1 CHRONICLES 28 (NOTES OF A READING)
1 CHRONICLES 28 (NOTES OF A READING)
CAC I suppose we are all cognisant of the fact that there is more of the thought of the preparation and of the pattern in Chronicles than we get in the corresponding scriptures in Kings, indicating, I suppose, that in remnant times and days of recovery there is a great deal of exercise on this line if the house is to take spiritual form. David in this scripture is the representative of spiritual persons who are exercised with regard to the house of God.
Ques Is this a subsequent exercise after what relates to kingdom matters?
CAC Yes, certainly.
Ques Is it your thought that in days of recovery it is very necessary to pay heed to the pattern of things? In John’s epistles it is the things that are from the beginning that are to be heeded.
CAC Yes, and the pattern is given by the Spirit, so that the whole thing is there in pattern before a single stone is laid down.
Ques Would you say more about Moses going up for the pattern and not David?
CAC The two exercises have to be brought together. Moses has to go up, David not. That is, Moses has to go up to the elevation of divine thoughts; he has to leave what is of the level of man to go up. David represents an advance upon that; he is a man on the level of the Spirit, he is of that elevation.
Ques Is it your thought that while there is a line of recovery or of building in progress, it is not exactly taking shape on that line, but it has been complete in the mind of God already?
CAC In a day of peculiar weakness such as Chronicles portrays, it is specially important to get what is in the mind of God, so that we must work to the pattern.
Rem We are not to shape things after our own ideas; it is a question of conforming to the thoughts of God.
CAC David understood as a spiritual man, divinely taught, that the building of the house is contingent on sonship. Sonship is, of course, seen in Solomon not yet apprehended in a very mature way: “Solomon my son, the one whom God has chosen, is young and tender, and the work is great; for this palace is not to be for man, but for Jehovah Elohim” (chapter 29: 1). Solomon at this stage represents the thought of sonship only apprehended in a very immature way. Well, it is something to get that.
Ques Does verse 9 mean, if you seek the Lord on this line?
CAC Yes, it is the responsible side which is always present as long as we are here; it enters into everything, and it is, “If he be firm to do my commandments” (verse 7). It is always important not to disregard any commandment of the Lord; that secures the moral line. The great thoughts of God are developed here in David’s mind, just as we should get an apprehension of the house, because it is to be built now.
Ques Why is the porch mentioned first? (verse 11).
CAC Because the porch is the important matter publicly, the outstanding feature which must have attracted attention at a great distance, being very prominent as far higher than all the rest of the building, and therefore what is to be represented of God to men in a public way.
Ques Would the porch compare with the first epistle to the Corinthians?
CAC I think it is the public side as represented really in the glad tidings, because the first thing to take account of in the house of God is that God should have a place of testimony in this world. It is God’s approach to men in the glad tidings and all inside the house is there to give support to it, to give character and richness to what is represented to men. God has been pleased to put Himself into communication with men by means of His house. To take an illustration, there were one hundred and twenty persons in Acts 1, and God put His Spirit upon them in order that there should be set forth by them in a public way the great things of God.
Rem It is interesting that the height of the porch is one hundred and twenty cubits.
CAC Yes, I thought so. Those one hundred and twenty were acquainted with the life of the Lord here and knew Him in resurrection and saw Him taken up; it all enters into the height of the porch, I think.
Here we are dealing with the pattern, there cannot be any divergence from the pattern. Ezra writes this to help and comfort us in a time of weakness, and there cannot be any deviation from the pattern. God’s mind cannot be any different today from what it was at Pentecost. It would not be so, because recovery must be on that line. We have it in the Scripture; it is very significant because David says he has it in writing.
Rem “Every scripture is divinely inspired” (2 Timothy 3: 16).
CAC So that the two things are very remarkably brought together; the Spirit and the writing. He is as really and definitely here as He was on the day of Pentecost; there is no diminution; and then we have it also in writing; in the Scriptures we have it permanently.
Ques With reference to the relative size of the porch and the house, would you say that what relates to God must always be greater than anything the saints can be?
CAC Because the gospel is purely of God, and the assembly is creature; so the gospel must be greater, for it relates to God Himself, to divine Persons; there is no creature element in it. It is the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, all that is known of the Deity in the activity of divine love. When you come to the assembly you come to a creature vessel.
Rem You once said that what is produced cannot be so great as what produces it.
CAC Thank you for recalling it to me. It is so. All inside the house, the houses and the treasuries and the chambers are all directly connected with the porch and are, I think, what Paul calls “the mystery of the glad tidings” (Ephesians 6: 19). Thus it is not only the glad tidings, but something behind the glad tidings; that is, a wonderful vessel for the support of the glad tidings. The particular bearing of this passage is that all that is behind is for the enrichment of the gospel. It is not only the glad tidings but there is a secret behind it and the secret behind it is the mystery. If the saints are not up to the truth of the house, there is sure to be weakness in the testimony. It is “the porch, and of its houses, and of its treasuries ...”.
Ques Why is there no mention of the altar and the laver?
CAC Well, there is instruction in that.
Rem The altar was of a very great size so must have been a very prominent object.
CAC But it was really external to the house.
Rem It was in relation to an opposite movement.
CAC Yes, the approach of men. The prominent thought in these verses is God’s approach to men; He has set up a wonderful way of approach to men.
Rem “God’s house, which is ... the pillar and base of the truth” (1 Timothy 3: 15).
CAC Yes, and it is the thought that there is something here in support of the testimony. If saints are weak you could not expect the testimony to go out in power.
There are various things spoken of: houses, treasuries, chambers and the house of the mercy-seat, and all are connected with the thought of the porch.
Rem In verse 13 you come to the thought of the service Godward. Verse 11 covers the whole pattern, and the rest that follows is in detail.
CAC The saints dwell together in the love of God; what a support that is to the testimony. They are set there and are near to one another, because they are all enjoying the same thing.
Ques Will you say something on “the house of the mercy-seat”?
CAC You come to the holiest there. “The treasuries” are an accumulation of precious things, such as have been gathered during the last one hundred years. Then the “upper chambers” would suggest the elevated character of all that is known in the house of God, “things above”. The “inner chambers” would go with John 14 - John 17 where the Lord is in secret with His own, opening up the thoughts of God. We enter the house in seeing that Christ is God’s resource, to carry out all His thoughts and purposes. All that is for the support. The “mercy-seat” is where everything centres, and all that can be effectuated through this. He does not want us to deviate from the pattern. What are we really set for? Well, we must work to this pattern; there is no other way. Do we really want the house of God to be set forth rightly in this world? Public witness is a very great matter for God; the gospel is to be preached continually to men. I do not think the house of God is there at all if that is not present.
Rem “To announce among the nations the glad tidings of the unsearchable riches of the Christ, and to enlighten all with the knowledge of what is the administration of the mystery” (Ephesians 3: 8, 9). Paul was a herald.
CAC Yes, so that all that Paul brings out in his special ministry as “the mystery” is all supposed to work out as a most blessed witness of the true character of God in a world steeped in evil.
Ques If we conformed to this pattern, would preachers come to light?
CAC It is the grand feature of the house that is involved. If not there in some extent, there cannot be a proper representation of God publicly. Paul was the one to bring out the great thought of sonship as seen in the Son of God. It was his ministry, he presents the Son of God. That is how he began, in order that we should apprehend sonship as seen in Christ.
They made Solomon king a second time (chapter 29: 22); that is, they came typically to maturity in the thought of the sonship of Christ.
And there is plenty of room to move about as we see in verse 12: “The courts of the house of Jehovah, and of all the chambers round about”. It is a spacious place.
Rem We seem to be so occupied with the poverty and smallness of things.
CAC This chapter would correct that in the thought of richness and divine wealth and spaciousness, before he comes to the actual service of the house. People get tired of reading the Bible sometimes, they feel it cramps them.
Ques. How is that?
CAC I do not know.
It is much according to the pattern to begin with the Son of God. If all christendom has disregarded the pattern,
it is all the more necessary that we should pay great attention to it. There are the courses of the priests and Levites, and then the instruments of gold and silver; we have to learn how to regard ourselves as vessels for the service of God. Weight is of importance, we are often so shallow and empty. They are utensils, not ornaments; that is, things for use.
Rem There is nothing less than silver or gold.
CAC They are the two aspects in which the saints can be regarded. As vessels of silver they have a place with God on the ground of redemption — all saints are on that ground surely. There are certain portions and places we occupy in virtue of redemption, that we had no part in, and they constitute silver utensils. In another aspect they are vessels of gold.
Ques Would it be the difference between Paul’s and John’s way of speaking?
CAC Yes, generally speaking, but they overlap. Gold would represent what the saints are according to the work of God in them. John 17, for instance, is not a question of redemption, but what they are as divine workmanship, as born of God — that is gold.
Rem There are silver candlesticks as well as golden ones (verse 15).
CAC It is to liberate us. You get a fulness and variety in the temple that is not in the tabernacle, and you get the thought of silver introduced largely as enabling the saints to serve as proving redemption; it is an element in liberty. When we eat the Supper we do so as vessels of silver, but when we move on we are vessels of gold. Redemption was accomplished entirely outside ourselves, and is going to be applied to us even as regards our bodies. Redemption implies that we are of great value to God, and He would do all in His power to liberate us to serve Him in His house, and it is in the death of Christ that He effects that.
It is very interesting that you get this addition which seems to broaden the basis of service. Nothing can diminish the value of redemption and nothing can deteriorate our place with God as secured by the redemptive work of the Lord Jesus. It cannot be diminished and it cannot be increased. It is all very interesting as showing the pattern; now we have to work to it.