure from Jehovah's ways. So that God broke up the unity by giving ten tribes to Jeroboam. Then we find that this was brought about by the discontent of the people with the grievous yoke, "grievous servitude" and "heavy yoke" of Solomon (chapter 12: 4). What a change from chapter 4 verse 20! Departure from God always results in what is burdensome to men. As soon as the church became great in the world it imitated the world and became idolatrous. But this led to exactions and burdensome impositions upon men, penances and payments of sundry kinds and work insisted on to gain heaven.
The people seek some lightening of these burdens and Rehoboam refuses. Men act foolishly and breaches occur, but God is behind this.
We see the prophetic word through seven prophets, Ahijah (chapter 11: 29), Shemaiah (chapter 12: 24), the man of God (chapter 13: 2), the old prophet (chapter 13: 32), Jehu, the son of Hanani (chapter 16: 1 - 4), Elijah and Elisha.
The people in following Jeroboam were departing from the house of David and from the temple and from the true service of God. But their departure was a clear call to self-judgment all round. It was from Jehovah. What an exercise it was when all sought their own things and not the things of Jesus Christ, when all in Asia turned away
from Paul. No man stood with him. That was thus a leaving of first love: the name of the Lord was no longer truly called upon. The true function of the candlestick existed no longer. But it could not be put back to what it was before.
But Jeroboam was not concerned about all this. The prophetic word was disregarded by him. So now he deliberately plans to divert the people from the service in the house of Jehovah. So he makes two calves of gold and it became a sin (chapter 12: 28 - 30). He is continually referred to as the one who made Israel to sin. (I think this answers to the way the sacraments became regarded as means of salvation. The whole fabric of the church as departed from God is built up on an idolatrous perversion of the sacraments.) The priests were not of the sons of Levi (chapter 12: 31) and a feast was held in the eighth month like the feast that was in Judah, that of the tabernacles. Like Christmas.
All this becomes the occasion of prophetic testimony. In chapter 13 "the man of God" is referred to fifteen times.
Nothing else would do in a day of departure but the man of God. The altar was not judged finally for a long time -- 300 to 400 years. God would not allow Jeroboam to touch the faithful prophet and there was a solemn sign given. The altar rent and the ashes poured out indicate that the power of what is idolatrous is broken by prophetic testimony.
But a certain old prophet was there who, unfaithful himself in being there, was used to ensnare the man of God. The prophetic word required that he should eat no bread nor drink water in Bethel. But the old prophet had a bad conscience in being there and he wanted to get some justification of his own position by getting the man of God to eat bread with him. He lied. How many will tell us that they have the Lord with them, although they are not in separation from iniquity. "I am a prophet also as thou
art". Old prophets are more dangerous than positive idolaters. True christians do more to draw men of God away from the path of separation than empty professors. Persons who have light from God must be careful to walk in it. There is always an inward tendency with us to give up separation, not to be true to the principles which are of God. So when some outside influence, and especially what seems a pious influence, lends its weight to help that tendency we are apt to fall a prey to what is really Satan. "A lion met him". Our adversary the devil is always ready to take advantage of our unfaithfulness. It is a solemn thing to have light from God and not act upon it. The lion slaying one would today be that one loses one's place in the testimony of God.
1 Kings 14:1 - 31
God secured something for Himself even in the house of Jeroboam. There was a testimony there in a young life in which was found something good toward Jehovah the God of Israel. This was another way by which God spoke to Jeroboam. First by the prophetic testimony of the man of God (Ahaziah the son of Ahab sent to enquire of Baalzebub the god of Ekron: 2 Kings 1:2) from Judah, and now through the moral exercises of his own son. But this one who is the only living link with Jehovah in Jeroboam's house falls sick and it proves to be unto death. There was nothing in Jeroboam's house or ways to keep him alive, and God takes him away, it would appear, in mercy. Jeroboam has evidently a feeling that God has something to say in the matter, but his conscience tells him that he has departed from God and that he has no right to apply to the prophet. His wife must not be known as such. How often the conscience is speaking when the will is unsubdued! Jeroboam no doubt knew that Abijah was the only one in his house who feared Jehovah. In Abijah's sickness God was speaking to a heart and he felt it, and was assured that Jehovah was interested in the lad and that His prophet would tell what should become of him. But the message sent to Jeroboam by the prophet was hard. It was a message of judgment upon his house, and indeed upon all Israel for their idolatry. The only point of good was Abijah. It is the good that was taken away so that unsparing judgment may come on all the rest. It was definitely made known that all Israel would be given up on account of
Jeroboam's sins. Those who have been a testimony perhaps in weakness, taken away. There could not morally be a good king in Tirzah; we never read of one. They waxed worse and worse until carried away "beyond the river".
God had given Jeroboam great opportunities, but he made very bad use of them. God had also testified by the man of God against his idolatry and had shown at the same time by healing his hand (1 Kings 13:6) that He would act in grace to him if he took the place of dependence and need. But all was of no avail: he persisted in his evil course. In conditions of departure God is pleased to put men in places of responsibility and give them opportunity, which, if wrongly used, become an occasion of judgment: God speaks to popes and bishops and kings and in principle to us all. We are all tested by the position God puts us in in His government or providence. But if nothing results for God in it judgment is inevitable.
But people with whom God has had dealings cannot forget it, and the conscience and the heart act even when there is no change in the will. This accounts for inconsistence in the conduct of people who seem sometimes as if they feared God and yet their general course is such as to greatly displease Him. To have a responsibility in relation to God is one thing, and it may be to feel it at times, but to be subject to God so that one is practically controlled by His will is quite another.
So Jeroboam, when concerned about his son, thinks of the prophet. He has no personal access to God, and he would not have it known that he was owning the God of Israel. There is no straightforwardness or transparency about him. And his sending to the prophet only brought condemnation on himself and his house and ultimately on all Israel.
The general state of the people was represented in1 SAMUEL CHAPTER 1 (NOTES OF A READING)
1 SAMUEL CHAPTERS 4 TO 6 (NOTES OF A READING)
AN OUTLINE OF THE SECOND BOOK OF SAMUEL
PHILISTINE ATTACKS (SUMMARY OF AN ADDRESS)
2 SAMUEL CHAPTER 6 (SUMMARY OF A READING)
SUMMARIES OF TWO READINGS
2 SAMUEL CHAPTER 7 (1)
2 SAMUEL CHAPTER 7 (2)
2 SAMUEL CHAPTER 8 (SUMMARY OF A READING)
2 SAMUEL CHAPTER 9
THE KING AND THE CRIPPLE (NOTES OF AN ADDRESS)
2 SAMUEL CHAPTERS 17 AND 19 (NOTES OF AN ADDRESS)
AN OUTLINE OF THE FIRST BOOK OF KINGS
1 KINGS CHAPTERS 4 TO 6
THE HOUSE OF GOD IN CONNECTION WITH THE KINGDOM (NOTES OF AN ADDRESS)
'Christ of God, our souls confess Thee
King and Sovereign even now'.1 KINGS CHAPTER 6 (NOTES OF A READING)
'O Mind divine, so must it be
That glory all belongs to God!
O Love divine, that did decree
We should be part, through Jesus' blood'.1 KINGS CHAPTER 6 (SUMMARY OF A READING)
1 KINGS CHAPTER 8 (NOTES OF A READING)
1 KINGS CHAPTER 9 (FROM C.A.C.'S NOTES)
1 KINGS CHAPTER 10 (FROM C.A.C.'S NOTES)
1 KINGS CHAPTER 10 (FROM C.A.C.'S NOTES)
1 KINGS CHAPTERS 10 AND 11
THE HEADSHIP OF CHRIST (NOTES OF A READING)
'Great source of wisdom, power and food,
All riches from Thee flow'. 1 KINGS CHAPTERS 11 TO 13 (FROM C.A.C.'S NOTES)
1 KINGS CHAPTER 14 (FROM C.A.C.'S NOTES)