2 CHRONICLES 7 (SUMMARY OF A READING)
[p. 351] 2 CHRONICLES 7 (SUMMARY OF A READING)
We have seen in chapter 6 that a history of failure was prophetically in view but that recovery would come about through God’s loving-kindness when an erring people should return to Him. Chapter 7 is a prophetic picture of what will happen when the heart of Israel turns to Jehovah their God in the last days and they are recovered to His favour. God’s ways at the present time are very similar; He is granting recovery in the last days of the history of the assembly after a long period of departure. And His ways of recovering mercy, as seen in this chapter, have their counterpart in what is going on today. So we shall seek to give present application to what is set before us here.
It is a great help to see that there is a divine order in recovery, and I believe it is indicated to us in the scripture now before us. To state it very briefly, that order is the glad tidings, the fellowship, and the service of the sanctified company. This is obviously the order in which recovery has come about during the last century. To understand present divine movements we need to be spiritually intelligent as to this.
We see here, first of all, that, Solomon’s prayer being ended, “the fire came down from the heavens and consumed the burnt-offering and the sacrifices; and the glory of Jehovah filled the house”. It is remarkable that this should take place after a prayer which had contemplated so much sin on the part of the people! But the Spirit had in view that it was precisely when such conditions had come about that God would bring His glory in. What could have [p. 352] been more lamentable than the state of Israel when God visited His people and manifested His glory amongst them in the person of His beloved Son? It was at the very moment when they despised and rejected and crucified Christ that He accepted that wondrous sacrifice in which He was glorified. It was in virtue of that sacrifice, though it was not yet offered, that the glory shone forth in the blessed service of Christ when He was here. The “woman in the city, who was a sinner” (Luke 7: 37) saw it; the half-dead man on the Jericho road saw it in the Samaritan’s kindness and care of him (Luke 10: 30 - 37); the younger son saw it when his father “ran and fell upon his neck and covered him with kisses” (Luke 15: 20); the thief on the cross saw it when he was assured of a place in paradise with Jesus (Luke 23: 43). In every case there had been great departure, but it only served as a background to throw the glory into brighter relief. And we must bear in mind that what was seen in Jesus in humiliation here shines in Him now as glorified. God was so delighted with Him that He glorified Him. So that Paul’s gospel has often been spoken of as the gospel of the glory. He speaks of “looking on the glory of the Lord” (2 Corinthians 3: 18), of “the radiancy of the glad tidings of the glory of the Christ, who is the image of God” (2 Corinthians 4: 4), and of “the shining forth of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ”, 2 Corinthians 4: 6.
The glory of what God is for His sinful creatures, which they may see if they come to Him, is radiant in the Person of Christ. But if He meets the ruined creature in such wondrous grace and love it is because He has in mind to set him up in a new way that is according to His own heart. The father not only received the younger son with kisses, but the best robe, the ring and the shoes were put upon him. These spoke of something conferred upon him which was entirely new. God receives us not merely as forgiven [p. 353] sinners, but as having an entirely new status and acceptance in Christ. In the far country we lived in the life of the man who did nothing but his own will, and we were dead to God, but as “come to life again” in the house we live in the life of the Man who lives to God; we are “alive to God in Christ Jesus”, Romans 6: 11. This is not merely a beautiful conception; it is a spiritual reality, known to be such by the Spirit. The Spirit not only sheds God’s love abroad in our hearts — this answers to the kiss — but He is the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus; we are “come to life again” in Him. We are of God “in Christ Jesus, who has been made to us wisdom from God, and righteousness, and holiness, and redemption; that according as it is written, He that boasts, let him boast in the Lord”, 1 Corinthians 1: 30, 31. We are God’s sons in Christ Jesus. Our whole status as in the flesh is set aside and ended for Christ has borne the judgment due to it, and we have a wholly new status in Christ. God has received us in the fulness of His love as in another Man, and has given us His Spirit that we may be conscious of this, and not regard ourselves any more as in the flesh. In our new place as before God in Christ there is not the slightest admixture of anything that is of ourselves. It is a question of what God has been pleased to do to glorify Himself and to satisfy His love. All this belongs to the “glory” that was seen upon the house at the beginning, as we may see in Scripture, particularly in Paul’s epistles.
But the “glory ... upon the house” in 2 Chronicles 7 is typical of what will take place in the last days; it is therefore not unsuitable to regard it as suggestive of recovery at the end of the assembly’s long history of failure. Even before Paul’s departure christians were turning away from the gospel of the glory. They did not give up Christ, nor deny the necessity of atonement for sin, but they connected christianity with man after the flesh, so that it became a modified form of judaism. Legal and ceremonial [p. 354] elements were brought in and a human order, and we see the result all around us. The reformers got a measure of recovered light, but it was not until the early part of the last century that Paul’s gospel was revived and began to be preached. The infinite acceptability of Christ to God, the fact that His saints have righteousness and life and every blessing in Him and that nothing of the flesh can be brought into it began to be made known. As saints saw the glory they were unified and constituted worshippers. How could there be any divergence if saints had nothing before them but what was of God, and what they had in Christ, and what was in the power of the one Spirit?
“All the children of Israel saw ... the glory of Jehovah upon the house”, and they all worshipped; they were one united company in presence of the glory. The present divisions of the people of God are really the evidence that they have not seen the glory upon the house. They have something before them which is not really glory. It is man according to the flesh in some form or in some phase of his activities. But all the children of Israel “bowed themselves with their faces to the ground on the pavement, and worshipped and thanked Jehovah”. They could well afford to efface themselves for they were absorbed with the glory which they saw upon the house. This is the great deliverance and satisfaction which God has vouchsafed to His people in these last days. He has caused the fulness of His grace to shine and the glory of His love. He has shewn how He has blessed His people in Christ completely outside all the sin and weakness and ruin of man after the flesh. He has shewn that the purposes of His own heart from eternity have come to fruition in His glorified Son. He has sent forth the Spirit of His Son into our hearts to give us liberty to look at it all. This is the glory upon the house.
“The priests could not enter into the house of Jehovah,
[p. 355] because the glory of Jehovah filled Jehovah’s house”. He would have all the children of Israel at that moment to see the burnt-offering and the sacrifices accepted for them, and His glory upon the house, and nothing else. The highest, holiest and most acceptable service would be an intrusion or a diversion at a moment when God would engage His people entirely with Himself and with His own glory in Christ. The priests could rightly stand in their charges in verse 6, but they would be out of place in verse 2. It is a most blessed thing to be in the presence of what is purely of God. No one is really at liberty to worship until he sees the glory upon the house on the ground of Christ and His accepted offering. In the radiancy of what is purely of God all thought of self disappears, and nothing remains but the blessedness of God and of His thoughts manward, all set forth in Christ.
And we look at it now with a very peculiar sense that God is good and that His loving-kindness endureth for ever. For we have come to see it after a very long period of assembly failure for which we cannot disclaim responsibility. It is, indeed, purely of God’s goodness and lovingkindness that Paul’s gospel has been revived; it has brought the glory in. It is noticeable that nothing is said here of the cloud as in 2 Chronicles 5: 13, 14. The cloud would suggest what is beyond human ken, but the glory is a radiance which can be known and understood by men. It is what is made known in the glad tidings.
As the glory began to be seen, after many centuries of obscurity caused by giving man in the flesh some place, the spirit of christian liberty began to move and found strength to break the religious fetters that had bound the saints. Believers found that, under the good hand of God, they could break bread apart from national or sectarian bodies and without needing any official person to make the service valid or orderly. Those who first did so probably [p. 356] did not understand that in so doing they were returning to the true fellowship and were acting in the unity of the body and of the Spirit. But such was the case, though they did not learn it all at once, and even before they had really learned it Satan brought in principles amongst them that diverted many from it and resulted in independency. But there can be no such thing, according to the truth, as an independent fellowship. To break bread on the principle that each local company of saints is an independent unit is really the narrowest principle of church fellowship in christendom. The act of breaking bread commits one to a fellowship which is universal in character. Otherwise we must admit that there are more fellowships than one, which, in the light of Scripture, cannot be thought of.
The immense number of sacrifices in verses 4 and 5 were peace-offerings, suggesting the thought of fellowship. This links on with what we have already referred to in Luke 15, for the reception of the younger son was followed by, “Bring the fatted calf and kill it, and let us eat and make merry: for this my son was dead and has come to life, was lost and has been found”. The fatted calf is not for one person; there was to be a joint participation; this is the true house festivity. It is what God can have His part in, and which ministers to His joy; it is shared in common by all who are in the house. This is the true idea of the fellowship as set forth in the peace-offering. If we have seen the glory we cannot but be drawn into the closest partnership with others who have seen it. A young convert should understand that the saints come together to break bread because they are called to the fellowship of God’s Son, and of His body and blood, and he should know that it is his privilege to come into the fellowship publicly by breaking bread with them. It is very natural, in a spiritual sense, that a young convert should feel that all his links with the world are broken, and that they must now be with [p. 357] those who know God as he knows Him and who think of Christ as he thinks of Him. This might almost be said to be intuitive on the part of those who have received the one Spirit. Those who think of Christ as we do, and who think of Him better than we do, become very attractive to us; they are our own company. The fellowship is not a self-chosen association such as joining a religious body might be; it is a precious holy bond formed by the one Spirit, the fellowship of God’s Son, and of the body and blood of Christ. It is well to ask if this is really what we have part in.
The oxen and sheep spoken of in verse 5 were all, in the first place, offered to God, though the offerers and others participated in them as partaking with the altar. One great gain of the fellowship is that we participate in the wealth that others bring. Paul could, no doubt, bring an ox, while Onesimus his young convert would probably not go beyond the measure of a sheep. But as in the fellowship they participated in common: Onesimus would be enlarged by what Paul brought, and I am sure that Paul enjoyed what Onesimus brought. This common sharing is a great feature of the fellowship, but it is a sharing in what is eaten together. There is a continual supply of spiritual food by which a spiritual constitution may be built up. The eating and drinking are specially referred to in 1 Corinthians 11. And in whatever way the saints enjoy Christ together God has His part in it. In eating the Lord’s supper it is the Lord Himself who is specially before the hearts of His saints in their fellowship, but God has His portion in it. It is delightful to God that the Lord should be called to mind and that His saints should speak of Him or to Him. If Christ is magnified in the praises of the saints God has His portion and His delight in it.
But what Paul had to say to the Corinthians about the fellowship raised an important question, which we also have to face. If we have a common equal sharing in regard of God’s Son, Jesus Christ our Lord, and in regard of His blood and His body, and in regard of the Holy Spirit, does it admit of our also having part in some other fellowship of a different character? This ought not to be a difficult question for a true heart to answer. Paul did not say that they ought not to drink the Lord’s cup and the cup of demons, or that they ought not to partake of the Lord’s table and the table of demons: he says, “ye cannot”, 1 Corinthians 10: 21. He puts it on the ground that it was a moral impossibility. The fellowship is of such a nature that it involves a high order of spiritual sensitiveness. We have not exactly to do with the “table of demons”; that was in the heathen world. But we are constantly being appealed to to share in common in something that is not the fellowship. Sometimes it is proposed that we should associate with something religious that we know is not consistent with the fellowship. Sometimes the benefits that will accrue by our joining this or that are urged upon us, or we are threatened with loss if we will not. When such suggestions are made to us let us remember the true and holy character of our fellowship. It is, by its inherent nature, very exclusive. Let us remember the apostle’s word, “ye cannot”.
As the fellowship is faithfully maintained it secures the true character of the house. Hence it is said in this connection, “So the king and all the people dedicated the house”. All the people took part in this. Even the youngest believer may have his part in the dedication of the house. If Christ is precious to us, and we have delight in feeding upon Him along with the holy brethren, and bringing Him to God in our praises, there is something secured for God which has the true character of His house. It is what God’s lovingkindness has been securing in these last days in contrast with all that state of things in the religious world which is a practical denial of the truth of His house.
[p. 359] But the fellowship and the house have something further in view which is typically set forth in verse 6. It is to be noted that priests and Levites are now present, which suggests to us that the matter now in hand requires instructed and intelligent service. It calls for developed spirituality. The fact that “the priests stood in their charges”, and that “all Israel stood”, indicates an alertness and readiness to attend to the service in its most elevated character. Spiritual elements being present, particular attention will be given to all the instruction which is available in regard to the service. I believe the Lord is specially stressing this at the present time, for He would have the service to reach the highest point of excellence before the assembly is translated. 1 Corinthians does not develop this for the general state of the saints was not such as to qualify them to take it up. But through the lovingkindness which endures for ever, God is now restoring to the faith and affections of His saints some understanding of how He would be served in His assembly in the most spiritual way. “And the priests stood in their charges, and the Levites with Jehovah’s instruments of music, which David the king had made to praise Jehovah, for his loving-kindness endureth for ever, when David praised by their means”. It is evident that the service moves at this point into a different setting. David is referred to as having made “Jehovah’s instruments of music”, so that God might be praised in His house as David praised Him. There is a most beautiful and elevated thought in this, for our hearts are carried to Christ as the great Leader of praise; He is not only the Image of God to make known to us all that God is, but He is the great Leader in praise to God. He has come into manhood that He might take up this wondrous service, but He takes it up in the midst of the assembly. He said prophetically, “In the midst of the congregation will I praise thee”, Psalm 22: 22. And this is quoted in [p. 360] Hebrews 2: 12 as being verified in the assembly. Think of Christ singing God’s praises! He suffered in making atonement so that in resurrection He might praise God with singing in the midst of a sanctified company who are “all of one” with Him. It is for us to understand this spiritually. “For both he that sanctifies and those sanctified are all of one; for which cause he is not ashamed to call them brethren”, Hebrews 2: 11. If saints are “all of one” with the Sanctifier there is no disparity between them and Him. This does not apply to us as in the flesh or as viewed in our mixed condition here; it is a matter of spiritual apprehension as being true of the sanctified company viewed purely as such.
If Christ sings in the midst of the assembly it is for the assembly to be alert in observing how He sings, so that there may be no notes which are discordant with His. We do not exactly get the thought of singing in 2 Chronicles 7; it is the instrumental side. The Levites have the instruments which David had made and by which he praised. It suggests that under the skilful hand of Christ the saints become instruments capable of being employed in the service of the house as harmonising with the way in which He praises. The service is carried on responsibly by the saints viewed as Levites, but they have with them the precious thought of entire suitability and correspondence with Christ which attaches to them as of the sanctified company. It is in this way that, under the headship of Christ, the highest and sweetest notes are restored to the service of praise.
Christ is Head towards His body, for we read of “the head, from whom all the body, ministered to and united together by the joints and bands, increases with the increase of God”, Colossians 2: 19. This is very much on the line of David making the instruments, and it seems to me that when He comes to His saints according to John 14: 18 [p. 361] He would, in the first place, serve us as Head, and receive our praises in so doing. When He says, “In the midst of the assembly will I sing thy praises”, He is in the place of Head Godward. If He ministers to us the increase of God it is in order to qualify us to understand how He sings, and to fit us to be in harmony with Him. We may be sure that what He does in the assembly gives character to the assembly. In the midst of the sanctified company of His brethren He sings God’s praises. But there are also instruments of music which He has made. Nothing could shew the elevated dignity of the assembly viewed as Christ’s brethren more than to see that each member of that sanctified company is an instrument for the sounding forth of God’s praise.
David brought in this great addition to the service; he not only wrote psalms, but he made instruments by which Jehovah could be praised as never before. Of course, in all this he presents Christ to us. All that is bound up in God’s loving-kindness, and which is the outcome of it, is praised on these instruments. In principle it takes in all that is the subject o£ praise in the assembly. It covers now the revelation of God as Father, and the blessed relationships in which He is known by the many sons, and all that He has before Him to bring to pass in the ages to come. How He delights to be praised in His assembly when every note that is sounded is just how Christ would have Him be praised! Every saint is an instrument, as of the sanctified company, by which what is in the heart of Christ Godward can be sounded in praise. This is the levitical service as here presented.
The priests sounding the trumpets opposite to the Levites suggests that in the assembly we may look for a priestly ministry from Christ as Head that will stimulate and invigorate the service of praise.