2 CHRONICLES 6 (NOTES OF A READING)
2 CHRONICLES 6 (NOTES OF A READING)
CAC It would be well to keep in mind what was before us last week, that this chapter refers to the public position. The building of the house in chapters 3, 4 and 5 refers to what is inward and spiritual. It seems to me that it can only be really understood in so far as the public position is established.
Ques Have you in mind the saints viewed as walking responsibly before God?
CAC Yes, I think the city God has chosen and the placing of His name there refers to the public position.
Rem Hence His public glory is connected with it.
CAC So this chapter could hardly be understood in any sectarian position; no sectarian position would be great enough to set His name there; it must be set where His great universal thoughts as to His people are recognised.
Rem Everything hangs on the inward side and all that is public flows from that.
CAC The assembly is referred to in Matthew 16; that evidently goes with chapters 3, 4 and 5; but there is a further reference to the assembly in Matthew 18 (there are only two references by the Lord Himself) where it stands in connection with the sin of one brother against another, which is chapter 6 clearly and is the public side. It makes for stability if we understand these things. The great resource becomes known, as regards the public position, which is prayer. There is no reference exactly to the Spirit because that is more connected with the inward and spiritual side. We recognise there is this because the assembly even viewed in the public position corresponds with heaven. We have to think of the public position as taken up being very small.
Rem The public position can be established by only two.
CAC It could not be by only one. In Matthew the Lord brings the matter down to two as He thinks of this very time in which we are living when it might be brought down to two. And there is authority, the Lord connects His authority with two — ponder that! And if so, it is the most august company on the earth. “If two of you”, that is, two who are intelligently of the assembly, not just any two people.
Rem The base is in Ephesians.
Rem So that two can take up the catholic position when two thousand not in the light of the house could not take it up.
CAC Exactly, so that twenty thousand are not equal in quality to “two of you”. God’s name brings in responsibility, as everything must come to that standard. “And hast not denied my name” (Revelation 3: 8). Now two can do that. There is no appeal from the decision of the assembly; no true decision of the assembly can ever be altered. It is the mind of heaven. The offender is brought to the mind of the assembly; everyone must come to it; no one is right otherwise, because it is the mind of heaven. The fact of forgiveness having a very prominent part in the chapter shows it contemplates failure in the public position; there are five references to forgiveness in different connections, showing that failure is contemplated.
Rem There is provision for failure in any position to be sustained. “We have a patron with the Father” (1 John 2: 1).
CAC Yes, that is very important. It is as true today as when Solomon said, “There is not a righteous man upon earth, that doeth good and sinneth not” (Ecclesiastes 7: 20). It would make me much less censorious when I thought of it; and it is in the public position because all sinned in that position. Nothing is more hateful to God than a hard censorious spirit; it is contrary to the mind of heaven. God makes provision for the settlement of all differences among His people. If Matthew 18 were simply carried out there would be no long-standing differences between brethren. There is never any toleration of sin; God is longsuffering and does not always exert judgment in a public way, but it must be judged.
Rem It must be judged so as not to hinder the service of God proceeding.
CAC It is a question of all the resources of the house being available; we are not left to struggle along and make a mess of things.
The second matter is, “If thy people Israel be put to the worse before the enemy, because they have sinned against thee”. A positive thing often arises and if so there is always a reason, for it is not by chance. I think it was illustrated at Corinth for it says they came together for the worse.
Rem The Lord met it when He came down from the mount.
CAC It is a dreadful thing when it happens. At Corinth they lost the Lord’s supper, they did not have it. And so they lost all assembly privileges, because they are all based upon the Lord’s supper — they lost them all. But then there is a remedy. There was one at Corinth and they were recovered. There is no state of things among the people of God for which there is no remedy; that is the lesson of this chapter. It is the state of God’s people that leads to all this distress. It led to exposure to the power of the enemy and they are put to the worse. It gives one an immense thought of grace. However the people of God may sin and fall into the enemy’s power, if there is confession of it and prayer there is a remedy.
Rem There are examples of it in Ezra and Nehemiah.
CAC Yes, they are delightful prayers.
Ques What does verse 34 mean, “If thy people go out to battle against their enemies”?
CAC Verse 34 is a very definite matter; it is going forth to meet the enemies of God to challenge them and do battle. If we think of Mr Darby, what battles he fought and won; it was a question of acquiring further inheritance, and so it is in our day. It is the enemy that is put to the worse then.
In the next section it is a question of the heavens being shut up and no rain. “If they pray toward this place, and confess thy name, and turn from their sin, because thou hast afflicted them; then hear thou in the heavens, and forgive the sin of thy servants ... and give rain upon thy land” (verses 26, 27). It means a lack of spiritual ministry. With no rain things get dried up. It is one of the ways by which God chastises and disciplines His people; He deprives them of spiritual ministry. There is a general complaint amongst pious people that there is a lack of ministry. They ought to take it to heart. If it is so in a local gathering it is a very serious matter. The Lord does not withhold any spiritual ministry from saints walking uprightly; He will see they get plenty.
Ques Is it a question of the Holy Spirit?
CAC Yes, it is and we should continually look up for spiritual ministry and for things to be preserved in freshness. Many saints at the present time are dried up. Then everything suffers, and people get into such a state that they criticise ministry. You cannot get anything from present ministry unless you are getting showers now. What are the assemblies worth unless there is the present refreshing ministry of the Spirit? There should be the going over the whole scope of things, as the Israelites with the feasts; they went over the whole course of spiritual instruction every year. We should do that repeatedly, go over the whole course repeatedly in the meetings.
Rem It is necessary for the younger brethren.
CAC The trees yielded twelve kinds of fruit (Ezekiel 47: 12). I am sure that is important.
Verses 28 and 29 are very comprehensive. “Whatever plague or whatever sickness there be: what prayer, what supplication soever be made by any man” (it bears out what was said in Matthew 18) “or by all thy people Israel, when they shall know every man his own plague, and his own grief, and shall spread forth his hands toward this house”. Have I found the divine resource to meet my own plague? We all have that; it is no use to pretend we have not.
Rem It is by that we learn what God can be to us.
CAC Those who have been helped in plagues have an experimental sense of the grace and resource of God. I ought to know my own plague and how God has helped me. There is resource then. I think that is the great lesson of this chapter. I am not left to deal with it without resource if I have trouble in myself or in the brethren.
Ques Is there a difference between our plague and our grief? The first would be some particular propensity of the flesh in each of us.
Rem A man’s own plague becomes his own grief, would you say?
CAC Very good if it does. A grief you might have through others.
Rem Job was under discipline as having his own grief, but God turns his captivity. A grief would consist in a lack of knowledge of God in some way.
CAC The Lord Himself was acquainted with grief. You might have griefs that are legitimate, but you want resource, otherwise you go down. It is possible for saints to get under the pressure which they may have to bear from others.
Rem The apostle wept over the walk of some.
CAC Yes, he was weeping for three years day and night, he says (Acts 20: 31). It was a sorrowful service.
Ques Why the reference to the way God knows the heart?
CAC It is a great comfort that God knows everything. I only know partially the evil of my own heart but God knows it perfectly. I can say, ‘Thou knowest much more than I do and I can bring it to Thee’. The result is, “That they may fear thee, to walk in thy ways, all the days that they live upon the land which thou gavest unto our fathers”. It results in a life of happiness and blessing in the land.
Rem In Hebrews it says He was heard because of His piety — a remarkable filling out of this chapter.
CAC Yes. It shows the immense provision of grace, even for what is evil, in the principle of repentance. Repentance should always be increasing with us.
Finally there is the gospel; you come to the way that outsiders are affected (verse 32). They hear of God’s name as it is found among His people. It is a great thing to give an impression of God; what is my life worth if I do not give an impression of God? It is a normal thing when a soul is in exercise that it turns to the most godly person it knows. So a company with God dwelling among them should be most attractive to any person exercised in the town. It is much to be desired. I have known towns and villages where any in distress were sent to the brethren. It is a question of God’s name being there. There is no getting over it; if it is there, it is there; it is no matter of pretension. So Solomon is very wide-hearted; he goes out to the stranger and he may come “out of a far country”.
Rem Saul of Tarsus prayed before he came in.