2 CHRONICLES 5 (NOTES OF A READING)
2 CHRONICLES 5 (NOTES OF A READING)
CAC It is important for us to see that the house is a very enriched place. There is place in it for all that is precious. The dedicated things are obviously things that have been the product of the devoted affection of God’s people. It is not the side of what is ministered to us from God, but of what is brought to God on the part of His people. And it is evident that Solomon may be viewed as representing those to whom a great deal of spiritual wealth has come down.
Ques Do you refer to the things handed down to us by those who have gone before?
CAC Yes. I think there are many precious things that have been found in the hearts of the saints, say during the last hundred years. I refer to that because that has been specially the time of recovery, and much that is very precious has been brought in and it finds its abiding place in the house of God. Nothing that is brought in having divine value should ever go out. Alas, it has been so; we find it did in the time of the apostles and others; it was allowed to be lost or stolen. But God has been working in the last century to replace many of those precious things, and they are recovered as the wealth of the house.
Ques They are brought in as cherished in the hearts of the saints?
CAC Yes, I think so. What has been received from God is so understood and valued that it has been brought into the house as the material of service Godward. Is that the thought?
Ques Like the hymns of J.N.D. ?
CAC Quite so. They express the most precious features of truth and blessing, but they express them as known in the heart of a saint, and they have become serviceable in the house, and according to our measure we can take them up and use these instruments of the saints.
Ques Do you mean that the saints before us are represented in David, and Solomon follows on that?
CAC Yes, I think Solomon is set before us as representing those who have the handling of the precious things that have come down to us, which are all to be in the service of the house.
Ques Would there be a difference between Paul handing down to Timothy and the impressions of the Spirit now?
CAC I think what Paul refers to is the truth handed down ministerially. The result of things being ministered to us is that we can minister to God. During the last hundred years the truth of the lordship and headship and sonship of Christ, and all the truth connected with the outshining of God, reconciliation and new creation; all that the saints are as the temple and as the body of Christ and His wife and brethren, and their place of sons and children — all this has been ministered to us in some fulness.
Well, what kind of shape has it taken in our souls so that we can bring it as something to dedicate? Unless it takes form in our affections it cannot be dedicated. What we find is that much more has been ministered than we could take in, so there is not the amount to dedicate that there ought to be. Here things have been brought to completion, and all the dedicated things are there to be available for the divine service.
Rem So that the service continues to be enriched as saints grow in the truth.
CAC Yes, quite so. There is no reason why some quite simple and unpretentious brother should not say something in the service that has never been said before; and once said it takes its place in the service of the house. Once a simple brother without gift said something that was talked about for years after. Should there not be with us some desire on that line? There are extraordinary possibilities at the present time. No saints that have ever lived had such opportunities as we, and all is granted so that the house should be enriched. So it is manifest that the house of God is a place of great spiritual wealth. Of course, the great thought in the scripture before us is the bringing up of the ark of the covenant of Jehovah into its place in the holiest of all. That is a very great matter.
Ques Why does it bring in the thought of the dedicated things previously, and the ark after?
CAC I suppose the bringing in of the ark is the crowning touch, the greatest thing of all.
Ques It would be an assembly exercise or experience?
CAC Yes, I thought so. I think it is well that we should consider the difference between the ark being in Zion and being in the holiest.
Ques Will you open it up?
CAC Oh, we are all in the matter. It is clear and it has been considered at some length, the bringing up of the ark to Zion, but that was not the end of the journey.
Ques The ark had rest here?
CAC Well, it had rest in Zion according to what we read in Psalm 132. There we get the exercise of David, who was exercised to find out a place for Jehovah. He found the place in Zion. Verse 8, “Arise, Jehovah, into thy rest, thou and the ark of thy strength”, and in verse 13, “For Jehovah hath chosen Zion; he hath desired it for his dwelling: This is my rest for ever; here will I dwell, for I have desired it”.
Ques So David brought it to Zion, and Solomon brought it to the holiest?
CAC Yes. We should earnestly ponder these things so as to understand the difference.
Rem We understand more about Zion than we do about the holiest of all.
CAC Well, I think so. The ark on mount Zion sets forth the place that Christ secures in the assembly so far as the reign of grace is known there. It is a kingdom thought and ensures that Christ secures a very special and pre-eminent place — that is Zion. Zion is contrasted with Sinai as a new principle, the principle of grace, and the grace of God is apprehended in power in the kingdom by the Spirit, so that a glorious place is secured for Christ in the hearts of the saints. That is mount Zion.
The thing was illustrated in the disciples in the days of the Lord’s flesh, whether they entered into it much or little, they were really under the power of grace, and it secured a wonderful place for the Lord in their affections. It was feebly entered into, we may admit, but it was a reality and the Lord found rest in the appreciation of those who followed Him. It was extended after He had died and risen and been exalted and the Spirit had been given. The power was increased and the saints became the spiritual Zion, and the ark found rest there in how they cherished the thought of Him. So Zion is a good way on.
Rem There were the godly few at the beginning of Luke.
CAC I think you see souls there that have come under the reign of grace, in figure anyway, and they find their place in the assembly, and the climax is in Acts 13 where in Antioch it says, “They ministered to the Lord”. Well, that is the ark in Zion. But I should like the brothers to contribute what they have.
Then you see the glory as the Lord is apprehended in His personal distinction, because the ark does not set forth exactly anything He has done for me. It is His personal distinction and glory. He is the power and glory of God to set forth the will and glory of God. As John says, “(We have contemplated his glory, a glory as of an only-begotten with a father), full of grace and truth”. It is not what He has done for us. He is the Head and Centre, just as the Lord is the Centre of the vast world of bliss that it is in God’s mind to bring to pass.
We come to that in Zion and it is established in the assembly. It is a tent; all that character of service is provisional, and I trust we shall see how we can leave tent conditions which are only provisional and reach conditions that have the mark of permanency on them.
Ques Is Acts 13 provisional because the full truth of the assembly had not come out through Paul?
CAC It is provisional because it is not the full thought of God. All that belonged to a provisional state of things. The service of Paul and Barnabas is not permanent but provisional. So that all that Christ will be in the world to come as the glorious Centre for God is a reality in the assembly, but it is provisional, it is only for a time.
Rem There is something that surpasses all that.
CAC The Spirit of God would help us to see that in this scripture. It is a wonderful thing to be brought into the kingdom, to realise the lordship of Christ in this world, and He becomes supreme. Is it possible today to find the ark in Zion? Well, I believe it is. It is where He is supreme in the hearts of His people and the Centre of the vast world of bliss; and He is worshipped so.
Rem The Supper should be helpful in this direction.
CAC I think the Supper rightly taken would secure us for that, for His supremacy in our affections as the ark in Zion, and of course He finds rest. What did He find in the disciples when they answered His question, “Who do ye say that I am?”. Was that not rest for Him? And was there not something for Him when the woman of Samaria went away with Christ in her heart to speak of Him to others? He could say of it that it was meat to Him. It is rest in a provisional side of things.
When the ark is brought to rest in the holiest, He is seen to be the Centre of a system of glory that is permanent. ‘Eternity’s begun’, as we sing; that is in the holiest, not in mount Zion. We sing it sometimes with little conception perhaps of its meaning at all. It is important to see what a vast amount of offerings were offered just at this point, intimating to us that we must entertain great thoughts of the death of Christ. It is the most wonderful moment in the sacrificial system there ever was, typifying the saints as taking on a most wonderfully enlarged thought of the death of Christ. Only in the power of that can we follow the ark into the holiest of all. I suppose during the last hundred years saints have been marvellously enlarged in the thought of the death of Christ. One of the greatest features has been the opening out of the death of Christ in its wondrous value and efficacy. In the epistle to the Hebrews we get what prepares us for the holiest and there are twenty-eight references to the death of Christ, showing how essential it is in entering the holiest.
Ques Is there importance in the fact that the elders and priests brought up the ark?
CAC It shows it is an intelligent action, calling for maturity and spirituality.
Ques Is your thought that the ark in Zion is sufficient to occupy us for one evening?
CAC It would be good if Christ acquired the place with us set forth in the ark in mount Zion. But it is not permanent. When you come to the holiest it is permanent; there is no thought of further movement, the staves are drawn out. God is perfectly complacent, which is set forth in the cloud filling the house.
Ques Is it too great for priesthood?
CAC Yes, priesthood is provisional and not eternal. Priesthood could not function here; nothing remains but what stands connected with the will of God. It stands eternally protected. The staves refer to the time of service and testimony, not necessarily conflict. It is a backward look. Then you are altogether past the time of service and testimony. There is none in the holiest of all.
Ques Do you get it in Ephesians 3: “Glory in the assembly in Christ Jesus unto all generations of the age of ages”?
CAC It was just in my thought to see that the ark brought into the holiest of all has its answer in Ephesians in the prayer of Paul in chapter 3, that they might be so strengthened “that the Christ may dwell, through faith, in your hearts”. That is exactly the thought. And then you get the eternal conditions, “Unto all generations of the age of ages”. We sing,
And see! the Spirit’s power
Has ope’d the heavenly door,
Has brought us to that favoured hour
When toil shall all be o’er. (74:5)
But is it true? We touch it perhaps for a few seconds and it is a reality. That is the ark in the holiest. It belongs to the eternal, but is touched in the assembly now. We move from the ark in Zion, Christ in His supremacy, to the holiest where there is permanency. If the saints pray over it, I think it is helpful to see that the court answers to Corinthians, and the holy place to Colossians, and the holiest of all answers to Ephesians.
Rem It says in Psalm 132, “This is my rest for ever”.
CAC “For ever” in the Old Testament is millennial, not really eternal. “Thou art a priest for ever”. That means it is a priesthood that will not be superseded by another kind of priesthood. It is very important to see that “for ever” is used in a limited sense, having in view the “world ... to come, of which we speak” (Hebrews 2: 5). It contemplates provisional conditions that have been brought in by sin, and contemplates how these conditions are perfectly met; but what meets them is necessarily provisional; it has not to do with the eternal purpose of God.
Rem There has been much help on eternal life in this very matter.
CAC Yes. Fifty years ago there was very great help. It was brought out very clearly that eternal life is connected with earth and comes in in contrast to death and sin.
Mount Zion stands in relation to what had to be overcome for it speaks of the victories of David who overcame all his enemies. So we know Christ as victorious; but that is provisional. What is eternal is connected with the eternal counsel of God before such a thing as sin and death, and it is going on eternally, and that character of things is known in the assembly.
Well, we must pray about it.