2 CHRONICLES 6 (NOTES OF A READING)
2 CHRONICLES 6 (NOTES OF A READING)
CAC We were seeing in the previous part of the chapter how available the Lord is for every need that can possibly arise amongst His people; and what is chiefly contemplated is sin and departure from their side, but He is able in all the power and grace of His name even to meet it. But it seems clear at the end of the prayer Solomon comes to something much greater than all that; he speaks of there being a resting-place for God. We can understand while God is answering prayer He is not exactly restful.
Ques. Why is that?
CAC Well, it is simple. If there are requests, it requires some movement on His part to answer them. The crowning thought in Solomon’s prayer seems to be conditions in which God can be entirely restful. And priestly conditions are brought about on the side of His people, so that prayer has ceased. The blessed God, and His saints too, are in rest.
Rem “Ye that put Jehovah in remembrance, keep not silence, and give him no rest, till he establish, and till he make Jerusalem a praise in the earth” (Isaiah 62: 6, 7).
CAC That very strikingly illustrates what has been said. When the people of God are scattered in an unrestful condition they are called to give Him no rest. “Give him no rest, till he establish, and till he make Jerusalem a praise in the earth”. And in prayer God delights that we should give Him no rest. Let us lay hold on Him importunately and “give him no rest”; it has pleased God to put it that way, till we get what we ask for. But here it is the contrast to that. “And now, arise, Jehovah Elohim, into thy resting-place, thou and the ark of thy strength: let thy priests, Jehovah Elohim, be clothed with salvation”.
I would suggest the connection is that God contemplates failure in His people through all this prayer, but He contemplates that this prayer will be heard and there shall be recovery on the ground of which God secures a place of rest for Himself. So it comes very specially into our conditions. The climax of the thought of the house is that it is a place where He can be in absolute rest, the conditions being brought about in His people so that it can be so. Our exercise should be that the special conditions should be present that really afford restfulness to God. It is possible on the line of exercise and prayer; however far the line of departure has been, there is the possibility of recovery to His original thoughts and there is a rest for God.
Rem In the quotation from Psalm 132:8, David is taken up in Solomon’s prayer.
CAC I was thinking that we might get a great deal of spiritual help in the consideration of that. It is quoted by Solomon here, and it is Zion. See verses 13 - 18 of Psalm 132. Zion is the place of God’s rest in the Psalm, but it is something more than that in 2 Chronicles 6; and I think if we do not understand this we shall perhaps suffer some lack.
Ques In speaking of recovery, would it be to first love?
CAC I think that is so.
Ques Do we get this in Ephesians 1 and 2? I am thinking of “the ark of thy strength”.
CAC Yes, it is the full thought of salvation, and the priests are in the good of it. I think Zion is the place of God’s rest provisionally; it contemplates human need. It says distinctly in Psalm 132: 15, “I will abundantly bless her provision; I will satisfy her needy ones with bread”. And God can rest in the provision that He has made, but it is not a complete final rest; you must have the house for that. So Solomon in a remarkable way brings the thought of Zion into the house. He brings it all in, that is, he refers to David. It is David as the anointed: and it is Christ as David who has secured Zion, He has secured grace in the very place where sin and death reigned; He has secured full remission and eternal life for men. And God can rest in that, but it is to meet human need. I think Romans 5: 20, 21 largely answers to this, to secure the reign of grace, so where sin abounded grace has overabounded to “reign through righteousness to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord”.
Rem “Father, glorify thy name” (John 12: 28).
CAC You see how great the Father’s name is to the Son. It has been given to Him for revelation, and He prays that His own should be kept in that name. He would have us bound up in the blessedness of that name. And there is only one name, so that all saints are bound up together. Here it is His great name in relation to all men; He is ready to exercise His almighty power on behalf of any human being anywhere.
Verses 34 and 35 suppose that God will send His people out against their enemies. This is the converse of verse 24. It all stands related to the house. If the church position is not understood I do not think there will be any moral power to fight the Lord’s battles. In the last hundred years the conflicts have been in connection with the revived truth of the assembly. There have been great conflicts.
Ques “And maintain their right”, it says. Would that be the truth?
CAC That is the thing. It is a question of maintaining what is right, thus glorifying God. Whether applying to a local or to a general conflict it is so.
Rem Ephesians is “to stand”.
CAC I think it supposes the saints are in possession of the land, but they are now to hold it. We ought all to be deeply interested in the conflicts of the last hundred years because the testimony is bound up in them. In 1848 there was a conflict, a tremendous battle to establish the truth of the righteousness of God, a very great battle that J.N.D. had to fight for the church of God. We are in the good of it without perhaps understanding the great cost at which it was procured. The city represents the universal thought for all saints in which all saints have a common portion. We hold that with tenacity; it is really the truth of the assembly, that all saints are blessed in Christ in one common portion. That puts us clean outside all narrow or limited thoughts of men; it puts us in the wide range of God’s thoughts. We see saints in that view; we see them all in the loaf. All christendom was against J.N.D. as he stood for it in 1848, the broad principle of the house of God as against the narrow principle of independency, a miserably narrow principle. He contended in the light of the broad principle of the church of God. Well, that is universal. There are other things, the truth of eternal life, and of the Lord’s blessed sonship; these things have caused much conflict, in view of the city and the land.
Rem Deuteronomy 20 would help as to that.
CAC We do not always spare the trees in fighting for the truth. We must be careful not to cut something down that is good; we go slashing about and cut something good down. Do not damage anything that is of God. That is a good scripture you have referred to in Deuteronomy, so that we are not to damage anything that is good for men. I am sure Paul never cut a good tree down. He struck down strongholds and every high thing that exalted itself against the knowledge of God, bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of the Christ (2 Corinthians 10: 5).
There is a special application for us in verses 36 - 39, it refers to a time when the people have sinned and been carried away into captivity. There is a beautiful quality about restoration. I do not want to say anything unseemly or out of order, but it seems to me that Scripture would give the thought that there is a peculiar pleasure given to divine Persons from what is restored, even in excess of what They had at the beginning. I think the land and city, and the house, acquire peculiar value to those who have been long away from them. They get a greater, richer sense of these things than those who have never been away.
Ques Are you meaning in an individual or in a general sense?
CAC It would apply in both ways, but I was thinking of the general departure specially; because the systems of men are spiritual captivity; christians in them are bound hand and foot.
Rem Philadelphia is greater than Ephesus in that sense?
CAC I doubt whether in the early days of the church there was the light there is now, or that the saints ever stood assembly-wise in the good of Paul’s prison epistles. So wonderful things are coming to light now. One year now is worth more than one hundred in Luther’s time. There are some saints who have taken this to heart, and they have repented and prayed, and God has granted restoration to the city and the land; and I want to have a part in it too.
Ques Would you say what the land is?
CAC The land is all that God has given to us in Christ — a vast expanse, “The breadth and length and depth and height”. The city speaks of the universal portion of the saints in Christ; and the house is where God dwells and where His name is. And we can come into all these things now, and God is glorified if we do. Now we want to come back to Paul’s teaching and John’s teaching. Those who have departed from Paul’s and John’s teaching have sinned: they may as well own it.
Rem “Surely there is not a righteous man upon earth, that doeth good and sinneth not”, it says (Ecclesiastes 7:20).
CAC Do you not feel the truth of that? We have to keep on that line; we should be very self-righteous if we did not take that line. You see how careful Paul is to distinguish between the “man in Christ” and himself naturally. He knows another man who needs to be severely dealt with by a thorn for the flesh. We all need to distinguish between the “man in Christ” and the man easily puffed up.