1 CHRONICLES 13 (NOTES OF A READING)
1 CHRONICLES 13 (NOTES OF A READING)
CAC The teaching changes in this chapter; David has previously been a type of Christ, while now the ark of God is the subject. The ark of God typifies Christ as seen in the gospel of John.
Ques The remnant had not the ark; would that have a bearing on the subject?
CAC The ark of God is God being in full declaration. It has its bearing on remnant conditions. There has been a long period in the history of christendom where the ark has been disregarded.
It is the “days of Saul”, when what is pleasing to men is in the ascendancy. It is impossible under such conditions that there should be enquiry of the ark of God. There were suitable conditions in David for the ark to get its place, so it suits remnant times very well. This book was written for them.
Rem John’s writings come in the close of the period.
CAC John’s writings come in when Paul’s dispensation had broken down. Then faith and love will look to God. There is no spot or stain on the ark, and that is cherished in the hearts of God’s people. During the last hundred years there has been movement towards the ark and we have been learning something of the due order. God intends the general movement to affect the whole assembly (”all Israel”), David being a type of the work of God in saints that cherish the thought of Christ being honoured. Christ as the ark is God in full declaration,
but this entails the service of God being carried out perfectly, and they had to learn by their failure how to honour Christ.
Many lovers of Christ serve Him zealously but displease God in the way they carry out the service. They serve Him in relation to what He is to them and not according to God. That is the lesson of this chapter. Some believers take ‘the sacrament’ after a preaching. That displeases God very much.
It is a great thing to apprehend Christ as the ark of God — the full establishment of God’s will, without a flaw. It is not found in christendom. The ark being God in declaration means inaugurating a service which is compatible with its own perfection. It is God saying, ‘I want you to know Him in relation to Me’! It was a great work of God for David to bring the ark up, and there was need for the utmost care and consideration in doing it. Jehovah sits “between the cherubim”.
The One who smote Uzza was discriminating and exercising His attributes judicially that men might honour Christ and give God His place.
Rem Ezra was an “instructed scribe”.
CAC He would have been very useful to David if he had been at hand, and could have told him how the ark should be carried.
Ques Why should it be carried on the shoulders of the priests; would it indicate power and affection?
CAC It would show that it depends on spirituality; there is none in a “new cart”. The Philistines had little knowledge of God, and He accepted it from them, but Israel had the oracles of God. It is a matter of personal exercise and affection to secure a place for Christ that is suitable, and in a way that is suitable.
Ques Is Corinthians analogous?
CAC Corinthians illustrates this chapter. They were touching the holy elements of the Supper with unsanctified hands, and many of them became weak and infirm and many died.
In that epistle Paul stresses the thought of the temple. “The temple of God is holy, and such are ye”. It was not done in due order; the assembly is a place of order and anything disorderly is always displeasing to God. It is all a matter of leaving the due order. We need the utmost care to gather up from the Scriptures the will of God; it must correspond with the perfection seen in Christ, that must set the standard. “I am come down from heaven, not that I should do my will, but the will of him that has sent me” (John 6: 38). “My food is that I should do the will of him that has sent me” (John 4: 34). “I do always the things that are pleasing to him” (John 8: 29). That is the ark of God, the same character being reproduced by the Spirit in the saints.
Ques How could it happen today?
CAC It makes the government of God a serious matter with those who irreverently take the Supper and come under judgment. It is the natural element brought in where all should be spiritual. If the natural element enters in today it is sure to stumble. It is a warning to us how the most spiritual brother may through unwatchfulness displease God.
The new cart was a Philistine precedent copied without spiritual discernment. We may do the same thing without weighing over whether what we do corresponds with the will of God. The spiritual conditions lacking with David and Israel were found with a poor Philistine and he gets nothing but blessing (verses 13, 14). At the moment he took precedence over David and all Israel. This chapter does not close without showing us the supremacy of grace.
It is God’s order that glorifies Christ. God’s order is always better than man’s. The thought of the ark borne on the shoulders as we get previously is the ark carried in testimony, but here it is the progress of the ark to its proper place, but delayed on the way because of failure in the due order.
Rem “Arise, Jehovah, into thy rest, thou and the ark of thy strength. Let thy priests be clothed with righteousness, and let thy saints shout for joy” (Psalm 132: 8, 9).
CAC That is beautiful. It is the full revelation of God in His Son brought to repose in the hearts of the saints, so that they are spiritually able to serve God. He has been declared by the Son “who is in the bosom of the Father”; there is no flaw in that declaration and the saints come into that. It requires to be learnt and we are left here to learn it and the spiritual order it requires. We are not left here to earn a living!
Rem “But the hour is coming and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and truth; for also the Father seeks such as his worshippers” (John 4: 23).
CAC “God is a spirit: and they who worship him must worship him in spirit and truth”. That is the climax. This chapter of Chronicles was written for our particular instruction tonight. But there are provisional stages; we do not get here the final climax, the ark was in the house of Obed-Edom three months and then in the tent pitched by David for it, before it was placed in Solomon’s temple. We arrive at the full thought of God by stages. David took the hint and elevated this man to the peerage — a poor Philistine turned into a Levite (chapter 15: 18). It was all to magnify grace, when all in Israel was missing its way, David and all, so that David resented God’s way with him; but we have to accept it. It is wonderful to think that God should be pleased to reveal to a few poor good-for-nothings the secret of His good pleasure in Christ, giving them intelligence bit by bit. We ought to be more intelligent every year. We learn by our failures. Through failure God taught David and all Israel important lessons. What interests me is that all Israel moves with David; they have all got the spirit of David, as a people who had said, “We are thy bone and thy flesh”, but failed in their purpose for want of attention to divine order. Our great desire should be to please God according to His own pleasure. We should be quick to pick up the spiritual hints given in Scripture.