2 CHRONICLES 13 (NOTES OF A READING)
2 CHRONICLES 13 (NOTES OF A READING)
CAC I suppose this is one of the most encouraging chapters in the book.
Rem It comes in as a great joy after the departure of the previous chapters; yet God was preserving something for Himself.
CAC Every reader of this book has noticed that the principle of recovery runs right through it, seen first in Solomon himself and ending with Cyrus rebuilding the temple. It is the whole history of recovery. It is most encouraging for us today that God gets something for Himself, even on the line of recovery. Even Solomon failed and the great movement of recovery was necessary with him. That is why there was a delay of some years after he comes to the throne. Not much is seen in Rehoboam, but he does humble himself and obtains mercy from Jehovah; he is not destroyed altogether. It is remarkable that in the end of verse 12 of the previous chapter it says, “Also in Judah there were good things”. It is in the same chapter where they had all departed from the law of Jehovah; so if good things were there it was on the principle of recovery.
I suppose Abijah is perhaps the most striking instance of recovery that Scripture affords. If we read in Kings, he is seen to be a man of concentrated evil; but here he is a man of faith, fully recovered to divine order and principles and the service of God, so that all is set up in its original perfection as ordered by David. Even the severe discipline in Rehoboam’s time had not the slightest effect on the son, so there must have been a remarkable movement of recovery for him to take up the place he does in this chapter.
All God has done from Genesis 3 until now has been on the line of recovery. When all is over, then God comes in on His side. Abijah goes back to the original order. He says, “Ought ye not to know that Jehovah the God of Israel gave the kingdom over Israel to David for ever” (verse 5). You ought to know that. He goes back to Christ. If we want to get the good of it ourselves, we have to go back to Christ. God has vested all rights in Christ, and whatever does not acknowledge that is rebellion wherever it is found.
Rem “Whatever promises of God there are, in him is the yea, and in him the amen, for glory to God by us” (2 Corinthians 1: 20).
CAC Yes. Abijah says, ‘You ought to know this man is a rebel’. The whole principle of recovery is to come back to the original. Faith will always revert to the lordship and headship of Christ, to anything that God has set up. Anything not in line with that is rebellion; faith looks at it like that, and where there is rebellion you cannot possibly have the service of God. Division is the government of God on the sad state of departure. If the lordship and headship of Christ had been held and the presence of the Spirit recognised, there would not be anything like the state of things today.
Rem The reference to “a covenant of salt” is striking. Salt is preservative.
CAC Nothing can invalidate it. Even when evil has come in or whatever government of God, nothing invalidates that, all the rights are vested in Christ. Faith reverts to that and the whole principle of recovery is there. And you get man-made priests, in verse 9; what is not of God, there is no value in it, for it robs Christ and is all connected with idolatry. Wherever you get the thought of priesthood in a human way it is always connected with idolatry.
Rem Abijah is greatly outnumbered but God supports him against tremendous odds.
CAC When God has recovered the truth in any measure, the whole religious world has always been against it, with its false priesthood. You cannot stand against overwhelming odds without God. The whole service of God was set up, it was in going order, which reminds us that it is necessary that, if we are to meet the powers of darkness and apostasy, we must see to it that the service of God is carried on in its completeness. It is much greater than all the power of Jeroboam and his golden calves and vast number of chosen men. Abijah could speak about the priests and Levites and all the precious service going on; “The Levites are at their work”, he could say. So that I think the Lord has been exercising us for a long time that the service should go on in all its features; that we should return to the lordship and headship of Christ, and that the service of God should go on in a spiritual way and in power. And then the enemy cannot do anything, he is powerless. There is plenty of machinery to keep things going in the religious world.
Rem The first thing mentioned is the burnt-offering.
CAC Yes, and that is dependent on the priests of Jehovah. The true priesthood comes to light and the reason of the ministry of the last hundred years is to bring them to light. The priesthood is found with those who are kindred with Christ; nothing of the flesh can come into the true priesthood.
Ques Would the thought of the loaves set in order upon the pure table mean that all the people of God are in mind?
CAC All these things are not the portion of a few saints, but properly the part of all saints. If only a few are interested enough to take up priesthood, it should make us all the more keen to take it up.
Rem “The kingdom of Jehovah”, it says; it is remarkable.
CAC Yes, and in a sense all this going on was only the normal way of things in a spiritual way. Even a small number of saints may take up these things in function and action, so that there is something going on superior to all there is in christendom.
Ques Would you say more as to the burnt-offering, what it is?
CAC It is the conscious sense of acceptability in Christ preserved continually in the souls of the saints, so we begin every day with a conscious sense of that which nothing can invalidate, and it is just as good at the end of the day as at the beginning. That is the meaning of household prayer; it is the sending up of the savour of Christ to God. Also the sweet incense, I suppose, would suggest the continual intercourse of saints with God in prayer, as being in the mind of God as to His will in Christ. We are in happy intercourse with God about it. If in the true vein of recovery we ought to be conscious that we are simply going on with what is of God, and it is a simple reality, day in and day out. Yes, it needs purpose of heart, I am sure that is right. Then the loaves are in order on the table.
Ques Would that mean things are in moral order?
CAC Yes. Everything in our spiritual history with God depends upon our sense of acceptability being preserved daily in the soul, and then we pray on that basis, our intercourse is based on it. Then the loaves are on the pure table. We view all the people of God in the life of Christ apart from flesh altogether. It became food for the priests, but then it was the ‘bread of the presence’. Well, that is the saints in the life of Christ before God. Is it so? If it is so, then Christ is multiplied in the saints. Every saint is an extension of Christ.
Rem “According as ye are unleavened” (1 Corinthians 5: 7).
CAC Quite so. We take account of saints as in Christ, not according to flesh. Some are naturally nice, and some are naturally nasty, but we are to look at them in Christ. They are sealed by the Spirit and stand in the light of redemption, and are in the life of Christ. Perhaps they do not know it, but do we know it? The thing is to bring all the saints to where we are ourselves.
Then there is the candlestick, that is spiritual ministry. We ought to be able to say we know something of the verity of all these things, not merely that they are in the Scriptures, but to be able to say it in sober reality, in the very presence of God, calling God to witness that we do not lie. It is wonderful that this can be in the presence of the darkness of christendom. We know (we ought to be able to say we know) that there is a present ministry of Christ in the power of the Holy Spirit, that we know these precious things connected with Christ in the presence of God. We ought to be able to say it on oath if necessary. In spite of the confusion in christendom, over against that there is the light of the candlestick, the Spirit’s ministry of Christ as a glorified Man in the presence of God and all He has brought to pass in Him. If I am not in it, I am a pitiable object.
John’s gospel was written for the last days — when he was about a hundred years old — when christendom was in as great confusion as now. It is there we read about the Comforter and His testimony to Christ, and His guiding the saints into all the truth. It is wonderful to think of a man able to speak so confidently and in such sober conviction, when he had been living amidst gross evil and departure for years.
Verse 12 seems to be a military verse. If God’s service is maintained within, there is power without. It says, “We have God with us at our head”, in the sense of leadership in conflict. What are eight hundred thousand men if God is with us?
Ques Is there not mercy in the alarm being given?
CAC Yes. The effect of the priests being there and the trumpets sounding is that the people go into battle with a shout of triumph; they have not a thought of defeat in their minds, and it was all a question of relying on God. “Because they relied upon Jehovah the God of their fathers”. They did not set up to be anything in themselves.
Rem In verse 12 there is an appeal to the other tribes, “Children of Israel”.
CAC There was the opportunity for all Israel to recognise the same things.
Rem Abijah took cities from Jeroboam.
CAC That is what we are after, we want to take as many cities as possible out of the hand of Jeroboam. There are thousands of true saints under the rule of Jeroboam; we should like to see them delivered and brought into the true place of saints. If we are able to say what Abijah said as to the recovery of divine order, and the carrying on of divine service, we would like as many as possible to have a share in it. They are just as much entitled to it by divine calling and we want them to enjoy it all. Abijah is a very interesting man in the light of recovery. I think it would be interesting if we could read the treatise of the prophet Iddo giving the whole history of such a man. It is a hint put in here to remind us that the full book of chronicles is being written in heaven, and we shall have to wait till we get there to read it. This is to remind us that there is a very great deal more than we have in the Bible. It would be very interesting if we had the treatise of Iddo.
Rem We do not have a complete record of the Lord’s sayings; John 21: 25 tells us that.
CAC No. We have not one-thousandth part of them! They are all in the church; the apostles had all the words of the Lord and all His acts, so certain members of the assembly are acquainted with them all, and will share with all the other members of the family by-and-by. We shall all share in it. The Spirit of God says, Now there is a lot more.