SPIRITUAL INWARDNESS (1)

SPIRITUAL INWARDNESS (1)

2 Samuel 12: 24 (latter half, “and she bore ...” ) - 25; 1 Kings 1: 38, 39; 1 Chronicles 29: 22 - 25

SMcC It is thought that we might get help in regard to spiritual inwardness, and with this in mind it is proposed to look at two distinct types of Christ that appear in these books that we have read from. They are types that refer to how Christ is apprehended in a hidden way, in relation to the purpose and counsel of God, and as apprehended in this hidden way, the saints are built up inwardly in relation to what is fixed and eternal. It is proposed to consider, this morning, Solomon personally, as in the passages that we have read; and then this afternoon, the other type in the ark, as it appears in these particular sections that we shall read from. It is important that we see the mystery linked with these two types; the mystery of God is bound up in these two types, over against the changing scenes linked with infidelity in the scenes of the testimony as they are passed before us in these books; both lines of the truth in regard to the Person of Christ converging on the service of God. You remember that it is said of David, when he took Zion, that he “built round about from the Millo and inward” (2 Samuel 5: 9); a rather mysterious reference as it is, the Millo itself, with the definite article before it. The way it is referred to conveys the thought of what is hidden, and involving mystery to faith, and to those that have the Spirit. I think the building inward is linked with the lines of the truth in regard to Christ apprehended in a hidden way, which we are about to consider. I thought we would begin with Solomon, Jedidiah, here. As the brethren perhaps would know, there are two references to Solomon in the second book of Samuel,

this is the second, and this one is more concrete than the other. We get no more reference to Solomon in the second book of Samuel directly, and this passage stands out like a gem in the book here, for faith, and for those that have the Spirit, because even while it may be a type, no one could question the fact that Christ must be very specially in mind in what is said in the last part of verse 24, that we read, “and Jehovah loved him”. Over against the background of failure and breakdown in David, God is indicating where His affections lie; and what we will see, as we take an extended view of the matter is that we are challenged as to where our affections lie. We find that in the course of things in this book, the sorrow of misplaced affection is very tragic; and we have to learn that, every one of us, involving it may be sorrow with us, but God is giving us a definite indication of where His affections lie, and we want to be in line with God - “Jehovah loved him”. The preciousness of Jesus immediately comes on to our view, Jesus as seen in the gospels, the secret hidden side that God commits Himself to, the Man that God has before Him, and He has in mind. And we shall never be built up inwardly apart from that side of the truth. If we do not catch hold, or are detained in relation to this side of the truth, we shall centre our thoughts and our affections on the wrong man, on the man of sin and shame, on the man seen in Ammon, in Absalom, and in Joab. It is a very real matter that we should learn how to turn, in our own hearts, from the features of the man of sin and shame, to the Man of God’s purpose and counsel, as to whom it points here in saying, “and Jehovah loved him”. It is the babe; it is what is within small compass; it may be thought little of by the world, unknown indeed as to its importance by the world, and by unbelief, and by fleshly mind and activity; but known and apprehended by faith in those that have the Spirit.

I thought that we might get some help in considering the truth as to these types of Christ on the hidden side in the second book of Samuel.

GHSP You have something special in mind in that the love of Jehovah is expressed at the birth of Solomon, before there was even anything that might draw out that love.

SMcC Exactly, that is, we have no suggestion in the passage of any action or movement in Solomon himself; there is something there that draws out the affections of God, just like when Jesus appeared on the scene in this world, there was that which drew out divine affections.

GHSP Does Simeon come in early in Luke as a man evidently having close links with the Spirit, and thus ready to embrace the child Jesus as a Babe, as God’s Christ?

SMcC He was in accord with the movements above, the movements in heaven in regard to this great intervention on the part of God; he is not behind, he comes in at the right moment as under the influence of the Spirit. So that his affections are not misplaced, they are rightly placed, where God’s affections are placed, in that wonderful Babe.

AH Are you thinking that this appreciation of Christ is arrived at experimentally? I was thinking of verse 20 of this chapter, and then the way that David names this child. Does God sending by Nathan confirm David in his exercises?

SMcC I think so. We are to see the importance of the prophetic ministry in that relation, and how God makes much of Nathan’s service in the book of Samuel. If we are not regulated by the prophetic ministry, our affections will be misplaced, and instead of seeing that Christ, typified in Solomon, is the great Object and Centre of divine affection, and that He is to be the centre of our affection too, we may move on antichristian principles, and make room for what is disruptive and dislocating in the sphere of testimony.

EJH Do you see that in Isaac and Rebecca? At the very birth of Jacob it is said that Rebecca loved Jacob, and Isaac loved Esau; at the end of the Old Testament Jehovah confirms that He had loved Jacob at birth too? Were Isaac’s affections misplaced and Rebecca’s rightly placed?

SMcC Do you think that that love in Malachi refers to Jacob at birth?

EJH I thought that he was the man of God’s choice and purpose.

SMcC I do not think it is quite the same as we have here. I think this is unique here. What we have in Jehovah loving Solomon is unique and alone in the Old Testament. There is nothing before it, and nothing comes after it in the Old Testament that equals what we have here. I think when it says that God loved Jacob, it involves what is characteristically seen in Jacob; whereas, in what we have here, it is a question of something intrinsic, it says “Jehovah loved him”. There would be a link as it develops, in the sense that Jacob is in line with the counsel of God, and Rebecca is in sympathy with that.

EJH I was thinking partly of the misplaced affections in Isaac.

SMcC Just so.

AEM In Solomon you have the Man of God’s purpose, and His love can be proclaimed at the beginning.

SMcC That is remarkable; it is not after Solomon has got to the throne, and is established in the kingdom; it is when Solomon is born that Jehovah intervenes by the prophetic ministry to call his name Jedidiah for Jehovah’s sake, and it says “Jehovah loved him”. It is a marvellous statement, and must have Christ in mind in anticipation.

AEM It is not for David’s sake, but for Jehovah’s sake.

SMcC That is it. So it is a wonderful thing to be drawn into that, to be drawn into the current of what is for Jehovah’s sake. The dark background in this section would fill the mind with dismay and disconsolateness, if we were to be occupied with it; but God interjects into that dark background this holy scene where He finds an object for His affections to be placed upon.

PHH The prophetic ministry you spoke of had come in previously, had it not, in Nathan, in regard of the building of the house in chapter 7? Did that serve to put into David’s mind the thought of the son, although just initially?

SMcC I think so. That is the first reference, is it not?

PHH I wondered if you would just say something about that, to enlarge your earlier statement.

SMcC Well. Nathan peculiarly stands in relation to Solomon, as you would know. It is not Gad; Gad does not stand in relation to Solomon. Just as Abigail is brought on to our view following Samuel’s ministry, so Solomon is brought on to our view as linked with Nathan’s ministry. And it is important to see that. The first indication is given in that chapter that you referred to, where David has a desire to build the house, but God indicates to him through Nathan the prophet that he is not to be the one that would build the house, but the son that will be born to him.

PHH Even there would you say, God was projecting, as it were, His affections, “I will be his father, and he shall be my son”, 2 Samuel 7: 14?

SMcC He was indicating it, not just so definitely as it is here in “Jehovah loved him”, but the thought of it is there, in the relationship that God refers to. There it is in prospect, here it is in actuality, “Jehovah loved him”. A marvellous thing to take account of.

GHSP Would you bring any passage in the New Testament, in the gospels, directly alongside of this?

SMcC Well, I would, the entrance of Christ into manhood, the condition of humanity, draws out heaven’s feelings.

GHSP I wondered whether the Father’s voice at the baptism “In thee I have found my delight” would throw certain light on the whole of that period of thirty years.

SMcC Well, it does. It reflects back on what came in in Jesus, and as He grew up into manhood; it reflects back on all that undisclosed period where there must have been so much that was so rich and so precious to God.

WEW Does Nathan’s prophetic ministry, “thou art the man” help us to see that it is in the displacement of the old man that we can ever enter into the appreciation of this secret name, that is Jedidiah?

SMcC That is the intent of the setting of Solomon here, because it is just brought in here and left; there is nothing developed, in later chapters, in regard to Solomon. It is just left, as if God, in the midst of the disaster and the sorrow and the grief in the background, would give us a focal point on which He is resting, and on which we are to rest, in the displacement of all that is so obnoxious in our hearts. It is thus that we are built up inwardly in the truth.

PL So that it is as facing governmental conditions so sorrowful, that the soul is anchored in that secret name of undisclosed delight?

SMcC It is important to see what is fixed in that way; we shall see it more especially in relation to the ark as the centre of the whole testimony, and the centre of the scope of the truth. You have got there a fixed system of things that revolves around the testimonial Christ, that we are not to depart from, and we are not to give up the ground in relation to. But here there is an indication by God through prophetic ministry, of what His affections are fixed on.

PL So that the thought of life and incorruptibility brought to light in this glorious Person in 2 Timothy 1 furnishes the background and spiritual anchorage to face all the sorrows pertaining to the breakdown, in the assembly, as forecasted in these chapters that follow?

SMcC Yes. So that it is important that we should repair into this, because it becomes very practical. After this definite indication by God to David as to Solomon and Jedidiah, why the sorrowful chapters of history that follow? Why the great cry in regard to Absalom, “O my son, Absalom, my son”, where God was indicating that Solomon was his son, Solomon was the object upon which his affections were to be centred? This is very practical to us, for why is it, in the presence of all the prophetic ministry we have had, all the wealth and the power of it, and affected as we have been under it, we drift into a confused state of things where our affections may become misdirected and misplaced? The natural side, as it were, arises and confusion is the result. It is very real.

ECL Would what you are saying connect with the name of Jesus? It is Christ personally I am thinking of how He spoke to Paul, “I am Jesus”, and also of His last words recorded in Revelation “I, Jesus”.

SMcC It no doubt would. It is the personal side - “Jehovah loved him”. It would be the personal side in Jesus, only it is the babe; it is what is there in small compass, and in what we might call a hidden and mysterious way. That Jehovah should love that babe, over against the dark picture around, surely points us to the gospels, and to the Object of God’s affections placed on Christ there.

AEM Would you not say what was in that Babe is to fill eternity?

SMcC That is the point. So how broad Simeon’s outlook becomes, and extended his view, as that Babe is in his arms. What it must have been to have held that Babe in his arms, as he says, “a light for revelation of the Gentiles and the glory of thy people Israel”. His view becomes greatly extended in the light of the Babe.

CMM In Proverbs 4: 3, Solomon says, “For I was a son unto my father”, would that show the way this thought developed in all the days of difficulty? Do we see sonship developed in Solomon?

SMcC That is it. Proverbs gives us the developed side, from Solomon’s side, “I was a son unto my father, tender and an only one in the sight of my mother”. But Solomon is just here as a babe, no characteristics or personality are as yet developed. The personality is there, of course, because Jehovah called him Jedidiah, but there it is, “and Jehovah loved him”. It is as if God would give us some indication, in a hidden secret way, through the prophetic service, as to where His mind and His affections lie, so that we might be saved from the disaster that David lands in.

AH Does Isaiah 9: 6 at all bear on it, “unto us a child is born”? Does the prophet come to it, and through his ministry bring the saints to it?

SMcC That would be what they arrive at from their side, the remnant say “unto us”, it would be the parallel side in the soul of the remnant. Here it is not what the child is to the remnant, it is what the babe is to Jehovah; it says “Jehovah loved him. And he sent by the hand of Nathan the prophet; and he called his name Jedidiah, for Jehovah’s sake”, meaning “Beloved of Jehovah”. Now Jedidiah is never mentioned again, that is a remarkable thing.

PHH Does this mean that as we receive this thought it becomes a kind of potential which underlies everything else that may happen, and as time goes on, and prophetic ministry comes, it is capable of stabilising us in relation to God’s thoughts all the way through?

SMcC That is how I understand it, and that is how one is looking at it, because if we do not get into the apprehension and appreciation of Christ in this hidden inward way, we shall become built up in ourselves in the features of the man of sin and shame. So that when the crises arise in the testimony, we miss our way; our affections become misplaced, natural feelings come uppermost, as in David, and in Joab and the others.

ACSP Does the fact of the naming suggest how God absolutely commits Himself to this position?

SMcC I think that is the point, “And he sent by the hand of Nathan the prophet; and he called his name Jedidiah, for Jehovah’s sake”. It is not just that Jehovah loved him, precious as that is; but Jehovah is committed to this, in the sending. The sending brings in the idea of the commission, and the committal to Solomon.

ACSP Might that be why the name does not come up again? The committal is absolute, and now lies hidden behind everything else.

SMcC Yes. It helps us to see that there is what is rare and special and choice in God’s realm, there are names that we do not use promiscuously. The name of “Abba Father” for instance; that is so choice, and so rare, as we might say, as special to our dispensation. How sparse is its use in the New Testament; but what preciousness is linked with it!

GHM Would you connect the bosom of the Father with what you are saying?

SMcC Well, that enters into it, as the thought develops; the Lord came into that position where He was the Object of the Father’s affections.

AEB Would the way that the New Testament begins bear on this, “Book of the generation of Jesus Christ, Son of David”? Is not the Son of David Solomon? Might there not be a hidden reference there to the One who was in the mind of God from the very beginning?

SMcC I think the New Testament is filled with references in that way, to the line of David, to Christ coming in on that line. There is what is general, on the line of David; but there is what is choice and rare and exclusive, and this particular section is calling our attention to it.

PL Is it the divine ideal enshrined in the heart - “the hidden man of the heart”; and then in “the incorruptible ornament of a meek and quiet spirit”, is the ideal to be brought forth, which “in the sight of God is of great price” (1 Peter 3: 4)?

SMcC I think that is how it is to work out. Therefore it is very important that we should see how God is calling attention to this, in calling his name through the prophet Jedidiah, for Jehovah’s sake. God would bring us into the secret of Christ in this way, so that everything in our lives is to revolve around this. Because we have to look into history with ourselves, we have to see what we have been catering to, and what we have been ministering to in ourselves. We have to see whether we have got this focal point that God, as it were, puts on to our view here; and whether we are following this through. If we follow it through, then we shall be in line with God at the end.

GHSP So that the gift of the prophets in Ephesians 4 is directly linked with the saints arriving “at the full grown man, at the measure of the stature of the fulness of the Christ”.

SMcC Just so. And it is on this line that we are built up, the building inward is on this line, because what the enemy is seeking to produce is a rival to Christ. This whole book, especially in the body of it, is filled with the operation of antichristian influence,

to divert the saints from Christ, to misplace affections under the most specious form of operation, so that Christ, the Man of God’s counsels, is displaced.

EJH Do you see that in the shepherds? They found the Babe, and they spoke only of what had been told them about the Babe. Do you see in those persons those who are wholly committed to the Babe, and have no other conversation but concerning Him?

SMcC Just so, they are affected by what has come in in that way. The reputation of the shepherds would not be great in the religious world, or in Caesar’s world; they would be of little account, but they come into the light of God’s appointed choice in the Babe.

JJT Would the unborn babe leaping in the womb suggest the inwardness on the part of Elizabeth, Mary coming in with her message?

SMcC Well, we see how there is the thought of what is within, linking with the great thought of the body; the body is a wonderful organism, where there are impressions of Christ that are awakened in our contacts with one another. In that sense it would suggest what is inward.

ALRT It says of Mary in Luke 2: 19, that she “kept all these things in her mind, pondering them in her heart”. Would that indicate the way in which we may be led into this inwardness?

SMcC I think so; that is that we must be prepared to listen. Mary listened to Jesus’ word, sitting at His feet, and the ministry of Nathan involves that we have got to have an ear, we have got to listen. Where was David’s ear, you see, in the chapters that follow? Ammon comes up, and all the sorrow of misplaced and misdirected affections in the next chapter, and then Absalom comes up. One by one, the different persons come up; Joab, and the woman come up, directing attention to Absalom. When God was directing attention to Christ in type in Solomon, we have the operation in the woman of the mystery of iniquity, working speciously to attract attention to Absalom.

RGB Is the prophetic word from this point of view to bring us round to God’s viewpoint? Is it when we come round to God’s viewpoint that we are really saved from these other matters?

SMcC I think that is the point, and the earlier we are affected by this the better. If we think of the younger ones coming on; it is not a question of what is current in the world, where they have great persons at sports and athletics, and in the field of learning, and in the field of politics, men that stand out and become an ideal, but Christ is to be our ideal, and the sooner we learn that He is God’s Centre of affection the better. If our affections do not get centred on Christ they will be built around ourselves, and the man that God is displacing by Christ.

JCT Are the three references to the Spirit in connection with Simeon significant? I was wondering whether only the Spirit would lead us into this appreciation of Christ. How needful it is that He should have way with us in order to do so!

SMcC The Spirit must come into these matters, because the Spirit’s help is constantly needed in regard to this matter of inwardness, and of our holding to the divine centre of affection. If we do not make use of the Spirit, our affections will get out of control, and will get misplaced; and there will be much sorrow and grief resultant.

PL In 2 Samuel 23 there is a wonderful delineation of Christ, “The anointed of the God of Jacob, and the sweet Psalmist of Israel”, “the Rock of Israel” and so on, and the cloudless morning. Then the mighties at that point are brought in, and it says that David had them (verse 8); and then there is the smiting of two lion-like men of Moab by Benaiah; and the different exploits of the mighties. Do you think that the energy to deal with all these rival heroic elements you refer to lies in the cherishing of this great ideal?

SMcC I am sure it does, because the whole operation of the mystery of lawlessness is to enamour us with another ideal, a rival to Christ, with sonship on another line. If we might just refer to 2 Samuel 14 for a moment, and see the language of the mystery of iniquity in the end of verse 7 she says “so they will quench my coal which is left”. Then in verse 11, “lest they cut off my son”. Then in verse 16, “that would destroy me and my son together out of the inheritance of God”. Well, we might say, that is very touching language, surely that would draw out sympathy and feeling! But who is the “coal”, who is the “my son”? It is the man of sin in type, the antichrist; it is Absalom. You can see how the thing works speciously to misdirect feelings and sympathy into the wrong channel, and converge them on the wrong object, over against what God has been indicating in the ministry, as to Jedidiah, Solomon.

AH That brought in great loss of life, but the prophet in 1 Kings that you referred to says, “let me, I pray thee, give thee counsel, that thou mayest save thine own life, and the life of thy son Solomon”, chapter 1: 12.

SMcC I am sure that all this is very practical in its bearing upon every one of us, for God will not support or countenance in any of us the features of the man of sin and shame; but He will strengthen every bit of affection that there is for the Man of His counsel, the Man of His purpose. And we want to be in that.

- .L. We might be built up in what is fixed and eternal. I was struck with your remark; is that where everything is fixed?

SMcC It is a fixed matter you see. There is no going back on it on the part of God. But then there is no going back on it on the part of the saints - that is what we want to come to - they anointed Solomon king a second time.

- .L. There was nothing fixed about these other men, was there, they all met disaster? Everything is fixed in Solomon.

SMcC Yes. To get to this point of anointing Solomon the second time; we are living in a day when there is so much said about persons going back on things, going back on the truth, going back on what they have formerly held, and on what they have formerly enjoyed. That is not God’s way. In Chronicles, as Solomon becomes the focal object, they anoint him a second time. They do not go back on the truth, the matter is sustained all the way through in 1 Chronicles 29.

PHH That is, they confirmed what God had already designated.

SMcC That is it. And confirmed what they had already designated. When Solomon was anointed in 1 Kings 1: 39 “all the people said Long live king Solomon!” That is, there was the first time, and there was the second time. They did not go back on it, they confirmed what originally had been done.

PHH Does that explain a little the rising of the priest in 1 Kings? Early there is a mention of these men, Zadok the priest, and Benaiah, and Nathan; but as the narrative goes on, it is Zadok the priest who comes to the forefront. Is there something in that?

SMcC I think so, because you will notice that in the last passage Zadok is linked with Solomon in Chronicles, he is anointed to be priest, showing the exalted level on to which Zadok is brought. Nathan the prophet is the representative of God; Zadok is linked with Solomon in a peculiar way in that passage, so that we are to notice his prominence here, and we are to notice the prominence of David’s mule, and Gihon, and the horn of oil out of the tabernacle. In 2 Samuel 12 it is more the private view as we are brought into God’s secret over against the disaster and the background. The assembly comes on to our view now in 1 Kings 1 in the tabernacle, and the horn of oil which is linked with it. And then the name Gihon means stream and in Gihon there was a fountain or reservoir of water. You remember how in the day of revival in Hezekiah’s time when the enemy came in, Hezekiah stopped the waters of Gihon, and brought them down underground to the west side of the city of David; 2 Chronicles 32: 30. Gihon brings in the thought of the Spirit in a general way in the dispensation, the horn of oil is the Spirit in a special distinctive way, as out of the tabernacle, all entering into this matter now, of the anointing of Solomon.

PHH Would you just say a little about the connection between what is priestly and what is prophetic? Do they serve one another as features amongst the saints?

SMcC They do, but there is this difference, that the priest can go where the prophet cannot.

PHH Yes; quite so. Would you say that the thought of the prophet comes out from God, and speaks on His behalf; but the priest can always go in, and is constitutionally a worshipper?

SMcC That is it. So that Zadok the priest took the horn of oil out of the tabernacle; he went in to the tent, and took the horn of oil out.

PHH Does that mean that Zadok here, the priest, is so to speak in line with God’s original thought about loving Solomon, calling him Jedidiah?

SMcC I think it does, and it especially points to the way that the Spirit comes into the matter, over against the rival again, in Adonijah. The Spirit comes into the matter to consolidate the position through Zadok.

GHSP Might the assembly come in here as the sphere in which the great thoughts of God are treasured inwardly?

SMcC The whole secret is bound up with the assembly in that sense, that what is necessary to anoint Solomon is linked with the assembly; it is the Holy Spirit in relation to the assembly in this way, in view of Solomon standing out.

RGB The Spirit of God will not tolerate any rival to Christ, and will He, as made room for, keep the hearts of the saints in that direction, and help us to preserve a condition of loyalty to Christ?

SMcC I thought so, and the importance of Zadok the priest, showing the need for priestly influence in a background like this, where again we have got diverse elements that are operating; and really what is operating is that the hand is on the throne of Jah. In the last passage that we read, Solomon sat on the throne of Jehovah; it is a mysterious reference, a remarkable and unique reference. He sat, not on the throne of David in that particular verse, but he sat on the throne of Jehovah. So what Adonijah was really after was the throne of Jehovah, the displacement of Jehovah in the midst of His people.

RGB In relation to Zadok, you seem to have a peculiar feature of loyalty brought forward in the way that he is mentioned in the book of Ezekiel. It says he “kept the charge of my sanctuary when the children of Israel went astray from me” (chapter 44: 15), as if that element of loyalty in the midst of a dark background is peculiarly presented in Zadok, would you say?

SMcC That is remarkable, showing how God values secret history with Himself. It is a question of where we are with Him in crises, where we are not deflected, or disaffected by natural feelings of emotion. Zadok was free from all these and was in line with God’s movements in regard of the man of His choice, and God values that.

PHH What would you say about Bath-sheba as needing to be adjusted two or three times in this chapter in Kings?

SMcC I suppose it alludes to a state in the saints that is weak. It may be in any locality, for we work out all these things practically in our localities. David is weak on the line of kingship publicly and in authority, and Bath-sheba is weak; so that you might say it is a condition of things in which, if nothing intervenes, the whole spirit of what is antichristian in the way of principles and the like that belong to his system, will bring in disaster. But we find that Benaiah is there, and Zadok is there; and they operate in relation to Bath-sheba, and bring her into line with the divine thought.

AH Would you say what you understand is represented in Benaiah, he makes a remarkable statement in verses 36 and 37?

SMcC He does. “And Benaiah the son of Jehoiada answered the king and said, Amen”. That is very fine. How he says, “Jehovah the God of my lord the king, say so too. As Jehovah has been with my lord the king, even so be he with Solomon, and make his throne greater than the throne of my lord king David”. Then we get Benaiah with the Cherethites and the Pelethites; that is the bodyguard, those that stand around Solomon’s couch, and protect the great divine thought in Solomon.

- .L. Are these men some of the fixed ones to use your expression?

SMcC Yes. God can rely on them in the hour of crisis.

- .L. They are fixed in their hearts and affections and thoughts?

SMcC I believe that unreliability - and we all are to feel it, at least I feel it for myself - unreliability in us naturally largely springs from losing sight of Solomon, Christ in this type, as the divine ideal; because everything is fixed in relation to Solomon, God is committed to it. God is committed to Christ; and we want to be fully committed to Christ in this sense too.

- .L. And may that be one of the reasons why Jehovah loved him, as Jehovah looked, shall we say, ahead?

SMcC In the sense in which Christ would be in the divine mind, yes. In 2 Samuel 12 the love of Jehovah stands related to what was in the babe there. Of course it would operate right through, but the whole point is the unique reference that is not made of any other babe, that Jehovah loved him. It was what was there in the babe.

EJH Is it continual fixedness in constantly changing circumstances that is such a test to us?

SMcC It is. You feel that, for next week or next month, or next year, we do not know from which side the enemy will approach, and will shake us to our foundations as to where we are in regard to Solomon, where we are in regard to Christ, the Man of God’s purpose and counsel. And if we are not in line with God, we shall build up our hopes and our thoughts and our feelings and our affections in regard to the man that is sure to come to disaster; and we will lose our way.

ACSP In that connection, is it not striking that in the chapter Mr. L. referred to, Benaiah shines as one who deals with single great persons? There were not only the two lion-like men of Moab, but an imposing man, an Egyptian. Other mighties dealt with great numbers; but he seemed to deal with personalities.

SMcC Yes. The flesh loves an imposing man! You see that in your own heart. How the flesh gravitates to what is imposing, what will put a big impression on any one of us. We have to reject that completely. We begin with a babe, there is nothing very imposing about a babe. Think of the loveliness of a babe, think of God loving that babe! God would draw us into His secret in relation to Christ so that we might be preserved in that secret from all the antichristian stream and currents that are flowing so swiftly around us.

AEB Do we have to see that the devil himself is behind every one of these rivals, whether it be Adonijah, or Absalom, or whoever it may be? Are not all the activities in connection with Solomon centred in Gihon, but the activities in connection with Adonijah are at the stone Zoheleth, and Zoheleth means “serpent” does it not?

SMcC Does it? I do not know. I am sure that Gihon is an important point to see here. The word itself means a stream and there were waters, plenty of water in Gihon. The enemy tried to get at it, but Hezekiah diverted it by bringing it underground, as the literal version of it is, in 2 Chronicles 32; he brought it down to the west side of the city of David; that is, where the day was declining, the west side, to strengthen and support the position, it is the Spirit’s power.

CMM Would the reference to the trumpet and the pipe remind us of prophetic ministry, the trumpet giving no uncertain sound, and the ministry supporting the greatness of Solomon?

SMcC Therefore the importance of right leadership. It is important in all these matters that the leaders should be right, so that a right lead is given that all the people can come into, and say “Long live king Solomon”. It is all the people.

WDD Were you going to say something about the mule on which he rode?

SMcC I think it is very fine to see how David’s mule comes in here. It would be quite different from Absalom’s mule. Absalom’s mule took him under a tree where he got held up, and it meant the end of him, but David’s mule never took him under a tree. David says in verse 33, “Take with you the servants of your lord, and cause Solomon my son to ride upon mine own mule”, and then in verse 38 it says they “caused Solomon to ride upon king David’s mule”. I think as you read 2 Samuel 22 and 23, the wonderful song, and then David’s references to himself, you see David’s mule; you see the way he was carried through, the way he was brought through, and Solomon is to come through on the same mule “thou, Solomon my son, know the God of thy father”, 1 Chronicles 28: 9. He is going to be carried through on the same principle that David was carried through on.

P.L. In royal dignity?

SMcC That is it. Not stooping to the pettiness and meanness of the flesh which breaks out in Joab and Ammon and Absalom, to gain their own selfish end. Royal dignity marks Solomon in this sense. Now we must just have a word as to Chronicles, where we get this thought entering into the chapter where the service of God is in mind, and where the sacrificial side is mentioned earlier. We referred to “And they made Solomon the son of David king the second time, and anointed him to Jehovah”. I think that is a reaction to “and he called his name Jedidiah, for Jehovah’s sake”. The people now have come to it, so that they anoint him to Jehovah, to be prince; it is what is for Jehovah. Then it says “And Solomon sat on the throne of Jehovah as king instead of David his father, and prospered; and all Israel obeyed him. And all the princes, and the mighty men, and all the sons likewise of king David, submitted themselves to Solomon the king. And Jehovah magnified Solomon exceedingly in the sight of all Israel”. Now we should notice these ‘alls’, not a rival remains on the scene. Where is Absalom? Where is Adonijah? Where is Joab? Where is Ammon? They are all out. “Put every men out from before me”, as Joseph said in Genesis: they are all out. We reach a realm and a sphere in the light of God’s exalted supremacy where Christ is supreme, and on the throne of Jehovah; and where there is not an adverse or rival element in the realm in relation to Solomon.

GD In the first of Colossians, we have “the kingdom of the Son of his love”.

SMcC Yes. All this line is Colossian; we shall see in relation to the ark the Ephesian side. Solomon is the personal side, but the ark brings in the great thought of the system of the truth, the centre of the testimony, the Christ, and the unity of the Spirit. All that is seen officially in Ephesians.

AEB Could you just say a word about this thought of magnification?

SMcC I think that we want to make room for it, and God would advance on our souls the greatness of Christ. He magnified Joshua, that was in relation to the proximity to the Jordan, but this is a further thought. Christ was magnified in His entrance above, as having, in a military way, in triumph come through. But then, the magnification of Solomon is as sitting on the throne of Jehovah.

PHH Was there a moral warrant for it in the people, that is, that they obeyed him, and they submitted themselves to him? Does that mean that behind all that Jehovah was doing, He had the full support, so to speak, of the saints?

SMcC That is it. So that there is not an independent thought, or an independent feature in the whole position. This chapter is full of ‘alls’. If you go through the chapter, and count the times that ‘all’ is mentioned in this section, it is impressive. And that is what God is aiming at, nothing less than the whole thought, suggested in all. We may have to hold to it abstractly, but that is the divine mind - the all. And things are sustained, not only in relation to Solomon, but the sacrificial side comes in for it says in verse 21 that they offered on the morrow after that day. There is no let down, there is no going back. It is very humbling, and rouses feelings of sorrow and grief in your heart, to think of those that go back on the truth, and go back on what they were originally committed to. But there is nothing of that here.

GHSP Might the divine thought be set out in Colossians, where it says that all the fulness was pleased to dwell in Christ? Could there be some link there with “Jehovah loved him” - the pleasure of the Godhead dwelling in Christ as Man?

SMcC Yes. Colossians shows how Christ is the great central thought. So that in Colossians 2 it just says, “For in him dwells all the fulness of the Godhead bodily” (verse 9). It is not altogether a mediatorial thought there, it involves that Deity is there, Christ is the expression of Deity in that verse. And there is a link with Solomon on the throne of Jehovah. That is a unique and remarkable reference that we do not find elsewhere, that “Solomon sat on the throne of Jehovah”. That is, where the supremacy of Jehovah, of God, is moved on to our view, we see Christ in type in Solomon in it, the Man on the throne.