THE SUPERIORITY OF CHRISTIANITY (3)
[p. 172] THE SUPERIORITY OF CHRISTIANITY (3)
2 Kings 6: 24, 25; 2 Kings 7: 1, 2; 2 Chronicles 1: 13 - 17
The Lord would impress us with the superiority of our position as in Christianity. We are in the midst of better things, and better ourselves as belonging to the new order of things. Indeed, carrying the thought further, christians are the greatest family, greater than angels as being associated with Christ. For we shall judge angels; they are ministering spirits sent forth to serve us. All this comes in at the present time so that we may not be unduly disturbed by circumstances. Conflict is not only outward, but there is that in which the Spirit of God is concerned amongst the saints. “We wrestle not”, the apostle says, “against flesh and blood”, Ephesians 6: 12. This present conflict is subservient to the great conflict in which we are all involved all the time among the people of God, a conflict for the truth. In the spiritual warfare Christ is said to be the Captain of Jehovah’s host, and He gives us support which is needed so that we are not overcome by what is outward. The great Priest over the house of God is for us. He is greater than Aaron, being set forth in Melchisedec, who was greater than Aaron. He is even greater than Melchisedec.
We may look at the first scripture in order to see how our subject works out in regard of food, the relative value of food. Then in 2 Chronicles under Solomon, what was not great became great; while that which was really valuable in God’s sight became of no value. In 2 Kings 6 we read that an ass’s head was sold for fourscore pieces of silver, and the fourth part of a cab of dove’s dung for five pieces of silver. Then in chapter 7 we have normal prices for the very best food, fine flour and barley, “a measure of fine [p. 173] flour ... for a shekel, and two measures of barley for a shekel”. These are normal prices. Why should we give an enormous price for food of relatively no value at all, and hardly fit for use? These enormous prices were the outcome of conditions of war, the king of Syria having besieged Samaria. What is needed is the prophetic word, bringing about the supply of good food at normal prices. People live on poor food, but there is abundance of what is far superior, if we only knew it. The Lord could say: “My meat is to do the will of him that sent me, and to finish his work” (John 4: 34), indicating the true spiritual food, while the disciples were merely concerned with what was natural. Food is to sustain life, to build up a constitution capable of receiving spiritual impressions. The Lord’s supper comes in thus as divinely given food, to prepare us for more spiritual things.
Food, in its spiritual application, is what occupies and forms our minds. Reading matter abounds today and the printing industry is one of the greatest agencies at work in the world. What is its effect? What kind of constitution does it produce? Men pay high prices for it and it may be semi-religious, openly infidel or modernistic. If christians buy and use such things, it is because of the siege. Here it is the Syrians, relatives of Israel and linked with their fathers by natural descent — “A Syrian ready to perish was my father”, Deuteronomy 26: 5. Now they attack Israel frequently, and they cut off the food supply, so that what speaks of Christ, the fine flour and the barley, is replaced by the ass’s head, food of no value, but very costly.
The ass’s head would represent some kind of humanity, but unredeemed. According to the law it should have been redeemed or its neck was to be broken. As redeemed it would be valuable, like the ass which the Lord claimed and used in the New Testament. But this ass’s head is like the skull at the cross of Jesus. Obviously it was unredeemed, for if it belonged to Christ He would never sell it.
The king passes by and he is responsible. “There cried a woman ... Help, my lord, O king”. Now the king is hearing about the conditions. He rent his clothes, “and, behold, he had sackcloth within upon his flesh”. How humble he appears! But is he really humble? “God do so ... to me, if the head of Elisha ... shall stand on him this day”. That is the man in responsibility, pretending to be religious and humble, but a murderer and the son of a murderer. So in verse 32 the truth comes out. He is a murderer. Elisha says, “Hold him fast at the door”. That is, this thing is to be kept out, the door shut. Do not affiliate with him. Elisha shuts the messenger out. “Is not the sound of his master’s feet behind him?”. The king says, “Why should I wait for the Lord any longer?”. How unlike Jacob, who said, “I wait for thy salvation, O Jehovah”. My only hope is in God. This king, a murderer, is, in effect, shut out of the assembly by the prophet and that brings out the mind of God in chapter 7. The king is not waiting; the true saints are waiting. We must separate from the evil and keep it out, otherwise we shall not have good food. As we are in the assembly of God and the door shut, we have good food at normal prices. Why do we not come to the place where there is good food at normal prices? The king, although seemingly humble, has no patience, is not waiting for God, and then the prophet comes in and rescues the position, putting things on right lines. The point is to shut the door on the real trouble, to exclude the responsible man.
The prophet represents God. We need to learn to listen to prophetic ministry from God, a great augmenting principle. With the door shut against evil it brings the conscience into action. God is drawing [p. 175] attention to the prophetic word. Elijah and Elisha both come into this; Elijah the heavenly man gone up, and Elisha the heavenly position maintained here in the spirit of Christ. The prophetic ministry was the saving element amongst the brethren in Corinth. We have to do with divine things in christianity, that is, a right view of things, and the prophetic word would regulate us. There are three things in 1 Corinthians 13, faith, hope and love, but the greater of these is love; note it is not said to be the greatest, it is the greater. Love is the greater as over against the other two. That is the way of surpassing excellence. The apostle had in mind chapter 14, but brings in chapter 13 as the way of support, necessary for the ministry of chapter 14. So that we are regulated by the prophetic ministry coming in by the way of love. By love the prophet was to serve.
Chapter 7 shows us how the prophetic word of Elisha came to pass. The four lepers accept their position. They are outside and they use their judgment. They do what is obviously the best thing to do under the circumstances, “If we ... enter into the city ... we shall die ... if they put us to death, we shall but die”. That is the obvious thing to do. In the local meeting, do what is obviously the right thing. There are three things set out in this chapter, and in the last one they say, We may die or we may not. That is the way to take and they took that way, “And they came to the extremity of the camp ... and ... there was no man there”. Something has happened. These men represent the work of God. They were lepers, and they knew it. The king was morally a leper, but he did not know it. No one can have right judgment, unless he has accepted his place before God. God had made the Syrians to hear the noise of chariots. Elisha apparently knew nothing of this. As the conscience is [p. 176] touched we begin to do what is right, for the lepers say to each other, “We do not well, this day is a day of good tidings, and we hold our peace” (verse 9). We must forget ourselves and remember other people; we are not doing what is right, we must tell the king’s household. That is the more excellent way, the way of love. This is how the prophetic word comes about, how it is worked out. A brother gets up to give a word. He has been in exercise about the conditions, and God gives him something relative to those conditions. He gives it out and someone is taking it to heart, is saying, I have not been just right, I am the one to blame. These lepers say, We are not doing right. Things are not right in the meeting. What about me, am I doing just right? Why am I hiding this food? What about other people? You have to think unselfishly, think of others, not yourself. “This day is a day of good tidings, and we hold our peace”. They are doing what is right, not merely quoting Scripture, but moving righteously. The Spirit of God is stressing the fact of the work of God in relation to what is right. The work of God will always agree with Scripture. The lepers outside do not enter the city, but take the way of instinct; divine instinct is seen in them. Do what is right yourself; God’s work will show itself.
God uses the lepers to carry out the prophetic word. He comes in in relation to the prophetic word. The exact details come to pass. They tell it to the king’s household. They do not hold their peace, and so in verse 16 the prophetic word is established, even to the destruction of the scorner. The word of God abides, and through the prophetic word we reach normal food; that is, spiritual food at normal prices in the assembly.
In 2 Chronicles it is a question of values. Divine values had depreciated under certain conditions and human values were more appreciated. The horses [p. 177] which the king multiplied refer to what is human or natural becoming more than it is worth, whereas what is really valuable has depreciated. Silver (the price of redemption) and gold (representing what is of God) are not kept at their normal value. The cedars are made as the sycamores of the lowland. The cedars were used in the temple, and are a type of greatness according to God. These should be maintained at their proper value, but here they become less to Solomon. We are apt, in our houses, in our outlook, to make more of things that are natural; that is, we allow them to become first with us. Spiritual values, in that way, depreciate, and the natural is unduly appreciated. We want to see in our houses that the things of God come first, that they are maintained at the proper level always. John desired that Gaius might prosper in all things, “Even as thy soul prospers”. If your soul prospers, you will have a right estimation of the mercies of God, but will value spiritual things.
Paul says he did not remember whom he had baptised at Corinth. His commission was not to baptise, but then he remembers that he did baptise the household of Stephanas, as if to say, That was a household worth baptising. In this book, as Solomon comes from Gibeon to Jerusalem, he omits to stand before the ark. The ark represents the latest thought of God. David brought it back and in this chapter Solomon omits to recognise that. The tabernacle at Gibeon was right, of course; but according to 1 Kings 3: 15 he recognises the last and most precious ministry of David, the setting up of the ark in its own place, in so far as it could be. Solomon stood before that; he does not do so here in Chronicles. In Kings the next portion is the two women coming for judgment, and he judges right; he discerns the mother of the child. In Chronicles there is no mention of the two women, and he multiplies chariots [p. 178] and horses — that which was forbidden for kings to do. What is natural is worth more, and what is of God depreciates. The same thing will happen to us if we do not recognise the ark, the glory and power of God. The ark is Christ in humiliation, but in power.
Solomon was a wonderful man, but he fails where one expects him to shine most, and that is a warning to us; we may have reputation and yet fail where needed most. The tabernacle was right enough, but what is arrived at in Kings was far greater and represented the present mind of God. Solomon had no eyes for the ark here, yet it typified the Lord Jesus, infinite greatness in small compression. He who was rich became poor, that we through His poverty might be enriched, that the things of God might be spiritually valuable and not become depreciated in our minds and in our houses.