SOLOMON'S THRONE (SUMMARY OF A READING)
SOLOMON’S THRONE (SUMMARY OF A READING)
The throne is almost the last thing Solomon is said to have made, and it was no doubt the crown of the typical teaching; it was clearly symbolical. Ivory as a symbol represents material that has passed through death, a wonderful suggestion in connection with the throne, indicating that it was in the thought of God that supremacy should be taken up by One who has passed through death. It goes back to the original thought of God in creating man, which comes out in Genesis 1: 26, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness; and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the heavens, and over the cattle, and over the whole earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth on the earth”. His thought in creating man was that he should have dominion; but, as we know, instead of the first man maintaining that place, he came under the dominion of sin and death. From that moment it became necessary, if God’s great thought was to be carried out, that Another should come in, that there should be a Son of man who could take up for God everything the first man had failed to maintain. It is portrayed in Psalm 8. It is well to remember that in Hebrews the Spirit of God adds something to the psalm that was not in it, that is, the Son of man being made some little inferior to the angels on account of the suffering of [p. 376] death, showing that in the ways of God death must come in as the ground on which the Son of man takes up universal supremacy. I think that is symbolically made known to us by the Spirit of God from the fact that the throne is made of ivory.
The great throne speaks symbolically of what is secured in Christ. It must necessarily be a great throne, when we think of the greatness of the Person that is to occupy it. He is not only Son of man, able to take up all God’s thoughts as to man and bring them to fruition, but in order to do that He must needs be a divine Person. So it is evident in the reference to the Son of man that none could take that place but a divine Person. The Lord seems to cherish the title of Son of man specially. In the gospels He refers many times to that title, but He makes it clear that He was nevertheless a divine Person. Before the council He testified to the high priest, following his adjuration, that they should see the Son of man sitting on the right hand of power: that is, He appropriates to Himself what belongs to Jehovah. So these thoughts are essential to any divine conception of the throne. It is occupied by the Son of man, who clearly is a divine Person, therefore it is due to Him in every way that He should have the place of supremacy in the universe of God. He is the One we now look upon as crowned with glory and honour. It is characteristic of the dispensation that we should look upon Him in all His suitability and fitness to occupy the universal throne. I think that Stephen is the pattern; his confession was that he saw “the Son of man standing at the right hand of God”. These thoughts are stupendous, and yet we cannot think truly of the throne in a divine sense without rightly taking them in.
I have often considered that christians do not think enough of the Son of man; we are very much more familiar with the thought of the Son of God. It is important that we [p. 377] should not allow one or even more aspects of the truth to obscure others. Satan has from the beginning, I suppose, used certain parts of the truth to obscure other parts. In the gospel of John, where we see the Lord most in His glory as Son of God, we see Him in His positional glory as Son of man. We see the importance of dwelling on every character in which He is to be known; in connection with the throne it is particularly as Son of man. It is important for us to apprehend Christ in that character. It is the particular character in which He exercises judicial functions in regard to the assemblies. It is as the Son of man that He walks in the midst of the assemblies, so that in our standing in relation to the assembly we have to do personally and directly with the Son of man. It is not a past title but a present title. And it is a future title, for it says, “The Son of man ... shall ... sit down upon his throne of glory”, Matthew 25: 31. But we have to do with Him now as Son of man. He is walking in the midst of the candlesticks, exercising discrimination in the assemblies; He exercises the function of the throne in relation to the assemblies; it is essential to the whole position. The throne in connection with Solomon is spoken of as the throne of judgment, and we are told in Kings that he built a porch of judgment. This presents the function of Christ in relation to the assembly. It is not with the thought of punishment but of divine appraisement, of appraising things at their true value; so that He appraises all He can in the assembly. At the same time He says what does not please Him. We have to do with the Son of man in that character.
What a comfort it is when we look around at the confusion in the world to know that all is going to be administered according to God! It is going to be so actually. The moral confusion is greater than the material, terrible as that is, and we should feel the moral state of man as away from God, under Satan’s rule and under death — these are [p. 378] the dreadful things. We need to feel not only the political confusion, but the moral confusion. Now who can adjust this moral state? The Son of man, who will sit on the throne of His glory. The first thing He will do will be to adjust every moral question; and He is doing that now in the assembly. It is a present action now of the Son of man.
I think there is nothing more beautiful than to consider the steps up to the throne. There are six steps, indicating that the One that occupies the throne has reached it by a certain progress, by certain stages, and it endears and magnifies Him to our hearts so that we worship Him. It requires the seventh step to complete it; the throne is the seventh step. The end God has in view upon the earth is the Son of man upon His throne, and He will reach the throne. The throne here is not occupied. It was left to us to put the only Person into it that could fill it.
The steps fall into a certain setting in my mind. To speak very simply, God has introduced Christ into the world by prophetic testimony; that is, I think, the first step; it covers the Old Testament. The others follow quite simply, though they are stupendous in their character. The next is incarnation; it is an immense step. The Old Testament prophecies bring out His character, His sufferings and death, and His glory; but what a wonderful step up this is, and all in view of the throne — of His being in the place of supremacy! The incarnation is the beginning of the working of it all out in manhood, “taking his place in the likeness of men; and having been found in figure as a man ...”, Philippians 2: 7, 8. He could not have been Son of man without it; His humiliation here was on the way to the throne. His lowly pathway of obedience led to the throne. Then there was His death, His accomplishment of redemption. That was most essential, for He could never have been Son of man without it. Then there was His resurrection, and His ascension — these are all steps to His throne,
[p. 379] divinely laid out steps to the throne. There is one step left to come, that is His coming again — the sixth step. It seems clear to me that all that is presented in the Scripture indicates the steps by which the Lord Jesus is going to reach the place of supremacy in the universe of God. The title of Son of man is unlimited, it extends to the whole human family. I believe the Spirit of God would have us ponder these things. It has pleased God to give them to us symbolically so that we may take them in better, because it fixes them upon us as interesting our minds as well as captivating our hearts.
A footstool of gold was fastened to the throne. I think the throne and footstool go indissolubly together, which is important to notice. We have various scriptures which speak of the Lord’s enemies being made His footstool. He is sitting at the right hand of God until His enemies are made His footstool. That is what marks the present period — “until”. That is to say, anything that refuses His rights will have to submit, and that is a principle that applies to you and me; everything that rebels in our flesh now will be made His footstool. We must learn to make every action of the flesh subjugated to His footstool. Until this is brought about, as the psalm says, there can be no thought of worshipping at His footstool. It is a mockery to talk of worshipping Him unless I am subjugated to Him. Both the arms and the footstool would suggest a restful position. Once the throne is occupied nothing more is required.
The throne shows the superlative character of the kingdom; there was not anything made so great in any kingdom. If we can venture to compare divine things, the ark, I think, is greater than the throne because it is fully on the divine side, “there will I speak with thee”. That God should speak to us and reveal Himself to us is greater than the throne. But we must not weaken the character of the [p. 380] kingdom. In all the precious types there are no duplicates, there is no such thing; every type stands in its own majestic solitude; it has its own voice and we must not mix them up. The ark is the inside position and the throne is outside. The thought of supremacy is connected with the throne, and I think we need to cherish the thought; we are so apt to lose sight of it. But we see all this carried through with undeviating divine power; we see in the lions a power that cannot be defeated or turned aside from its object. God would have us deeply impressed with the thought of the majesty of Christ. Peter says, “having been eyewitnesses of his majesty”. We like to think of His power, His grace, and His love to poor sinners, but we need to ponder His majesty; it is connected with the throne. Matthew’s gospel gives us the thought of the throne; He is born King in Matthew.
How much the Spirit of God can compress into a few sentences! Let us move in the intelligence of these great and wondrous things!