THE HOUSE OF GOD IN CONNECTION WITH THE KINGDOM
[p. 51] THE HOUSE OF GOD IN CONNECTION WITH THE KINGDOM
1 Kings 4:24, 25; 1 Kings 5:1 - 5; 1 Kings 6:1 - 7
I desire to speak a little tonight about the House of God in connection with the kingdom. This looks on, in great measure, to a day that is yet to come, but there is much in it of present value for our instruction.
The tabernacle was movable and provisional. It was intended to be carried about, and was only for the time. It did not represent an established or permanent order of things. The house, properly speaking, could not be built until the kingdom was established. When the kingdom was established and mount Zion secured under David the house came distinctly in view. In Psalm 78: 68 - 70 we may see the connection between God’s choice of David and of mount Zion and the building of His sanctuary. Jehovah dwelt in Zion as the rest of the kingdom (see Psalm 132: 13, 14), and this prepared the way for His sanctuary to be built by Solomon.
The effect of the kingdom being established in the hands of David was that the people were delivered from every enemy. “Judah and Israel dwelt safely, every man under his vine and under his fig tree”. Jehovah put all the enemies under the soles of David’s feet, so that when Solomon came to the throne he could say, “Jehovah my God hath given me rest on every side, so that there is neither adversary nor evil occurrent”.
At the present moment the kingdom is not set up in public manifestation, but it has been established in the victorious power of grace. Christ — the true David — has laid low every enemy and silenced every foe. He has been made sin in order to put it away by the sacrifice of Himself, He has died for our sins, He has annulled death and him who had its [p. 52] power, He has redeemed from the curse those who were under it, He has spoiled principalities and powers, He has put all our spiritual enemies under the soles of His feet, so that we may have “rest on every side”. Through redemption the enemy’s power is completely broken.
Then, again, the effect of the kingdom being established was that the people were commanded and ordered according to the pleasure of God. You remember how it is said in the book of Judges, “In those days there was no king in Israel every man did that which was right in his own eyes”. God raised up saviours for the people in their distresses, but there was no king to order them according to God’s pleasure. The king was placed over the people to rule them for God. We read of Solomon that he was set on Jehovah’s throne to be king for Jehovah his God (2 Chronicles 9: 8). Christ has that place for us now. Not that we know Him exactly as King — He is Lord to us — but I speak of the principle. The day of His glory here — of which Solomon’s reign was figurative — is yet future, but we sing oftentimes: —
“Christ of God, our souls confess Thee,
King and sovereign even now!” (464:4)
It is a great thing to come under the control of that blessed One. He has established His right to control us by going into death for us. We must admit that He has a right to command and order us, and it is our happiness and security to be under His sway. We have no business now to do what is right in our own eyes. In the kingdom of God we are put under the blessed control of divine grace and love expressed in the Person of the Lord Jesus Christ, so that we may do what is right in the sight of God.
But what is all this in view of? If the king destroyed the enemies’ power, and controlled the people for God’s pleasure, it was all in view of the House of God being built. It is interesting to see that from the very beginning of David’s [p. 53] history he had the House of God before him. I think we may gather this from Psalm 132. In the time of David’s afflictions he devoted himself to “find out a place for the Lord, an habitation for the mighty God of Jacob”; and he says in verse 6, “Lo, we heard of it at Ephratah; we found it in the fields of the wood”. When he was living in Bethlehem and wandering in the fields — long before he came to the kingdom — the House of God was before him, and he came to the kingdom really to prepare for the building of the house.
In connection with this read 2 Samuel 5: 3 - 7; 2 Samuel 6: 12. David’s first act after being anointed king over Israel was to take “the stronghold of Zion: the same is the city of David”, and one of his next acts was to bring up the ark of God “into the city of David with gladness”. The LORD had chosen Zion; He had desired it for His habitation. He had said, “This is my rest for ever: here will I dwell; for I have desired it” (Psalm 132: 13, 14). David acted in victorious power to secure the place that God had chosen, and then he brought the ark to rest there. Zion spoke of the victorious power and supremacy of David, and it represents all the grace and blessings that have been secured in a risen and ascended Christ on the ground of redemption. God’s purposes of grace had to be established in Christ risen and glorified on the basis of redemption before His house could be built.
It may seem in the actual history of things here as though the enemy held the field, and that nothing of God’s will was established. But as a matter of fact the enemy’s power is completely broken, and God’s purpose and grace are established in the most glorious way in Christ as the risen and exalted One. This is known by faith and in the Holy Ghost, so that it can be said to believers now, “Ye are come unto mount Zion” (Hebrews 12: 22). The House of God is built upon the impregnable basis of a victory which has broken the enemy’s power, and a Person who has annulled death and brought life and incorruptibility to light, One in whom God’s [p. 54] purpose and grace are established — Jesus Christ the Son of God.
David thought and wrought from the very beginning in view of the House of God, and in this he was a type of Christ. Christ came here to secure a place and material for God’s house. He secured a company in order to make them “living stones” for God’s spiritual house. Then He accomplished redemption, and went to the right hand of God, in order that the Spirit might be given to those who believed, and that they might thus become God’s dwelling place here.
It is well to note that when the ark was brought to the city of David there was “gladness”, and the people had a good time (see 2 Samuel 6: 18, 19). They were caring that God should have His place, and the result was that they were blessed and enriched. If we want to have a good time we must be like David, who said, “I have set my affection to the house of my God” (1 Chronicles 29: 3). If we do so we are sure to have prosperity of soul.
In 1 Chronicles 22: 7 - 10 we see that it was in David’s mind to build the house, but he was not suffered to do so because he had “shed much blood upon the earth”. This is an interesting scripture, because it points to a distinction between two characters which are united in Christ. Christ is the Man of war and the Man of rest and peace — He is the true David and the true Solomon. David came in victorious power to meet and destroy every enemy, and Christ has taken up this character — He has maintained all the rights of God with regard to sin, and in view of the blessing of man Then Solomon [peaceable] was a man of rest, and in his day God gave peace and quietness. Christ is now in the blessed peace of resurrection, having vanquished every foe. As the risen One He said to His disciples, “Peace be unto you”. No disturbing element can ever reach the shore of resurrection. There is rest on every side, and neither adversary nor evil occurrent.
[p. 55] One might say that typically David was the king of righteousness, and Solomon the king of peace. Both are united in Melchisedec — figure of Christ as the One who “shall build the temple of the LORD; and he shall bear the glory, and shall sit and rule upon his throne; and he shall be a priest upon his throne” (Zechariah 6: 13). In a coming day Christ will be the King of righteousness and the King of peace, and in connection with Him the millennial temple will be built, the glory will be brought in, and everything on earth will be ordered for the pleasure of God. But in a certain way, as I have suggested, we know Him in these characters now — as the true David who in the victorious power of grace has put every foe beneath His feet so that there might be full blessing for all who believe on His Name, and as the true Solomon in the blessed rest and peace of resurrection. These things are hinted at in picture in the Old Testament; we enter by faith and in the Spirit into the reality of them now; and in a quickly coming day they will be publicly displayed in power and glory.
It was reserved to Solomon to build the house, but David was the one who secured the place for it, and who provided the material. He could say, “Now, behold, in my trouble I have prepared for the house of the LORD an hundred thousand talents of gold, and a thousand thousand talents of silver; and of brass and iron without weight; for it is in abundance: timber also and stone have I prepared”. David secured the kingdom when he took Zion, and then all through his reign he was providing for the house — treasuring the spoils of forty victorious years to that blessed end. It suggests to me that all the fruit and spoil of Christ’s victory, and all that has accrued to Him as the exalted One, goes to enrich and beautify the House of God. In that way the kingdom contributes to the house.
Then towards the end of David’s life he discerned the place for the altar of burnt offering. Read 1 Chronicles 22: 1.
[p. 56] The circumstances were most solemn and striking. David had sinned in numbering the people, and a plague from Jehovah was upon Israel. Everything on the line of man’s responsibility had entirely broken down, and the unhappy king could only plead his own guilt and pray that God’s hand might be upon him and his father’s house, and not upon the people. It was then that in blessed grace and sovereign mercy he was commanded to set up an altar to Jehovah in the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite, and Jehovah answered him there by fire, and bade the angel put up his sword again into the sheath thereof. “Then David said, This is the house of the LORD GOD, and this is the altar of the burnt offering for Israel”. It was the place of grace and love and sovereign mercy when human failure was complete and on man’s side everything was forfeited. The house as built by Solomon did not therefore stand connected with man’s ruin and failure. That failure was indeed complete, but on the ground of the burnt offering God came out in supreme grace and mercy and made choice of a place where He might dwell in blessing amongst His people.
I desire now to point out one or two things in connection with the temple which had no place in connection with the tabernacle. The temple adds considerably to our conception of the House of God, for in connection with the temple we get the thought of God’s house as a dwelling place for men. In the tabernacle there was no provision for men to dwell in God’s house — there was not even a seat there for the priests. But in the temple there were “chambers” (see 1 Kings 6: 5, 10), which suggest the thought of men dwelling in the House of God. That house was not only to be a place of approach to God, but a dwelling place for men. I need not remind you how often this thought is taken up in the Psalms. “I will dwell in the house of the LORD for ever” (Psalm 23: 6); “One thing have I desired of the LORD, that will I seek after; that I may dwell in the house of the LORD all the days of [p. 57] my life, to behold the beauty [graciousness] of the LORD, and to enquire in his temple” (Psalm 27: 4); “Blessed is the man whom thou choosest, and causest to approach unto thee, that he may dwell in thy courts; we shall be satisfied with the goodness of thy house, even of thy holy temple” (Psalm 65: 4); “Blessed are they that dwell in thy house: they will be still praising thee” (Psalm 84: 4).
I have no doubt that the Lord made reference to the “chambers” of the temple when He said, “In my Father’s house are many mansions [abodes]: if it were not so I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also” (John 14: 2, 3). The Lord turned from the place on which the dark night of His rejection and death was settling down to speak of His Father’s house, and a dwelling place there for His own. He would have companions in the home circle of divine love! He came here to secure those who should be His companions in the blessed abodes of His Father’s house. As we trace His holy pathway through this gospel we see how He secured them. It was by superseding everything else in the estimation of their hearts. He was here as the great Object and Centre to which the Father was drawing men. See John 6: 44, 45.
Everything that had attractiveness or dignity in the estimation of pious people, or that was entitled to their veneration, was eclipsed by the Son of God. Moses was a great figure before the mind of the Jew — and rightly so — but he was put in the shade by Christ. “The law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ” (John 1: 17). John the Baptist was a remarkable servant of God, and esteemed to be such by the pious, but he spoke of Christ as One whose shoe’s latchet he was “not worthy to unloose” (John 1: 27). The temple is seen to be only a figure of Christ as the true Shrine of divine glory (John 2: 21).
Jacob’s well — a great object of regard to the people of Samaria — was superseded by Christ; He could give.”living water” (John 4). The pool of Bethesda with its miraculous healing was a striking witness in the midst of all the failure that God’s mercy endured for ever, but Christ was greater and better than the pool, for He could make whole one who was not able to benefit by the pool (John 5). Christ was superior to the manna (John 6: 49, 50), and He was superior to the feast of tabernacles, the greatest feast of the Jewish year (John 7). In John 10 as the Shepherd He displaces the fold — the whole organised system of Judaism. Everything that was in any way entitled to have place in the hearts of the people was excelled and displaced by Christ. Then in chapters 11 and 12 we see Him in His own proper greatness and glory. As Son of God He raises Lazarus, as Son of David He rides into Jerusalem, and as Son of man is glorified by going into death that He may not abide alone. He displaces every other object for those taught by the Father that He may hold their hearts entirely for Himself by His own mighty attraction. God ministers Him to us now by the Holy Ghost that everything else may be put in the background for our hearts. God is working to this end, and in this way is securing companions for His Son in the many abodes of His house.
The disciples who were drawn to Christ when He was here gained nothing as to this world. In following Him they came under the shadow of death, and became heirs of reproach and hatred. Instead of coming into the light of the day of His glory they entered the dark shadows of a night which reached its deepest gloom in the garden and at the cross. How solemnly suggestive are those words in John 13: 30 — “It was night!” But in that dark moment the Lord took occasion to speak to them of a new place in His Father’s house. He said, “I go to prepare a place for you”. It was necessary for Him to pass out of this world through death in order that [p. 59] we might have a place of association with Him in the Father’s love. Of course we shall not actually be in that blessed place until we are with and like Him in bodies of glory. But His going through death to the Father has prepared a place there for us. Hence in resurrection He could say “Go to my brethren, and say unto them; I ascend unto my Father, and your Father; and to my God and your God”. What marvellous grace and love! He has secured companions for Himself in the “chambers” of His Father’s house. Our place is there, and it is our privilege to be “in spirit there already”.
When the house was built, and the ark and holy vessels brought up into it, “the glory of the LORD filled the house of the LORD” (1 Kings 8: 10, 11). And when we consider the Father’s house of John 14 we find that glory dwells there. The Father’s house is where the Son is, and He says, “Father, I will that they also, whom thou hast given me, be with me where I am; that they may behold my glory, which thou hast given me: for thou lovedst me before the foundation of the world” (John 17: 24). That is the glory which fills the house. Of old, “the priests could not stand to minister because of the cloud”; the glory absolutely excluded man in the flesh. But now we find a blessed company secured by divine love and in divine righteousness able to behold the glory without a veil. The glory that the Father has given to the Son is infinitely great. It is nothing less than the glory of giving effect to all the counsels of divine love. The accomplishment of all the unnumbered thoughts of blessing and grace that filled the heart of God before the foundation of the world — of all the holy counsels which originated in the Father — has been entrusted to the Son; and this is the distinctive glory of the Son given to Him by the Father who loved Him from eternity. It is the glory of the Son to bring out and establish the glory of the Father in the fulfilment of all the purposes of His love. That glory fills the “abodes”
of the Father’s house, and we are brought there to behold the Father glorified in the Son. Christ’s “brethren” are the companions of His rejection and reproach in this world, but they are also His companions in the circle of ineffable rest and love where He is with the Father, and where His glory appears. I repeat, we are not there actually yet, but in spirit it is our privilege to taste the holy joy of being brought by the Son into the “chambers” of the Father’s house.
Great is our privilege as called to be dwellers in God’s house. We behold there the beauty [graciousness] of the Lord (Psalm 27:4), and we get the consciousness that His place is our place. We have not only a way of approach, but a home — a dwelling place. Christ’s place with His Father is ours — the home of our hearts — the place of our rest. The House of God is a place of satisfied desire, of freedom from care, and of continual praise (see Psalm 84:1 - 4). I should like the thought to be deepened in our hearts that we have a place in God’s house — in the circle where His love and glory are known — that we may be drawn more in spirit to dwell there, so as to be still praising Him.
This brings me to another thing in which the temple suggests more than the tabernacle. We read in 1 Chronicles 25: 6 of many of the Levites who “were under the hands of their father for song in the house of the LORD with cymbals, psalteries, and harps, for the service of the house of God, according to the king’s order to Asaph, Jeduthun, and Heman”. There was no song in connection with the tabernacle. The Levites had to carry the tabernacle and the holy vessels. What was typified in this still continues concurrently with the privileges of the house. That is, we have to bear the burden of the testimony of the Lord with all its afflictions in this world. If people think they can serve God without having some burden to carry they are mistaken. There is divine resource and power to carry what is of God in testimony [p. 61] through the world, but it is well rightly to estimate the seriousness of being God’s servants here.
In 1 Chronicles 25 we find the three families of the Levites — Asaph, Heman, and Jeduthun belonged to the three different families — no longer bearing the burden but raising the song. In figure we may say they had reached the favoured hour when their toil was over, and they could happily and restfully raise their song in the House of the LORD. No doubt this anticipates the day of glory, but there is a sense in which our hearts may know something of it even now. It is possible to retire from the pressure and contrariety of the wilderness, and even from the bearing of burdens in service and testimony here, and to reach a spot in spirit where we can sing as those who participate in the fatness, blessedness, and joy of God’s house. If we come under the influence and into the rest of divine love there cannot fail to be a responsive song in our hearts. If the Lord says, “I will declare thy name unto my brethren”, He also says, “In the midst of the assembly will I sing praise unto thee”. According to God’s Name so is His praise (see Psalm 48: 10).
No doubt there is a day coming when all this will be realised in a wonderful way, when the blessedness of God’s house will be the joy of Israel and of the millennial earth. But there is even now what answers to it in a spiritual way. The kingdom of God has been established in Christ at the right hand of God, and in the power of the Spirit down here, and consequent upon this the House of God is here. May we be divinely instructed as to the blessed service and privilege of that house!