OUR CLOSING DAYS
OUR CLOSING DAYS
2 Chronicles 16: 7-14; 2 Chronicles 20: 31-37; 2 Chronicles 21: 1; 2 Chronicles 24: 15-27; 2 Chronicles 26: 16-23
It is to be carefully noted that at the close of every distinct period of God’s ways, as the time draws near to the new one, the hostility and intense activity of Satan increase, in order that what is of God should decline and thus virtually be defeated. David said, “Thine, O Lord, is the greatness, and the power, and the glory, and the victory, and the majesty.” God is never defeated, He must triumph. Pharaoh’s great desire to drown all the male children of Israel, was to extinguish the people of God, so that if they went out, it should be only the old ones among them. But Moses was born, and his parents were able to preserve his life. Then we see in the dark days of Eli how the young element was preserved in Samuel by Hannah, who dedicated him to the service of God from his birth. His life was spent in the temple, and he grew on before the Lord, until everyone from Dan to Beersheba knew that Samuel was established a prophet.
In the dark days of the apostasy that came into Judah through the house of Ahab, Athaliah set herself to destroy the seed royal. She determined not to leave one person capable of producing a king — the seed royal. She wanted to be queen that she might entice every one to the worship of Baal. Joash was preserved by being hidden in the house of the Lord for six years, under the hand of Jehoiada the priest.
I wish to take up that side, and to speak to those who are coming to the close of their days. The close of our lives may be near for any one of us. The Lord Himself is a model to each one. At the age of twelve He is outstanding as sitting in the temple. He was hearing and asking questions. The Lord would bring that before us in view of our education that we might be marked off in that way today, sitting and listening as affected by Jesus. The Lord Jesus is a model for us as He is seen in all the strength and energy of manhood. When He “began to be about thirty years of age,” He is ready to stand and publicly identify Himself with what is of God upon the earth, however much it is in reproach. John says, “I have need to be baptised of thee, and comest thou to me?” Jesus answered, “Suffer it to be so now: for thus it becometh us to fulfil all righteousness.” Thus at the age of thirty Jesus fulfilled all righteousness in every detail of life, in the strength and service of manhood.
He is also a model for those who are drawing near to the close of their journey. His closing days and moments stand out as a great monument for all those who are facing the end of their days.
Think of the last words uttered by Jesus, the last act He performed! The will of God had brought Him to death, even to the death of the cross, and He bowed His head in perfect, holy submission to that will. In such a place that we, thank God, shall never see, and in such a death He bowed His head and gave up the ghost. What a model to those who are drawing near to the end, to submit without reserve to the good and acceptable and perfect will of God, even if it be to depart from this life.
The kings referred to in the scriptures in Chronicles all came to the end of their journey and died. They had been used of God and all had their part in those days of recovery which correspond to our day. The Lord has graciously recovered much truth, and has used many persons in His service, as these kings Asa, Jehoshaphat, Joash, and Uzziah had been used in their day. They stand out as warnings to us as well, as in the way of encouragement, to challenge us as to what kind of end ours may be. One loves to think of the end of such a man as the apostle Paul. In his beginning his whole being had been handed over to Christ — “Lord, what wilt thou have me to do?” Later he could say, “I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith,” I am ready to be offered up, and if I be poured out I rejoice with you all. That is how God desires His servants to end.
Peter had a mixed beginning and history, but he judged himself step by step and he faces his end with the utmost acceptance of the will of God. He said, “shortly I must put off this my tabernacle, even as our Lord Jesus Christ hath shewed me. Moreover I will endeavour that ye may be able after my decease to have these things always in remembrance.” He is prepared to serve the saints and to consider for them right up to his last day. The Lord had spoken to him of His sheep and His lambs, and he was prepared to serve them until his last day.
The Spirit of God records the end of these kings that we might receive instructions and be warned. Some departed from God at the outset, but others had a bright, happy and useful beginning, and in the case of Jehoshaphat and Asa, their reigns were for the honour of God and the blessing of Israel.
Asa was a wonderful king and was greatly helped of God. He dealt with idolatry and put away his own mother from being queen because she built a grove. The Spirit of God records this so that we may see the integrity of his heart. When a million Ethiopians came against Israel, he said to the Lord, “it is nothing with thee to help, whether with many, or with them that have no power.” He faces this great army of Ethiopians in complete dependence upon God, and God delivered him. He also brought in a teaching priest and helped to feed God’s people, and for years they had peace and prosperity.
Later on Israel came against him and he went into the house of God and took the silver and the gold out to the king of Syria and said, “There is a league between me and thee.” One would not speak against these men of God except as warnings to us; but when there is a difficulty and the enemy is challenging the position, shall we take the silver and gold out of the house of God and hand it over to the Syrian and make a league with him? Asa did so in spite of his good reign in other respects, he sacrificed the honour of the Lord to keep peace. There is no hope on that line, and Hanani the seer comes and says, “from henceforth thou shalt have wars.” If a brother or a gathering acts thus, they too will have war. Silver denotes the rights of God, and the gold His honour. Previously Asa had listened to Oded the seer, and was greatly encouraged after the prophet had spoken: but now he is in a rage with the seer, and puts Hanani in the prison-house. I believe that the prophetic word spoken in meetings of that character may sometimes be in the form of rebuke, and this we do not like.
Afterwards, at the end of his life, Asa had disease in his feet, suggesting that something had been wrong somewhere in his movements which he had not judged. The Spirit of God does not disclose what this was, but instead of turning to the Lord and judging it he turned to the physicians. This stands as a warning to us, to go on in the path of dependence. The only thing that brightened the closing moments of his day was that he was buried in the sepulchre that he himself had excavated. It is a great day when we come to realise what we are naturally, and when we can excavate a sepulchre for ourselves so that we may go out of sight. The Spirit of God records that as a commendation. They made great burnings for Asa and put much spices in the grave, for in the main he was greatly loved by his people.
Jehoshaphat was one of Judah’s greatest kings, and he was not characterised by idolatry, but the Spirit of God does not hide the fact that there was a tendency in Jehoshaphat to make an alliance with the house of Israel by marriage. He said to Ahab, “I am as thou art, and my people as thy people,” and the Lord rebuked him about it. Nevertheless, afterwards in the main he pursued what was right. At the end of his days he was in alliance with Ahab’s son and so stands out as a warning to us that as our history closes we should make no alliance with what is spiritually corrupt. Jehoshaphat suffered for this alliance in that his works were broken by God. In like manner God would have us to judge in ourselves what has been dishonouring to Him.
Joash was also a good king, one who served Israel faithfully and was greatly interested in the house of God. He ordered Jehoiada to repair the house of God and to gather up the redemption money, to bring the allegiance of every Israelite to the house of God, the half-shekel due from all. God was with Joash all the days of Jehoiada, and Jehoiada’s life was extended, showing how God would preserve a spiritual influence for us over a long period. Jehoiada lived a hundred and thirty years, and he died gloriously and was buried as a king. If we continue characteristically as priests, we shall be buried in the sepulchre of the kings when we die. All the days of Jehoiada, Joash was greatly helped of God and his reign brought blessing. He sent out Levites to teach the people; but after the priestly influence was removed, the princes came to him and did obeisance. Thus his heart was diverted so that he became a centre for himself; God was no longer the centre and he turned to idolatry. That leads to a rebuke by the prophet, the son of Jehoiada, who comes to him with the word of God, and it says that the prophet was slain in the court of the house of God by the king’s commandment. What a word to us! If we decline from priestly influence, and if what is for God is displaced in our hearts and self becomes the centre, we may even murder a prophet in the court of the house of the Lord, as Joash did. He falls under the power of his enemies and dies with “great diseases.” Instead of dying like Jacob, or Jehoiada, or Peter, or Paul, he dies in ignominy and is not buried with the kings.
Uzziah was greatly helped in the early part of his reign, until he became strong. He built towers in the wilderness, made water supplies, built storehouses, he loved husbandry, and he established the teaching of the law amongst the people. But when he became strong, his heart was lifted up, and he went into the house of God and attempted to offer incense. He usurped the place of the priest and God smote him with leprosy in his forehead, so that he was a leper to the day of his death. What a warning it is to us that only as we are marked by what is priestly can we have to do with the service of God. If we carry it on by mere natural ability or effort, and as a ruler, it does not please God, however much we may have been used of Him earlier in our lives, and He does not overlook that. Uzziah is smitten with leprosy and dies a leper. Isaiah writes his acts “first and last,” and in chapter 6 he says, “In the year that king Uzziah died I saw also the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up, and his train filled the temple.” This great vision appears to Isaiah on the death of a man who attempted to serve God in human power and not on priestly lines. We need to come to that year, “the year that king Uzziah died,” and if we do, a marvellous vision of the glory will come before our souls. One would speak especially to the young men, of the necessity of coming to that year. If the vision of the glory is to fill our souls, the wonderful train that fills the temple, typifying divine workmanship in the saints, we must come to the year of the death of king Uzziah, to the end of that man who attempted to carry on the service of God without the priest, without holiness, without consideration for God. He thought to do it because he was the king, but the title to do it is that holiness and consideration for God is there, and this is what marked Jehoiada.
One feels that we should all face this matter of our closing days. It may not be long for any of us, and it certainly will not be long for many. Nothing is more blessed than the death of the righteous, and one delights to acknowledge and recognise those who pursue righteousness and holiness all the days of their lives. This is what is in mind in the coming of Christ, that there should be holiness and righteousness all the days, including the last days till He come. They are the most testing days; as years go on there is a tendency to relaxation and an assumption to serve God without priestly state, or a sense of dependence, such as marked Asa when he was angry with the prophet who rebuked him.
The Lord spoke of Himself as the beginning and the end, and the “first and the last.” He marks the beginning of each of us and He will see us through according to God. He said to His disciples, “I am with you all the days.” They will be days of vigour and devotedness and true manhood in the service of God. “Having loved his own which were in the world, he loved them unto the end.” If our hearts would keep in touch with Him in dependence and, under the influence of the Spirit, be apart from corrupt and unholy associations, and refuse to touch the service of God in human power and ability, recognising the Spirit only, then our end will be like the end of Jehoiada at a hundred and thirty. He was a priest according to God. He exercised the service of a king and they buried him in the sepulchre of the kings, for he had done good to Israel.
May the Lord help us all that our end may be free from the features that mark these four kings; that we may not rest in what there may have been for God in the early part of our lives, but that we may be warned by them to avoid their end till the Lord comes.