2 KINGS 20 (SUMMARY OF A READING)
2 KINGS 20 (SUMMARY OF A READING)
The cake of figs provides a rather important instruction for us because it was divinely appointed. It seems that it is intended to be a token of divine intervention on Hezekiah’s behalf, a token of what was in the heart of God. We are told in the writing of Hezekiah, “Thou hast in love delivered my soul from the pit of destruction” (Isaiah 38: 17) and “Jehovah was purposed to save me” (Isaiah 38: 20). I gather from that that the cake of figs was a symbol of the intervention of God in love according to purpose; it was applied to the boil and Hezekiah recovered. Bethany was connected with figs. It was a wonderful place and brought out the weakness of man and the intervention of God in the presence of death. God intervenes in love according to His purpose. The thought of sweetness is connected with figs; we get in it the aspect of the death of Christ which is peculiarly full of sweetness, not the thought of atonement. It is not a question of meeting the claims of God — we get that at the mercy-seat — but it is the love of God in relation to the power of death being efficacious as applied to our souls. I thought it was much like Romans 5 from verse 5 to the end. It is not a question of making atonement for sin but a question of the application of the love of God in the death of Christ to the soul of the believer. It is a question here in 2 Kings 20 of the application and that is the point in Romans 5 where the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit. The love of God as applied that way is definitely brought in to heal; it is the love of God as made known in the death [p. 216] of Christ and so in Romans 5 we see in verses 6 to 8 the commendation of God’s love by His death.
This exercise might arise in the soul of the believer after he has been converted thirty or forty years. With Hezekiah there was an exercise which needed to be met; he had never been brought face to face with death. Many believers have never been brought face to face with death; they have never realised that death was upon them. Just at that point God gives the application of the love of God to the soul; it is not simply believing that God is love but there is a pouring out of that love into the heart by the Spirit. That is the answer in the New Testament to the cake of figs.
If we want to understand the anatomy of the boil we must read what Hezekiah wrote when he had recovered and see that it was a very deep-seated boil. He went through tremendous exercise although he had been a devoted saint for long years. He had to face this exercise. A boil represents exercise of soul; leprosy is always self-will. There cannot be self-will in the presence of death; death is the annihilation of self-will.
We see in this chapter the bitterness and anguish of this man’s soul; then there is divine intervention and it is a living reality that makes his soul live: “The living, the living, he shall praise thee”. Until we have this application of God by the Spirit we are not amongst the living. No one ought to break bread who has not the Spirit; many are breaking bread without the Spirit but they ought not to be. We have a very vague idea of what life is. The result of the application of the cake of figs was that Hezekiah lived. It is those who live by the Spirit in relation to God, as having the testimony of God’s love in their hearts by the Spirit, that can praise God. The assembly is made up of those persons. Normally if a man has the Spirit he is occupied with God; if we grieve the Spirit we can be as [p. 217] miserable as not having the Spirit at all. But normally one who has the Spirit is occupied with God and with Christ. “God commends his love to us, in that, we being still sinners, Christ has died for us”, Romans 5: 8. I was thinking there are two sides to the application. The cake of figs and then the sign that Hezekiah should go up. These two outstanding spiritual lessons are for us in this scripture. Going up on the third day implies resurrection; we move upwards. Death comes in under the government of God and that may happen to any of us.
Strictly speaking, Hezekiah is a type of what will happen to Israel in another day. They will be brought down to death in their exercises and then brought up out of death to praise God as a living people. There is a present application of it; the ten degrees give it a present application. There is a moral exercise which has always to be gone through. The shadow going back ten degrees indicates it is something known by faith before the shadow of death is actually removed from a groaning creation. It is something that can be known whilst we are still in responsible life. The shadow going back ten degrees was a reversal of the whole course of nature. The report of it went far and wide. It was a wonder in the land that the shadow rolled back by divine power. All depends on the resurrection of Christ and His going up; He came up the third day out of death. Having had the witness of the love of God applied by the Spirit like the cake of figs, it is not difficult to go up in the faith of Christ risen. Going up implies the truth brought out in Colossians and Ephesians; that is the line of going up. Going up on the third day is Colossian ground. It is wonderful that there can be a people risen by faith, before they are actually risen and while they are still in responsibility. We can go up by faith to resurrection; it is a simple thing yet a divine possibility. Romans is more newness of life, not quite the sphere of resurrection. It was experimental [p. 218] with Hezekiah, not doctrine. He had the love of God applied to him at the lowest point and now he is able to move upward so that he can speak of going upward to the house of Jehovah on the third day which to us clearly implies that we go up as risen with Christ.
John presents the thing in keeping with Paul and he says, “Herein as to us has been manifested the love of God ... that we might live through him”, 1 John 4: 9. That is the love of God applied to us in our sinful condition. It is important to see that the love of God comes to us at our worst point; in spite of our being sinners the love of God not only comes out to us but is applied to us by the Spirit. Having reached that point it is not difficult to consider going up as risen with Christ. We are liberated from sins and the scene of death so that we may be free to go up. There is a wonderful liberation indicated which makes the sweetness of it very suggestive. What marks the fig is sweetness — “Should I leave my sweetness”, Judges 9: 11. It is the death of Christ in this peculiarly sweet way which brings the love of God to us, poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit. It is a wonderful liberating power and now we can think of going up.
In connection with the cup we get the thought of drinking; we should never forget that the Lord said, “Drink ye all of it”. In the drinking of the cup we drink afresh of divine love expressed in the death of Christ. The word in 1 Corinthians 12: 13 fits in, “We ... have all been given to drink of one Spirit”. That is an allusion to the cup. Being baptised by one Spirit into one body is an allusion to the loaf, and being made to drink of one Spirit is an allusion to the cup. It is not now a question of atonement but the witness of divine love, the death of Christ as the witness of the love of God to us. If I am assured by the Spirit of the love of God I am liberated. One cannot think of any person, who was assured by the Spirit that God loved him,
[p. 219] not being free. Then there is a going up. We have to go through the history of this in the assembly each time we come together; we go over it afresh in the loaf and the cup which speak of the Lord’s death not on the sacrificial side but on the witness side — the witness of the love of God. The Lord would intimate to us to begin afresh every time, to begin our history afresh. Then having broken the bread and drunk the cup, that is the level on which we are in responsibility, we are prepared to go up to the sphere of being risen with Christ. When we come to the assembly we go further than going up on the third day, we go on to ascension. Hezekiah did not come to that.
It is a good exercise for us all to be perfectly free to go up to the sphere of resurrection with Christ who is out of death. We think of Him in death in the emblems and now He is out of death. In John where they made him a supper, they were all sitting down on resurrection ground.
Romans 6 is the new way of living on the old footing. As we go about our business all is done on a new basis; it is the same life but we move in it in newness of life. People should recognise there is something different about us. The reproach of Egypt was never rolled away until the Jordan was crossed and that warns us that to be risen with Christ is the only safe place from the world.
The house of the Lord for us is the assembly. The youngest of us should feel when we come together that we are first of all to think of the great witness of divine love in the death of Christ; then we move up to the sphere of being risen and associated with Christ; we are going to know what it is to be brethren of the One who has ascended to His Father and our Father, and to His God and our God. We should touch all this in spiritual reality. Fancy anyone keeping away from the assembly if they could touch these things! To remain away from the breaking of bread is the greatest insult that can be given to divine love. It is a [p. 220] solemn thing for anyone to stay away without a thought. A person who did not keep the passover in Israel was cut off, there was no mercy (Numbers 9: 13). If the Lord thought so much of the passover what does He think of His supper?
After the breaking of bread we are apt to go too fast; we should praise the Lord as the anointed One and let our hearts go on that line before we come to the thought of association with Him. Christ is the Person magnified in the assembly and every heart can say ‘Amen’ to that, even the youngest and feeblest believer. This is like an instructive picture of how we may go up to the house of God in full christian privilege. If we do the enemy will take note of it and go to work with some subtle snare to cast us down from our excellence.
We find in this chapter that the king of Babylon sent to Hezekiah with enquiries. He was concerned about the wonder done in the land and his flattering attentions were sufficient to carry Hezekiah away from all the blessedness, showing what poor things we are. Even after high privilege we answer to a tiny bit of flattery from the world. There must have been something unjudged in this blessed man of God for Jehovah left him to try him to know what was in his heart. He responded to a bit of religious flattery. The king of Babylon sent to enquire of the wonder done in the land; he plans to flatter Hezekiah with a letter and a present. Hezekiah should have told him about the wonder done in the land and of his own writing and the effect on his spirit and they would have gone back with something to think about but instead he shows them all his nice things. This highly favoured man of God answers to Babylon showing there was Babylon in his heart; he shows them all in his house.
The result is, instead of having a son to carry on the testimony, he has the vilest man in Manasseh, who was born after this wonderful experience. This is very solemn [p. 221] and reminds us that we are still in responsibility, the place of testing. The most spiritual may fall before some subtle snare of the enemy. Hezekiah was the best king that reigned in Judah so it is not for nothing that we are warned in this way. The Lord has much to say to us in connection with it. It was not the Lord’s things that Hezekiah showed these men. There is nothing to hinder us showing the Lord’s things to anybody but if we make a show of our own things it ends in Babylon. It is important to keep the place of those who are under death and who are only safe as the love of God reaches and blesses us there so that we are free to go on to praise and worship.