1 CHRONICLES 28 (NOTES OF A READING)
1 CHRONICLES 28 (NOTES OF A READING)
CAC Solomon had been charged to build the house before, as we read in chapter 22, but now he is charged in the presence of the princes and the captains and all those who served the king, and the mighty men and all the men of valour; that is, all Israel is brought in, signifying that God intends us all to understand this great matter. All these great men would be brought to understand that there was something greater in the mind of God than all their exploits or dignity, or whatever it might be. So I suppose God might have used any of us in varied capacities in doing His work and in fighting His battles, but He would have us to understand that there is something greater in His mind.
Ques Would you say that there might be many distinguished and devoted servants in christendom not, however, apprehending this greater thought?
CAC I think it might be said soberly that there are comparatively few who enter into God’s thought of what He would have on the earth. The house does not refer to what is in heaven, but to what is set up and is a place of rest for God upon the earth. David was not a suitable man to build it, because he was a man of war and had shed blood. It is very necessary that there should be conflicts and that we should contend earnestly for the faith and stand for what is of God, but if we do not advance further than that, there will be no place of rest secured for the blessed God. It is necessary that adverse powers should be overcome, but that is not sufficient of itself to secure rest for God.
No doubt it was in David’s heart, but God has given us instruction in showing us that he could not build it. It is introduced to draw a sharp line between overcoming His enemies and fighting His battles, and building His house. There are many in christendom like that with no thought of securing a place of rest for God, where God can be resting.
Rem A very choice thought.
CAC Yes, it is.
Rem David says, “Hear me, my brethren and my people” (verse 2).
CAC Yes, it means that we are all to come in and all understand what is God’s chief interest at this present moment. I think it is a very definite voice for us. God’s thought is that the earth is to be His footstool. It is a restful thought as the youngest could understand. I suppose it means you are seated and your feet restfully provided for. It is wonderful that God should use such a picture, as if to say, ‘That is what I want on earth, not in heaven’. And that is secured by human hearts entertaining what has come in by Christ, as David says here in verse 2, “I had in my heart to build a house of rest for the ark of the covenant of Jehovah and for the footstool of our God, and I have prepared to build”; that is, the first suggestion is a house of rest for the ark of the covenant.
Ques Is there any connection here with the Son over God’s house (Hebrews 3: 6)?
CAC Yes, I think it is linked with this because what comes out is that securing the house of rest is connected with Solomon as typical of the Son of the Father’s love; so I think that the ark of the covenant, if we take it up in application to ourselves, covers a great deal more than the new covenant.
Ques Will you explain your thought further?
CAC The covenant as known by Israel clearly covered all that was in the mind of God for them, and so for us it must include the thought of sonship — the thought of the covenant as set forth in the assembly. It covers all that is in the heart of God manward, and therefore if we apply to ourselves the thought of the ark of the covenant, it means all God’s thoughts in reference to man have been secured in Christ.
I think the building of the temple is the typical climax in the Old Testament; there is nothing beyond it, beyond God securing rest for Himself and bringing to pass everything in His heart. Of course, it was all typified here, there was nothing actually secured; so that Christ can rest, and He can rest in the place that He has in the hearts of His saints who take in all that He expresses of God’s thoughts for man, and as we take it in collectively we make a place of rest for Him and the blessed God. It is called “the house of the mercy-seat” (verse 11) — a beautiful thought, because it brings in the thought of the death of Christ in connection with it.
We need to let these things soak into our affections until they form us, and it is all brought about by Solomon, the son of His love, and Solomon speaks of Christ glorified. The Lord Himself speaks of the glory of Solomon (Matthew 6: 29). And it is Christ glorified who builds the house; that is, He has passed through death and glorified the Father in all that He has taken up, and now He is glorified; and He is in the bosom of the Father; that is a more intimate thought than being glorified.
Rem “Father, ... glorify thy Son, that thy Son may glorify thee” (John 17: 1).
CAC “And the glory which thou hast given me I have given them”, the Lord says (verse 22). That is the glory of sonship, so that if we want to understand sonship, we must see Christ glorified in heaven, reposing in the love of the Father. “Who is in the bosom of the Father”, John says (John 1: 18). So it is in the apprehension of the Son glorified that we see the character of the house, because it is the glorified One in the bosom of the Father who builds the house. F.E.R. used to say, ‘Who can speak after the Son, and who can work after the Son?’ It is finality.
The thought of the house is as precious now as when it first burst upon the hearts of His own. We must not overlook the thought of God having a footstool on earth. “Thus saith Jehovah: The heavens are my throne, and the earth is my footstool: what is the house that ye will build unto me? and what is the place of my rest?” (Isaiah 66: 1). So the assembly is His footstool and therefore conditions are provided in God’s house on earth that are restful for Him, and they are all provided by One in the enjoyment of the most intimate affection, by One in the bosom of the Father — because He is there this minute! Everything adverse to Christ is going to be turned into a restful footstool for Him. His very enemies will have been turned into His footstool, so that everything adverse has been banished.
Rem It would show that it is important to be following the teaching of sonship and the house and the service of God that is given in these days.
CAC Yes, most important. We cannot be too thankful for the light that has been thrown upon the sonship of Christ in order that we should understand the character of the house. It took its character from Solomon. Scripture says, “No one has seen God at any time; the only-begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him” (John 1: 18); and that was written sixty or seventy years after the ascension of Christ. That is, the declaration of God comes out from that Man glorified.
The house of God as a rest for God will never be understood apart from understanding Solomon, of whom God said, “I will be his father, and he shall be my son” (1 Chronicles 17: 13). “I will be to him for father, and he shall be to me for son” (Hebrews 1: 5). Isaac and Solomon are the two great types of sonship in the Old Testament. So that the house is a place where God can be in comfort, if one might so say, in complacency, and be restful, because every heart is filled with the thought of the only-begotten Son who is in the bosom of the Father, and seeing that glorified Person who came to bring to pass everything of God manward, including sonship. I think it is fine.
Ques You are not suggesting that it could not be said of Him on earth that He was in the bosom of the Father?
CAC Of course, that is essential to the declaration; but to get the full thought of sonship you must have Him glorified. It is not the full thought on earth. So the gift of the Spirit is given in connection with Him glorified; you must have Him glorified to introduce the economy of the dispensation. Now you have the thing in all its magnificence according to the mind of God. And it is the Spirit coming down and filling human hearts that builds the house. I think we need to ponder all this carefully. If we entered into it how different, and more in power, things would be. In verse 11 we see that the pattern is given by the Spirit, intimating to us that these things are known by the Spirit, and that goes along with the glorified Son of God; what answers to that is the Spirit down here giving the light of it all.
Moses had to ‘go up’ to see the pattern, but David did not. ‘Going up’ means that in spirit we have to leave all on man’s line. But here is a man on the elevated plane of the Spirit, so he did not need to. If we are on the level of the Spirit we are where all these things are understood. It is the Spirit here which brings us into it, not just knowing that Christ is glorified; that will not help us at all.
Rem.
‘And see the Spirit’s power
Has ope’d the heav’nly door’. (74:5)
Ques Do we realise it when together?
CAC The house of God is a general thought, but I think it is specially realised when we are together, in liberty and in freedom from the cares of this life. In a certain sense we should be glad never to separate. An old verse says,
‘When congregations ne’er break up
And sabbaths never end’.
Well, to be engrossed with God and with Christ and with the things of the Spirit, why! we could not wish for anything better. But we have to go back, we need the discipline outside. David had the complete thought of God’s house by the Spirit, and God has brought within our range by the Spirit what He is going to have on the earth for His rest. He says, ‘I am going to have a people who understand all My thoughts brought in by the Son of My love, and I can rest there’.
Ques How do 1 Peter 2 and Ephesians 2 fit in?
CAC Peter looks at it in process of construction, so that he says, “To whom coming ... . yourselves also, as living stones, are being built up a spiritual house” (verses 4, 5). This is the complete thought here, which is a great help to us. In Ephesians Paul is looking at the whole gentile company as “built together for a habitation of God in the Spirit” (verse 22). Every thought is needed.
Ques If we do not see the completed thought we are not likely to go on with it, would you say?
CAC Yes, I am sure that is so. If we do not see it in Christ in sonship, we shall never see it at all. I may say that I am a poor feeble thing, but what has that to do with it? What is my place with God? His Son glorified! It is a good thing to see the pattern. Not a single thing had been done here, for Solomon and his workmen would work to the pattern. We must never have it out of our thoughts for a minute that Christ glorified is the pattern. The Father has given to the Son that peculiar glory that He did not have in the days of His flesh, that He did not have before He went up there, and it is the heavenly glory of the Son of God that is the pattern: ‘Thou art the Son!’ (181:1). Christ is risen and glorified, and there is something down here that perfectly corresponds with the Son of God glorified, and that is the assembly. Is that not a marvellous thing?!
Rem David made great contributions to the house.
CAC They were all brought into it that we should understand the character of the building and work according to the pattern.
Rem The poverty of our thoughts makes it difficult for us to grasp such riches.
CAC This chapter would help us as to the wealth, which it is impossible to calculate; we need to move more in the region of divine wealth.
There is, of course, the responsible side of all that is made known in light. In verse 8 there is the command to “keep and seek for all the commandments of Jehovah your God” — that is, everything that is in the divine will. If we are careless we may miss all that we are getting tonight, careless people never get it. Verse 9 says, “For Jehovah searches all hearts, and discerns all the imaginations of the thoughts. If thou seek him, he will be found of thee; but if thou forsake him, he will cut thee off for ever”. That is just as true today as it was then.
Rem And it is to be passed on (verse 8).
CAC That is it, and if we get careless we may miss the house of God and the inheritance in a practical sense. Most believers in the world today are missing it all, and we may miss it, but I trust we are not of that sort. Does not God discern in our hearts and minds the consideration of these things? And if it is not there more than ever, it is a pity. There is always the responsible side as long as we are here. Practically we may be concentrated on the ends of the earth instead of being concentrated on the things of the Spirit and the light of God, and we may miss it. However feeble we are in a spiritual sense does not matter. We are all feeble spiritually; we know very little of the glorified Son of God and of the Spirit here, but let us go in for them more and more.
Rem It speaks of those with perfect heart who offered willingly (chapter 29: 9).
CAC It applies to each of us tonight, that we should go in for these most wonderful things, more wonderful than anything heard of in the world. God is securing a remnant who cherish the house of God.