2 CHRONICLES 7 (NOTES OF A READING)
2 CHRONICLES 7 (NOTES OF A READING)
Ques Is Solomon a type of Christ in recovering all that is connected with God’s house and effecting it prosperously?
CAC Certainly Christ did that, but I wondered if the side of faithfulness was not more before the mind of the Spirit, not so much Christ building the house according to Hebrews, but the responsible building as committed to man’s faithfulness. I think God’s answer to Solomon’s prayer would indicate faithfulness on the part of those responsible for building the house. And if that is so, there would be prosperity and blessing. God is ready to accept anything that is positive faithfulness as done to Himself. It is how things are worked out in the exercises of the saints, and God prospers what is being brought about for His pleasure. It is a kind of fixed principle and God would be denying Himself if He did not prosper it. It is quite clear that Jehovah accepted what was done, and He was pleased with it; He committed Himself to it because He was pleased. The continuance of His favour and blessing would now depend on continued faithfulness on the part of His people.
Ques To what would the king’s house refer?
CAC It would refer to his personal administration, do you not think? The two houses are very closely identified. In a certain way it corresponds with the house of Jehovah, for as long as Solomon maintained faithfulness in his own house, everything prospered. Later we find failure came into Solomon’s house.
Rem It is good to see it is carried through to completion.
CAC The thought of God’s house is not very widely before the hearts of His saints, but God has been pleased to bring it before us, and the character of things that go on there. The thing is to work it out in prosperity. We love to see prosperity in God’s house. There is room for greater prosperity with us. But God cannot fail us or disappoint us if we love the habitation of His house and the place where His glory dwells. People who delight in God’s habitation and know that God’s glory dwells there are sure to be prospered.
Rem There is a difficulty in the maintenance of things. Everything committed to man in responsibility started all right, at a high level.
CAC Yes, we have to see the completed thought. We do not want to stop short of what is in God’s mind. Those who desire to reach God’s mind would not like any feature to be missing or defective, would they? We have had much ministry during the last forty years relating to the house and to the service of God. We cannot yet really say the service corresponds to the ministry; we are conscious of that. There is a good deal that stops short of God’s complete thought.
Rem In Hebrews the word is “Hold fast” and “Continue”.
CAC Yes. One feels what an important matter it is that there should be something God can recognise as pleasing to Himself. God chooses the place because He is pleased with it, and as a house of sacrifice, and to put His name there. What a wonderful thing it is to be going on with things that commend themselves to God, so that He can be pleased with them, His eyes and His heart perpetually there, because it answers to Himself.
Rem A spot where things accord with heaven.
CAC Yes, so in the house you could not expect to find any defective thoughts; they would be corrected. The Spirit is always adjusting and correcting; and as we pay attention things become more pleasurable to God. How wonderful to be going on with a line of things so pleasurable to God that He says, ‘My eyes and My heart will not be off it for a moment’. In a day of recovery God moves by stages. He does not do everything at once.
Ques What do you mean by that?
CAC We have come out of a christendom where everything is distorted, and it all has to be corrected. The Lord’s supper, for instance, is placed at the end of the service, and there is no service for God at all. Yet there is a possibility of great failure. God may withhold showers of blessing and bring chastisement, as at Corinth, because it is His assembly, and people treated it as if it was not His assembly. But then, He says, if you repent, I will listen. Sometimes it is distinctly felt that there is a lack of the refreshment of the Spirit. If so, there is something wrong.
Rem God says, “If I shut up the heavens that there be no rain”.
CAC And that is what christians ought to feel, there is a terrible lack of rain, the showers are not coming down so that there should be fruit for God and the tithes brought in. God wants the state of heart that desires pleasure for Himself. If it comes into our hearts to promote what is of God, He is sure to prosper it; He would deny Himself if He did not.
Ques Would “locusts” refer to the destruction of food? There seems to be a sort of progression here in the thoughts.
CAC Yes, according to Revelation they come out of the bottomless pit; and there are many about today eating up all that is precious, including infidel thoughts and higher criticism. We should not get away from the fact that these things are the judgment of God. If a godly clergyman dies in a place, and a modernist comes instead, it is the judgment of God on that town. From the divine side things are intended to bring about repentance. This is encouraging, for however sad and sorrowful things may be, it shows God is always ready to hear and heal. It is true for all christians, and particularly in connection with the house of God, which can only be known where the presence of the Spirit is recognised. Every person in the world who has a sense of the presence of the Spirit has some sense of the house of God. All christians should be exercised. Godly people are; they know something is amiss, but are not prepared to take the divine way of recovery.
Ques What about pestilence?
CAC I think such things do break out. It was a pestilence in Galatia, it spread over a whole province. Sometimes thoughts that are destructive are introduced amongst the brethren and God has to be sought about things, and then He comes in and gives deliverance. Even things professing to help in connection with the thought of the Spirit, such as speaking with tongues, may work against the mind of the Spirit. We have to ask ourselves, ‘Do they further the present mind of the Spirit’?
God’s name is called upon His house. We come back to this; the revelation of God is the great test of everything. His name is the revelation He has made of Himself, and it will be found that what is of Himself will always enlarge the revelation of Himself, or what is not of Himself will take away from it; so it is a very simple test. It is open to everyone, to all saints, to move on in what is purely of God, and in the current of the Spirit, and to find our joy in it.
Rem God is very patient in the matter.
CAC Yes, and it is good to remember it is “the well-accepted time” which does not mean the preaching for sinners, but the portion for the saints. You cannot possibly pray to God without an answer. Is it not good to be firmly rooted in that? If I have what is for God’s pleasure in view, it is an absolute impossibility for God to disregard me. You are quite sure you are speaking in a way He approves of, and in His own way He will answer; for He delights in it. All this would preserve us from the terrible declension at the end of the chapter. He has to warn them what the result would be of unfaithfulness.
Ques Would Daniel be a good example of all this, his windows open towards Jerusalem?
CAC Yes, though it was a heap of ruins. People would say, ‘What is the good of praying towards Jerusalem? What a silly man you are’. No doubt the Chaldeans thought so. But what was in Daniel’s heart was the blessed unchanging truth that God had set His name there. That is what the outward profession of Christendom is today, a ruin, but it was open to Daniel to come back to the spiritual reality of things. The professing body of christians is on the verge of apostasy. God may use, I hope He will use, the terrible trouble coming on the so-called christian nations, that it may check the incoming tide of apostasy. It would be a great mercy from God.
Rem God allows things.
CAC The Scriptures do not speak of God allowing things. We say it, but I do not think it is the language of Scripture. We should take a great scourge directly from God, and I do not think we get any good out of it until we do.
Rem “This thing is from me” (2 Chronicles 11: 4).
CAC The great thing is to own God in things. And faith in that day will accept things from God. The Psalms show that even in the terrible time in Revelation, the remnant will accept things from God. A great deal in christendom today is a solemn visitation from God, such as modernism. The truth has not been valued, and God says, ‘You shall have a lie’.
Rem God orders things.
CAC He does; there is a positive action of God in regard of things that are dreadful in themselves, but while the present dispensation lasts, all God’s ways have behind them thoughts of grace, so long as it is the well-accepted time and day of salvation. So He preserves man’s life. See how many would have lost their lives last week if the bombs had been a couple of hundred yards nearer. The reason why they did not is because it is a day of grace, and so that men shall have a prolonged opportunity to accept the gospel. We need to have it before us in reference to our failures and sins. However naughty I have been, it is the well-accepted time. I have only to pray to Him and He will hear and heal at once. What a God he is!
Rem “Shall there be evil in a city, and Jehovah not have done it?” (Amos 3: 6).
Rem “Creating evil” (Isaiah 45:7). What do you understand by that?
CAC What is evil in the estimation of men. Job says, “We have also received good from God, and should we not receive evil?”. The loss of his property, his children and herds was evil in that sense. There are things that are evil, such as loss and bereavement. But then God is in that sense the source of both good and evil. Hence Job’s rebuke. Job’s wife did not understand it. She said, ‘It is high time you cursed God and died’. “Shall there be evil in a city, and Jehovah not have done it?” There might be pestilence and famine in a city. Men would have many reasons for it; but then faith has only one reason and to recognise God in it is a great thing. What has God to say in it? If it goes across all I should like, have I such a knowledge of God that I can accept it? All His ways are in blessing; it is a well-accepted time. Even His ways in government are subservient to His grace. We need it to steady our souls. J.N.D., speaking of possible invasion of this country, said it would be a terrible scourge of God on a people who had not known war, but personally he would continue to live on the principle of confidence in God. How many thousands of lives have been preserved in the world the last two years. Houses have been completely destroyed and the people inside them never got a scratch. Now who did that?
Ans. God!
CAC This is a very solemn chapter, but the encouragement that is in it is the great feature, and if something is found with us which is of God and is not of man, we may depend upon it His eyes and His heart are upon it perpetually, and He will support it. And He is not going to lose sight of it.
Rem ‘Our times are in thy hand’.