THE ARK OF THE COVENANT (5)
[p. 310] THE ARK OF THE COVENANT (5)
1 Chronicles 15: 25; 1 Chronicles 16: 8; 2 Chronicles 5: 11 - 14
JM Perhaps you would say a few words as to what we had before us this morning.
JT We continued the consideration of the Ark of the covenant, viewing it as in Joshua 6. It is seen there as carried by the priests round the city of Jericho. The Lord appeared at that juncture in a new way; that is, He appeared to Joshua militarily, announcing Himself as Captain of the Host of Jehovah; so that he was to understand that what was to ensue was warfare. The Lord Jesus is typically seen as leading in the conflict; the form it should take would be the carrying of the Ark and the sounding of the blast-trumpets. On the one hand, the testimony is sounded out, and on the other the Lord Jesus is seen in His power. So that, as it is said in 2 Corinthians, strongholds were brought down, and every high thing that lifts itself up against the knowledge of God. The world and its teachers are overcome by faith in the testimony that was rendered by the apostles in the power of the Holy Spirit; so that the saints can enter on their own portion, the portion which God purposed for them. On the one hand, strongholds were brought down, while on the other, the whole counsel of God was declared. Thus, Christianity was set up. It was pointed out that what the apostles in that way effected by their testimony was to be maintained by the saints.
What we have before us now is another side of the truth; that is, what is brought about for God through the Ark. What we have had before us so far is connected with what is for us. The Ark, for instance, went to find a resting place for the people; but then there is the other side, namely, a resting [p. 311] place for the Ark, and the service of God consequent on this. The endings of the gospels present these results of Christ’s death and resurrection.
JPW What is the difference between Joshua and king David in connection with the Ark?
JT Joshua is the military side, bringing down the world power through the testimony, so that the people might enter upon the inheritance. There is an inheritance among the sanctified, proposed in the gospel. But then there is also God’s inheritance. His heritage is His people. And I think that David and Solomon taken together bring in the people in connection with the Ark. All Israel brought up the Ark, it says here; 1 Chronicles 15: 28. They were all in the movement to bring the Ark to Zion; they are in this respect secured for God. The gospels have to be taken account of in that way; each gospel sets out some particular feature for God, whether it be in Matthew, Mark, Luke, or John.
I think John is mainly connected with what we had this morning; the inheritance; our heavenly relationships, but Luke brings in the priests and what is for God.
JM That would be seen in the beginning of Luke, at the birth of Christ?
JT Yes, and throughout the whole gospel.
RWG Referring to what we have had before us previously, there is a great deal to be wrought in our souls before we reach the point in these chapters.
JT That is so; we have to be fitted for song, so that the Lord can use us in that connection. It is a great thing to be an administrator according to God. I think Matthew makes us administrators; and I think Mark helps us to be preachers or ministers; but Luke introduces priests; those who offer praise. The Lord leaves a company here, according to Luke, who returned to Jerusalem with great joy, and were continually in the temple praising and blessing God.
[p. 312] We have the suggestion there that is opened out later; and I think 1 Chronicles may be taken to answer to it.
E.M. What about John?
JT He brings in the kind of persons that occupy the land; they are great persons — the brethren of Christ. He makes much of persons; whereas Luke rather speaks of priests who maintain the service of praising God; and anyone can see that these were of great value, people who understood music. Indeed it was one of the marks of David at the outset; he was a musician — “the sweet psalmist of Israel”, 2 Samuel 23:1.
RWG What do you mean by a musician?
JT One that can praise God with melody; not simply one making a noise. They were “playing aloud with lutes and harps”, when they carried the Ark up. Note that David and the Levites that bore the Ark, and the singers, and Chenaniah, chief of the music of the singers, were clothed with linen; David had on an ephod of linen. Linen maintains us in sobriety, and free from excitement and natural sentiment in our service before God. David is the royal priest here.
EH Not only does he sing himself, but he has others to join in it, and he gives them something to sing too.
JT He does. It is effective leadership. One man stands out prominently as leader. He begins: “Give thanks unto the Lord, call upon his name, make known his deeds among the people. Sing unto him, sing psalms unto him, talk ye of all his wondrous works. Glory ye in his holy name; let the heart of them rejoice that seek the Lord”, 1 Chronicles 16: 8 - 10.
EH It would remind one of Hebrews 2. “I will declare thy name unto my brethren, in the midst of the church will I sing praise unto thee?”
JM What would answer to the bringing up of the Ark out of the house of Obed-edom? It was then the praise began.
JT Obed-edom’s house indicated a certain place of shelter for the Ark; it was not the place suited for it. Any individual consideration for the testimony where the collective side is not available, would correspond. In David and Solomon the full collective side of the truth is reached. Christ had been among the Philistines; and then He had been for a long time neglected. In Psalm 78 we read: “God delivered his strength into captivity, and his glory into the enemy’s hand”, Psalm 78:61 but then He “awaked as one out of sleep, and like a mighty man that shouteth by reason of wine. And He smote his enemies in the hinder parts; He put them to a perpetual reproach. Moreover he refused the tabernacle of Joseph and chose not the tribe of Ephraim; but chose the tribe of Judah, the mount Zion which he loved”, Psalm 78:65 - 68. It is the side of God’s sovereignty, securing what is for Himself. Whether it be Christ amongst the Jews, or whether it be in a smaller way now where there is revival, the thought is that Christ is to have His place, so that God would have His portion. We have to look at it in that way, as to what accrues to God from any movement He may inaugurate.
EH Is not one point here that David brought the Ark to a special tent which he pitched for it? It is not brought to the tabernacle. A new thing had come in.
JT Yes, although for a time the old order of things continued. In the earlier part of Acts the tabernacle is still in view; only the Ark has its own place. I suppose the tabernacle would represent the old order of things in Israel, until it was finally set aside.
EM Did not Paul, so to speak, bring the Ark up to its resting place?
JT He separated the testimony wholly from the earthly order of things. The Lord’s supper had been connected with believers’ houses, but he formally separates it, and places it in the assembly; 1 Corinthians 11. And it is in the midst of the assembly that the Lord praises; the house of Obed-edom would not do. There was a certain interest in the Ark, and Obed-edom was blessed for it, but his house was not Zion.
PL Zion is called David’s city here; is that a similar thought to the assembly?
JT Well, it is; the assembly is something the Lord has wholly for Himself.
JM Would John’s gospel provide the kind of people from whom God would get His portion, when the Ark is in its place?
JT Yes. “I will declare thy name unto my brethren”, Psalm 22:22. John gives their family dignity, and Luke their official place. That is, there is a sanctified company from which praise ascends. But then you must have organisation; David orders the singing. For us, this is “in the midst of the assembly”, Hebrews 2:12. Christ sings there. If there is anything that needs to be organised it is a band of music, where each instrument has its part, and each one has to attend to the leader’s guidance. What you find is that when the Ark begins to move to Zion, then the music has its place. You see they had been acting on Philistine principles before, using a cart, which is suggestive of much that goes on round about us today. But David learns his lesson; and as the appointed order is resorted to, the music is heard. 1 Chronicles furnishes the order suited to the service of God, Christ having His place. The Corinthians, I judge, were acting according to Philistine methods; they were recognising people of importance in this world, instead of the priests. Whereas Paul says, “do ye despise the assembly of God?” 1 Corinthians 11: 22. Michal, Saul’s daughter, represents that despising element.
RWG I suppose that despising element will always exist.
[p. 315] RB The despiser comes under the judgment of God here.
JT The organisation we have spoken of is seen in David here. Twenty-four, as a numeral, marks the order of this book. David is head here. We were dwelling this morning on the leadership of. Christ from a military point of view; but here it is wisdom bringing in what is for God. I think Luke especially has this side in view, because this gospel brings in the priesthood; at the end of Luke we read of the Lord with uplifted hands blessing the disciples, and while He blessed them He was carried up into heaven.
EM This would be the grand result brought about by the Lord as seen in Luke, as we have it in Romans 15:6, “That ye may with one mind and one mouth glorify God, even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ”. “God was in Christ reconciling the world unto himself”, 2 Corinthians 5: 19. This is the end in view.
RB What had you in mind in speaking of a royal priest in this connection?
JT David was clad here in priestly garments, he was before the Ark, dancing and playing. He says to Michal, “It was before Jehovah”.
RB But how do you speak of that as contrasted with the holy priesthood?
JT The royal priesthood involves a certain dignity. And I think you see this all through the gospel of Luke; although it is a priest that he presents, there is a peculiar dignity attached to the Lord throughout. David was prophet, priest and king. I think that the royal priest inaugurated the system of praise. Christians are royal priests as well as holy priests.
RB Do you connect the royal priesthood with “the right hand of the throne of the majesty in the heavens?” Hebrews 8:1 Yes; as in Hebrews 8: 1, 2. “We have [p. 316] such a one high priest who has sat down on the right hand of the throne of the greatness in the heavens; minister of the holy places and of the true tabernacle which the Lord has pitched, not man”. The true tabernacle which the Lord pitched may be connected with the tent that David made for the Ark. So that David is here inaugurating a great praise system. It is an immense subject; a subject very little understood by the people of God, because we do not apprehend what Christ brought in for God.
Ques Do you think that the Ark on mount Zion is morally higher than what is suggested in connection with the temple?
JT They are one in this respect. David and Solomon are to be taken together. You will find that the note struck in the temple is just as it is here: “They lifted up their voice with the trumpets and cymbals and instruments of music, and praised the Lord saying, For he is good; for his mercy endureth for ever”, 2 Chronicles 5:13. That was David’s note. And in verse 1 of that chapter we read, “Solomon brought in all the things that David his father had dedicated; and the silver and the gold, and all the instruments, put he among the treasures of the house of God”. The link is maintained; David inaugurated it; Solomon is his counterpart. David is morally greater than Solomon, it is true, but here I think Solomon is just the counterpart. Strictly, the Ark did not reach its resting-place until the temple was built.
JM You mentioned that what David introduced here was little understood amongst the people of God. What would help us on that line?
JT Well it is an immense subject. The great place given to it by the Spirit of God in this book, shows what a subject it is; that is, What am I for God? I see what the Ark has been for me, right through from Exodus — that we might have our [p. 317] inheritance, etc. Ephesians says we have already the earnest of it. But when the apostle prays to the “Father of glory”, Ephesians 1: 17. We are now approaching another thing — what is for God? This is the glorious theme that we have before us here. The apostle’s prayer was, that God “may give unto you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him: the eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that ye may know what is the hope of his calling”, Ephesians 1:17. That is, that you might have Him and His things before you. These are things that we rarely touch.
Ques Does all that produce praise?
JT Well, that is what it leads to. David had a great knowledge of God; the fact that he wrote so many psalms is evidence of the wide experience he had with God; because they were the result of this experience. So it is the knowledge of God in my soul that enables me to apprehend what is suitable for Him. David prepared with all his might for the house of the Lord. Everything was to be in keeping with the God for whom it was to be reared up. There is little or nothing said about magnificence in the tabernacle; but when you come to this, everything is on a grand scale; no expense is spared. It is the outgoing of a man who had a great appreciation of God.
TMG I suppose that is why he is called a man after God’s own heart.
JT He recalls his appreciation of the Ark from his youthful days; he says, “Lo we heard of it at Ephratah, we found it in the fields of the wood”; Psalm 132:6 also, “I will not come into the tabernacle of my house, nor go up into my bed; I will not give sleep to mine eyes, or slumber to mine eyelids, until I find out a place for the Lord, an habitation for the mighty God of Jacob”, Psalm 132:5. He goes back to the beginning. Some of us were remarking about [p. 318] Chronicles, that it goes back to the beginning. One who knows God goes back to the beginning, and he links all up.
You must have everything that God has given expression to; all was to be gathered up and centred in this house. So Chronicles begins with Adam. David goes back to Genesis 28; he evidences spiritual intelligence in this; it is in that chapter that the house of God first comes in. He speaks of finding a habitation for the mighty God of Jacob; that One is to have the house, but it is to be a house filled with song. “Let thy priests be clothed with righteousness; and let thy saints shout for joy”, Psalm 132:9.
Rem The book of Chronicles being written after the captivity shows great appreciation of God’s things when outwardly there was much to discourage.
JT Whatever truth is recovered, the man of God will link it on with what was at the beginning; it must be in keeping with that or it is spurious; and I think that is characteristic of this book; it brings in something that is new, but it links it on with the beginning. I have no doubt that the number twenty-four, which marks the book, as already said, has this in view.
JM Things are tested in that way. John takes us back to the beginning.
JT And so Luke; he was acquainted with all things from the beginning.
JM So the song that is brought in here would be in keeping with all that is of Christ at the beginning.
JT The words of Jacob, at the very outset of his spiritual career, are not lost; there was something there for faith. “This is none other but the house of God” (Jacob says), “and this is the gate of heaven”, Genesis 28:17. “Twenty-four”, covering two dispensations, includes all that was of God in both.
Ques When David brings in the Ark into the tabernacle, it says he offered burnt offerings and peace [p. 319] offerings. I suppose that is the appreciation of Christ, what He wrought for God; and the people have part in that.
JT Exactly; so when we come together our fellowship is “in the light”, 1 John 1:7.
RB In connection with what you were saying about everything being maintained from the beginning with what we may have later, the whole would be in perfect harmony.
JT Yes; the editor of this book had in his mind, by the Spirit, that God had been working from the outset. As the Lord says, “My Father worketh hitherto and I work”, John 5:17. It is all one thing, and it is gathered up in this book. David has the light of that, and it is all secured; there is nothing lost.
PL In regard to what you were saying about connecting up all that was given before, when the Lord was instructing the priestly company which He was about to leave behind Him, the instruction is from Moses and the prophets.
JT Yes, you have that on the way to Emmaus, “having begun from Moses and from all the prophets, he interpreted to them in all the scriptures the things concerning himself”, Luke 24:27. And then afterwards when He comes in to the company, He opens their understanding.
PL And He adds the Psalms; in a sense, you must have the saints together to have the Psalms.
JT Yes; He opened their understanding. He says, “These are the words which I spoke to you while I was yet with you, that all that is written concerning me in the law of Moses and prophets and psalms must be fulfilled”. Then he opened their understanding to understand the scriptures, and said to them, “Thus it is written”, Luke 24: 44 - 46. I apprehend that when He says, “Thus it is written”, it is for them to understand now; it is not now an exposition. The Holy Spirit does not record the [p. 320] exposition He gave to the two on the way to Emmaus. What we may hope to have is the understanding; we have what is written. Hence the great importance of the Old Testament, because you have what is from the beginning, all gathered up and centred in Christ risen. So there is nothing lost. When the company was led out to Bethany, they had all this in their minds, and when they went back to Jerusalem you can understand what intelligent persons they were; they went into the temple with great joy. There is not much in music if there is not joy behind it; it should be the expression of joy; Is any happy? “let him sing psalms”, James 5: 13.
RB It is noteworthy, that after the Supper “they sang a hymn”, Matthew 26:30.
RMG The music you refer to would not be altogether the singing of hymns?
JT It is making melody in the heart. It is not simply making a noise. David would abhor mere noise. He was a musician, and regulated the music to a perfectly musical code. You have such an one here as that; a master of music — Chenaniah, chief of the Levites, was for song; he instructed about the song, because he was skilful; 1 Chronicles 15: 22.
RB I referred to the matter of the hymn, because I think that the Lord’s supper leads to joy in the heart in the sense of what Christ is to God; as the Ark was in David’s day.
JT I think it is very much like what we had yesterday; that is, they moved from the mount of Jehovah. The mount of Jehovah refers to the love of God, and that sets the heart in motion; the love of God is shed abroad in the heart. The Holy Spirit brings the love of God into my heart; it moves it. But then the Lord takes it up; the Ark of the covenant went before them in the three days’ journey to find a resting-place. But the point now would be rather the psalm — what is for God.
[p. 321] Ques It says in chapter 15: 25, that “David, and the elders of Israel, and the captains over thousands, went to bring up the ark of the covenant of the Lord out of the house of Obed-edom with joy”. Is that movement started now by the accumulating experience of the mind of God, and the experience of warriors in conflict?
JT Yes; they lead in it, and then it says in verse 28, “All Israel brought up the ark of the covenant of the Lord with shouting and with sound of the cornet and with trumpets”. This shows that good leadership brings the people into the divine movement.
EH We should be stringed instruments, sensitive to the touch of Christ; so that as He touches our hearts they may respond.
EM Would you not say it is a serious thing to give out a hymn?
JT Well, it has been observed that it should be the result of intelligence; “I will sing with the understanding”, 1 Corinthians 14:15. Understanding is that in which the Lord can act in us. If I do not use my understanding I am really not available to the Lord.
EM In giving out a hymn you involve the whole company. A hymn given out in the Spirit is really the intelligent apprehension of things according to God, and it would be the expression of living affection suitable to the moment.
JT I think the understanding implies that you know whether it is suitable or not.
Ques Would you say that what gives character to the singing is the apprehension of the wondrous works of the Lord; as we have it here in verse 9, “Sing psalms unto him, talk ye of all his wondrous works”. On the day of Pentecost they spoke in different tongues the wonderful works of God. Would apprehension of the way in which God has wrought to establish His counsels in Christ lead to [p. 322] singing?
JT Yes. Only that you go further than that: you praise God because of what He is. I think it has been often remarked that hymns suitable to the Father are very scarce. In 2 Chronicles 5 there was wondrous melody, and the house was filled with a cloud; the glory of the Lord had filled it. And the question arises as to how much of that exists now. Habakkuk, I think, helps us on that line as to how to keep up the song whatever the outward circumstances may be; even if the fig tree shall not blossom, neither shall fruit be in the vines; if the labour of the olive fail, and the fields yield no meat; if the flock be cut off from the fold, and there be no herd in the stalls; yet he rejoices in the Lord, and joys in the God of his salvation. “The Lord God”, he says, “is my strength, and he will make my feet like hinds’ feet, and he will make me walk upon mine high places”, Habakkuk 3:19. And so he sings on his stringed instruments; he mentions nothing now of what he had gone through — his discipline — he lets nothing interfere with the song.
JM The heart’s outgoing — is it not the knowledge of God that brings that about in the soul; and what Christ is to Him? I was struck by the reference made to the hymn after the Supper. “When they had sung an hymn, they went out into the mount of Olives”, Matthew 26:30.
JT ‘Higher, and higher yet’. (427:5)
JM If our hearts possess the knowledge of what Christ is to God, it will lead us to praise and thanksgiving to the Father.
E.M. What about worship?
JT Well, it all goes together; that is the relationship in which we are in God’s house.
EM Praise would be connected with the works of God, and what is set forth in Christ; and the worship of God is the living appreciation of Himself.
JT The Lord said, “In the midst of the assembly will I sing thy praises”, Hebrews 2: 12. That was not simply because of His works; I think that was to God Himself because of what He is — perfectly known to Christ. I should include praise, in that way, in worship. Worship is the outgoing of the affections Godward. God is before your soul, and you worship Him.
EH What is the difference between what the Levites did and what the priests did in 2 Chronicles 5?
JT I think the priests’ service would always be of a higher and more intelligent nature. The trumpets, I think, maintain the link with the book of Joshua; that is the testimony that runs along with the praise.
AA Why was there no song, in Joshua, when the priests carried the Ark round the city, no voice was to be heard, — while here the trumpets are sounded?
JT Joshua is the sounding out of the testimony in connection with military power. We have the trumpets here also, but we have also what is for God.
PL “From you sounded out the word of the Lord”, 1 Thessalonians 1: 8.
Ques Would you say a word about the house being filled by the cloud.
JT I think that was the symbol of the divine presence — God’s delight in what was presented. That is the culmination of the whole series of instructions. There is nothing more delightful, and yet subduing, than the sense of the Father’s acceptance of the worship of the saints, presented through Christ. We are then in the presence of the Father’s love. We come to infinity there.
RWG It says the priests could not stand to minister by reason of the cloud.
JT There is no need of ministering now. The presence of God is enough. It is the sense you have in your soul of the presence of God.
PL “Then were the disciples glad, when they saw the Lord”, John 20:20. They never could explain what that experience was; they could not put it into words.
JT There is very little said in Scripture about heaven — it has often been remarked — or what the presence of God is, and our enjoyment of it. The thing has to be known, and it is unspeakable really, in a sense — the sense of the love of the Father known, filling the house.