2 CHRONICLES 1 (NOTES OF A READING)
2 CHRONICLES 1 (NOTES OF A READING)
Ques Would you say there is any difference in the character of these books, the first and second books of Chronicles?
CAC There would appear to be a certain change in the character in which Solomon is presented, particularly in the first chapter. In the end of the previous book Solomon is clearly a type of Christ, particularly in sonship and as building the house in that character; but it would appear in this opening chapter that we have to look at Solomon in a rather different light. We have always to distinguish in Scripture between persons who are typical of Christ and lines of conduct which rather indicate the shortcomings of such persons who are in other things typical of Christ. What seems to appear in this chapter is the great favour shown to Solomon by God. He “was strengthened in his kingdom, and Jehovah his God was with him and magnified him exceedingly” (verse 1); that is, on God’s side every provision was made for him to act most successfully, but he appears to fall short of it.
Ques Are you alluding to his going to Gibeon?
CAC Yes, he was not a true son in going to Gibeon; his father would not have gone there.
Ques In what sense was he below his proper calling?
CAC It seems to me that the mind of God as to Solomon was that he should build the house, and he makes no reference to it whatever. I think he was below the level of God’s thoughts. God had indicated His mind to David. The two great outstanding acts of David’s life were placing the ark in Zion and building the altar of burnt-offering in the threshing-floor of Ornan the Jebusite. Solomon ignored them both.
Rem We have thought he had a good beginning; this is not a good beginning.
CAC He had a good beginning on the divine side. He had been furnished with all the means to fulfil his high vocation, but he took a lower line. It often happens with saints that they take a lower line than what is for divine pleasure, and they lose ground. Some of them lost ground in this chapter; Solomon did. Fancy a mighty monarch becoming a horse-dealer!
Rem It speaks of the tent of meeting being at Gibeon.
CAC That should have reminded him and us that the ark was not there, the very fact that God had forsaken the tent where He had dwelt among men as Asaph tells us. He was the leader of song before the ark and he tells us that God had forsaken the tabernacle of Shiloh; He had forsaken it. “And he forsook the tabernacle at Shiloh, the tent where he had dwelt among men” (Psalm 78:60).
Ques Is this analogous to the Acts where the disciples were slow to forsake judaism?
CAC Yes, we see how the early church soon declined, and took up a position that answers very much to the high place at Gibeon, dropping down from sonship; and in a public way there has been very little thought of David or Zion or of the ark being brought to a place of rest. There was no place of rest for God at Gibeon. The lesson of this chapter is to teach us to understand the difference between going on with the things that God bears with, and with what is for His pleasure. The ark represents the strength and the rest and complacency of God in covenant relation with His people. There was no complacency at Gibeon and no house of God there. The chief interest of God was absent from Solomon’s thoughts. He was a pious man and his prayer was answered but he fell short. We should be concerned to go on with what God has for His complacency and rest and not simply with what He bears with. He bears with christendom and one thousand things that christians go on with and yet He is not pleased with the way they are going on.
Ques Are you concerned about the state of Christendom or ourselves?
CAC Our concern is with ourselves. We do not want to speak about christendom. We do not want to speak of persons outside this room, but in it. The ark was brought to the place of God’s rest. “This is my rest for ever; here will I dwell, for I have desired it” (Psalm 132: 14). Solomon in chapters 2 and 3 is brought back to the divine thought, and what God is doing with every one of us is to make us move from the things that He has borne with to what He has pleasure in.
Ques What does “the brazen alter” signify (verse 6)?
CAC The brazen altar represents a system that entirely failed to give rest and pleasure to God. It was not a time of rest and God forsook it — a very solemn thing. God’s thought was to dwell restfully and complacently in His people, and He secures that in Zion; and if He does not get it in Zion, He will never get the house built.
Ques Is God speaking in that way today?
CAC Yes, and I think that any faithful heart would say so, and if I am stupid and ignorant he will bear with me. He does so with men now, He bears with them, but they do not afford Him pleasure or give Him His rest. God’s pleasure depends upon our moving in the light that He gives us. It does not matter how earnest and active I may be, if I do not move in the light of God I cannot give Him pleasure. Solomon moved away from Zion.
Rem The ark gives the key to the position.
CAC Yes, that is what has come about by the coming in of Christ. “I have found ... a man after my own heart, who shall do all my will” (Acts 13:22). And David takes the city of Zion and makes it a royal city under his absolute control. Zion represents the assembly as a place where all that is due to Christ is rendered to Him; and grace reigns there. “Grace might reign through righteousness to eternal life ...” (Romans 5: 21). It brings about that I do everything for the pleasure of God. On the divine side everything has been furnished for us; none of us can say otherwise.
Rem The trouble is that we have not paid sufficient attention to the light that God has given.
CAC I think that is just it. Many have remained in sectarian bodies because they have ignored the light that God has given in the last one hundred years. They are worshipping at Gibeon and God forbears, and His loving-kindness endures. “His loving-kindness endureth for ever”, was what was sung before the ark and at Gibeon. It is a principle that can never alter, however stupid I am, but that does not secure His rest. Some might say, ‘Moses made the tabernacle; the Scripture says so; what are you doing, bringing the ark to Zion, David? Why not leave it there?’ David would say, ‘Oh, God has moved on; there is a great difference since Moses made the tabernacle, and I am moving on with Him’. So that no christian can excuse himself or let himself off. God has provided in the Spirit and in the grace of Christ and in His own grace a sufficiency so that we need not stop short of God’s own pleasure.
Ques Is there a temporary thought in the tabernacle as awaiting completion in the house?
CAC Yes, it was in God’s mind that the house should be built and the ark put there, but it gets its place in Zion first. We must understand the reign of grace first. It is a great matter with God that we should understand that He has moved in His ways, not carrying on what He was doing in the Old Testament; and He would have us understand that He bears with a certain legal system of things but it does not give Him pleasure, and christendom has gone back to it. There is much devotion and piety, but God is not pleased.
Rem The Galatians had fallen into this.
CAC The Galatians had left Zion after having been there. It is dreadful to have known the reign of grace and yet go back to law. The Colossians were in danger of it, and we all are in danger of it.
Ques Would the altar suggest a ‘miserable sinner’ line of things?
CAC There is bound to be a measure of bondage if we stop short of God’s present mind, “... a spirit of bondage again for fear” (Romans 8: 15). David, a spiritual man divinely instructed, was afraid to go to Gibeon.
Solomon ought to have been afraid to go to Gibeon.
Rem This should stir us up to see what use we have made of the light God has given us.
CAC Yes. We should ever remember that it is in Zion that God dwells. There is no scripture that speaks of Him dwelling in Gibeon. He loves to dwell where His grace in Christ has subdued every contrary element — that is Zion. According to God’s thought we have all been born there; we are all sons and daughters of Zion in God’s thought (Psalm 87). If we go back to what has been discarded, we cease to be available for God’s pleasure. He discarded the old system and brought in a new system. I think God loves the thought of dwelling. He did not give up His thought of dwelling while the ark was in obscurity, but He had long patience, and in these last days He has had patience too until Christ should be recovered in the hearts of His people, so that He could have a place of rest. Now is He going to have it just at the end?
There are two great principles brought out; the placing of the ark in Zion which is the reign of grace, and the building of the altar in the threshing-floor, representing things set up in sovereign mercy; and those two things exclude by their positive power everything that is of the flesh. Now God says, “This is my rest for ever; here will I dwell, for I have desired it” (Psalm 132: 14). It is lovely. It all bears in a special way on this present time. Anyone can see what a legal state of things there was right up to the beginning of the last century, an admixture of law and grace. You were invested with the imputed righteousness of Christ and that was the best part of christianity! I believe God revived a sense of His grace and of His sovereign mercy. Now saints who have moved according to it are ready for the house. The legal system leads directly into the world; it led Solomon into worldliness. The chief high place is an idolatrous place of worshipping. Everywhere in christendom there is something of God to be found. Any thoughtful Israelite then would have said to himself, ‘Where the ark is is the chief point of interest’.
Rem In the gospel there were little ships on the lake and the Lord was in one. That is like the tent where the ark is.
Rem It challenges us because the thing is out; David had told Solomon God’s thought regarding the house and it has come down to us.
Ques Do you think he was influenced by the captains of thousands and of hundreds (verse 2), was there danger in speaking to them all? Paul conferred with the brethren and was wrongly influenced (Acts 21: 18 - 26).
CAC Yes, you see this principle of going to Gibeon illustrated in Paul, so that he went right against his own ministry. Where can God dwell? His dwelling place is Zion and represents that body of persons who have come under the reign of grace, under the mighty influence of Christ in grace. It does not matter what we say, if we are not there we shall not afford God rest. Our exercises bring us to the point that nothing will do for us except the sovereign mercy of God. We may be ever so spiritual as David was, but he became self-important, and we need not fear that God will not deal with our self-importance. But when David has found his true place, that he is a debtor to grace, he finds the altar where there is no room for anything but God. Then it is that we can move on to the house.
This chapter is important in bringing out the sifting character of things not giving place to God. God is working with all of us; He is not against us but “for us” to bring us to His thoughts, and so with Solomon. His going to Gibeon resulted in the silver and gold in Jerusalem being as stones, so that really precious things lost their value. He ends as a thoroughly worldly man, and all as the result of going to Gibeon.
He received all that he asked for. How pleased God would have been if he had asked for wisdom and power to build the house. David had emphasised it to him. I think God felt that. God answers his prayers, and He does many prayers that do not please Him. He bears with His people. Ought not these things to have entered the depths of Solomon’s soul? He does not refer to them.
Rem And God does not remind him.
CAC He does not. God comes down to our level. Does that satisfy any of us? I ask myself, does that satisfy me, or do I want to move into a region that really gives God pleasure?
Rem It is like Paul going to Jerusalem.
CAC That illustrates the thing beautifully. When he got to Jerusalem he found it was the most dangerous place on earth, and they made him a legal man too. In spite of that when he was in difficulty the Lord stood by him. Oh! what a Master He is to serve. Many of us know His forbearance in the same way.