2 CHRONICLES 22 AND 23 (SUMMARY OF A READING)
[p. 392] 2 CHRONICLES 22 AND 23 (SUMMARY OF A READING)
It is sad to think of Jehoshaphat, in whom there was much that was commendable, bringing into his household such a person as Athaliah. She was the daughter of Ahab, who “wrought evil in the sight of Jehovah more than all that were before him” (1 Kings 16: 30), and who took as wife Jezebel the daughter of Ethbaal king of the Zidonians, a worshipper of Baal. It was when Jehoshaphat had “riches and honour in abundance” that “he allied himself with Ahab by marriage”, 2 Chronicles 18: 1. Outward prosperity, accompanied by spiritual decline, led to this unholy alliance. Jehoshaphat did not foresee that Athaliah would prove to be the inveterate enemy of all divine rights in Judah, but this turned out to be the case. There can be no doubt that true saints have often been used by Satan to bring in principles and practices that are really lawless because they have not their origin in the will of God.
Paul made known to the Thessalonians that “the mystery of lawlessness already works” (2 Thessalonians 2: 7), and he intimates that it would continue to work, though with a certain divine restraint upon it, until the lawless one, the personal antichrist, should be revealed. It is a serious matter for consideration that the mystery of lawlessness is working at the present time in every part of the christian profession. Of course it is not declared to be such or it would not be a mystery. It is like the leaven which the woman took and hid in three measures of meal until the whole was leavened. It is working all the time bringing man’s will into the sphere where God’s will alone should [p. 393] be found. True saints have helped it on by bringing in, under various pleas of necessity or expediency, many things which are completely at variance with God’s will as made known in the Scriptures. When things have gone on a long time, and particularly when persons esteemed for piety have set them up or countenanced them, they get so established that to many it seems to be wrong even to question them. And so this insidious evil works until, like Athaliah, it dominates the situation and reigns over the land.
But God does not suffer such a working of evil without providing a counter action in His own gracious working, so, following upon the passage quoted from 2 Thessalonians, it is written, “only there is he who restrains now until he be gone”. We can thank God that the restraining power is not yet gone, and I believe He would have us to learn from the Scripture before us how it works.
Athaliah’s real character and object soon came to light. She “rose up and exterminated all the royal seed of the house of Judah”. She could not bear that there should be any rival to her own supremacy. The will of man in the sphere of divine things is never harmless or neutral; however unwittingly it may be introduced it is always hostile to the authority of the Lord and to the sovereignty of the Holy Spirit. The royal seed was representative of that which would maintain divine rights as against all that was lawless, and the mystery of lawlessness exposes its true character by its hatred of that which expresses the will of God. Two conflicting forms of man’s will may agree to tolerate each other, but they will unite to oppose, and, if possible, to destroy what is set to maintain the will of God. The mystery of lawlessness works in such things as putting christians under the law, attaching life-giving efficacy to sacraments, setting up episcopal and priestly authority, or forming believers into sects each of which has its own [p. 394] distinctive rules and order. It is even thought sometimes that each company of believers can regard itself as independent. But none of these things are expressive of the will of God and, if brought to the test, they are found to be hostile to it.
But God works, as we have said, to preserve what is of Himself and I believe this has been seen particularly during the last hundred years or a little longer. There has been, first, a hidden work of God in the affections of saints leading them to value and cherish what is of Himself as seen in Christ, and then a spiritual movement that has secured in the way of public testimony what is due to Christ, so that in result, the service of God according to His will might go on in the very scene where the mystery of lawlessness has well-nigh dominated everything. Not that we see this on a very large scale. The prophetic picture of it in the Scripture before us does not lead us to expect that for it centres in a babe who was entirely dependent on the care of others. But for his aunt and his nurse, Joash would undoubtedly have been slain, but a secret working of God in a faithful remnant secured his preservation.
“But Jehoshabeath the daughter of the king took Joash the son of Ahaziah and stole him from among the king’s sons that were slain, and put him and his nurse in the bed-chamber”. It had been written that “the sceptre will not depart from Judah, nor the lawgiver from between his feet, until Shiloh come, and to him will be the obedience of peoples”, Genesis 49: 10. Athaliah’s object was to set aside the sceptre, that is, divine authority, in Judah so that her own lawless will might prevail. But God used Jehoshabeath to counteract Athaliah by preserving one of the royal seed, who became a remarkable type of Shiloh as the gathering centre of an obedient people. Jehoshabeath would not give up the word of God as to the sceptre not departing from Judah, and, though the only representative [p. 395] of the royal line she could secure was a babe about a year old, she put him and his nurse in the bed-chamber, and hid him from Athaliah in the house of God for six years. To others Joash might be of small account but to Jehoshabeath he was the one person to be considered. At the present time what stands on God’s behalf over against the mystery of lawlessness is a remnant being kept by the Spirit in the faith of Christ as the One who holds the divine sceptre, who alone has title or competency to establish the rights or authority of God.
God would have us to see typically in Joash one who is distinctively the king’s son, and in whom, as such, there is power for the maintenance of what is of God notwithstanding the presence and mighty working of the mystery of lawlessness. That is, he is typically Christ viewed as small and of little account in men’s eyes, but discerned to be most precious by certain persons who cherish and safeguard Him, first in secret, and then in a more public way, until His ascendancy brings about the complete overthrow of lawlessness. In its full result this will be accomplished publicly at the coming of the Lord, but this is not what is set before us in this type, but rather the present spiritual result as known in the realm of faith of Christ getting His true place in the hearts of His lovers. It should be evident to those taught of God that the true royal seed is Christ for He is the only One absolutely free from the principles of lawlessness. The work of God in human hearts leads to Him being preserved and defended and honoured; this is what we see in the scripture before us. Joash was a type of Christ as recognised and honoured by faith and love at a time when evil is in ascendancy amongst the people of God. We do not get a type in this chapter of what Christ does for faith, but of what faith and love do for Him. We see here, in picture, assembly affection and care for Him, the result of His being known as the One in [p. 396] whom God delights. There is a remnant marked by appreciation of Christ, and by cherishing Him in secret with God, as aware that the dominating influence all around is most definitely hostile to Him. He is cherished in secret by those taught of God; He has no rival in their eyes. If we have come into this it is evident that the mystery of lawlessness is exposed for us, and its power as a ruling principle is overthrown in our hearts. In secret with God we disavow the whole principle of creature will and we delight in the One who always did God’s will. If we love and cherish Him as thus known there is a base of operations for God in this world, something from which He can work to bring about what is in His will in the very scene where the mystery of lawlessness is active.
We must have the secret exercises of the bed-chamber first. We must learn to transfer our allegiance from what is lawless to One in whom all divine rights are centred. And we must learn to do this in the full recognition that divine rights are not owned, and will not be owned, where the mystery of lawlessness holds sway. Joash’s nurse in the bed-chamber represents those gentle and tender influences under which the thought of Christ in His true worth and excellence in relation to God’s will is developed in our hearts in secret. The One who is of no account outside becomes of all account to those who get right impressions of Him in a secret place which is beyond the reach of the mystery of lawlessness. It requires spiritual sensibilities to discern this, and those sensibilities require to be nursed. Our apprehension of Him needs to grow and we shall value every service that promotes this. He does not, of course, grow in Himself, but He grows in our apprehension and appreciation, and this is what is set forth in the type.
Joash represented the true royal line which would maintain the rights of God, and it was those rights which [p. 397] Athaliah the idolatrous usurper wished to blot out. Now this great issue is always present; we have to face it definitely in our time as never before. It is of the first importance that we should be able to recognise what is approved of God. The greatest favour God could shew us is to give us ability to see that His delight is in Jesus Christ, His beloved Son. It was in the exercise of His own rights that God made promises and fulfilled them by bringing in Christ. When we speak of Christ as bringing in and securing all the rights of God we must not think of this in a legal way. When the created man in the garden of Eden became lawless by disobeying God all hope would have been banished from the human race if God had not had rights which He reserved to Himself, of which neither men nor Satan can deprive Him. He had the right to shew mercy and to make promises; He had what Scripture so beautifully speaks of as “the right of redemption”. He had a right in due time to bring in His beloved Son, and all that Jesus did in “doing good, and healing all that were under the power of the devil” (Acts 10: 38), was really God exercising His royal rights in favour of man who had no rights at all in respect of God. That is, man had no right to claim anything from God, save so far as God had exercised His right to make promises. But it was proved that men did not believe the promises of God and they rejected the One in whom all the promises were centred. So that nothing remains for men as a hope or ground of blessing but the royal rights of God. And this is the true thought of the kingdom of God which Paul preached; it is the sphere in which God exercises His rights and into which men may come by receiving Christ. The great glory of the glad tidings is that they reveal the righteousness of God; they make manifest that in the exercise of His own rights He will justify an ungodly sinner who believes in Jesus. Our only hope as sinners is that God has rights and He has set [p. 398] them forth in His Son; they are rights of infinite mercy and grace and love. But men in general, even though professing the christian religion, do not believe that God is exercising His rights in this wonderful way. They have their own thoughts about the matter, but all man’s thoughts about what will please God are really part of the working of the mystery of lawlessness. Men are going about to establish their own righteousness and have not submitted to the righteousness of God.
Even true believers are apt to think that they are free to meet together on any principle that commends itself to their judgment or their tastes and to worship as they choose. This is as much as to say that God has no will as to these matters, or if He has it is immaterial whether we regard it or not! This is just how the mystery of lawlessness is working today. But God would deliver us from it by bringing us to share in the exercises of Jehoshabeath, who represents those subjective features which recognise divine rights in the Lord Jesus. We have to learn that He is the One to be honoured, and to cherish Him in our private affections as the One to whom allegiance is due in all things. “If any one thinks himself to be a prophet or spiritual, let him recognise the things that I write to you, that it is the Lord’s commandment”, 1 Corinthians 14: 37.
“So Jehoshabeath, the daughter of king Jehoram, the wife of Jehoiada the priest (for she was the sister of Ahaziah), hid him from Athaliah, so that she did not slay him; and he was with them hid in the house of God six years”. This presents to us, in a typical way, a most important aspect of the truth. Paul said to the Corinthians, “Let a man so account of us as servants of Christ, and stewards of the mysteries of God”, 1 Corinthians 4: 1. He spoke “God’s wisdom in a mystery, that hidden wisdom which God had predetermined before the ages for our glory: which none of the princes of this age knew”, 1 Corinthians 2: 7.
[p. 399] Jehoshabeath and Jehoiada during those six years were stewards of the mysteries of God. They were careful to keep Joash out of the hands of Athaliah. The human mind cannot in any way be trusted with the things of God; they are only known to the Spirit of God and revealed by Him, and communicated by spiritual means to the spiritual. The first three chapters of 1 Corinthians are to be carefully read in this connection. Spiritual things cannot be brought within the range of the natural man; they are only safeguarded and kept in their proper setting as this is understood.
The mystery of lawlessness always works through the natural mind and will of man, but where there is a subjective state wrought by God, represented by Jehoshabeath, and there is priestly intelligence, represented by Jehoiada, saints will discern that the wisdom of this world is essentially hostile to Christ. He must be hidden from it in the sense that it is not permitted to intrude, even in the smallest degree, into the testimony concerning Him. The intrusion of the mind and will of man has proved fatal to the knowledge of Christ and of the assembly in Christendom generally, and it is only where the import of the cross has been, in measure, apprehended, and place given to the Spirit of God, that there has been any return to the truth.
Then in the seventh year under the lead of Jehoiada, the captains of the hundreds “gathered together the Levites out of all the cities of Judah, and the chief fathers of Israel; and they came to Jerusalem. And all the congregation made a covenant with the king in the house of God”. This gathering together seems to correspond with 1 Corinthians 11, where we read of saints coming together in assembly, and we learn that such coming together, according to divine order, is to eat the Lord’s supper which He has instituted as His appointed rallying place for all His lovers. The Lord has exercised the rights of His love in [p. 400] appointing that the assembly shall come together to eat His supper. Every heart loyal to Him would surely say, with Jehoiada, “Behold, the king’s son shall reign, as Jehovah has said of the sons of David”. Whatever sets aside the Lord’s rights savours of the mystery of lawlessness; it is the evidence that Athaliah reigns over the land! The coming together of saints in assembly, if it has spiritual reality, is the recognition of the rights of the Lord Jesus. His rights in love, truly, but still His rights. The recovery of this has specially marked the last century during which, after a very long period of negligence, the Lord’s supper has been recognised as the true rallying point of the assembly.
But this has involved taking up certain responsibilities which are indicated typically in verses 4 and 5. “A third part of you that come in on the sabbath, of the priests and of the Levites, shall be keepers of the doors”. There must be vigilance to ensure that the evidence of loyalty to the Lord Jesus is found with each one who is admitted. There can be no true gathering on any other footing. The name and honour of the Lord Jesus is the supreme test and this is bound up with every part of divine truth. If a person is lawless in respect of any part of the truth he is not really fit for christian fellowship. Of course persons may be ignorant of the truth and need instruction, but they are really only on christian ground as being prepared to obey from the heart the form of teaching into which they are instructed. It is by this they prove themselves as loyal to the Lord Jesus. This is surely as essential today as was loyalty to Joash in that day!
“And a third part shall be at the king’s house”. The king’s house typifies the assembly as the place where “the commandment of the Lord” is recognised as having supreme authority. All gifts and assumed spirituality are tested by this (see 1 Corinthians 14: 37). Along with professed [p. 401] readiness to do whatever the Lord wills there is often great reluctance to break away from associations which do not at all correspond with the assembly order laid down in 1 Corinthians. Personal devotedness and earnest service are fair jewels and the Lord values all that is done out of love to Him, but He would have those jewels to shine in their true setting in the assembly order which He has appointed.
“And a third part at the gate of the foundation”. This suggests that the gathering together of saints in a divine way must be on the basis of what is fundamental. That is, it requires obedience to the truth of the epistle to the Romans in regard of what is individual, and obedience to the truth of 1 Corinthians in regard of the assembly. There can be no intelligent fellowship apart from this.
“And all the people shall be in the courts of the house of Jehovah ... but all the people shall keep the watch of Jehovah”. Faithfulness to the principles of christian fellowship is what would mark these courts today, and watch has always to be kept against the intrusion of what is contrary to those principles. The object in view is not merely correctness as to matters of principle but to preserve conditions which are suitable to the Lord. “The Levites shall encompass the king round about, every man with his weapons in his hand; and he that comes into the house shall be put to death”. The position, as here viewed, is a military one. The Lord’s Person and rights are to be maintained as against all who would challenge them. “And ye shall be with the king when he comes in and when he goes out”. It is precious to think of the assembly as a place where nothing is suffered that is contrary to Christ and where He has liberty of movement amongst His own, and this at a time when lawlessness is dominant around. So “King David’s spears and shields and targets, which were in the house of God” are given to the captains; they represent spiritual weapons which are mighty through [p. 402] God to defend the rights of Christ against all adversaries. All the people are set “by the king round about”; he is maintained and defended in the place that is due to him. And then “they brought forth the king’s son, and put the crown upon him, and gave him the testimony, and made him king”. It is, indeed, a true coronation day when Christ gets the place that is due to Him amongst His own. It is to this end that He instituted His supper, for He said, “This do in remembrance of me”, 1 Corinthians 11: 24. He would unify His saints in causing Himself to fill their hearts and minds in His supreme excellence and worth. I suppose in giving Joash the testimony they had the thought that he was to be king to give effect to all that was in the mind of God, and which He would have to be set forth here.
A valued servant of the Lord used to speak of the day when a great feast was made for Isaac and it was said that Hagar and her son were to be cast out, as a coronation day in the history of the soul, the day when Christ is seen to be the only One to be honoured, and the man after the flesh is cast out as unworthy of any place. We are on this ground assembly-wise when we take the Lord’s supper together. His body has been given and His blood poured out, and we call Him to mind as the One in whom everything centres for God and for us. We view Him collectively as God’s Anointed, as the One by whom and in whom everything is effectuated that is for the pleasure of God and for our deep blessing and joy. As we appreciate this and rejoice in it we can be said to anoint Him; by the Holy Spirit we collectively say, “Lord Jesus”. Where this is a reality the mystery of lawlessness is completely nullified; the coronation day of the Lord Jesus has come. He is the Centre and Object of praise, as Joash was in type, in verses 12 and 13. God’s answer to the mystery of lawlessness in these last days is that the Lord Jesus gets the supreme honour that is [p. 403] due to Him assembly-wise. It may only be in a few, but the few represent the divine thought as to the assembly, and they carry the whole assembly in their hearts as essential to the divine thought, though the most of them may not be actually present at the coronation.
Rightly honouring the Lord Jesus exposes every form of lawlessness. Athaliah’s thought of the whole matter was that it was “Conspiracy!” She realised that it was all over with her. It was inevitable that she should be put to death. The whole system that has usurped the rights of the Lord Jesus is bound to be destroyed when His day comes. And it is morally destroyed where a few hearts really accord Him His place and His rights. Those who do so are God’s testimony here. May we have the honour from God of being found amongst them!
Joash being crowned and anointed king, “Jehoiada made a covenant between himself and all the people and the king, that they should be the people of Jehovah”. Jehoiada, in this chapter and the next, represents a feature which should always be present amongst the saints, a spiritual capacity to enter into the mind of God for the moment, and capability to lead in giving effect to it. He led, first, in securing the supremacy that was due to Joash as king, and then he led to the further thought that the king should be recognised as head for all the people in relation to God. For in this connection the king would be the chief or pre-eminent one on the side of the people Godward. Spiritual leading in the assembly will secure that Christ is recognised as Head of the assembly, so that He is known on the side of His saints Godward. The assembly, viewed as having such a Head, derives all from Him and needs no contribution from any other source; all the body is ministered to from Him. Not that we get this in the type before us; it could not be developed then for it was as yet a mystery hidden in God. But the king, as identified [p. 404] with all the people in relation to God, gives us the thought of headship, and we are entitled to bring into this the precious truth of Christ as Head as it is made known to us in Colossians and Ephesians.
It is a blessed moment in the service of the assembly when Christ is known as Head, and the saints are conscious that they are of Him, and independent of every other source of supply. When Christ is known as Head, all the elements of the world and all the paraphernalia of human religiousness are judged and definitely rejected. We do not get this complete sweeping aside of human religiousness in 1 Corinthians; Christ must be known as Head according to Colossians to enable us to break down what answers now to the house of Baal and his altars and images. And this must be done if God is to be served according to His pleasure. It is only what is derived from Christ that can minister to His pleasure; so that the body as viewed in Colossians is one aspect of the worshipping company. Elsewhere it is said that the Sanctifier and the sanctified are “all of one”, and the Lord Himself said of them, “My brethren”; they are His spiritual kindred. What a character this gives to the service of the assembly! Jehoiada’s leading brought things back to the highest level. All that Moses had written and all that David had appointed were set up again with rejoicing and with singing. The order and the glory of the house were restored. This is what spiritual leading will bring us to today.
Why should not we recognise Christ as Head and renounce all that human religiousness which is no better in God’s sight than the worship of Baal? Why should we not know the blessedness of assembly service as Peter and Paul and John knew it, and as they have made it known to us? Not that any of them have described the service in a formal way as following upon the Lord’s supper. But they have opened to us the spiritual character of our association [p. 405] with Christ as Head, and the place we have as sons with Him, entirely outside all that is of the flesh. They have given us spiritual leading as to our place with God the Father according to His eternal purpose, and as all saints are called to the same blessedness it would be strange indeed if we had no opportunity to enjoy it together. But this requires that we shall move together, first, in eating the Lord’s supper and giving Him collectively the place that is due to Him in our affections and the praise that declares publicly that He has that place. As the saints are unified in this and have the Lord alone before them, He comes, according to His own word, to His lovers (John 14: 18). If He desires to do so, is He not entitled to expect that His own will welcome Him? He comes to satisfy the hearts of those who want Him. But when He comes there is the fulness there, in Him, of all that is in His own heart and in the Father’s heart. How much of it may be manifested, on any occasion, will depend on the spiritual state and power there is to see Him or to hear what He may communicate. That is to say, it will depend on how far we have become conscious by the Spirit’s work, that we are His own, “of his flesh, and of his bones”, Ephesians 5: 30. If we are of Him, as Eve was of Adam, there will be capacity to regard Him as Head, and to get the gain of His Headship in what He may be pleased to communicate. And then we shall find that He moves Godward, for He says, “In the midst of the assembly will I sing thy praises”, Hebrews 2: 12. The full height of the service is reached in that. The fulness of the divine revelation, and the whole compass of God’s thoughts and purposes in regard to man, are known to the blessed Man who is our Head, and they are the subject of His praise. He is the true David. Our great instruction for the service is to learn how He sings. Spiritual leading will bring us to the understanding of this, not that we can compass all His notes. It would need the [p. 406] whole assembly, in complete spiritual formation, to do that. But under spiritual leading we can hear how He sings and become conscious that in singing He identifies Himself with the assembly. He causes the full and varied notes of His singing to resound in that supremely favoured company. May each of us be moved to desire to know more of the privilege that is, through infinite love, available for us in the region of God’s blessed will. It is the true antidote to the working of the mystery of lawlessness.
Then in the last two verses of the chapter the king is brought down from the house of Jehovah into the king’s house, and he is set upon the throne of the kingdom. We cannot always remain in the assembly as convened; we have to return to the circumstances of our daily life here but we return to them to be as free from the mystery of lawlessness there as we were when we acclaimed the Lord in the assembly as the supreme and only worthy One. Our loyalty is tested, perhaps, more in the everyday path than it is when we are with our brethren. As set on the throne of the kingdom He is supreme in our everyday matters. Indeed we cannot think of saying, “Lord Jesus” to Him in the assembly, and then doing what is right in our own eyes in the domestic or business sphere. It is very significant that it is said, “And all the people of the land rejoiced, and the city was quiet; and they had slain Athaliah with the sword”. It is a reminder, by the Spirit of God, that happiness and quietness depend on the rights of the Lord Jesus being owned in every sphere and that this involves the complete refusal of lawlessness.