THE HOUSE OF GOD AND HIS DEALINGS WITH HIS PEOPLE
[p. 321] THE HOUSE OF GOD AND HIS DEALINGS WITH HIS PEOPLE
1 Chronicles 21:7 - 19; 1 Chronicles 21:26 - 30; 1 Chronicles 22:1; 1 Chronicles 22:6 - 15
I have the house of God in mind in reading these scriptures, especially to show how it is in His mind in all the discipline and judicial dealings with His people. The outcome of every discipline, whether great or small, has the house in view. So that definite gain accrues to us, and definite gain accrues to God as the outcome of every discipline, whether great or small. There is discipline which may be classified as small, and which we are apt to overlook because of its smallness, but it fits in with the divine scheme, and is not to be overlooked, but is to be regarded in the light of the general education through which God passes His people. He has a very great school and He has had many pupils in it; beginning with Adam it comes down in history to when the last saint is perfected. For God’s school brings out perfect scholars. To”present every man perfect in Christ”; God is never satisfied with anything short of perfection.
We find that in the first chapter of Genesis God worked by the day. It is a wonderful thought that the Creator Himself should come into each day of the week and do the day’s work for six days. But every day’s work was perfect in itself; and that would be expanded to every subject of His education. His intent is to turn out perfect scholars in view of the world He has in mind, and which has already taken form, so that each may fill his place in it, acceptably to God, and in relation to Christ, in whom every perfection is seen.
So in both Colossians and Ephesians we have the idea of perfection. “Until we all arrive” means that we have part in the movement; “until we all arrive [p. 322] at the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, at the full-grown man, at the measure of the stature of the fulness of the Christ; in order that we may be no longer babes”; that is the end that is in view (Ephesians 4: 13, 14).
In this school God has been pleased to bring into prominence certain persons as examples. Amongst these are David; he stands out very definitely as one whom God sets before us as a model product of His educational dealings. Then we have such a man as Jacob, another outstanding example, also Moses. Then in the New Testament there are Peter and Paul. These are the most outstanding in the New Testament; but each is to be considered by us as a special example in the school of God. So that we may not falter when under discipline but rather be encouraged, for it is not hatred in God, but love that brings it about. So we are taught in this regard in the school of Tyrannus.
You might say, ‘I should not like to be in that school; that of a man whose name means tyrant’. Children do not care for tyrants as teachers; but the principle of the tyrant is most essential to the school. That is to say, a school primarily implies that one will must rule, and not that of every child in it. One will must rule us because it is a question of love. And we see in the result that all things work together for good to those who love God, and those who are called according to His purpose. We learn that and say it with great zest at the end, and look back on the path as we get older and say, ‘I would not have been without it. It was very hard at the time, but it had its own part in my education, and I would not have been without it’.
David stands out as one of the great models in the school of God, and at this particular period of his history we have one of his two great sins. This reminds us that however great a sin or fault of the [p. 323] christian is, God can turn it into good and for the greatest blessing, leading us to moral heights which we have not hitherto attained. So the setting of the thing, sorrowful as it might be, was of God. “I ... create evil”, He says. I cannot conceive of God doing that save as having good as an end.
In 2 Samuel we are told that God moved David to number the people, but in this chapter Satan moved him. It was the malice of the devil; but from the wider viewpoint God controlled the malice of the devil and allowed him to influence David. We might think that God would have shielded him, but He did not; He allowed the devil to suggest to David that he should number the people, as though he were one of the monarchs of the world, like Caesar Augustus. We are told that the object of a monarch making a census is to find out how many subjects he has. God does not like that: He numbers His people, but as soon as we begin to number those who are in fellowship and seek to have a large meeting, God does not like that. Not that He would disparage the numbers, but the motive to have numbers and priding ourselves religiously in a large congregation, God does not like.
David numbered the people, and they were a goodly number, because populations of kingdoms were not as they are now. We would be surprised if we compared the population of those days with that of the present time, how few they were. So David’s kingdom was relatively large according to the census taken here, and it says God was not pleased. It is a very solemn thing to have a sense that something has happened in my life that has displeased God. He is slow to anger and has much patience with us, but certain things happen that do displease Him. Especially is He displeased by pride, which was behind this proposal of David’s.
I wonder if we have not all had the sense of God’s displeasure, and then on the other hand the sense of [p. 324] His pleasure. How great is the difference! The difference, for instance, in the life of Jesus, when God opened the heavens and spoke to Him and said, “Thou art my beloved Son”. He spoke to Him directly according to some of the gospels, and of Him in others, “This is my beloved Son, in whom I have found my delight”. What pleasure it must have given the heart of Jesus! He knew it; there never was a shadow between the Father and the Son. Infinite delight was always in the heart of the Father as He looked upon His Son here in manhood. He told Him He had delight in Him. “Thou art my beloved Son, in thee I have found my delight”. And synchronising with that, the Holy Spirit came down in bodily form as a dove, which would mean that the totality of the Spirit was there, all that God is, resting on that blessed Man. He abode on Him, it is said. Think of that! And it is to be thought of. We should tell of these facts in the gospel. Then when God expresses His displeasure in that same Person, we do not take it in much; the immensity of the contrast! On the one hand His infinite pleasure and on the other His infinite displeasure. The reconciliation of these two facts is, that in the one instance it is the Lord personally, and in the other, the Lord is representing us in all our hideous guilt. He was there as representative of us, and that is what brought forth God’s displeasure. The Lord had to say to God, “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?” There is food for the soul in considering the contrast.
And so, in the history of David, God had been greatly pleased with him. He is pleased with every one of us as we turn to Him in humble repentance. “There is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner that repenteth”. There is joy in the heart of God and the angels see it. As I have often thought, every step of the prodigal back to his father’s [p. 325] house gave joy to the heart of the father — every step!
So with David; God was greatly pleased with him. He was very displeased with Saul, He rejected him. Samuel would have retained Saul, and mourned for him, and Jehovah says, “How long wilt thou mourn for Saul, seeing I have rejected him?” Why should I be out of accord with God? But then Samuel is sent to the house of Jesse the Bethlehemite, for Jehovah says, “I have provided me a king among his sons”. So Samuel went from Bethlehem and the sons of Jesse are caused to pass before him, from the eldest to the youngest. Eliab comes first and Samuel says, “Surely Jehovah’s anointed is before him”. But was he before Him? Samuel had already been out of accord in mourning for Saul, and now he is out of accord in thinking that Eliab was the anointed one. So the most spiritual of us may be mistaken. Which shows the necessity of being with God; we must not be out of accord with the mind of God. And that enters into church administration as to persons we receive or refuse, whether the reception or refusal be according to God.
So the sons of Jesse passed before Samuel, and God said, ‘Do not look at the outward appearance’. Think of God having to adjust that great servant in his old age. We need adjustment all the time; God looks at the heart. He says, ‘He is not the anointed one; you are making a mistake’. And Samuel is corrected; it is beautiful to see the old brother corrected.
The next comes before him: the Lord has not chosen him, and so the seven pass before him, and none of them are chosen. Samuel would think, ‘Have I come to Bethlehem for nothing?’ He says to Jesse, “Are these all the young men?” And Jesse answered, “There is yet the youngest remaining”. David is Christ in type. Samuel has learned his lesson, and says, “We will not sit at table till he come hither”. They had to wait, they are learning.
So David comes in, a young shepherd, just looking after the sheep, and Jehovah says, “Arise, anoint him; for this is he”. Do you ever see that in a meeting? God is delighted with the movements of that young man; he is a type of Christ, and God is pleased with him. The Spirit of God depicts the young man: “ruddy, and besides of a lovely countenance and beautiful appearance”. And Samuel anoints him then.
But I am speaking of David in the school of God. God was pleased with him and gave him His Spirit, anointed him. The Spirit came upon him then. But now we come to a point when God is displeased with the same person. It is a very solemn thing. At one time I am sensible of being pleasing to God and another time I am sensible of being displeasing; that God is displeased with me, and I cannot leave it at that. If you go into the world, the displeasure of God goes with you and follows you. He does not like your ways and He will make you feel it.
The thing that David did displeased the Lord, we are told here. It was so manifestly wrong that even Joab questioned what David did, yet that dear man of God, David, did it. The most spiritual are capable of displeasing God; but He will not let us off, He loves us too well.
David had a man through whom God could speak to him. Some of us close the door so that God cannot speak to us; we shut the door fast in His face. But David had a seer; Gad is called his seer. At this time he is a prophet of God, but I believe that in a person like David, however far away he might get from God, there is something through which God can address him. He had a seer: He had a man there in Gad, who is called David’s seer. Why should he be [p. 327] called that just now? He is a man through whom God can speak to David.
Every one who is going on with God has a seer. There is that element through which God can address him. So God takes up this element, Gad, and sends him to David, saying, “I offer thee three things; choose one of them ... . Choose thee, either three years of famine, or three months to be destroyed before thine adversaries ... or three days the sword of Jehovah and the pestilence in the land”. David had had to do with famine before, he had had three years of it, so he knew well what that meant.
There is no famine today, there is abundance of food and everything that man needs. God is good to men; He is doing His part. Whatever it is that men need, it is in abundance. Some of the food is two or three years old: God has provided that. So we do not rightly call the present stress a famine in the ordinary sense of the word. It is maladministration on the part of men. The bounty of God is not available because of maladministration. But that is by the way. David knew what three years of famine meant; we get that in 2 Samuel 21. So David is told to choose. How beautiful that God put it into David’s hands to decide. What a God we have! ‘What will you choose? It is imperative; there must be the discipline because you are in my school, and I love you too well to let you off. You must go through it. Then I will show how you have gained enormously from it’.
It is a great thing to acquire a true knowledge of God, especially the God of Romans, the God of grace; how He takes us up in grace. You fail and displease Him, and you think, ‘O, God will never take me on again’. But you were worse when He took you on at the first. You were full of leprosy. He will take you on again, such is God. The young ones should read Romans prayerfully; it is the gospel of God concerning [p. 328] His Son. It is God telling you about Jesus, and how He can make you like Jesus, and set you up consistently in holiness, giving you His Holy Spirit.
David says, “Let me fall ... into the hand of Jehovah, for his mercies are very great”. “And Jehovah sent a pestilence upon Israel; and there fell of Israel seventy thousand men”. And then the angel goes to Jerusalem, but the heart of God relents towards that city which was so precious in His sight. God is capable of cutting things short, so Jerusalem is not destroyed. And then the beautiful thing is, God says to the angel, ‘Stay your hand’. And the angel is seen at the threshing-floor of Ornan the Jebusite.
We are in the midst of discipline of the severest kind, it is true, but there is the threshing-floor of Ornan the Jebusite. It is to be immortalised; it is the site of the temple. Spiritually it refers to the position of the house, never to be forgotten. In the midst of the general devastation, God is calmly marking the spot. David is to be brought on to new ground. And so with every one of us in discipline He will bring us on to ground which is immutable; He has got the house in view.
And so the angel speaks to Gad, not to David. He commanded Gad to say to David that he should go up and rear an altar to Jehovah in the threshing-floor of Ornan the Jebusite. As being under the discipline of God, we see that sacrifice is the order of the day. It began with the sacrifice of Jesus; there could be no foundation in the house without that sacrifice. Jesus has offered Himself without spot to God. That is the foundation. So David comes and offers sacrifices there.
And God says to the angel, ‘Put your sword into its sheath’. The time of judgment is over. What a relief! The sword is sheathed, and never unsheathed in the house of God. Someone may ask, ‘Does not [p. 329] the house of God come under judgment?’ No, the judgment begins at the house of God, it does not come under judgment. So the sword is sheathed there, and David offered sacrifices. What a change as one is brought into the consciousness of liberty with God, on new ground!
In the beginning of chapter 22 David says, “This is the house of Jehovah Elohim”. Not ‘That is the house’. What do you say about the brethren? Those brethren, who are they? Why do you not say these brethren? These brethren, I am amongst them and belong to them. The gospels develop this great truth of brethren. It is not that but this: this is where I am; this is the house. How beautiful! This is the house of Jehovah; it is where He is going to live. Then David begins to provide abundantly. What a changed brother he is! He is now thinking of the house. He prepared iron in abundance for the nails, one of the first things mentioned. We get the stones and the timber, and then the nails. That is to say, things are to be held immutably in the resurrection of Christ. Not taches but nails, powerful things to hold the parts together.
But what I want to come to is Solomon. Since the house is located I am in it and I say, ‘This is the house; these are the brethren’. And the next thing is that I am not to be amongst them in old age, but in youthfulness. Old in years, but young in spirit. So David immediately sends for Solomon; he is a young man. As soon as I am in the house, what I find is that it is not a military place; it is a place of lovely preciousness and liberty of sons. There is no place in the universe like it. It is adorned by the Son. “Solomon my son is young and tender”. Tender youth in sonship: a promised son, not an ordinary son. Solomon is one of the extraordinary persons of Scripture. When he was born Jehovah loved him; he is a type of Christ. There is loveliness [p. 330] in the personnel of the house, all young and youthful, and all with intelligence and in the liberty of sons. David tells Solomon what God says about him. Every young christian should listen to the ministry of the Spirit; think of God saying something about you! As it were, before you were born God spoke about you; He had you in His mind. So He had Solomon in His mind, and David says to Solomon, ‘God spoke to me about you’. It is the spirit of retirement in the military man, to make room for the youthful son. It is very attractive. And the Spirit of God is maintaining that youthful freshness depicted in Solomon.
Then David tells him about the wealth he has acquired, a hundred thousand talents of gold, etc. We might calculate what that would be worth today, but the idea is to show the immensity of wealth that David had provided. Would it be enough? No, it would not be enough, for Solomon is to contribute. “Thou shalt add to it”. David says, and Solomon did add to it. What a wealthy place it was! It all brings before us the immense wealth of the house of God, and the blessedness of it, and the society in it depicted in Solomon, that beautiful young man, the child of promise.
He adds to what his father provided. If he did not, then we should not have the magnificence we read of in 1 Kings and 2 Chronicles. It is addition, and that is always going on; and the word to every young christian is, ‘You will add to that’. You say, ‘Add to a hundred thousand talents of gold?’ Never mind, you will add to that. I am quoting the word here in chapter 22: 14, “And thou shalt add to it”. Do not forget that.
To the young people coming in amongst us I would urge you not to say of the brethren, ‘They are so-and-so, and they do this and that’, but’we do this and we do that’. And if I begin to speak thus, then I must [p. 331] do my little quota, I am told to. “Thou shalt add to it”.
That is all I had in mind, to show how the great sin of the man of God is turned into gain, and brings to light the house as the great end in view. “I rejoiced when they said unto me, Let us go into the house of Jehovah”. No wonder he said that, because of the blessedness of it; where you find Solomon and the immensity of wealth provided, and where you are privileged to open your treasures and furnish an addition to what is there. It is a great lesson; may God bless it to us!