2 CHRONICLES 4 AND 5 (NOTES OF A READING)
2 CHRONICLES 4 AND 5 (NOTES OF A READING)
2 Chronicles 4: 9 - 22; 2 Chronicles 5: 1
CAC We come in this section to the end of the matters connected with the construction of the house or temple, and it is evident to all that the Spirit of God would lead us to think of the difference between the things made of brass and the things made of gold.
Ques Would you help us as to the difference between these two?
CAC The things made of brass were in the court and the things made of gold were in the holy place. As far as one can gather, the brass would speak of what has to be considered morally, and I think the gold would refer to what is purely spiritual.
When we speak of things morally, we speak of things that stand related to the question of good and evil. I think saints would be helped if they considered carefully how to distinguish between the moral and the spiritual.
Ques Does the moral always precede the spiritual?
CAC I think that is so. I think there is a great development of things viewed morally in the epistle to the Romans and in the epistles to the Corinthians, particularly in the first epistle. Things are viewed in these epistles in their moral setting. But when we come to the epistles to the Colossians and Ephesians I think things are viewed in a spiritual setting. Do you think that is right?
Rem I was thinking of the remnant under Ezra in their journey from Babylon to Jerusalem; they were at the river of Ahava for adjustment.
CAC Yes, I think that in coming out of captivity, out of all the confusion of the christian profession, we have first to take account of things morally, from the standpoint of what is right and what is wrong.
Rem And that is why the doors of the court are brass and not gold.
CAC The things in the court are made of brass: the altar, the sea, the lavers and the pillars. It seems to me that things made of brass are from the moral point of view bearing in mind the thought of the brazen serpent, where the question of sin in the flesh is removed. That is not exactly a spiritual question; but the question of separation from evil is really a moral question. If something is wrong I am called to judge it even if I am not a spiritual person; it has to be done in any case.
Rem The brazen serpent is followed by the springing well.
CAC The well brings in what is spiritual, and qualifies the saints really for what is over Jordan.
Ques The moral underlies the spiritual always, would you say?
CAC Yes, I thought so. We all realise that things must be morally suitable to God. None of us would expect to understand the spiritual if we are not morally right, if we have some link or habit of life that is a hindrance. We need to be cleansed from what is morally unsuitable to serve. So we find that the sea is the first thing mentioned, which was provision for purification. No such thing would be provided if it were not needed; so it is provided for the priests to wash in because we are still in a place where it is difficult for us to maintain holiness, and we realise that without holiness no one can see the Lord.
Rem So that the sea immediately follows the brazen altar.
Ques Why is it called a sea?
CAC Well, we have been seeing that in the temple there is great extension, so the sea is to impress us with the immense provision there is for purifying and to encourage us to avail ourselves of it so as not to be debarred from service.
Ques How is holiness connected with Romans? I thought it was righteousness there.
CAC Holiness is distinctly brought before us in chapter 6, you “have your fruit unto holiness”. Holiness involves what is moral, that is to say evil involves what is abhorrent to God so we need to use the sea. There is power with it as set on the right; and it is “over against the south”, that is, the position is very attractive. We need it all the time we are down here, for service. We shall not need to wash in heaven, the sea there becomes a sea of glass; it is a crystal pavement on which persons stand that have no longer need of washing.
Rem The Spirit is needed for all this.
CAC The thought of the unction of the Spirit is on the spiritual side because of capacity. The whole range of spiritual things is open to the one who has the unction. There was an absence of spirituality with the Corinthians and Paul said, “Ye are yet carnal”. He could not give them meat, he had to give them milk.
The lavers are there for “a pure offering”, and the lavers were on wheels, so that you had not to go to them, but they came to you. It is very encouraging that the Lord has so cared for us as priests. We shall leave priesthood behind in heaven. The Lord carried the basin round; He moved round so as to free us to have part with Him (John 13). The most intense desire of every true lover of Christ is to have part with Him. I know it sometimes stays buried, but it is there. And if we have part with Him it is in what is spiritual, it applies at the present time; it will not be wanted in heaven. It seems to me that our priestly state involves the thought of contrariety.
Ques You connect the water in John with this?
CAC I was thinking of it in connection with the essential characteristic of what is priestly. It contemplates surrounding conditions that are more or less of a defiling character. The Lord’s priesthood supposes infirmity on the part of the saints.
Rem In Revelation l, “To him who loves us, and has washed us from our sins in his blood, and made us a kingdom, priests to his God and Father”.
CAC That is now. I suppose priesthood will cease altogether, even in Christ, in eternity. I think priesthood merges in sonship.
Rem So that things will be sustained in Christ in headship in eternity.
CAC Quite so.
Rem We want to get clear as to the washing first.
CAC I think there is often present with saints a sense of unsuitability, having been in contact with unholy persons and an unholy scene, and we are not altogether immune from the effect of it, and if the sea were not available we should not be entirely free for service. This is provided so that we should be perfectly free to have part with Him, and to come with Him to God.
Ques Why is the sea on the “right side eastward”?
CAC I suppose like everything else in view in the temple and tabernacle it has the coming of the Lord in view; the sunrising and our being taken completely out of this defiling scene.
Ques Is the thought of defilement connected with the laver?
CAC You feel you need the precious service of Christ in the laver, because the sea is mounted on the twelve oxen and there are the three hundred smaller oxen, all speaking of the patient and persistent service of Christ for us. The Spirit would give us a great sense of how delighted the Lord is to serve us so that we should be entirely untrammelled in the service of God, with not a thought to hinder.
Rem The brazen altar comes first.
CAC The sin question must be dealt with first; from the divine side it has been fully dealt with, of course.
Rem He has judicially dealt with it and He would here have it morally dealt with.
CAC Yes, that is true, but does not exactly come in here. We have all realised it was unspeakably precious to be made conscious that the death of Christ was between you and yourself, between you and everything connected with yourself. It was for the priests. It supposes that believers have reached the dignity of priesthood, that is, are altogether apart from the flesh in their minds.
Rem So it is not just anyone that is washed. The vessels are characteristically brass, and their origin is significant: they were cast in the plain of Jordan.
CAC There are great questions that have been settled on the divine side once for all, but they come up in detail in our everyday lives and give a sense of disqualification. Well, there is this sea. I think if we made more use of it we should be more free on Lord’s day morning. There would be perfect liberty in consequence, and every heart would be free.
Rem Say a word as to the court.
CAC I think the court is the place where all these moral questions are raised. What is spiritual is found in the holy place; but this is an outer sphere where all this service goes on.
Ques Would the laver and washing be connected with Hebrews 10, where the conditions are given in which we approach?
CAC The allusion there is really to the consecration of the priests, when the washing of the priests is once for all; but this we can avail ourselves of at any time and at once. If we were to use it immediately we were defiled it would be a good thing to do. The washing is necessary for every part of the service really.
Ques Would you altogether exclude this from saints when together for the Supper?
CAC No, I would not like to shut out the possibility of His service at any moment, because it is preparatory service. Any lack of liberty shows something has affected us that is not of God. The Lord takes account of that and serves us. Sometimes it is a hymn that does it. A hymn sometimes is like a tidal wave of cleansing passing over our spirits. Or the Lord may use what is said to liberate us, and above all He would use the actual emblems giving a sense of His body for us and His blood poured out. It is the new covenant which is a liberating power for us; we should all go through the sea then.
Rem It is after or during supper it takes place in John 13.
CAC Yes, I think it is instructive.
Ques Would you tell us the meaning of the hundred golden bowls?
CAC I think they are utensils of service in the holy place, representing the saints no doubt.
Rem It is the thought of abundance again.
CAC Yes. In connection with the court we get the two pillars again, which are enlarged upon. We get here the network and chains and four hundred pomegranates, suggesting, it would appear, the place in which the saints are set up by God in testimony here, as working out together the principles of christian fellowship. All this is connected with the brass. Christian fellowship is not exactly a spiritual question, but a moral one, that is we are under obligation to be true to the fellowship; there is no option whatever about it. None of these four hundred pomegranates could break away. The pomegranates represent the saints as having a fruitful character, but I think the point here is that they are held by the network and the chains: they cannot get loose. Speaking from the moral side, it is not possible to break away from the bonds of fellowship. We are absolutely lawless if we do.
At the beginning, “They persevered in the teaching and fellowship of the apostles, in breaking of bread and prayers” (Acts 2: 42). I think that is like the network. Now that is the great object that God sets forth in testimony to the world, because the court is public. No one who is really in life would think of breaking away from the apostles’ teaching and fellowship and the breaking of bread and prayers. It is absolutely monstrous to think of breaking away, looking at the thing morally.
Rem The doors of the court were overlaid with brass.
CAC I think the doors would intimate to us there is a within and a without, and at Corinth Satan would break that down. We have a responsibility to judge not those without but those who are within; all that is a moral question.
Ques “With all that in every place call on the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, both theirs and ours” (1 Corinthians 1: 2). Does that bring in the network universally?
CAC I think so. The saints are baptised into one body universally, and held together practically by the apostles’ teaching and fellowship and the breaking of bread and prayers. You dread anyone breaking away. If anyone breaks away it is apostasy in principle.
Rem There is the exhortation “to keep the unity of the Spirit in the uniting bond of peace” in Ephesians 4:3.
CAC Yes, that is really in the spiritual realm. Those who break away from the fellowship have no part in the service of God whatever; they could not have. The testimony of God has suffered terribly for many years because the principles of fellowship have been broken. The network has been broken and the pomegranates go where they like!