THE KING AND THE KINGDOM
[p. 12] THE KING AND THE KINGDOM
1 Samuel 22: 1,2; 1 Samuel 30: 17 - 31; Romans 14: 17,18
In regard to the kingdom we find the scriptures making much of the Man by whom it is administered. They make much of Christ, and the Old Testament affords us testimonies to Christ as King, and in all His relations; hence it helps in the understanding of the kingdom, if we consider the Man by whom it is administered. The idea necessarily proceeds from God, but He is pleased to exercise His power and authority in a Man. Scripture makes evident the value of the types, and of what marked them. David is pre-eminent in this way. The scriptures enlarge on what he was personally, and on what Moses was; the Spirit enlarges on their character, these being the two specially employed by God in administration.
It might be stated concisely that the kingdom is the exercise of power in grace, and for this there must be a suited man. In the person of David a rallying point is afforded for those that needed help. David becomes a captain over them, and, in result, nothing is lost in spite of Saul’s breakdown. David recovers all. These two features are prominent, protection for those in need, and formation (for the people become like David), and then the recovery of everything for God. We need help, but as that is afforded us, we learn there is a formative power behind it, and that brings in the moral greatness of the man. David was not officially king yet, it was a question of what was moral. In Psalm 45: 4 we read, “And in thy majesty ride prosperously because of truth and meekness and righteousness”. That gives the thought of the Man; He is very great and very meek. That state has to be brought about in us; one has to be ruled before one can rule. Rule in the main is influence, and this involves moral greatness. The [p. 13] idea of a king is that he is able to rule, he has proved his ability in this way, and we are being formed to rule.
In Moses you have divine authority more directly set forth. It is a question of God’s authority directly communicated. So we get the thought of Moses’ rod, the symbol of God’s authority. Whilst divine influence was there it came out generally in ordering and arranging the people, so that they went out in rank, or military fashion; Exodus 13:18. The kingdom is exercised in Exodus very much in a military way until after chapter 15, where Moses is king in the affections of the people. In Deuteronomy 33, he is said to be king in Jeshurun, referring, no doubt, to Exodus 18. Generally speaking, however, what is military is in view. The people go out in harness, five in a rank, then Moses acts in regard to the Red Sea, typically against death; the rod is lifted up and death disposed of. Thus the Lord is celebrated in Exodus 15:3 in a military way, as a “man of war”.
David is also marked by this, but much more is said of his personality, what he was as raised up amongst men. “He that ruleth over men must be just, ruling in the fear of God”, 2 Samuel 23:3. David is the typical king. In the Old Testament there is more said about him than perhaps about any other, beginning with his boyhood. His anointing in the midst of his brethren is one of the finest pictures in the Old Testament. That is the man to rule. Saul was anointed in a sort of private way by Samuel, and was given a heart afterwards to suit his position. God helped Saul so as to show that if there was anything in flesh qualified to help man God would give it all the opportunity possible. Saul is marked from the very outset as having failed to find the asses. One might pass over that as being a mere incident, but the fact is drawn attention to, in order to show that he was disqualified from the start. He set out to find the asses and failed, and so he returned fearing [p. 14] his father may become concerned about him; a poor circumstance for a king. David, on the other hand, is occupied with the sheep, and none is lost; the lion and the bear come, but David protects his flock. He qualifies in this way before he is anointed. Then he comes in before Samuel, and everything about him indicates he is the right man. He has the marks: “ruddy and of a beautiful countenance” 1 Samuel 16:12; there is the indication of the energy of youth; and the Spirit says, “Arise, anoint him for this is he” 1 Samuel 16:12, as if to show that the Spirit knew him if Samuel did not. So the man is stamped with success from the beginning, and is anointed in the midst of his brethren. His parents did not know he was selected, yet the Spirit knew him well. Divine interposition is seen as marking his anointing; “this is he”.
The Lord developed the qualities of a king in the midst of His brethren. God knew Him, and marked Him off in the midst of the remnant of Israel. Everything about Him was pleasing to God. He stood out in the mind of God as the One for His delight. So when anointed with the Spirit, He can announce, “This is my beloved Son, in whom I have found my delight”. Matthew 3:17. The anointing was God committing Himself to Him. He had no pleasure obviously in Saul’s anointing. It was provisional to show what flesh is, but David is a man after God’s own heart.
David is first anointed by God in the midst of his brethren, but later he is crowned in Hebron. The people come to it. Like Solomon crowned by his mother in the day of his espousals. We have to come to this, that we desire no other. There is the recognition of the true leader before the public establishment of the kingdom. “When Saul was king over us”, they say, “thou wast he that leddest out and broughtest in Israel”. 2 Samuel 5:2. They recognised him then. So we recognise that the power of God is with Christ; though government outwardly is in other hands, the [p. 15] real power is with Christ. We can rely on that whatever may be going on in the political world; you can take account of what the Lord is doing. He recovers everything; and we know it by the way He recovers us. There is the testimony to it in oneself.
If we apply this dispensationally, the remnant of Israel as well as other needy ones require the power of Christ as viewed in this light, just as David’s brethren and his father’s house needed to be protected and influenced and stamped by his character. So the Lord, though rejected, is security for every one of us. “With me thou shalt be in safeguard”, David said to Abiathar; 1 Samuel 22: 23. It is a question of the king now, and we learn from the sequence that a stamp was left on all those associated with David during the time of his rejection. His influence brought about an extraordinary set of people.
In Matthew 11: 29 the Lord says, “Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me”. He is not simply a teacher there. He is a model; you see how things are presented in Himself. He was in rejection, and in the next chapter He quotes David’s action, how he went into the house of God and did eat the shewbread, when fleeing from Saul. In the same chapter we get, “If I by the Spirit of God cast out demons, then indeed the kingdom of God is come upon you”, Matthew 12: 28. It was there, but He invites all those who laboured and were heavy laden to come to Him. The emphasis is on the Person, it was a question of the kind of person. “Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me; for I am meek and lowly in heart; and ye shall find rest to your souls; for my yoke is easy, and my burden is light”. Matthew 11: 29,30. It is an immense thing, amid the break-up of everything politically, to have the idea of the kingdom and security spiritually, for surely it is much greater to be secured spiritually than physically. Not that God does not preserve us physically, but at the same time we are preserved here [p. 16] in peace and tranquility, so that we become a shelter for others. He has “made us a kingdom, priests to his God and Father”, Revelation 1: 6. There are two ideas, a kingdom and priests, and how can we be made a kingdom save as formed by the King?
David’s marvellous warriors were all the product of his influence, so we have the same thing now in Christians, for David’s men typify such, every one of them is as the son of a king. They had not much to commend them naturally, they were discontented and in debt, but their association with David made them what they were eventually. Abishai risked his life to obtain water for him; David became such an attraction and object. “I speak of the things which I have made touching the king”, Psalm 45:1. We get a suggestion there as to how those under the influence of Christ regard Him. It gives the thought of a composition. Every lover of Christ composes something as regards Christ. It is not His position in regard of the assembly that is in view, but His place as King: “So shall the king greatly desire thy beauty”. Psalm 45:11. He becomes an object for every one in the kingdom, and I believe this is a great feature, so that one is not carried away by radicalism. It provides an antidote to that. We hold and preserve the truth of God in our souls as retaining the dignity belonging to us, as connected with the King. Royalty attaches to us, and moral dignity goes with this, though we should be marked by meekness outwardly. “Behold, thy King cometh unto thee, meek, and sitting upon an ass”, Matthew 21: 5. We are made to feel today that foundations are being destroyed, kingdoms are toppling, so it is important that we should have right thoughts as to the King. God’s King loves righteousness and hates lawlessness.
Mephibosheth is an example of one who appreciates the king; he is an Ephesian believer typically. He had no thought for his land or anything earthly, all [p. 17] he was concerned about was that the king should come again in peace to his own house. So we look for the Lord to come into His rights. The kingdom becomes a large theme. Paul, during the whole of his two years at Rome, received all that came to his hired house and spoke to them of the kingdom of God. In Romans 14 it is the kingdom that occupies us, not now the king exactly. It is the system, the thing itself and this brings into evidence formative work, as the kingdom is composed of persons. Chapter 13 gives us the kingdom of men, what God has set up provisionally in the world, but chapter 14 is what is spiritual, it is the kingdom of God, “righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit” Romans 14:17. The last verse of chapter 13 exhorts us to “put on the Lord Jesus Christ”, Romans 13:14, it is not “put ye on Christ” nor “the new man” as elsewhere, but “the Lord Jesus Christ”, it is His full title, involving His authority. It is remarkable that we should put that on. It is put on as clothing, it is the garb in which we appear. We “put on” Christ as related to the kingdom. It is profession, but carried out consistently and practically.
The present good of the kingdom is first for protection. You are protected spiritually. If a young believer confesses with his or her mouth Jesus as Lord, it means salvation. Such come under the protection of Christ, and are saved. So baptism is in the name of the Lord in Acts 10. As you come under the wing of the Lord you are protected spiritually by the Lord. You come under His influence and learn from Him, and being formed by Him you get the benefit of having your will subdued, and realising the good of the Spirit. If the protection of the Lord is gained, your will is not to be active, you cannot count on His protection if you pursue your own will. The Lord must subjugate me if I am to be in the good of what He has for me. He sees to it by means of discipline and other things that my will does go.
“[p. 18] Put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ” Romans 13:14, is a question of profession. It is the garb in which you appear in public; you make no provision for the flesh, and then you come into the good of the Spirit. A Christian parent is not concerned as to how his children will get on in the world, so he baptises them, and brings them up in the truth of that. He puts on the Lord Jesus Christ in his house, and so in every sphere.
The kingdom is the bulwark of everything. Just as the city being the metropolis of the empire is protected, and just as all the light and direction which issue from the centre would soon disappear were it not for the army and navy to hold enemies off, so without the kingdom where would the assembly be? Perhaps we get the best example of this in Acts 9. Saul sets out as an emissary of Satan to destroy the assembly, and entering into houses, dragged out men and women, committing them to prison. In the midst of this activity the Lord appears and brings him down, and then subdues everything that opposes itself against what He is doing, so that, in result the assembly is multiplied and edified.
The parables in Matthew 13 and onwards view the kingdom as the product of Christ’s sowing. We get what the kingdom has become historically on the one hand and what it is essentially on the other; this is chapter 13. In chapter 18 and onwards it is viewed in relation to the assembly, so the features which mark it would work out in the brother you forgive, and in the light of the assembly you would look at the kingdom in an entirely new way, as in relation to the capital. One of the great features in this connection is to know how to forgive a brother. We are to be full of forgiveness, not niggardly.
In regard to suffering, the word to Smyrna is, “Ye shall have tribulation ten days” Revelation 2: 10. The Lord limits the period of it. If He allows it, it is [p. 19] His doing. It is a great thing to be directly in touch with Christ as Lord. One can stand as on a rock amid the surging tide of lawlessness. “Here I take my stand; I can do no other” is the profession of a man in the kingdom. It marked Luther’s brightest day. You have the helmet of salvation, and are able to lift up your head. You are protected spiritually in order that you may die outwardly, that you may become a martyr. The Lord supports the one He subdues, He will not support the flesh. Honours conferred on any one denote the prerogative of the sovereign, and those who receive them are necessarily part of the system. One might say in connection with Romans 13:14, that we put on the King, we appear in that garb everywhere; that is the idea in “Put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ”. I am not any less than the dignity conferred on me, and am supported according to that.
We referred to Mephibosheth sitting at table. In a certain sense it is an official position, but it also speaks of joy and satisfaction. So with us; but, on the other hand, we are to administer. In Matthew 18: 3 it says, “Except ye be converted, and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven”. One enters as a little child, guileless and without worldly sophistication, and grows up under the influence of the kingdom, so he knows how to act towards a brother, he has learned this from Christ. “Go and tell him his fault between thee and him alone”, Matthew 18:15. That is the line on which he acts. If he does not recover his brother, he takes another, there is an increase of the brotherly spirit brought to bear on the erring one. One of the finest features in the kingdom is the overcoming evil with good, hence you are on the line of recovery all the while. So you increase the brotherly spirit and thus make it hard for the brother to pursue a course of sin. “How oft shall my brother sin against me, and I forgive him?” Peter asks, “till seven times?” “Until seventy times seven”, is the Lord’s reply Matthew 18:21,22. It is wonderful, but that is the kingdom. If we refer for a moment to Luke’s account of the transfiguration, which is different from the other evangelists’ it says, “there be some standing here, which shall not taste of death, till they see the kingdom of God”. Luke 9: 27. What they see is a Man praying, it is not a warrior; “and as he prayed”, it says, “the fashion of his countenance was altered, and his raiment was white and glistering”. Luke 9:29. And with Him are found two men, “talking with him”; that is the kingdom, then the Father’s glory, the Shekinah, appears, so you have a vision of the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. Peter says, “We were eye-witnesses of his majesty”. 2 Peter 1:16. They learned in Him what the kingdom was.
The position of the saints is like a rock in the midst of the waves. Take it away, and all is gone. It is invulnerable. There is power with those who put on the Lord Jesus Christ. Hence it says, “Therefore, my beloved brethren, be ye stedfast, immoveable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as ye know that your labour is not in vain in the Lord”, 1 Corinthians 15: 58. It is a question of the Lord. It is very wonderful, and one would like to experience this power more in one’s soul, for it really and truly exists. We are not dealing with theories. Christ is in heaven and the Holy Spirit on earth, and man’s will cannot triumph as long as the Holy Spirit is here. “He that doeth these things shall never be moved”, Psalm 15: 5. “His place of defence shall be the munitions of rocks”, Isaiah 33: 16.