ADJUSTMENT

^[p. 434] ADJUSTMENT

2 Samuel 7:1 - 14; 1 Chronicles 28:11, 12

I am thinking, dear brethren, of the continual necessity of adjustment; for even when we are prompted by the most praiseworthy motives we are continually in need of it. God, having brought in a standard in Christ, never withdraws His eyes from that standard, having it in view for everyone, particularly for us, so that we should be presented perfect, and should all arrive at the full-grown man. There are the two thoughts; on the one hand the responsibility of those who would minister to us, whether Paul or others, to present every man perfect in Christ, and on the other hand that everyone should arrive at the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ, having in view the standard God has before Him that all should arrive at. The need, to say the least, is that we should not be babes; some are that; some were that when Paul wrote his letter to the Ephesians. It is normal to be a babe when one is converted, but there should be steady growth to manhood. It is to abnormal babes that the word, that we should be no longer such, comes. Every normal babe is delightful. What is normal is always pleasing in the things of God, and so you find that the Lord was always normal, whether as a Babe, or as a Boy, or as a Man. He was always as normal, delightful to God. Abnormal never refers to Christ but, alas, generally to us. And it is such a class that is especially in view, when the word is given that we may be no longer babes tossed and carried about by every wind of that teaching which is in the sleight of men, in unprincipled cunning with a view to systematised error. All undergrowths are peculiarly exposed to this jugglery, and we are warned of it so that we ^[p. 435] should not be amongst that class — that we should be “no longer babes”

So I take David as illustrative of what I have in mind. He is governed by the most worthy motive. He had advanced; indeed this book and the first book of Samuel are intended to show the normal progress of the believer in David’s growth. You will remember how he is seen in the beginning of this book; the link between first and second Samuel lies in Ziklag. David had been at Ziklag at the beginning, he was there for two days. It was for him a place of soul history, for he had gone through the most excruciating sorrow there. I am speaking of him now as a type of the believer. He is also a type of Christ, but I am not speaking of him from that point of view now. There he wept till he had no more power to weep in the awful disaster that befell him in the burning of Ziklag and the taking of his wives by the Amalekites; but there it was that he overcame on moral lines. Weeping alludes to feelings, feelings occasioned by distress or sorrow, but he encouraged himself in the Lord his God. There seemed to be no other there, though his men were about him. They had been devoted to him, but they thought to stone him. It was a crisis, but David passed through it with God. He was equal to it. He encouraged himself in the Lord his God — the Lord his God. He was shut up to God. We are of little account on those lines until we go through this — until we are shut up to God to emerge out of a crisis by encouragement in the Lord as one’s God. It is the Lord his God. From that point he proceeds morally to priesthood, and he begins to formulate laws and ordinances which were to remain in the kingdom. One of them is the great principle established in the epistle to the Romans of overcoming evil with good, the heaping of coals of fire on one s enemy. “If thine enemy be hungry, give him bread to eat; and if he ^[p. 436] be thirsty, give him water to drink; for thou shalt heap coals of fire upon his head” Proverbs 25:21,22 It is the principle of overcoming evil with good. See 1 Samuel 30:21 - 31.

So David reached that point, and in the beginning of this book he is two days at Ziklag going over in his soul the history suggested by the place. The two days allude to experience in the way of testimony to one’s soul. On the third day a messenger arrives from the battlefield of Gilboa to tell him of the death of Saul, his enemy. It is extremely sorrowful that there should be enemies amongst the people of God, that enmity should exist among themselves; that there should be enmity between the world and the people of God is to be expected. The world hates us, but that there should be enmity actually existing within the circle of the people of God is a sorrowful consideration. But, alas it is a fact. And this great principle stands by us in that respect, that the way to overcome is by heaping coals of fire upon his head. What are these coals of fire? “If thine enemy be hungry, give him bread to eat; and if he be thirsty, give him water to drink”. Proverbs 25:21 So David, instead of being elated by the tidings of the death of his enemy, mourns and bewails the death of Saul. “The shield of the mighty was vilely cast away, the shield of Saul, [as] not anointed with oil” 2 Samuel 1:21 Saul had been anointed with oil. Whatever he was personally, the anointing oil of God was on him, and David respected that. His wail in that first chapter is a standing witness to his moral triumph, overcoming evil with good. So he begins to ascend from that point. So do we. We shall never ascend morally save as we learn this great lesson that we can never hold enmity in our hearts against a brother; and if a brother has enmity against me, I am to overcome it with good. How can I overcome it with good if I am not possessed of the good as having gone through the experience of Ziklag? I have come to the knowledge of God in Christ, I have ^[p. 437] encouraged myself in Him. He is my shield. “By thee I have run through a troop; By my God have I leaped over a wall” 2 Samuel 22:30 the psalmist says. It is the knowledge of God. So he says to God, “shall I go up”? 2 Samuel 2:1 God says, “Go up” God invites him now into elevation. Any other elevation would mean a crash sooner or later, that is, the mounting of my own will into prominence. David says, “Shall I go up into one of the cities of Judah?” God says, “Go up” “Whither shall I go up?” “Unto Hebron” 2 Samuel 2:1 It is as if God were to say, “You have vindicated me in man’s world, now I will invite you into my world” Hebron is a type of God’s world. It was built seven years before Zoan in Egypt. It is a city of note in history; it represents God’s order of things before man existed. David had glorified God in man’s world, and now God invites him into His world. Do you want to go up? How can I go into God’s world save by His direction or invitation! The invitation is the epistle to the Colossians in Christian language. We are to leave this world; we have decided to leave it behind us, and we want to go up. I wonder if everyone here wishes to go up. It is on the line of purpose. David is dependent and subject, so God says, “Go up”

And so he went to Hebron, and remained there seven years and six months. The six months seem to be a sort of addition, a necessary experience beyond the ordinary limit of seven, so that he should become thoroughly acquainted with the place, and with the wisdom that was before the world — that he should be conversant with these. As it is said in Colossians that in the mystery of God “are hid all the treasures of wisdom and of knowledge” Colossians 2:3 These months seem to be a sort of finishing period in that school, the school in which the wisdom of God in a mystery is taught, not the wisdom of the Greeks — but that wisdom that is before the world, that God ^[p. 438] had prepared before the world for our glory. Would you not like to have more of that wisdom? Then in the Corinthians the apostle goes on to say, “Eye has not seen, and ear not heard, which have not come into man’s heart, which God has prepared for them that love him” 1 Corinthians 2:9 What about those things? I can well afford to stay those extra six months to get an extra knowledge of them. Seven years and six months! That is his period of education in that wonderful city, a city that links on with a past eternity, and enables him to look into a future eternity. The past is the hidden wisdom that God prepared before the world for our glory. What a place of learning, beloved, Hebron is!

Well, David had gone through that school. He progressed out of that school, and from there he went to Jerusalem, as we read in that chapter. He is in the light now of the epistle to the Ephesians, as we speak, an Ephesian Christian typically. You will remember how in this fifth chapter to which I am alluding it is said that David built inward. That refers to Ephesians where we are strengthened by the Father’s Spirit in the inner man: “That the Christ may dwell through faith in your hearts; being rooted and founded in love, in order that ye may be fully able to apprehend with all saints what [is] the breadth, and length, and depth, and height; and to know the love of Christ, which surpasses knowledge, that ye may be filled [even] to all the fulness of God” Ephesians 3:17 - 19 He built inward; so David thus is the type of an Ephesian Christian, whether as a type of Christ Himself or a believer, David is here on Ephesian ground, and he is conscious of it. He is dwelling in a house of cedar, and his enemies are subdued, and now he is thinking of God. The ark of God dwells beneath curtains! His motives are right. He is thinking of God and you say that surely now he needs no more instruction, no more adjustment! Well, let us look at this chapter.

^[p. 439] Even Nathan the prophet thought David was all right, and he was possibly the most spiritual man in his day. He says to David, “Go, do all that is in thy heart; for Jehovah is with thee” And the Lord says, as it were, to Nathan that night, ‘I have something to say to you with regard to David’. God speaks to Nathan that night; it was an urgent matter. David had right motives, but he did not understand his own service fully; he thought the whole matter was in his hands, but it was not. No doubt each of us gets his service from the Lord; as it says, “To each one his work” Mark 13:34 Not all the work! This applied even to Paul. He had his work. Each of us has to know, therefore, what his work is. Well, David’s was a wonderful work. I need only mention that, but it was not given to him to build the house, and he had to learn that. He had to learn, great though he was, king of Israel, and with right desires, that notwithstanding all that, there were limitations to him, hence the message from Nathan. It says, “It came to pass that night that the word of Jehovah came to Nathan saying, Go and say to my servant David”

Now I want you to look at that. David had developed in the ways of God and had done much. But who is behind all this? God says, “I took thee from the pasture-grounds, from following the sheep, to be prince over my people, over Israel; and I have been with thee whithersoever thou wentest, and have cut off all thine enemies from before thee, and have made thee a great name, like unto the name of the great men that are on the earth” God had done it. Whatever reputation you have or I have, God has given it. It is a most wholesome lesson. It is a lesson of adjustment where it is least expected to be needed. We are to learn that everything proceeds from God and that whatever one is, it is because God has made one that, and it is because God loves His people. Whatever ability one has, one has it because God loves ^[p. 440] His people; He is thinking of them and this puts the servant in his place, and it makes him see that whatever he is, he is it because God loves His people and will have them serve Him. So God goes on to say, “And I will appoint a place for my people, for Israel, and will plant them” God is thinking of His people Israel. It is a much greater thing that the people of God should be ministered to and fed, than that any one of us should be conspicuous.

Thus God sets David down in his place as one raised up to be ruler; but a man of war should not build. He has to learn his limitations. God says in effect, ‘You talk of building me an house!’ But “I will build thee a house!” 2 Samuel 7:27 So David sat down in the presence of the Lord. “Who am I, Lord Jehovah” 2 Samuel 7:18 he says. He had learned his lesson. He makes a beautiful speech to the Lord, but he says not one word about building the temple. We all need to learn that lesson, to understand in the presence of God what the mind of God is. After all, the very best motives are not sufficient; we must know what the mind of God is. God says, as it were, ‘You have to consult me as to who the builder is to be!’ It is entirely unsuitable for a military man to build a family abode. So he gives David to understand that the builder is to be his son; a very great lesson to learn! We have to come into the apprehension of the fact that the son is over the house, that He is the one who builds the house as knowing the heart of God; He knows the Father and what is suitable for the Father’s abode. He has come forth from the Father, being Son, and knows the Father’s abode in heaven, and knows therefore what is fitting for the Father upon earth.

And so God says to David, “When thy days are fulfilled” Now look at that; a very important suggestion for every one of us! There are not only limitations to our labours but to the time of them;

^[p. 441] the kind of labour is limited and the time of it is limited. All this is a most wholesome thing. We have been remarking today that one generation passes away, and another succeeds it. Men who seem indispensable in the testimony of God pass away, and elderly sisters too; we have to make up our minds for that. But as one generation passes away another comes on. Thank God for the one that is coming! David says, “Jehovah has given me many sons, he has chosen Solomon my son to sit upon the throne of the kingdom of Jehovah over Israel” 1 Chronicles 28:5 And He said unto me, “Solomon thy son, he shall build my house and my courts” 2 Chronicles 28:6 He is to build the house. Are we not, may we not, be deceived as to our own importance, as to whether God may not be bringing in a better generation? He can do it. I speak for the encouragement of the young people. It is within the province of God to do it. He may be reserving the best to the last. David’s days are to be fulfilled and another generation is to come. So He says, “Thou shalt sleep with thy fathers, I will set up thy seed after thee, which shall proceed out of thy bowels, and I will establish his kingdom. It is he who shall build a house for my name, and I will stablish the throne of his kingdom for ever. I will be his father and he shall be my son” That is what God does. Solomon is to come in. He is to be God’s son, for He says, “I will be his father and he shall be my son” The truth is, beloved, that many of us never pass over into sonship in our experience. We retain our military ability and rest in it, or our levitical ability and rest in it. We are reminded here of God’s selection of a son; that if there is to be anything in the way of building a house we must pass over into sonship. We are limited otherwise. “It is he who will build me a house”

Now I want to show in the book of Chronicles how David was adjusted. His aspirations were verified,

^[p. 442] and he became perfectly restful in accepting the adjustment. If you look at chapter 28 you will see that he collected all the great persons of his kingdom as he was about to pass away. I speak now to the elder brethren and sisters, as to how God would have us pass away out of this world. I do not know a passage in Scripture so full of encouragement, and example and stimulation, as this one and the next one. What you find is that David, after collecting the grandees of his kingdom around him, stands up on his feet. No decrepitude there! No sign of old age, as you will observe in the second verse! “And king David stood up upon his feet, and said, Hear me, my brethren” 1 Chronicles 28:2 What does he say? He indicates in this speech that he has learned his lesson, that he is thoroughly adjusted, for he proceeds on the line of choice; he says, as it were, ‘God has been acting, in view of the building, on the line of sovereign choice’. Whatever desire you may have, whatever aspiration you may have in the service of God, remember this that every bit of service is on the principle of sovereign choice, and sovereign appointment. It is God who is stamped on everything.

So David says, speaking to his brethren, “I had in my heart to build a house of rest for the ark of the covenant of Jehovah and for the footstool of our God, and have prepared to build; but God said to me, ^[p. 443] Thou shalt not build a house unto my name” 1 Chronicles 28:2,3 You see how he has learned his lesson. Would that we all might learn it, as we pass on, we who are young especially, to be thoroughly in the mind of God, and to see that it is a question of divine selection, and divine appointment in every detail of the work of God. It is God in all. “That God may be all in all” 1 Chronicles 15:28 That is the great end in everything. You do not want to put that off until you see it by-and-by but now. And David proceeds to tell what God had said to him through Nathan:

“Thou shalt not build a house unto my name for thou art a man of war, and hast shed blood. And Jehovah the God of Israel chose me out of all the house of my father to be king over Israel for ever ... . And he said to me, Solomon thy son, he shall build my house and my courts; for I have chosen him to be my son, and I will be his father” 1 Chronicles 28:3 - 6 Now I am speaking to the elder brethren and the elder sisters. What a model this is! To pass out at the time appointed of God, for this is the way it stands according to Simeon, “Lord now thou lettest thy bondman go according to thy word, in peace” Luke 2:29 All is a matter of divine ordering. David says, He chose Judah to be the prince and chose me out of all my father’s sons to be the king, and He chose Solomon out of all my sons to sit upon the throne of the kingdom of the Lord... and He chose Solomon to build His house and His courts. Think of all these choosings so that God is all in all! In the future the Lord Jesus, having put down all rule and authority, hands back the kingdom to Him who is God and Father, that God may be all in all. That is finality, beloved! Are we to wait to see it to know it? We are to know it now — that God is the beginning of everything and the end of everything; God all in all.

David goes on to say in the next chapter that God is head over all. Here he is standing upon his feet, and he is saying these things as a man with experience of God. He has learned his lessons, and they are written down here for us that we might pass out as he did. So God honours him. He gave him a pattern of the house by the Spirit. That is a wonderful recompense to a man with such desires. He did not give it to Solomon but He gave it by the Spirit to David. He had the Spirit, as he says elsewhere “The Spirit of Jehovah spoke by me, And his word was on my tongue” 2 Samuel 23:2 Here he has a pattern of the temple in all its parts by the Spirit. He is a spiritual ^[p. 444] man. It says in the passages we read, “Then David gave to Solomon his son the pattern of the porch, and of its houses, and of its treasuries, and of its upper chambers, and of its inner chambers, and of the house of the mercy-seat” You see what a knowledge he had; he was a spiritual man, and God honoured him; so that although every one of us is limited, yet God honours us as we have right desires. He honoured David by giving him the pattern by the Spirit. And it was the thing in detail, so that he had the whole thing before him, although he never saw the structure. He had a view of it in a spiritual way. David did not see the thing reared up, but he had the pattern by the Spirit. He had it before Solomon had it. He passed it on to Solomon; hence where elder brethren accept their limitations, God honours them by giving them His mind, a prophetic view of things, so that they have the honour of passing on to their younger brethren what God will do later. And God will continue to work until that great and holy city comes down from heaven — the new Jerusalem — and thus the work proceeds.