THE ORACLE, THE ALTAR AND THE THRONE (SUMMARY OF AN ADDRESS)
THE ORACLE, THE ALTAR AND THE THRONE (SUMMARY OF AN ADDRESS)
[p. 322] 2 Chronicles 5: 7 - 14; 2 Chronicles 7: 7; 2 Chronicles 9: 1 - 9
In bringing these scriptures before you, my desire is that the glories of the Person who is the Spirit of all the Old Testament may shine upon our hearts. I know it is only as our eyes are anointed with the Spirit’s unction that we can discern the glories of that Person, but I trust that each one of us here has received the anointing which teaches us to abide in Christ and to find everything in Him. He is here presented, in type and figure, as the One who fills the oracle, the altar and the throne.
For more than a hundred years the oracle had been empty; or perhaps it would be more correct to say that there had been no oracle at all, for when the ark was taken by the Philistines, God “forsook the tabernacle at Shiloh, the tent where he had dwelt among men”, Psalm 78: 60. There was no spot upon earth where God could rest — where His glory could dwell — and from which He could make Himself known, and communicate His mind. The whole order of things connected with Sinai had come to grief; the system which was set up in connection with the responsibility of men whose blessings depended upon the way in which that responsibility was discharged, had ended in total failure. But God had begun a new order of things in connection with David and Zion, in which the [p. 323] source and spring of everything was grace. The great characteristic of grace is that it brings in what is of God; and everything depends on God, and therefore there is no flaw in it. To be established with grace is to have the heart brought into a circle of things which is entirely filled with perfection — that is, with Christ.
Here we get the oracle restored. The glory, which departed when Ichabod was born, comes back. But when? When “the ark of the covenant of Jehovah” was brought in “to its place, into the oracle of the house”. When the priests had retired, and the ark alone remained in the holy of holies, the house was filled with the cloud of glory. That glory which greeted the ark to its place in the oracle of the house was a glory which excluded man in the flesh. The place was found at last concerning which faith could say, “Arise, Jehovah, into thy rest; thou, and the ark of thy strength”; and concerning which Jehovah could say, “This is my rest for ever; here will I dwell, for I have desired it”, Psalm 132: 8, 14. A place where every perfection of God’s nature, and every attribute of His Being, could repose in profound satisfaction, and from whence He could make Himself known, and communicate His mind and pleasure. But what occupied that holy oracle? The ark of the covenant alone. It was the presence of the ark, and the absence of everything else, which made that holy oracle a resting-place for the divine glory. Take away the ark, and you might write Ichabod on Solomon’s splendid sanctuary as plainly as it was written on the deserted tent at Shiloh. Introduce any other person, and that glory must necessarily have proved his destruction. The ark alone could fill that holy oracle, and make it the resting-place of the Shekinah.
What does this present to our hearts, my brethren? Does it not remind us of what we surely desire never to forget — that there has been but one Person on earth in [p. 324] whom the glory of God could find its rest? God created man for His own satisfaction, but from Genesis 3 ‘Ichabod’ was written on Adam and his race, and there was no place of rest or satisfaction for God in man or in man’s world. The oracle was empty; the glory was departed. But God never gives up one of His thoughts, and in due time He brought One into the world who could fill the oracle with perfection, and make a home on earth for the glory of God.
I have no doubt you have often lingered over the wondrous scene which is brought before us in Luke 2. The birth of that holy Child, who was “called Son of God”; brought perfection into this world for the first time since the fall, and at once we have “the glory of the Lord” greeting Him, and the heavenly host sounding forth the blessed fact that there was “glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good pleasure in men”. It was, in truth, the bringing in of the ark “to its place, into the oracle of the house”. The natural eye could see nothing there but a babe whose nativity was encircled by circumstances of unparalleled lowliness; but the presence of that Babe on earth made a home here for the glory of God. His presence was the pledge that every desire of God’s heart as to man should have its perfect answer. For God and for heaven — and, we may add, for faith — the true Ark of the covenant was at Bethlehem; there was the oracle, and there appeared the glory-cloud.
Now let us pass for a moment from Bethlehem to the Jordan (Luke 3: 21, 22). The time had come for that blessed One to take His place amongst men as the vessel of grace, and God would not suffer Him to enter on His ministry without a further and glorious testimony to His Person. The Ark is again seen in its place in the oracle of the house. The opened heaven, the descending Spirit, the Father’s voice unite to proclaim Him as the object of God’s delight and love, and the place of God’s rest. There [p. 325] was perfection in this world in a Man, and the glory of God could find its perfect satisfaction and rest in Him. Before His service began His personal perfections were a place of rest for the divine glory. Notice the words, “There was nothing in the ark save the two tables which Moses put there at Horeb”. At other times there had also been the priestly rod that budded, and the golden pot of manna. These things indicated what Christ is in priestly grace and service, and as food to sustain His people. But here it is not what He is in grace or service for His people, but what He is in His personal perfection for God, the One who could say, “Behold, I come, in the volume of the book it is written of me — To do thy good pleasure, my God, is my delight, and thy law is within my heart”, Psalm 40: 7, 8.
Then if we move onward to the holy mount (Luke 9: 28 - 36) we find Him at the end of that day of service which began at the Jordan. The only thing remaining for Him on earth was the decease to be accomplished at Jerusalem, which formed the theme of holy converse on that mount of glory. And here again we find the Ark filling His place in the oracle, and the glory resting there. It may be said, and rightly so, that Moses and Elias appeared in glory as well as Jesus. But how instructive to observe that when Peter would have regarded and retained them all in equal honour, it is expressly told us by the Spirit that he knew not what he said; and immediately thereupon the cloud of excellent glory appeared — the same cloud as of old filled the house of the Lord — and that glory would own and greet but One. “There was a voice out of the cloud, saying, This is my beloved Son: hear him. And as the voice was heard Jesus was found alone”.
In connection with that word, “Hear him”, I think we get the thought of the Oracle. The One in whom God can rest is the One who can make known all His mind. God said to Moses concerning the ark, “There I will meet with [p. 326] thee, and I will commune with thee”, Exodus 25: 22, Authorised Version. “God having spoken in many parts and in many ways formerly to the fathers in the prophets, at the end of these days has spoken to us in the person of the Son”, Hebrews 1: 1, 2. God has been perfectly declared in this world, and all His mind expressed there, in and by that blessed One; He has filled the oracle.
One lovely touch must not be passed over. “And the staves were long, so that the ends of the staves were seen outside the ark before the oracle; but they were not seen without”. The staves were those by which the ark was carried, and I think God would remind us thereby that the One who filled the oracle, and in whom all His glory found its perfect satisfaction, was carried along in perfect dependence at every step. If we think of Him at Bethlehem we are reminded of His words by the prophetic Spirit — “Thou didst make me trust, upon my mother’s breasts. I was cast upon thee from the womb”, Psalm 22: 9, 10. If we look at Him at Jordan we find Him praying. If we view Him on the holy mount He is praying there. We see “the ends of the staves”, but we must be near Him in the sanctuary to understand this, and to know how perfectly He kept the place of the dependent One — “they were not seen without”.
We noticed that the glory which greeted the ark excluded everybody from the sanctuary. If God can rest in the perfections of Christ He must refuse everything that is not Christ. If this be so, a solemn and deeply important question arises at once. It is this. If God has brought in perfection for His own heart in Christ how can all our imperfection be dealt with and removed according to His glory, so as to leave Him free to bless us according to the perfection of Christ? That question can only be answered — thank God! it is answered perfectly — by the altar. If Christ, in His holy life as Man upon the earth, filled the [p. 327] oracle, in His sufferings and death He has also filled the altar.
Before I touch upon what is specially brought before us in 2 Chronicles 7 in connection with the altar I am constrained to say a few words on what may be called our side of the work of the cross. Perhaps I am speaking to some timid and doubting soul who has never known what it was to have divine peace. It may be you have analysed your feelings and reviewed your experience again and again with the greatest earnestness and sincerity, but you have never been able to find in yourself any evidence or token that would impart the longed-for peace. You have been looking altogether in the wrong direction. The Spirit of God, who has made you anxious, would now turn your eyes away from yourself, and even from His operations in you, to the work of Christ for you. Let me read you some precious words as to the object and efficacy of that work. “Himself bore our sins in his body on the tree”, 1 Peter 2: 24. Jesus our Lord, “who has been delivered for our offences and has been raised for our justification”, Romans 4: 24, 25. “Having made by himself the purification of sins, set himself down on the right hand of the greatness on high”, Hebrews 1: 3. “But he, having offered one sacrifice for sins, sat down in perpetuity at the right hand of God, waiting from henceforth until his enemies be set for the footstool of his feet. For by one offering he has perfected in perpetuity the sanctified. And the Holy Spirit also bears us witness of it ... their sins and their lawlessnesses I will never remember any more”, Hebrews 10: 12 - 17. The sins of all believers were remembered at the cross, and dealt with there in holy judgment according to the divine glory; and God has testified by His Spirit in the Scriptures that He will remember them no more. What a complete expiation! What perfect peace and assurance for the believer!
Then another one may say, ‘But my difficulty is not [p. 328] that. It is not what I have done that troubles me so much as what I am. All my efforts to improve myself have failed; and though I thought I was converted, I find myself as bad as ever, and I am disgusted with myself’. You are finding out what attached to you as a child of Adam, what it is to belong to a race that will not do for God, and you are discovering something of what “sin in the flesh” is, and of the nature of “the mind of the flesh” which is “not subject to the law of God; for neither indeed can it be”, Romans 8: 7. For you I will read Romans 8: 3 -”For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God, having sent his own Son, in likeness of flesh of sin, and for sin, has condemned sin in the flesh”. The thing which is through grace so trying and hateful to you is not less hateful to God; but it has received its full judgment at the cross. Sin in the flesh has received its just desert at the hand of God — it has been “condemned”. Sin, as well as sins, the root as well as the fruit, was brought before God at the cross, and there dealt with in unmitigated judgment. God has been as fully glorified about what you are as He has about what you have done. What a relief and joy to know this!
Now, if you look at 2 Chronicles 7: 7 you will notice that three things are mentioned there, the burnt-offerings, the oblations and the fat of the peace-offerings. That is, everything is looked at from God’s side. If we begin by learning the perfection of the work of Christ, in bearing our sins and putting away sin, we must not stop there, or limit our apprehension of that wondrous work to the side of it which meets our need. It is an immeasurable loss to us if we do not go on to learn what the work of the cross has been for God. In connection with the burnt-offering we may read Ephesians 5: 2 — “The Christ loved us, and delivered himself up for us, an offering and sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling savour”. The Lord Jesus came [p. 329] here to take up the whole question of sin, and the glory of God in respect of sin. Think of that scene of judgment, when all that God was, and must be, against sin, came out and was expressed as it never can be expressed again throughout eternity. All that sin was in the presence of the holiness, majesty, and glory of God came out there. But as you think of that scene of darkness and judgment and death, in which the glory of God was maintained and vindicated to its utmost bound as to all that sin was before Him, remember that there was something greater at that cross than the darkness and the judgment and the death — something greater than the sin in respect of which God was so eternally glorified there. May God give each of our hearts a deep, adoring apprehension of that greater thing. I refer to the infinitely perfect affections of the heart of that blessed One, the obedience and love in which He was there, the devotedness of the holy Victim which made every part of that unspeakable self-sacrifice a sweet-smelling savour to God. Have those words, almost His last ones, never thrilled your heart? “That the world may know that I love the Father, and as the Father has commanded me, thus I do. Rise up, let us go hence”, John 14: 31. “On this account the Father loves me, because I lay down my life”, John 10: 17. Never again can the Son so express His love to the Father as it was expressed at the cross when He gave Himself to maintain the divine glory in respect of sin. Well may He speak of that death as a motive for the Father’s love to Him, for never were His perfections of obedience and love so wondrously displayed before.
Then there was the oblation. It was due to God that in the very place where man had so dishonoured Him there should be found a Man to honour Him in unfaltering devotedness to His will. I believe the oblation offering sets forth the Lord Jesus in His personal devotedness to God;
as Philippians 2: 8 expresses it, “obedient even unto death”. Nothing could move Him from the path which, ‘uncheered by earthly smiles, led only to the cross’. His devotedness was tested in every way — in private life, in public service, and in that hour of darkness preceding and including the cross. There was at last One found in all the circumstances of man who would take the very lowest place in obedience to God’s will, and who would die rather than swerve from the path of devotedness to God. He “resisted unto blood, wrestling against sin”. He would carry out the will of God at all cost to Himself.
“And the fat”. It is blessed to know that there are depths and riches of personal excellence in Christ beyond all that we know or can know. “All the fat shall be Jehovah’s”, Leviticus 3:46. All the personal excellence of that blessed One, as only God can know and estimate it, has come out at the cross to the eternal satisfaction and gratification of the heart of God. So that whether as to the glory of God in respect of sin, or as to personal devotedness in Man, or as to the excellence of the holy One who was thus devoted, Christ fills with absolute perfection everything which the altar demanded. So that the place of sin and judgment and death is the very place above all others in the universe where perfection has been displayed.
In connection with this, notice the words — so richly significant — “the brazen altar which Solomon had made was not able to receive the burnt-offerings and the oblations and the fat”. I think this serves to show how every type and figure fails to express the greatness of Christ and the cross. The perfections of that Person and work are infinite. There can be no measurement of the glory of God, of the devotedness of the Sufferer, or of His personal excellence. May God enlarge our hearts to apprehend all this a little more fully.
[p. 331] If Christ filled the oracle and the altar He also fills the throne, and this brings us to His present place on high. The thought connected with the throne is administration. “Blessed be Jehovah thy God, who delighted in thee, to set thee on his throne, to be king to Jehovah thy God! Because thy God loved Israel, to establish them for ever, therefore did he make thee king over them, to do judgment and justice”, 2 Chronicles 9: 8. Solomon was set on Jehovah’s throne to administer everything for God to the people. Christ, having filled the oracle and the altar, now fills the throne; He is exalted to administer everything for God. No other but the One who is the perfect Object of satisfaction and delight to the heart of God could fitly administer all the grace and blessing of that heart to men. What an exalted view, and what a divine measure, does this give of the greatness of christian blessings! “Because thy God loved Israel, to establish them for ever, therefore did he make thee king over them”. The greatness of God’s love, and of His gracious purposes, is expressed in the greatness and glory of the Person who administers it all to us from God. There is not a single christian blessing which is not administered now by and through Christ in glory. All the blessings of divine grace are administered by and through an enthroned and glorified Saviour. The remission of sins (Acts 2: 36 - 38), salvation (Acts 4: 11, 12), justification (Acts 13: 38, 39), peace with God (Romans 5: 1), access into favour (Romans 5: 2), reconciliation, and joy in God (Romans 5: 11), are all administered to us through a risen and glorified Saviour. The ministration of righteousness is from Him (2 Corinthians 3), and in His face shines the light of the knowledge of the glory of God (2 Corinthians 4: 6). We get no right estimate of the character and greatness of our blessings until we see them in living connection with Christ in glory.
How much we may learn from this Gentile queen who “[p. 332] came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon”, Matthew 12: 42. She heard of the fame of the one who was set on Jehovah’s throne to administer everything for God to the objects of His love, and nothing would satisfy her heart but, as coming to that glorious person, that she might see in his presence the reality of that greatness of which she had heard in her own land. My brethren, is there no such journey for our hearts to take today? Indeed there is. For the satisfaction of the heart it is not enough to hear the report; the soul must reach the company of the One of whom it has heard. It is a supremely blessed moment when the heart is so attracted by the fame and the glory of the true Solomon that it turns away from man and from present things to travel outside the whole sphere of sight and sense into the company of the glorious Person who fills the throne. In His company, in conscious nearness to Himself, there is not, there could not be, an unsatisfied desire in the heart. The reality was beyond the report, and beyond all the greatest expectation of the queen’s heart. Not only was all her need met and all her enigmas solved but she found herself in the circle of Solomon’s greatness and glory; every detail in that circle expressed his wisdom and the perfections and grace of Jehovah, on whose throne he was set. What a journey for the heart! To leave our own land, the place of need, and unrest, and unsatisfied longing, where self is the great centre and object, and to come to One who has a perfect answer for every question of the heart, and who brings us into His own circle and fills our hearts with His own greatness and glory. May every one of our hearts be so attracted to Himself that we may be prepared to leave in spirit everything that is here to reach His presence and have His company.
The great object which God has in view is to attach our affections to Christ; and I trust He may use the ministry of [p. 333] His word tonight to this end, so that the blessed Person of Christ, who has filled the oracle and the altar, and who now fills the throne, may truly fill each one of our hearts. Amen.