2 CHRONICLES 2 (NOTES OF A READING)
2 CHRONICLES 2 (NOTES OF A READING)
CAC I think we should look in these scriptures for the great principles of divine acting, which would help us in the understanding of matters connected with the house of God today. They are not recorded as history, but as giving us the mind of God according to the Spirit for present application; always bearing in mind, of course, that the house was not built until Christ was glorified, Solomon being a type of Christ as glorified.
Ques Was this not a great step forward from what we had in the first chapter?
CAC Yes, it seems that Solomon was not acting in the light that had been given to David his father when he went to Gibeon, so that what he does in chapter 1 falls short of what was really pleasing to God. Solomon was hardly up to it but I think he came to it in this chapter. He does not say anything in chapter 1 about building the house which was really the great matter before God. Gibeon was not the place where spiritual light was shining as to the present mind of God, the ark not being there; but now Solomon comes to the thought of God, and I think we can perceive that there is instruction in the kind of labourers that he employs.
Ques He would be more a type of Christ glorified here?
CAC Yes, and I think the fact of there being this large number of strangers that could be used in building is intended to show us the result that can be brought about under the influence of the power of Christ, so that the most unlikely and refractory persons can become serviceable in building the house. We find from chapter 8: 7, 8 that these most unlikely persons, who had been under the expressed judgment of God in Joshua, are now brought under the control of Solomon and become tributary to the house, setting forth the kind of persons used today in connection with the building of God’s house.
Ques Is there something in the fact that the persons are mentioned twice, and the second time are described?
CAC I thought it was intended to convey to us that God takes up those who are by nature children of wrath even as the rest, as Paul says — that is the class of persons. So if such persons become tributary and serviceable to Solomon for building the house of God, it is a wonderful testimony to the power of Christ.
Ques Is there a difference between “a house for the name of Jehovah, and a house for his kingdom” (verse 1)?
CAC You mean as a distinction between the two houses? There is a house for Jehovah where service would be carried on Godward whereas the house of the kingdom would be where kingly authority would be exercised manward, so that both sides would be secured, namely, God’s service for His pleasure, and the rights of His throne secured. We read of the throne, a wonderful throne, further on.
Ques Are these the product of the assembly exercises of the saints? Do we see these things as maintained under the hand of Christ? Ephesians has both aspects.
CAC Yes, I think that the effect of Christ glorified secures that all those who come under His hand become serviceable in relation to what is for the pleasure of God, and the maintenance of all that is for God in the kingdom. He can so transform what is worthless and obnoxious that it can be usable.
Rem It is as persons in an ordered condition of things.
Rem You get also the thought of the kingdom in Ephesians.
CAC The two must always go together, the house of God for His service and pleasure, and the kingdom securing the rights of God manward.
Rem We get the kingdom first in the practical application to ourselves.
CAC Yes, that is the truth developed in the epistle to the Romans first. We must come first to “righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit” (chapter 14: 17) and that is necessary if the house is to come into being for the pleasure of God.
Ques I wondered why David is concerned with the materials and Solomon turns this thoughts to operatives?
CAC David is the type of Christ as one who completes the will of God, a man after God’s heart, and in a sense he provides all the material; it is the fruit of the incarnation and death and resurrection of Christ; but the building is connected with Him as Solomon, as Christ glorified. As the glorified One He builds the assembly: “I will build”, He says in Matthew 16:18. I think the thought of skill comes out very prominently, the need for skill, which it is well for us to note. There is great need of spiritual skill, skilled workmanship; and the teaching we get here is not had by descending into details but by getting principles. You get here that there is no building of the house without the gentile. The sovereignty of God comes in as to the place chosen for the house, the threshing-floor of Ornan the Jebusite (1 Chronicles 21: 15). But the calling in of Huram shows a kind of necessity that the gentile should be brought in to get the true thought of the house of God.
Ques Was this meant when David said that Solomon should add to it?
CAC I think it is an intimation to us of the truth of the mystery.
Rem David would suggest that the death of Christ laid the great foundation for Jew and gentile and as glorified He gathers them together to put into shape for the house.
CAC It is most important for us to understand the truth of the mystery, the special ministry given to Paul. It is the great distinctive truth of the present moment and necessary for any right understanding of the house of God.
Ques Would you explain what “the mystery” embraces?
CAC I think it is a term that covers the present acting of God: first it is bringing Jew and gentile together as joint heirs, and a joint body and joint partakers of His promise in Christ Jesus by the glad tidings, and then it takes the form of God’s work among the gentiles, as Paul says, “the mystery” summed up as Christ being in the gentiles, “which is Christ in you the hope of glory” (Colossians 1: 27); in a great company of gentile saints, while individual Jews that are added come in on the same ground. The truth of the mystery is far greater than the ways of God with Israel, than all the promises in the Old Testament. It was a hidden thing, not said to be hidden in the Scriptures but hidden in God. But there are intimations in the Old Testament, and I think that this is one of them, the fact that a gentile king is brought in to furnish for the house along with Solomon.
Rem We get the Canaanitish woman in the borders of Tyre and Sidon in the gospel (Matthew 15: 22).
CAC Yes, on the borders of the gentile world; and the house of God was not there in its true character at Pentecost when limited to Jews. The ministry of Paul brings in the true character. It was given to him, no one else had it. He is our special apostle; we need to give great heed to him. So it is very interesting to see Solomon and Huram so beautifully united in their care for the house, and a beautiful hint of how things would come to be in its being built. And the reality of it is now. We have part in it, taken up as worthless persons, so that Christ may subdue our lawless will for us to have part in what is to be for the pleasure of God. It is a thing we should cherish intensely.
The Lord’s service on earth prepared the material, in the days of His flesh, but He put it all together by sending down His Spirit after He was glorified, and consequent on that Paul was appointed a special minister of the mystery to show how the gentile was called in, which is our part in it. It is all right material, there is no thought of a mixed multitude in the mystery. Paul was not one of the twelve; he was called in love with a special ministry which the twelve did not have. They had the ministry of the kingdom; Paul had the ministry of the assembly. We need to consider very carefully and closely the ministry of Paul if we want to be in the thoughts of God at the present time.
The importance of all this is that if we do not know how God is moving we cannot serve Him intelligently. Solomon was very pious in going to Gibeon, but he was not intelligent in God’s mind and did not give Him pleasure. The great thought in the house is that everything is according to the mind of God, so that He can come in and take possession and be delighted with it. It is a great conception and we come to understand what a vessel of divine pleasure the assembly is. Solomon in writing to Huram speaks of the service that would be rendered Godward. In verse 4 he speaks of the incense, the continual shewbread and the burnt-offerings.
Ques Is it the full range of offerings?
CAC I think in principle these things cover the whole service Godward for the divine pleasure. The great thing in people’s minds today is to get a service that suits man. It is not what suits me, but what suits God; and nothing gives Him pleasure but what answers to His mind. Solomon expects Huram to enter into it all, intelligently to follow all that he said. I think Huram represents the gentile as brought in to complete and fill out the thought of the house. Spiritual skill is being developed amongst the gentiles now. The great bulk of the assembly is composed of gentile nations, and it is developed there to be worked out in localities, not to be worked out as we think, but as He thinks. Looking at the saints abstractly they have the Spirit, and are subjects of divine teaching and they have intelligence. “I speak as to intelligent persons: do ye judge what I say” (1 Corinthians 10: 15) is what Paul says as to the responsibility of the fellowship. I think Solomon speaks to Huram as an intelligent person, and I think God looks to us that we should understand what He says to us as to this knowledge of the mystery.
Ques Were the wheat, barley, wine and oil for support to those in his service (verse 10)?
CAC I think that strength for labour depended on the food supply. We are feeble in connection with the service of God, because we do not feed sufficiently on the divinely given food.
Ques Would you say what the “incense” is (verse 4)?
CAC The incense is how the saints speak to God in prayer and praise. Now, do we speak to God as in the knowledge of His own pleasure? If not, I am not qualified to serve Him. God loves that His own precious thoughts should be brought back to Him as sweet incense by His saints. The best example of incense that I know is John 17.
Rem Is that the golden altar?
CAC Yes, it is the Son speaking to the Father, as a divine Person, of course, but here in manhood, and speaking of the saints according to the thoughts of the Father and according to His own thought, and that is very pleasing to God. God would ever have us speak to Him as those who are in Christ. There is suitability to God’s present thoughts. God thinks of us as in Christ, having a spirit of sonship and in liberty. I may tell Him of my needs, but my needs do not minister to His pleasure. Incense has fragrance and gives delight and so must have reference to the wonderful place we have before Him.
Then the shewbread no doubt represents all the saints as in the life of Christ before God for His pleasure. Have we learnt to regard ourselves as in the life of Christ and as such for the continual pleasure of God? The divine order would be secured as we held fast to that. The order of the bread speaks of the order of the saints as in the life of Christ. We are called to be that, to be in the life of Christ before God and to refuse the flesh. Paul says, “Rejoicing and seeing your order, and the firmness of your faith in Christ” (Colossians 2: 5).
Ques Is the Lord making a new arrangement in John 17? “When I was with them I kept them in thy name ... And now I come to thee” (verses 12, 13).
CAC Yes, the Lord was contemplating the new position that He was about to take up, and the saints left here to live in His life, so that He might be glorified in them; as He says, “And I am glorified in them” (verse 10).
Then the burnt-offering is the ground of everything, the ground of acceptance. We are always on that ground, and as we are able to take that up we are for the pleasure of God. We bring before Him not our failures and shortcomings but the excellencies of that One. Now is the time when these things are real. All types were shadows and the house itself was only a symbol, and it came to nothing; but what it typifies does not come to nothing! God would have us all serve in relation to this wonderful system all set up in Christ. We have come to the substance now.
Rem So that the sabbath, God’s rest, is reached in spirit and the new moons give a fresh appreciation of Christ.