1 CHRONICLES 11 (NOTES OF A READING)
1 CHRONICLES 11 (NOTES OF A READING)
CAC It is very wonderful that the Spirit of God hastens in this book to bring David to his highest point of exaltation. You get nothing of his seven years at Hebron; that is passed over to bring David at once to Jerusalem — to Zion, reminding us surely that we have to do with Christ in His highest place of exaltation. The Spirit of God begins with Him there, and we begin with Him there. In this present dispensation of grace we begin with Jesus exalted to the highest possible point.
Rem In connection with passing over the period at Hebron, it was something like the Lord being here with a few of His own in humility and all that marked Him then; but really we start with Him as the ascended Man.
CAC It is very good to see that, and that the Spirit of God has in mind that we should all move with Him. “All Israel” is mentioned in verses 1, 4 and 10 — all Israel are brought in as moving with David, the Spirit of God having in mind that all the saints are to move with Christ.
Rem We are all typically included as having part with Him in His personal place of exaltation.
CAC It is a great help to have that distinctly before us, that grace has taken on a most wonderful and glorious character in Jesus being exalted. While the Lord was here grace was not positionally in the setting that it is in now. All the fulness of grace was there in Him personally, but it was not seen in Him positionally.
Rem Now it is universal, available to all.
CAC It is wonderful to think that God has brought about that there are those on earth who are of His flesh and of His bones, and so capable of identifying themselves with Him, prepared in their thoughts and affections to link themselves up with a glorified Man in heaven. There is nothing more wonderful on this earth.
In Ziklag we have what answers to Romans, and really Hebron answers to Colossians, and Jerusalem to Ephesians, as has often been noticed. So that grace takes on a character in the epistle to the Ephesians that does not appear anywhere else. Nowhere is it so magnified as in Ephesians; it is magnified positionally. Jesus being glorified we can sing now, ‘O the glory of the grace’. It required that Jesus should be glorified before He could in the fullest way glorify the Father. He said, “Glorify thy Son, that thy Son may glorify thee” (John 17: 1). There was something still required when the Lord was on earth. Now that He is glorified grace takes on a wonderful character — an inconceivable character to the human mind.
Rem “The riches of his grace” (Ephesians 1: 7).
CAC And in chapter 2:8, “Saved by grace”. It takes in the whole thing, that we are seated in Him in the heavenlies. No one understands being saved by grace until he sees it includes that.
Rem The Lord said, “I go to prepare you a place” (John 14: 2).
CAC Yes. The Lord never had anything less than the full thought of grace in His mind, and it is wonderful that as saints we can move with Him from death to resurrection and then to ascension, entitled to move with Him to the highest place, the most glorious place in the universe. You can understand how the Spirit of God was eager to get there.
Rem They moved in affection as being of his bone and of his flesh.
CAC They were in corporate identification with him. There should be with us a consciousness that we are of His bone and of His flesh, that is, of His order. That order of Man is seen in Christ risen from the dead and the Spirit would lead us into the realisation of that order of Man. If we are of His bone and of His flesh, we have finished with Saul, the man after the flesh; we are finished with the world if we are of the bone and of the flesh of the risen Man.
Rem You must get on to the Jerusalem position to get that fulfilled.
CAC It is interesting to see that in Chronicles the Spirit will not be delayed at Hebron; He hastens to Jerusalem, and the Spirit of God would always be intensely set on our reaching the full thought of the exaltation of Christ. What is magnified here is that he takes the stronghold of Zion, which is the city of David. That is a most important point in Scripture because it is the introduction of Zion, and we all know it has a most remarkable place in Scripture, in the Psalms and in the prophets, and here we get it first introduced. And we come into the thought of Zion too, we “have come to mount Zion” (Hebrews 12: 22). We ought to know something about it if we have come to it. God dwells there. “Out of Zion, the perfection of beauty, God hath shined forth” (Psalm 50: 2). “The mount Zion which he loved” (Psalm 78: 68). So it represents what He loves, where He dwells and out of which He shines — a system which answers perfectly to God.
You can quite see how God was cherishing in His heart the thought of an order of things which would satisfy Him and in which He could dwell and in which He could be known by His creature man, treasuring it for four thousand years, wrapping it up in beautiful types. Every time the Spirit wrote down “Zion” in the Scriptures God was delighted and said, as it were, ‘That is before Me and never will be set up until My Son comes down into death and goes to glory’. Nothing could be added to the Lord personally; He was as great as a Babe in the manger as in the glory. The gospels were written and should be read in the light of His being glorified. The references to Zion in the Psalms would repay careful consideration. In Psalm 87 you get the thought of being born in Zion, a wonderful thing; the saints are really born there.
“Jerusalem above ... which is our mother” (Galatians 4: 26) is a similar thought; but God writes down in a book the names of those born in Zion. We have been born into that wonderful system which all radiates from Christ in glory.
Rem It would have a wonderful effect if we realised we started from there.
CAC Christians are very slow (and we cannot say much for ourselves) to take in the fulness of what is established in Christ glorified. All christians value His death or they would not be Christians at all, but many do not go beyond the cross; but really what we have to do with is Christ glorified. I think the majority of believers believe that Jesus has gone back into the position of Deity; they do not entertain the thought of a glorious Man in heaven, a Man with a real body of flesh and bones, and a glorious system of grace centred in that Person. It would deliver saints from themselves and the world in every form.
This “castle of Zion” (A.V.) seems to have been the great stronghold of Zion. I think we should understand that there is a tremendous power of evil in the universe. Of course Satan is a great power of evil, and there are principalities and authorities and wickedness in the heavenlies, and death itself is called an enemy — all these are powers that are seeking to obstruct God’s way. They said, “Thou shalt not come in hither”. I think that Zion represents the headquarters of the enemy where all evil powers are entrenched and would not let the Lord have His way. Satan and all with him are determined to obstruct God being known. Nothing is so hateful to him and his angels. But the Lord Jesus has entered into combat with all these powers of evil, “having spoiled principalities and authorities, he made a show of them publicly” (Colossians 2: 15). He, the true David, has vanquished every power that was hostile to God and to grace, at Calvary.
Rem.
‘The mighty work was all His own,
Though we shall share His glorious throne’. (308:2)
CAC It does not identify any of them in the taking of Zion; we come on to the mighty men; Christ has had a good many, and has some still, but David took Zion on his own. The mighty men come in to promote the exaltation of David; now we are all called into that business. The Lord Jesus has met everything that was adverse to God and to us, for what is adverse to God is adverse to us; He has overthrown it all and made the city His city. The great thing is to see what Christ has effected. He has annulled Satan, Scripture says, and death is annulled. People may say, ‘But O, not death, it is as busy as ever, you see it every day around you’. Ah no, in Christ you see Satan annulled and death too. The object of the Spirit of God is not reached unless we are brought into it.
Rem And we are encouraged by the consideration of the Lord, and we come into the joy of it so.
CAC That is just the point. We are painfully familiar with the scene of pain and death, but God would have us familiar with Zion where nothing enters but what is pleasing to God. He would have us see Him shining out in His wondrous grace, and live in it. The city of David is a permanent idea.
Ques What corresponds to the city of David today?
CAC I suppose that you see first the system of grace which has been brought in by the Lord Jesus Christ, and then you see the saints all identified with it in that they dwell there. I think you must bring in the assembly to get the full thought of it.
Rem And the thought of administration; it supposes all that He has secured at the hand of the Lord; it must of necessity include the assembly and His handling of it.
CAC Yes, there is a whole system of things mentioned in Hebrews 12 in which Zion takes the first place. It is in contrast to Sinai, the system of law, and we might say Satan has captured that system.
Rem “Out of Zion, the perfection of beauty, God hath shined forth” (Psalm 50: 2).
CAC Yes, it is the city of the great King, beautiful in elevation, the joy of the whole earth (Psalm 48: 2). God would have Christ and what is expressed in Him the joy of every man.
Rem “That he might display in the coming ages the surpassing riches of his grace in kindness towards us in Christ Jesus” (Ephesians 2: 7).
CAC That is Zion! We are going to be His display in the coming ages of the surpassing riches of His grace in the kindness of God. You cannot add anything to the surpassing riches of His grace and the kindness. When the assembly comes down, it has the glory of God, it is His greatness in grace, each constituent part a sinner saved by grace. F.E.R. used to say that grace is commensurate with glory, so you must have a glorious Saviour to set it forth.
“And he built the city round about”. Well, that is going on in our hearts in this room tonight. The building is going on, bringing persons into the good of it so as to give God the glory of it. And God sets these things before us pictorially; He does not give us just statements; it is marvellous grace.
Can we not see how all this would prepare us for our part in the service of God? This is a book for remnant times at the close. We must all give our whole hearts and minds to the consideration of these things; it is an urgent matter and God’s will for us.