GOD'S INHERITANCE IN THE SAINTS (6)
GOD’S INHERITANCE IN THE SAINTS (6)
2 Chronicles 2:1 - 6; 2 Chronicles 3:1 - 9; 2 Chronicles 5:1 - 14
JT In order to estimate aright the spiritual instruction seen in chapters 2 to 5 of this book, it may be well to observe that chapter 1 seems to be below their level. Solomon is not presented as beginning on the level of the closing chapters of the first book. We are told that “Solomon spoke to all Israel, to the captains of thousands and of hundreds, and to the judges, and to all the princes of all Israel, the chief fathers; and Solomon, and all the congregation with him, went to the high place at Gibeon; for there was God’s tent of meeting which Moses the servant of Jehovah had made in the wilderness” (verses 2,3). He comes back after a great public occasion (verse 13), “from the high place at Gibeon to Jerusalem, from before the tent of meeting, and reigned over Israel”. The following verses scarcely comport with the high ground taken, the high ground on which he began, for it is said: “And Solomon gathered chariots and horsemen; and he had a thousand four hundred chariots and twelve thousand horsemen; and he placed them in the chariot-cities, and with the king at Jerusalem. And the king made silver and gold in Jerusalem as stones, and cedars made he as the sycamores that are in the lowland for abundance” (verses 14,15); and it goes on to speak of the exportation of horses from Egypt.
Now a comparison between this chapter and the corresponding chapters in 1 Kings shows that in the latter book, Solomon, after the appearance of Jehovah to him in a dream, returned to Jerusalem and went before the ark; and instead of this description of horses and chariots and the depreciation of silver and gold, we have in Kings, Solomon’s wisdom in the case of the two women. So that Kings seems to indicate that he is maintaining the level on which he began, whereas Chronicles indicates a drop. But then this is [p. 297] only, it seems to me, to bring out the principle of recovery even in him; for chapters 3, 4, and 5 show that his mind is now wholly on spiritual lines. What he says to Huram, and the description that follows in the account in chapter 3 of the measurements, etc., and the great result in chapter 5, all together indicate that he is now wholly on spiritual lines; so that the result for God is greater than we have had so far; greater indeed, as seen in chapter 5, than at any time.
I think it may be well to consider chapter 1 in that light, because we are constantly reminded of the need of recovery to the truth vouchsafed to us, the light granted. However honest we may be, there is tendency to drop. On the other hand, there is a readiness on God’s part to adjust us as we are ready to be adjusted, and Solomon was.
WH Would this feature of recovery have a special application in our day, bearing in mind that Chronicles was written after the return from the captivity?
JT I think it is to accentuate the thought of recovery because of our tendency to drop and God’s readiness to adjust us; indeed, it seems to be constant amongst us.
Ques Would the drop be borne out by Deuteronomy 17 where this was expressly forbidden?
JT That chapter shows plainly enough that Solomon could not have been keen as to the principles governing his position as king; but yet the chapters before us, 3, 4, and 5, show a man wholly on spiritual lines, reaching a sublime height in his service. All that should be encouraging to us, making us all the more ashamed of any deflection, but at the same time appreciative of the restorative grace of God, always at hand.
Ques How would you describe the deflection, for our help?
JT Well, I would say it especially alludes to youthful tendencies, for he was “young and tender”; he was said to [p. 298] be that.
AJG Is it significant that it is in the epistle to the Ephesians, dealing with the most spiritual things, that we get the injunction to “be filled with the Spirit” (Ephesians 5:18)?
JT Quite so; to be filled. That is the sure guarantee against the tendency to deflection or declension. The Spirit is the only power by which we are kept. Of course, there is a system into which we are brought involving the Father, Son, and Spirit; the Spirit is the power in us: so that we can use the Spirit; “if ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live” (Romans 8:13).
PL Would chapter 1 point to the departure from first love at Ephesus, and the later chapters to recovery in Philadelphia?
JT Well, there is the testimony to recovery right through. As has been pointed out, the book coming in after the captivity would be surely to impress us with the restorative grace of God, and how completely He does restore as over against our constant tendency to drop. It applies to our brightest days; you see it in the case of both Peter and Paul, the leading men in the beginning: they needed the restoring grace of God.
Ques How does this come in chronologically? In 1 Kings 11:1, after the depreciation of the silver is mentioned, it is said: “king Solomon loved many strange women”.
JT Well, it is in accord with these horses; he was not to multiply horses, nor women to himself (Deuteronomy 17:16,17). The depreciation of the currency that David made so much of was certainly not a good sign; to reduce the value of things in this sense is never a good sign.
Ques Is it a principle with the Lord that in every case of declension He would restore His saints to a higher level than that from which they have dropped?
JT I think that is the thought throughout these books. As we have been already noticing, it is not [p. 299] exactly history, but the presentation of a certain line of things in relation to the testimony; the restoring grace of God ever present, not simply to restore, but to accomplish God’s own thoughts. He never gives up His thoughts, whatever happens; and these books show that if an event happens affecting the testimony, God is behind it and works out His thoughts through it.
SB Would the word to us in our day be what Paul says to Timothy: “Keep, by the Holy Spirit which dwells in us, the good deposit entrusted” (2 Timothy 1:14)?
JT That is a good scripture in connection with what we have been speaking of, and links with what has been remarked; we are to be filled with the Holy Spirit, never to be otherwise; thus power is available to us so that we keep ourselves in the love of God (Jude 21).
FCH Does David make provision for recovery, in 1 Chronicles 16:35, in the song delivered to Asaph? “Save us, O God of our salvation, and gather us, and deliver us from the nations, to give thanks unto thy holy name, to triumph in thy praise”. In the psalm he makes provision for recovery to the greater thought.
JT That is good. We have already noted that psalm drawn from others; I think about six psalms are represented, but principally to bring out the sense that David had of God in restoring His people. We get in chapter 5, the end of what is in our minds in this series of meetings, and it is: they “praised Jehovah: For he is good, for his loving-kindness endureth for ever”. That is the end of the psalm in chapter 16 of the first book, drawn from Psalm 96, Psalm 105, Psalm 106, Psalm 107, Psalm 118, and Psalm 136; all, as it were, laid under tribute to bring out what David had already experienced of the restorative grace of God. The highest note was that which is reached by Solomon here. What we get in chapter 5 is but the filling out of that remarkable psalm that “David delivered first”. It was in his mind that there should be that particular selection set down as the ark was brought to Zion, and all that follows is the working out of that. So we have in chapter 5 this wonderful unison in song. We do not get the fulness of song in the first book, but we get the fulness in chapter 5 of this book.
LOL “But to him that is able to do far exceedingly above all which we ask or think, according to the power which works in us, to him be glory in the assembly in Christ Jesus unto all generations of the age of ages” (Ephesians 3:20,21). Does that agree with the scripture in chapter 5?
JT Yes; we have the actual words here that appear in the psalm that David put together; they “praised Jehovah: For he is good, for his loving-kindness endureth for ever”. That is what gives character to the psalm in 1 Chronicles 16, but it is filled out here in priestly power, and wonderful unison in music; but we are anticipating what I hope we shall finish with.
When we come on to chapter 2 we can see at once we are on a different level; a man buying horses and selling them is a different matter from “a house for his kingdom”. Then he sent to Huram and said: “As thou didst deal with David my father, and didst send him cedars to build him a house to dwell therein so do for me. Behold, I build a house unto the name of Jehovah my God to dedicate it to him, to burn before him sweet incense, and for the continual arrangement of the shewbread, and for the morning and evening burnt-offerings and on the sabbaths and on the new moons, and on the set feasts of Jehovah our God”. You can see it is a different man; he has God before him now, and he is thinking for God in the most spiritual way. He says, “To burn before him sweet incense, and for the continual arrangement of the shewbread, and for the morning and evening burnt-offerings”.
[p. 301] You can see the difference here from what chapter 1 presents.
Ques He seems, does he not, to take up the innermost thoughts and work out from them?
JT That is what I was thinking. These thoughts are fragrant to God. God maintains things on His own level and Solomon has come to that now.
JSE What do you imply by the reference to the horses?
JT “The Egyptians are men, and not God, and their horses flesh, and not spirit” (Isaiah 31:3). No man can become spiritual by unnecessary occupation with horses.
EuR It says: “And Solomon purposed to build”. He has purpose of heart on this occasion. Paul says to Timothy, “thou hast fully known my ... purpose” (2 Timothy 3:10).
JT We all need this, whether in business, or whatever it is in which we earn our living, there is the need of ability to turn away definitely to be engaged with what is of God; material things are only incidental, whereas I am taken up for ever for God. Solomon has now fixed his mind on the house of God. “Have your mind on the things that are above” (Colossians 3:2). That word is needed because we are so ready to set our minds on things on the earth.
HC The name Archippus means, chief of horses, and the word is, “Say to Archippus, Take heed to the ministry which thou hast received in the Lord, to the end that thou fulfil it” (Colossians 4:17). He was to turn away from horses.
JT Quite so, referring to the meaning of his name.
Ques You said to reduce the value of things was not a good sign, what had you in mind?
JT If a man has a bit of status in this world he is apt to reduce the value of divine things; you can see it constantly, he is thinking more of things below than the saints in relation to God.
Ques “Absalom prepared for himself chariots and horses, and fifty men to run before him” (2 Samuel 15:1). What a contrast to the Lord, “Behold thy King cometh to thee, meek, and mounted upon an ass” (Matthew 21:5). Is there a tendency to think that inward greatness must have a corresponding outward greatness, the calling attention to oneself, whereas the Lord approaches His people personally in meekness?
JT “Meek, and mounted upon an ass”, was the testimony that accompanied Him. That which the blind men had witnessed to in Matthew 20:30,31, was what applied at that moment, and was carried through in Jerusalem, and resounded in the temple in the voices of the little ones (Matthew 21:15).
PHH What would you say Huram typifies as coming in here in relation to Solomon’s exercises as to the house of God? In another part Tyre is connected with the commercial system of the world.
JT Yes, but it is not here. Whatever his occupation, a man like that is safe, for he “always loved David” (1 Kings 5:1); showing steadiness typically in loving Christ; that gives one a status. Why did Solomon in speaking to Huram open up on such an exalted line as this? Surely the man must be ready for it! You would not talk to an unspiritual man on this level; you would talk to a lover of Christ on it. “As thou didst deal with David my father, and didst send him cedars to build him a house to dwell therein” (verse 3); there is not a word about horses.
JJ Does he not suggest the bringing in of the gentiles? “A house of prayer for all the nations” (Mark 11:17).
JT Well, quite so; Tyre is not to be despised from that point of view. Commerce is quite all right if devoted to the service of God, as it is when in the hands of a man who loves Christ; it is safe in his hands.
Ques What had David in mind when he said to Solomon, “Add thereto”?
JT As already said, that is for the young brothers: they are not to add horses! It is the kind of thing that David had brought in that is to be added to; Solomon goes over the ground here and there is not a word about horses. “A hundred thousand talents of gold” (1 Chronicles 22:14). Think of that! Well, according to Solomon’s depreciation (2 Chronicles 1:15), what was it worth? He was depreciating gold and silver, making them as stones.
Rem “I have seen servants upon horses, and princes walking as servants upon the earth” (Ecclesiastes 10:7). What is princely would not depend upon the flesh in any form; what is princely can dispense with horses.
JT Paul travelled “on foot” after the occasion at Troas (Acts 20:13). There must be something to be learned from that.
HWA “And thou, Solomon my son, know the God of thy father” (1 Chronicles 28:9). Would that not have been his great preservative?
JT Yes: acknowledge Him; you are not acknowledging Him in making so much of horses, what man relies upon; “God is a spirit” (John 4:24).
EuR Would Ephesians 2:22 correspond? “Built together for a habitation of God in the Spirit”.
JT Yes; the house is according to what God is. Huram is evidently brought in because he loved David and provided material for David; and so now Solomon connects him with the material necessary for the house.
JHT It says in Psalm 147:10 - 12, “He delighteth not in the strength of the horse, he taketh not pleasure in the legs of a man; Jehovah taketh pleasure in those that fear him, in those that hope in his loving-kindness. Laud Jehovah, O Jerusalem; praise thy God, O Zion”.
JT I was thinking of that: I am glad you bring it forward because it helps us as to the level of chapter 2, and then we have in chapter 3 a still further spiritual setting of Solomon. “And Solomon began to build [p. 304] the house of Jehovah at Jerusalem on mount Moriah”; which means according to the note, ‘shown by Jehovah’. That is, it is a matter of divine showing, not of Solomon’s ability. It is what is shown by God. Then it adds: “where he appeared to David his father, in the place that David had prepared in the threshing-floor of Ornan the Jebusite”. He is now, as to the foundation, thoroughly on David’s line, and indeed, making much of David. The stress laid on what was shown to David here is to the credit of Solomon, and shows his increasing spirituality. You feel that God is keeping him there, it is meet he should be kept there. How important it is that a brother should be kept in the service assigned to him! God has to work sovereignly sometimes to keep us in the testimony.
COB David had in mind a house for the ark, Solomon a house for Jehovah; why is that?
JT The ark enters into that, and is involved in what Solomon built. He purposes “to build a house for the name of Jehovah, and a house for his kingdom”. It is the outward side. Chronicles is not the heavenly side of the position, it is what is before men; hence we have the veil. Kings gives the heavenly side and much more of the building too. The Spirit is here concerned about what bears on the testimony, the name of Jehovah; and, of course, the ark was bound up with the name; the “strength” and “glory” of God (Psalm 78:61) must be housed.
PHH Would you connect this at all with Matthew 16:17? “Blessed art thou, Simon Bar-jona, for flesh and blood has not revealed it to thee, but my Father who is in the heavens”. Peter is not maintained on that level, he drops, according to the latter part of the chapter.
JT Yes; he is brought back to it. This alludes to Matthew 16, I understand; that is (verse 3): “And this was Solomon’s foundation”, that is how it should read. “Solomon’s foundation” alludes to Matthew 16. Paul says, “Other foundation can no man lay besides that [p. 305] which is laid, which is Jesus Christ” (1 Corinthians 3:11). That is a different view from Matthew; but Solomon’s foundation is conveyed in Peter’s confession: “Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God” (Matthew 16:16). The Lord says, “Flesh and blood has not revealed it to thee, but my Father who is in the heavens”. It is in our chapter a question of what was shown; the word “Moriah” would correspond with Matthew 16. It is a wholly spiritual matter, and that is the point to see. Solomon is equal to this; God is helping him in it. We should have the full truth in view; there is no reduction of thought from chapter 2 to chapter 5; Solomon is maintained on the proper level. God is ready to bring us back, even to a higher level, if we do get deflected.
Rem “Shown by Jehovah”; the Lord takes the place in John of being shown what the Father is doing: “the Father loves the Son and shews him all things which he himself does” (John 5:20).
JT Yes, He takes everything from the Father; the Father shows Him — very remarkable! The Lord takes that attitude; everything emanates from God. The more spiritual I am, the more I recognise that all must come out from God; “And Solomon began to build the house of Jehovah at Jerusalem on mount Moriah, where he appeared to David his father, in the place that David had prepared in the threshing-floor”. God had taken the initiative in that matter. As we had already, He sends the angel to Gad to tell David to go there; and Solomon is thoroughly in that. It shows the thoroughness with which God would have His testimony carried through.
JJ “His foundation is in the holy mountains” (Psalm 87:1).
JRS Do you link Solomon’s recovery with his mention of the threshing-floor? I am thinking of that being the place of the recovery of [p. 306] David.
JT Quite so; it is the Spirit’s account that you get; “in the place that David had prepared in the threshing-floor of Ornan the Jebusite”. It is well to bring that word in, the place of it. It is all to bring out the level on which God would carry on and into which He would bring us; and no true man wants to be on lower ground; however successful he may be in his work, he wants to be on the divine level.
MWB Is Solomon viewed now as in strict accord with the last few chapters of the first book?
JT He is on that level now; and then we have “Solomon’s foundation”. The New Translation gives the truth more clearly in verse 3: “And this was Solomon’s foundation for the construction of the house of God. The length by cubits after the first measure was sixty cubits, and the breadth twenty cubits. And the porch which was in front was twenty cubits in length, in front of the house broadways, and the height was a hundred and twenty”; and so forth. It is Solomon’s foundation; that is, he has taken it on. It is Christ’s; Christ says: “On this rock I will build my assembly” (Matthew 16:18). He has reached that point in the testimony in Matthew; and it is the Father’s doing; the Father has made it known in Peter’s soul. Peter confesses it, and the Lord says, That is My foundation.
NKM What is the significance of the date here — “the second month, in the fourth year of his reign”?
JT 1 Kings gives the date from the Exodus out of Egypt, four hundred and eighty years, which is an accumulative thought. It is no longer the tabernacle, but the abiding house, the fixed thought. What a long period had to be traversed until this point was reached! but it is reached. “I have been from tent to tent”, God says, and He never asked them to build a house (1 Chronicles 17: 5,6). It is now reached; it is the patient work of God and His people. The actual thing is reached, the foundation is reached by revelation from [p. 307] God. He brings in His mind when the people are ready for it. They are ready for it now, and it is “Solomon’s foundation”.
MWB Do you think there is a link in Stephen’s account, between this and what we had before us at Birmingham? “Our fathers had the tent of the testimony in the wilderness, as he that spoke to Moses commanded to make it according to the model which he had seen; which also our fathers, receiving from their predecessors, brought in with Joshua when they entered into possession of the lands of the nations, whom God drove out from the face of our fathers, until the days of David; who found favour before God, and asked to find a tabernacle for the God of Jacob; but Solomon built him a house” (Acts 7:44 - 47). It is, right on from the days of the wilderness, linked up with the days of Solomon.
JT That is all very good. In a spiritual account such as Stephen’s the Spirit of God points out that the house of God is a spiritual habitation. “The heaven is my throne and the earth the footstool of my feet” (Acts 7:49); David had that in mind, that God should have a footstool as well as a house.
PJB With regard to the site of the house referred to in verse 1 and Solomon laying the foundation, I was wondering whether, although David had spiritual instincts in the way that has come before us, Jehovah really chose the site of the house at the place where the sword of judgment was sheathed?
JT We had that yesterday; Jehovah really takes the initiative as to the place of the foundation. David bought the place; there was not only what was literally needed, but plenty of scope. The sheathing of the sword comes in after the place is indicated. The sheathing of the sword is what gives David confidence in God.
The scope which the spirit of sonship requires enters into this position; it is something shown. It is not only [p. 308] the fact that the sword was sheathed there, but also that the showing was God’s and David buys “the place” in order to have plenty of scope for the building.
Ques Why is so much made of the material, whereas in Ezekiel it is not material but form and measurement?
JT That is a very interesting matter. I think Ezekiel has in mind not what is to be, but what is; especially as to measurement, what is there is according to divine requirements; but here, the materials indicate what God will have in the building. God is here intimating to us as engaged in building, what must be provided (compare 1 Corinthians 3), not only the measure, but the amount of material it involves in us, what we are; these materials refer to what God works out in the saints.
Ques The house representing what there is for God in testimony, is that connected with the tent too? The tent of meeting is brought up (chapter 5:5).
JT Yes, Chronicles has all that in mind, the tabernacle merges in the temple, it is cumulative. There is no veil in Kings, which book represents the heavenly side, but there is a veil here. Here it is a question of testimony rather than liberty and grandeur; but still, the divine end is reached here below.
ABP Does this enter into the Lord’s words, “Tarry ye in the city of Jerusalem, until ye be endued with power from on high” (Luke 24:49)?
JT Yes; Jerusalem was still the centre, the testimony was to be from there, but they were not to do anything until the Spirit came.
I think these measurements ought to be in our minds as we proceed. “The first measure was sixty cubits”; the “first” measure would be the general thought, and then the filling out of that is in the breadth. The first measure is like great divine principles that we have in our souls; and the practical working out of them is implied in the breadth. God’s work in us is in relation [p. 309] to right principles. His work in us is marked by love; love is in the breadth, so that God can dwell there.
AJG So that in actual construction principles are first, but in the complete building, as in Ephesians, love is stressed.
JT “He that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him” (1 John 4:16). Love must be present for the divine dwelling.
PL The length is as much as the breadth in regard of the heavenly city (Revelation 21:16).
JT That is the fulness of the thought; and the depth too, it is a cube, the great idea of solidity or substance. Substance is in love. Then, what follows: “the porch which was in front was twenty cubits in length”; that is, the full width of the building, the front of the house broadways; “and the height was a hundred and twenty”; not the whole house, but the porch. It is a testimony to moral elevation. The measurements are simply what is in our hearts, by the work of God; what God can come into.
JHT Would you link that with the hundred and twenty standing in public testimony in Jerusalem?
JT What moral elevation was there! The upper room was also moral elevation. Those in it are mentioned as a “crowd”; the idea, I think, is that you do not need to regulate such people for personal identity; distinction marks them severally. From the point of view of God’s work, I am what I am; and, if it is a question of moral elevation, I am entirely above the influence of this world. After mention of the height, we have “he overlaid it within with pure gold”; that is not for outward show, it is intrinsic worth inwardly. You can understand that Solomon is not depreciating gold now. It is to appear in the heavenly city; you cannot depreciate that. You can never depreciate what is of God in the minds of those who love Him, and His house is composed of such.
WC [p. 310] Would the hundred and twenty priests connect with the gold?
JT The point in the gold here, I think, is that whilst there is public show in the hundred and twenty cubits, inside all is intrinsically precious; where God is to be, where He is to dwell, all is of Himself. It is the effect of His work in His people: “he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him” (1 John 4:16). Then we have: “And the greater house he boarded with cypress-wood, which he overlaid with fine gold, and set on it palm-trees and chains. And he overlaid the house with precious stones for beauty; and the gold was gold of Parvaim. And he covered the house, the beams, the threshold, and its walls, and its doors with gold, and engraved cherubim on the walls”. Solomon is thoroughly with God now, he is recognising heavenly values, not depreciating them.
Ques The gold that David collected was “gold of Ophir” (1 Chronicles 29:4); this is “gold of Parvaim”; what is the difference?
JT Evidently both are of especial quality. You will notice too that he does not ignore the silver that David had collected; he is now regarding divine things at their proper value. As among the brethren, where the Spirit of God is, our minds are not to be on things that perish in the handling — money, houses, cars, etc. — otherwise we shall undervalue the saints and divine things. Solomon is now valuing things according to heaven.
Ques What is the meaning of the “greater house”?
JT That is the outward part, in contrast to the holiest; the latter was a square: the greater house was forty cubits by twenty; it was outside the holiest — in front of it.
Ques Referring to the measurements, would the thought of breadth come into the Spirit’s record of what Caiaphas said? “That also he should gather together [p. 311] in one the children of God that were scattered abroad” (John 11:52). Would that be suggestive of the breadth of the house?
JT I suppose so; as in Colossians, love for all saints; that is the filling out of the thought of the house of God.
Ques What do you mean when you say that we do not value things aright?
JT Take Philemon; he had a slave, who ran away; he is converted, now a child of Paul’s, “a brother beloved” (Philemon 16); he returns to Philemon, but on what level does he return? Is Philemon able to value that man? In what relation is he taking him back? — still as a slave? He is to learn to think of that man as pure gold, “a brother beloved”.
Rem “Both in the flesh, and in the Lord”? He is not only to be able to speak of him as a beloved brother, but to have all the feelings of a brother towards him when he comes back.
JT Quite so: thus he would greet his slave as a brother; he is pure gold. It is not to be a matter of condescension on the part of Philemon, for the slave is now a brother; he has a spiritual status according to Paul’s valuation, “a brother beloved”.
Rem Gold is the first metal mentioned in Scripture.
JT Yes: “the gold of that land is good” (Genesis 2:12).
WGT Do the dimensions of the house lead on to God’s thoughts about the saints?
JT Yes; Colossians helps us on that line — love for all saints. These precious stones are especially to be noted: “And he overlaid the house with precious stones for beauty”. We must keep this in mind; they are going to have a great place in the future in the heavenly city.
All this prepares us for what we have in chapter 5 in the service of the Levites and priests. In verses 11 to 14 of chapter 5 we have one of the most precious subjects [p. 312] in the Scriptures.
WSS In chapter 5:1, we have “Solomon brought in the things that David his father had dedicated”; it is all taken up on the line of sonship.
JT I think so, and he mentions the silver first; that is striking. What had become as stones in the street in Solomon’s commercial realm is now the first thing mentioned. I must regard it in the light of the dedicator, what he was, because it is David in that sense.
TH Would it be right to say that the house is finished with a view to the ark morally filling it and God dwelling in it? The ark is carried into a setting already completed.
JT That is right, but before the ark you have these dedicated things. That is to say, before you bring the ark in there is a testimony to love in the dedication; so that the highest thoughts, I suppose, in the dedicated things, would be in what David had dedicated. There is the omission of Joab and the others whose names appear in the first book: “And Solomon brought in the things that David his father had dedicated; and the silver, and the gold, and all the vessels he put among the treasures of the house of God”. These things are very ornamental, very attractive to God; the evidence of love, unselfish provision for His abode.
WSS With regard to that thought of love, Solomon would have very sensitive feelings in regard to what his father had dedicated.
JT That is what I was thinking. Psalm 132:4,5 shows what David had been-through: “I will not give sleep to mine eyes, slumber to mine eyelids, until I find out a place for Jehovah, habitations for the Mighty One of Jacob ...”.
So proceeding in the chapter, we have, after the ark is installed “And it came to pass when the priests were come out of the holy place (for all the priests that were present were hallowed without observing the courses; and the Levites the singers, all they of [p. 313] Asaph, of Heman, of Jeduthun, with their sons and their brethren, clad in byssus, with cymbals and lutes and harps, stood at the east end of the altar, and with them a hundred and twenty priests sounding with trumpets) — it came to pass when the trumpeters and singers were as one, to make one voice to be heard in praising and thanking Jehovah; and when they lifted up their voice with trumpets, and cymbals, and instruments of music, and praised Jehovah: For he is good, for his loving-kindness endureth for ever; that then the house, the house of Jehovah” — note, “the house of Jehovah”; it is stressed — “was filled with a cloud, and the priests could not stand to do their service because of the cloud; for the glory of Jehovah had filled the house of God”.
What is to be observed is the title of the house, what the house is is stressed. The priests and the Levites are in their places, and then the number of priests by themselves and these instruments of music, all in perfect harmony; one sound. Then the words are added, “For he is good ...”; not simply the music, but the words, which are so stressed in chapter 16 of the previous book; the fulness of them is now coming out, in the unity of affection, love and holiness. So God takes charge of the whole position. This is His inheritance; the spiritual thought of His inheritance. God says, as it were, ‘I am satisfied with this, it is the great result I have been waiting for’.
JHL Would that be the completion seen in the psalm? — every whit uttereth glory (Psalm 29:9).
JT Quite so: that would be you and me and every one of us; the woods, the metals and all that, refer to the saints as the work of God. We must understand that all this, including the furniture of the temple, is a question of persons; the singing, the musical instruments, the words sung, and the unity entering into it. God says, ‘That is all for Me; and I take it on’. It is all beautiful and glorious. To speak with reverence,
[p. 314] it is the heart of God stimulated in the assembly, anti-typically, it is glory to God in the assembly, and His appreciation of it.
ABP Is it like John 12, the odour filled the house?
JT Quite so. It is what God worked for and has now secured.
WSS Do you connect this with the word, “Let my son go, that he may serve me” (Exodus 4:23)?
JT That is the thought: all this that we have been looking at refers to the sons, not merely in the thought of obedience as in Exodus; it is that, but more the quality of the materials, indicative of the variety of the divine work in those in the relation of sons. There is no one presiding; there is no longer a need for that, it is a question of the persons that are there — all divinely prepared and set; all answering to the counsels of love.
JJ Is this what we should desire to arrive at after the Supper?
JT That is what I thought, what we should finish with. It is what the first book has in mind; what is possible; that the inheritance of God should come into actual form at the present time. Of course, He will have us all in heaven, and the full result there, but the point in these typical books is that He is to have it here.
WSS Does this go beyond what is priestly?
JT This goes on to sonship. These priests and levites are to guard what is really in view. The official service is in order that the divine thought may be reached unimpaired; but this is regarded by itself, and will go on eternally; that is, the saints viewed as sons. If it could be only for a minute that God could have His people now in this light, in abstraction from all else, how great a result! “Holy and without blame before him in love” (Ephesians 1:4). The assembly is in view. Although as sons we are regarded as persons, the assembly is always contemplated as a concurrent [p. 315] thought and includes, in a collective sense, all that is supremely for God.
LOL How is the glory expressed? — “to him be glory in the assembly in Christ Jesus” (Ephesians 3:21).
JT Well, it is to God; it is the effect of His work in the assembly — what there is there for Him. In His temple every whit speaks glory. That will go through, for it is “in the assembly in Christ Jesus”. In this respect it is well to bear in mind that section of the chapter, from the point where the apostle bows his knees to the Father (Ephesians 3:14 - 21). It refers to what is operative: the Father’s Spirit strengthening us, and the Christ dwelling in our hearts by faith. The Spirit is the power that is working in us. Then “the Christ” is One who is over all divine operations, and He is dwelling in our hearts, so that there is glory to God in the assembly both now and for ever.
Ques Would you compare this note arrived at with, “there is none good but one, that is, God” (Matthew 19:17)?
JT Quite so, that is what they say here. We say more than that; we say more about the Father than that He is good, and that His loving-kindness endureth for ever. Take the Lord’s own words in John 17: there you get instruction as to what you can say to the Father about Himself. The Father seeks worshippers. We worship Him not only in what we say, but also in the attitude of our hearts and minds. I think the Father would love to have us to speak to Him about Himself: so “Jesus spoke, and lifted up his eyes to heaven and said, Father” (John 17:1). That gives us a lead.
Ques Is the thought of Moriah anticipated by God in Genesis 22:2? “Get thee into the land of Moriah, and there offer him up for a burnt-offering on one of the mountains which I will tell thee of”.
JT I think so, not that it is the same mountain; the connection is in Moriah — being shown.
WJ Why is it “the glory of Jehovah ... filled the house of God”?
JT It is the fulness of Deity; that is what is meant, I think. Jehovah is the covenant name, but God is the fulness of Deity: “my Father and your Father, ... my God and your God” (John 20:17).
JMcM Does it mean that God has secured in the assembly what is to be brought to pass when He is all in all (1 Corinthians 15:28).
JT Yes. “All in all”, that is, we are filled with Him. He is not only all in a merely objective sense, but all as filling all. Of course, the divine Persons will be recognised, and God known as in Christ, even as now: the creature cannot see Him in His abstract relations. But there will be no sense of ignorance or discrepancy of any kind. Christ as “placed” in subjection (1 Corinthians 15:28) — never ceasing to be what He is in abstract Deity — will be on our side, covering and holding all, the Spirit pervading all. It is through the Son and the Spirit that God will be “all in all”.