2 CHRONICLES 4 (NOTES OF A READING)
2 CHRONICLES 4 (NOTES OF A READING)
CAC Last week we were thinking of the vessels of brass mentioned in verses 11 - 18 of chapter 4, that they had to do with what might be spoken of as moral things, while the vessels of gold which we come to this evening represent what is spiritual.
Rem The emphasis is on the fact that they are made of gold.
CAC I think emphasis is laid on the fact that Solomon made them in contrast to Huram. The Spirit carefully distinguishes between what was made by Huram and what was made by Solomon.
Rem It would seem from verse 18 that Solomon also made brass vessels.
CAC What Huram did was for Solomon, that is, it was done under authority. So what Huram makes suggests to us the lordship of Christ. There are certain things connected with the service of God which are matters of commandment, which speaks of the authority of the Lord. In 1 Corinthians the whole epistle is summed up in this, that it is to be acknowledged by the spiritual that these things are the commandment of the Lord (1 Corinthians 14: 37), and all moral questions belong to that sphere. So all the apostle says about the Lord’s table and the Lord’s supper and the ministry meetings comes under the head of commandments, and is connected with Christ as Lord. They are not exactly in the sphere of spiritual things, but of moral things that involve questions of good and evil.
Ques What aspect of glory comes out in Solomon making the vessels of gold?
CAC It seems to me more connected with the headship of Christ. It is important that we should be clear as to these things to carry on the service of God intelligently.
Rem Certain services He reserves to Himself.
CAC Yes, the whole realm of spiritual things is connected with Christ as Head.
Rem The gifts are mentioned as well as the Head in Ephesians.
CAC Yes, He does not give gifts as Head, but as the One who has ascended up far above all heavens. It is not exactly His headship there. There is a certain part of the service of the assembly on Lord’s day morning, when we come together in assembly, that belongs to the sphere of commandment. That is, it is not an optional matter. No christian is at liberty to disregard the Supper. If any does so, he cannot yet know the lordship of Christ, for if he disregards the Supper, he disregards the Lord. But the Lord would have us move on to the things that are purely spiritual and connected with the recognition of Christ as Head; so it says Solomon made all the vessels of gold.
Ques Is there any distinction between the “house of Jehovah” and the “house of God” in a moral sense, brass vessels perhaps being connected with the first and gold with the second?
CAC Well, the brass has to do with the house of God too in the sense of verse 11. We can all see that if things are not right morally, there cannot be any access into things spiritually.
Ques Would you link it with the gospel account of the Supper where after they had sung a hymn they went to the mount of Olives?
CAC Yes, I think we move from the sphere of lordship to headship; there is a moment of transition.
Rem As we sing, ‘Higher and higher yet’.
CAC Yes, that would be the thought. I think the way transition comes is described to us at the end of 2 Corinthians 3. What we find there is that the Lord is the Spirit of the new covenant and He quickens. In the end of verse 6 the Spirit quickens, and in verse 17, “Now the Lord is the Spirit, but where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. But we all, looking on the glory of the Lord, with unveiled face, are transformed according to the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Lord the Spirit”. That is, we could not possibly be ready for headship till we are like Him — unless we are like Him. How could He be Head to persons unlike Himself? He could not be. We must first come to think of God as He thinks of God. We become like Him and then we are ready for headship. It is wonderful that the Lord should give us His Spirit that we should have liberty to know God as He knows Him, and that is how transformation is effected. It says, “Looking on the glory of the Lord ... are transformed according to the same image from glory to glory”. Then we are ready for headship.
Rem There is the thought of expression.
CAC Yes, I think in the glory of the Lord, that is the mediating of the new covenant, the perfect shining out in Him. But He would quicken and transform us so that we should think of God as He does. When we have got to that point in the meeting we are ready for headship. It is the Spirit of the Lord, not the Spirit of God here. It is wonderful. It is the Lord as revealed in love and grace.
Rem Is the mount of transfiguration analogous?
CAC After they received the Spirit they were transformed, but Peter, James and John were not transformed on the holy mount, because they were not like Him. But when they received the Spirit they became like Him. That should be the effect. We often enjoy the morning meeting, and we miss all the point of it.
Rem We need quickening.
CAC The Lord can make us live in His own life, and then He can make us think of God as He does; is it not a wonderful thing? The Spirit of the Lord gives liberty so that we can be changed. Every natural thought is displaced and we think of God as He has been revealed in Christ, and we have the Spirit of the One who is the Mediator of the new covenant. He must be Head to a people who are like Him. The first thing is to look on the glory of the Lord, and we are quickened — which is illustrated in John 20 where the Lord breathes into His disciples — made to live in His own life, and then we correspond to Him and are ready for headship. He could not be Head to any who were not living in His own life, and that prepares us for an order of things which is spiritual — for the gold. If I do not walk rightly in the sphere of lordship, I cannot be in the sphere of headship.
Rem The vessels of brass being cast in clay ground in the plain of Jordan is a striking allusion to the death of Christ, the moral question is all met in Himself.
CAC Yes, every moral question has been raised and settled in the death of Christ, which is where we have to come for the solution of every moral matter. But in the spiritual realm we think of nothing relating to what has been in the mind of God on the moral line. To be risen with Christ, for instance, is not a moral question at all.
Rem “Be not conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind” (Romans 12: 2). Is that a moral question?
CAC Yes, that is exactly what it is, because it is a question of our practical walk down here.
Ques Should we not be able to observe the Lord’s movements when we are together?
CAC That is very fine. The Lord is working to make us more intelligent as to the service of God, so that we may please Him. If we have known Him as the Spirit of the new covenant and are transformed and given the same outlook of God as He has, then we have to fix our attention on Him as Head.
Ques Is it having part with Him?
CAC That is just it. So we can move Godward with Him.
In 1 Corinthians the assembly is viewed in a moral setting. They were once idolatrous and were converted and set in the assembly. In Colossians it is the assembly viewed spiritually, so that Christ is the Head of the body, the assembly. So we should be exercised to take up service in the Colossian aspect. There is not one word there as to children or sons. That is because the subject of the epistle is the assembly as deriving from Christ as Head, and the thought of relationship does not come into it. It is a question of moving as having Christ as our life, and we are under His headship and therefore deriving from Him. It is a wholly spiritual conception, it is not what you can see. It is not the thought of testimony in Colossians; there it is the body of Christ for the pleasure of God — a worshipping company. This is set forth in the tables of shewbread. There are three things in the holy place, the golden altar, the candlesticks and the tables of shewbread. They cover the sphere of spiritual things as known in the assembly.
Ques Does it correspond more to the holy of holies?
CAC The holy of holies is a further thought; you have not the ark here at all. The next chapter brings in a new subject, the introduction of the ark and putting it in its place. But these constructional chapters are how the saints are formed for Christ. The gold is spirituality.
Ques Why are we sometimes so cramped in our service?
CAC I think we are straitened sometimes because we get into a certain stereotyped form of service, instead of having the thought of spiritually deriving from the Head at the moment, that there and then there is a suggestion from the Head. It is not what has been in our thoughts already. Then there is variety and what would come out would be really spiritual, giving more variety in the service.
Ques What kind of variety do you mean?
CAC What great variety of spiritual conceptions would there be if you think how Christ the Head thinks and feels and how His affections move Godward. It is the golden altar. It is a sphere of movement in which the Head moves Godward. He would have the assembly in accord with Him as He moves Godward.
Ques How does He move Godward?
CAC John 17 shows how He moves Godward. The brass in separating from evil has in view the gold. And now I trust we understand the headship of Christ and how He moves Godward. There is a distinct moment of transition when we pass from lordship to headship and it is a matter of spiritual discernment.
Ques Would the thought of the Comforter sent forth from with the Father to serve us bear on this line?
CAC Yes, because the Comforter must always be on the line of the headship of Christ. One of the first acts of Christ as Head was to give Him. The recognition of Christ as Head is a movement of reverent affection, first as seeing Christ towards God, because the Head of Christ is God. And He can give fresh impressions of Himself and God. So that the golden altar, the candlesticks and the tables of shewbread all come into evidence in the holy place. It takes form in the saints as they enter into this spiritually.
Rem His God and ours.
CAC Yes. It is wonderful to think of moving with Him. The golden altar covers all the service Godward, it seems to me. Spiritual prayers and praise are all the golden altar. The prayers of Paul in Ephesians are the golden altar, and it was a delight to God that Paul could bring out His own thoughts. He loves to have them developed amongst us and brought out in praise and worship.
Ques Would you say that the altar and the lights and the tables are all in function simultaneously, not separately?
CAC It is an assembly character of service. The three things really go together; the altar, the candlesticks and the tables all go together as spiritual elements marking the assembly, not as children of God, or sons of God, but viewed as the body, as the Colossian aspect of things.
Rem “I in them, and thou in me” (John 17: 21), would that not correspond with Colossians?
CAC So in the tables the saints are seen as in the life of Christ. It is pure wheaten flour that the loaves are made of, with no admixture, for God’s pleasure. It is really “The bread of the presence”, and we have the pleasure of realising it when together in assembly; we cannot fully realise it anywhere else.
Ques Would it be like Paul “rejoicing and seeing your order” in Colossians?
CAC Yes. Order is very much connected with the shewbread, which is the saints viewed as in spiritual order before God for His pleasure, as in the life of Christ. The candlesticks give spiritual light, that is, they refer to what is ministered amongst us. The full thoughts of God are ministered among us and all saints should look for it. All is in the Scriptures, and if the saints were to read the Scriptures spiritually they would be spoilt for all human ministry; and they could only find it where the Lord is. There is a special ministry of spiritual things and the great thing is to value it, because if we do we are on that line ourselves. The more spiritual I am, the more I shall long for spiritual ministry. All this goes to make up the service of the holy place, it is all spiritual.
Rem Christ is “Minister of the holy places” (Hebrews 8:2).
CAC That is the priestly side of our service Godward, in which we need the support and direction of Christ in His priestly character as Minister of holy things. It runs parallel with the thought of His headship, but on rather different lines. Priesthood is official, but headship is not official, it is His personal glory. A time comes when you leave what is priestly behind and there is nothing but what is purely spiritual — those thoughts and purposes and counsels of God that were there before ever any question of sin arose.
Ques Would you say a word as to the doors (verse 22)?
CAC It suggests the possibility of access, does it not?
Rem There are three different doors of entry into the three parts of the temple.
CAC It is clear that there is the court where the brazen altar and the sea and lavers and the pillars are found. That is the place of testimony, and answers to 1 Corinthians.
Then there is the holy place, where things are purely spiritual, answering to the saints as seen in Colossians. And then there is the inner shrine, where the ark is brought in and put in its place, the most holy place that represents what is nearest to God and what is spiritually greatest. We shall come to that in the next chapter, please God.