1 CHRONICLES 4 (FROM CAC'S NOTES)
1 CHRONICLES 4 (FROM CAC’S NOTES)
In the opening chapters of 1 Chronicles certain details have been selected by the Spirit of God as conveying instruction to the chosen remnant. Whilst the general subject is genealogy according to birth so that it corresponds to the book of life, it is not a full list in a natural way but a number of selected names which stand in relation to God’s thoughts of grace and blessing in Christ. The incidents mentioned serve to bring out matters considered worthy of note by the Spirit of God and containing permanent instruction for the man of God.
In this chapter we see how spiritual things are maintained on the side of the saints. Jabez is the product of exercise; I do not think that the Spirit of God has told us who his father was. He had brethren; he had a mother and he cost her something. Some of us would have been more satisfied with the fruit of our labour if it had cost us more. Jabez is one of the outstanding men of prayer in the Scriptures. He wanted an enriched blessing and an enlarged border. I think we shall find it in this book but we must go in for it in Jabez’s way. It is good to begin with a sense that we can only get things from God. We may hear, and read, and think but we only get things from God. Then Jabez wanted God’s hand to be with him for preservation, so that evil might not come in to mar what God had given him. Sometimes a saint gets careless even through the great enlargement and joy that he has been given.
In close company with Othniel we get “the valley of craftsmen; for they were craftsmen”. They were men who [p. 233] knew what they were about. They were men qualified for skilful labour, something like Bezaleel and Aholiab. They are wanted in every assembly. There is a danger of our being amateurs, liking to do something but lacking skill. The anointing would come in here. It is right to think first of our own portion in Christ and then, normally, we have a desire to be workmen. Every brother or sister who prays will be qualified for whatever service the Lord intends him or her to do. Human and natural qualifications are useless to further God’s work. Prayer means, ‘I cannot but Thou canst’.
The potters (verse 23) bring in the thought of the formation of vessels suitable for divine pleasure. They are not gold or silver vessels which would suggest new creation or the result of redemption, that is from the divine side, but they are earthen vessels suggestive of the human side as connected with responsibility. Am I content to be an unformed, or a malformed vessel? Subjection is the first element, then self-judgment giving permanence to the impressions made; then a sense of frailty keeps the vessel in constant dependence. Self-reliance leads to something coming in which is not of the King and unfavourable to His work. If any one thinks himself to be prophet or spiritual let him prove it by subjection. The epistles to Timothy and Titus largely touch on the formation of vessels, the kind of persons the saints are to be in view of service.
Then in verse 21 we get “the families of the house of byssus-workers”. I think Epaphras was one of these. He wanted the saints at Colosse to stand perfect and complete in everything that was God’s will. Having put on the new man we are to put on the precious features of Christ until we are fully invested with them. The righteousnesses of the saints are on this line. They are positive features, not merely that we do not do wrong. I will venture to say that [p. 234] the saints have no satisfaction in not doing wrong; their comfort is found in doing what is positively right. “These are ancient things” (verse 22). They are the commandments which we have heard from the beginning, things true in Him and in the saints. The potters work with a great sense of sovereignty; they have to do with the formation of vessels, earthen vessels. The singular thing is that what was apparently lowly work was carried on by men who “dwelt with the king for his work”. They had his mind about the vessels and laboured to produce what would correspond with it. The potters have exercises about formation. A man may have great ability, even gift, and yet not be formed in correspondence with what he ministers.
The plantations and enclosures clearly suggest to our minds the idea of local assemblies. Growth in freshness is to mark them and a careful shutting out of the flesh and the world; the assemblies provide favourable conditions for spiritual growth; they are “walled cities”. The King’s work is going on there today. In a plantation one would expect to see the trees growing in height and girth whilst enclosures speak of exclusiveness.
Finally in the chapter we have in Simeon the thought of aggressive warfare; the desire for pasture on the part of the people was increasing greatly. Those displaced were those of Ham and Amalek, representing man in his natural departure from God. This continued as late as Hezekiah’s day (verse 41). We have seen that for the past hundred years.