1 CHRONICLES 4 (NOTES OF A READING)
1 CHRONICLES 4 (NOTES OF A READING)
1 Chronicles 4:9,10; 1 Chronicles 4:21-23
CAC I was thinking that in chapter 2 the government of God is seen in a serious aspect in respect of those who are set in a position of privilege in Israel. In verse 3 we get Er, and in verse 7 Achar, who is spoken of as “the troubler of Israel”. I think we see in these two instances the government of God acting in severity in regard to those in a place of privilege; so these cases become a serious warning to us.
Ques Would you say one was on the moral side and the other on the religious?
CAC They were both wicked men mentioned to bring home to us that what is wrong in the sight of God will never be passed over in those who are in a place of privilege.
Rem “You only have I known of all the families of the earth: therefore will I visit upon you all your iniquities” (Amos 3: 2).
CAC God never overlooks evil with its resulting punishment in those positionally near Him. So if we name the name of the Lord we must withdraw from iniquity. If we do not, we shall partake of its judgment.
Ques Is that seen with the Corinthians? They are disciplined. Is it not to save us from being condemned with the world?
CAC Yes, surely, and God calls His people to come out of Babylon, not to have fellowship with her sins and partake of her plagues. God is sure to judge what is, wrong, and if christians do not separate from what is wrong they are sure to partake of its judgment. Achar brings in another principle. He is called “the troubler of Israel”. These instances have to do with the fellowship. Achar committed all Israel to iniquity. Though one man sinned, all were committed to it; such was the unity of Israel. That should make us very careful for we take all the brethren with us wherever we go. A young brother lying in his bunk on board ship the first night of his voyage thought to himself, I may not see a believer for two years, but how I behave myself on this ship will affect the universal fellowship of God’s people throughout the world. That was not bad for a young lad, was it?
Rem In Joshua 7 the whole of Israel was involved.
Rem The whole point as to Achar was that no one knew it but God.
CAC And they could not meet their enemies; and if we do not leave what is wrong it is a serious matter. If they sinned they lost all their power, and our power lies largely in our separation from all that is wrong. The brethren all suffer, even if they do not know of it. These are great principles brought out for the returned remnant and therefore to be pondered carefully; they are full of instruction for us.
Then we get in chapter 2 the introduction of Christ.
Ques You refer to “David the seventh”?
CAC Yes, David is Christ, and the Spirit just introduces him, he is just mentioned.
Ques Why is David the seventh in Chronicles and the eighth in Samuel? Is it there in contrast to Saul that he is the eighth — the man after God’s own heart — while here it is spiritual?
CAC Yes, here it is perfection, the seventh, not exactly after a new order; and the Spirit of God is delighted when He can bring in Christ and give Him a footing in our hearts. His greatness and glories are all developed later in the book, but here He is just introduced.
When Paul is writing to the Romans he begins, “God’s glad tidings ... concerning his Son (come of David’s seed according to flesh, marked out Son of God in power ... )”. Well, he can build the whole epistle, the whole gospel and counsel of God upon that; the moment we have Christ, we have everything!
Rem “In him is the yea, and in him the amen”; (2 Corinthians 1: 20) finality is in Christ.
CAC God can do anything in a soul where Christ has a footing. Our progress and our knowledge of the mystery all hang on Christ being in our affections. And what we get in chapter 3 is that His genealogy is traced right down long after the captivity, i.e. the royal line is undisturbed by the captivity, and all the public failure of the assembly has not touched what is in Christ. He is Head in spite of failure on our side. It does not touch that line, does it?
Ques Would the introduction of Hebron suggest the thought of purpose coming into view? It comes several times.
CAC Hebron was built before Zoan; it seems connected with divine purpose which is before the world.
I thought chapter 4 gives us more how spiritual things are maintained in the saints. The introduction of Christ typically involves everything — the whole counsel of God; but things have to be reached and maintained through the exercises of the saints; that is the subject of chapter 4.
Ques Were you thinking of Jabez’s mother?
CAC And Jabez himself, so that on the side of the saints everything is reached through exercise and prayer.
Ques Is that not the great feature of Judah — “Hear, Jehovah, the voice of Judah” (Deuteronomy 33: 7)?
CAC Yes, we have been noticing in reading the books of recovery how much hangs on prayer. The whole movement of recovery is brought about by the intercession of Christ, also by the intercession of saints, and Jabez is one of the outstanding men of prayer in Scripture. He emphasises to us that things can only be received from God. We very often think that we can get things some other way, through ministry, reading the Bible or thinking about things; but we can only get things from God.
Rem I am sure of that. Would you say that discipline runs along with it so that God can bring about what we request?
CAC There was a painful exercise. Jabez was the product of painful travail on the part of his mother, and he took up the exercise of getting things for himself from God.
Rem The Corinthians were reminded of it, for it is “God the giver of the increase”.
CAC Yes, we have delight in ministry, for ministry tells us what there is to be secured, but it never gives us anything. Is that going too far? That is why we are so interested, because it tells us what treasures there are. But if we want it, we must get it from God, we must pray; there is no other way. “Request”, an emphatic word, you really want it. Sometimes I have heard a brother pray a long and wordy prayer, and at the end I have wondered whatever he wanted! I think the Lord would say, What is it you want? Jabez was a definite man and could state definitely to God what he wanted.
Rem It was all for himself!
CAC That is right! To desire to have made good in your own soul your position in Christ, that is the beginning, the first thing I want. I think we must start there.
Rem Yes, so he prays to the “God of Israel”, indicating the whole scope of God in His word.
CAC Yes, and his personal part in it. God likes the singular number in young souls.
Ques Does Jabez’s prayer contain the germ of Paul’s two prayers in Ephesians — the God of resurrection, and the great scope of God in Christ — that is where there is enlargement, is it not?
CAC It seems to me that Jabez represents a young soul on whom is dawning the blessing there is in Christ, and who wants it for himself. We must begin with what is individual. He wants to be blessed and rightly enlarged. Well, I think the blessing he desired is opened out in this book of Chronicles. It is all available, but if we want it we must go in for it in the Jabez way. Sometimes we have to wait a long time for the answers to our prayers, because we are not at all ready for them. I may ask for spiritual things for which I am not ready. God may answer now a prayer I made forty years ago.
Rem A prayer to be blessed is precious to God; it honours Him.
Rem He goes on, “And that thou wouldest keep me from evil”. Would that be as a safeguard from inflation?
CAC Yes, he wants God’s hand with him for preservation. When we get enlargement and a bit of joy we get careless and the enemy takes advantage. After Paul had been in the third heaven he had the thorn. We need that mighty hand to preserve us from all the subtle snares of the enemy in connection with blessing.
Ques What answers to the mother today? It looks as if Jabez was the product of a mother’s exercise, watched over by prayer.
CAC Would she represent the assembly in any way? It is one service of the assembly. The maternal exercise is the yearning for some product for God. We see it in Hannah, she wanted a man for Jehovah.
Rem No meeting could die out if Jabez’s mother was there.
CAC Well, that is exercising.
Rem Paul wrote, “My children, of whom I again travail in birth until Christ shall have been formed in you” (Galatians 4: 19).
CAC I think that is the mother-spirit.
Ques Is that the cause of this definiteness? It is like Jacob’s “I will not let thee go except thou bless me”. And God changed his name, he was “Israel”, the man who received the blessing. That meant enlargement.
CAC And it is prayer! It is simply, I cannot, but God can — that is prayer in a nutshell. If we do not pray on that line, we shall get nothing.
Ques Are these exercises furthered in the valley of craftsmen?
CAC I think the next exercise is that you want to be serviceable, to be able to do something to further the work of God; most of us are amateurs, not skilled workmen.