1 CHRONICLES 29 (NOTES OF A READING)
1 CHRONICLES 29 (NOTES OF A READING)
CAC In the understanding of the types it is necessary to see that David is a type of Christ as the One who prepares everything for the house. Solomon is the builder but David provides and prepares all the material; he provides all the material and the personnel.
Ques In what way is David a type of Christ here?
CAC In the most important sense nothing can be added to what Christ has provided for the house. All the impressions of God which constitute the saints’ material for the house have been brought in by Christ.
Rem “All that the Father gives me shall come to me” (John 6: 37) is a prepared company, really in connection with the house.
Ques Does Solomon represent sonship in the saints undeveloped here?
CAC Yes, because if we look at the matter from the responsible side, that is, how the house actually comes into being, it must be worked out in the saints, but that is in connection with Christ in glory. David is a type of Christ here on earth in the declaration of God in all that can be known, and it is really the knowledge of God in the light of redemption; all that is brought into the souls of men constitutes them material to be brought into the house.
Rem The gospel of Luke gives the gathering of the material and ends in filling the house with praise.
CAC Luke brings in the silver side, as we saw last week; the gold and the silver go together. But when it comes to working things out Christ as glorified must be known; He builds the house. The Spirit comes from Christ glorified; It could not be given before. So that the saints having the Spirit of the glorified Man are suitable for the building. We need to apprehend these thoughts to understand the greatness of the place that is being built now in relation to Christ glorified.
Ques Everything is intrinsic and not of mixed material. Is everything to be prepared in view of its final completion and the glory coming into the house?
CAC And all has been secured in the coming in of Christ in the David character in the accomplishment of redemption, so that those who receive Christ become material for the house.
Ques Would the palace correspond with the thought of the house in Hebrews, being the greatest and involving all the administration? What do we understand by it?
CAC I think it is in every way suitable to God. The palace is not for man, but for God. God would give us a deepened sense of the greatness of the palace. It is not for man and nothing has any place in the palace but what came in by Christ, so that it comes up to the requirements.
Rem We have not reached the stage when it is in the full display of glory.
CAC It is the thing proposed here, and God would suggest to us that He has something very great in His mind, that can only be worked out as the great thought of sonship is apprehended, as set forth in Christ glorified, not what He was here, but what He is now.
Rem David said, “But who am I, and what is my people, that we should be able to offer willingly ...” (verse 14) — a very humble view of things.
CAC What you find in Scripture is that saints have to distinguish what they are as the result of what Christ has done, and what they are personally. Paul can speak of a man in Christ going into paradise, into the third heaven (2 Corinthians 12: 4), without a sense of disparity, and yet he could speak of himself as “less than the least of all saints” (Ephesians 3: 8), also “I am the least of the apostles ...” (1 Corinthians 15: 9). I feel sometimes that I am the poorest saint on the earth, I do really sometimes. And yet God had made them capable of providing such riches for the house. But then the exalted thought of what we are in Christ never prevents us from taking the lowest place personally. The higher we go up in that sense, the lower we come down here personally. He is bringing out that it is entirely of God, like the end of Romans: “For of him, and through him, and for him are all things ...” (chapter 11: 36). It goes along with “thou art exalted as Head above all” in verse 11 of our chapter.
Ques Is he bringing out the key of the matter, the highest point reached?
CAC I think it is the highest point reached in the Old Testament; we learn what has been brought in by Christ in the revelation of God in redemption; the spirit of sonship in the people willing to consecrate themselves to Jehovah, so that there is a wonderful offering on the part of the people and this leads on to the thought of the headship of God, that whatever Christ has brought in has its source in God; whatever has been brought in has its origin in God.
Ques Does this go on to Corinthians, God all in all? (1 Corinthians 15: 28).
CAC I thought so, it goes on to God all in all; God is given the kingdom. We do not often reach the thought of God as Head above all in our meetings, though we reach the Father.
Ques Is it realised under the headship of Christ? David here leads the people.
CAC Yes, so David and Solomon are both types of the headship of Christ, and that leads on to the headship of God. Everything that God gives goes back to Him: you have here the highest point of worship in the Old Testament.
Rem “When he gives up the kingdom to him who is God and Father” (1 Corinthians 15: 24).
CAC All kingdom rights revert eventually to God, what has been invested in Christ for the accomplishment of certain purposes all reverts to God. So it comes out here that David speaks of what he does in his affection for the house of God, so you see what he is in sonship. You see in Psalm 89 that he calls God Father, and he is the firstborn (verses 26, 27), so that David is in sonship as well as Solomon. And this spirit of sacrifice seen in sonship in David moves all the people, and that is what God seeks should be in our affections. It will only be built in that way.
Rem If we understood better what Christ is in relation to the assembly as Head, we should have it in our affections.
CAC Yes. I think it was all written that we might come into it now.
Rem It speaks of sons and daughters in the palace: “Our sons may be as plants grown up in their youth; our daughters as corner-columns, sculptured after the fashion of a palace” (Psalm 144: 12).
CAC Yes, it is the beautiful thought of the family setting in relation to God. A house without a family in it would not be worth much to God.
Rem The thought of this offering that is so pleasing to God can be a spiritual expansion with the saints.
CAC Yes, while Christ provides everything, yet the principle is extended to the saints of coming into line and contributing, and what gives rise to a wonderful ascription of praise to God is what came out in the saints, the wonderful liberality to the house that leads David to break out into this praise as tracing all back to God.
Rem The giving seems greater here; that is, what is provided in affection.
CAC Yes, what he provides in his affection is really through his sufferings. That he goes through all that affliction would make the Lord’s name to be dearer, and His praises to resound in the assembly. In a sense nothing can surpass what He has secured through suffering and death (see chapter 22: 14). Then there is the thought in this chapter of his affection; as son he thinks of all that can gratify God in His house, all that can spring from the spirit of sonship. They are two thoughts of the house that are commensurate.
It is beautiful to think of the Lord moving in His affections. “That the world may know that I love the Father, and as the Father has commanded me, thus I do” (John 14: 31), which is a wonderful side of it. John is what Christ secures on the line of affection, while Matthew, Mark and Luke give more what He had to pass through to secure praise for the Father.
Ques “I have given of my own property” (verse 3); how would that apply to Christ?
CAC He undertakes to supply out of His own wealth all that is necessary to enrich the house.
Rem It was “over and above” all that he had prepared (verse 3).
Rem There is something very personal about it.
CAC And He appropriates in John’s gospel all the Father’s things. “All things that the Father has are mine” (John 16: 15). He has a commonwealth with the Father.
Ques Why did the people give so much, that they exceeded?
CAC They took character from David. They had before them the one who had given immense quantities of wealth, an incalculable amount, and they come under his influence and move in the same spirit. Nothing is of value in the house but the Spirit of the glorified Man in the saints.
Rem He gave more than they all, and at this phase they exceeded.
CAC What he gave here did not cover all he gave; this is what J.B.S. would call ‘excess’. “Over and above” is surplus. In the gospel of John the surplus comes out; there is excess, that which necessarily must be when we consider who the Person is who gives it all. The Son’s love and the Father’s love: there is a surpassing character and excellence in it all.
The saints are furnished out of the wealth of God, “That hidden wisdom which God had predetermined before the ages for our glory” (1 Corinthians 2: 7); what wealth there is in it. The result of our acquiring the wealth is that we have something to bring back to God, and it is our pleasure too, particularly in the assembly. It is brought back to God. It works out in our getting an apprehension of God as Christ has declared Him. He says: “In the midst of the assembly will I sing thy praises” (Hebrews 2: 12); the heart of Christ is full of the thoughts of the blessed God manward. The saints having the Spirit of the glorified Man can bring that back.
Rem “Keep this for ever in the imagination of the thoughts of the heart of thy people” (verse 18). It is Christ keeping the great thoughts of God in the hearts of His people.
Rem Like the thought of the stones “to be set” (verse 2).
CAC The saints have distinctiveness. The stones refer to what the saints are in their personal distinctiveness. So that John is not exactly like Paul, and Peter is different from either of them. The Lord has in mind to have a great amount of variety and adornment in the house, so that the palace is worthy of the One for whom the palace is.
The apostles have a distinctive place in the assembly, they are peculiarly ornamental. It is wonderful to find one’s place in the assembly where every person has some special thought of God; the measure may be large or small, but there is a thought of God in the heart of everyone and it came from Christ; he prepared it, and it is developed in each of us by the Spirit of sonship. Well, all that is part of the wealth and adornment of the house.
Ques Would verse 8 raise an exercise with us: “They with whom stones were found”?
CAC Yes, they gave them to the treasuries. I think there are specialities. If a brother or sister perhaps is given to write a hymn which finds its place in the service of God in the assembly, it is like a gem, it is brought in. And there are some who bring in thoughts of peculiar apprehension of God which is of wealth to the company. If you think of fifty persons together all having the Spirit of the glorified Man what would you look for and expect? Wonderful thoughts of God. Well, they are there, and it is the privilege of some to voice them. The thought is that they are there in the hearts of the saints before they are voiced.