2 CHRONICLES 29 (NOTES OF A READING)
2 CHRONICLES 29 (NOTES OF A READING)
CAC It is encouraging to see what enlargement there is following the cleansing of the house.
Ques Is there any significance in the fact that Hezekiah gathered the princes and went up to the house of Jehovah? It links up the thought of priestly direction with what is outside. Then the priests come into view.
CAC The Spirit of God would always exercise the saints as to the cleansing of the house.
Ques How would you apply it in a practical setting for today?
CAC I think we must admit that the Spirit of God would always be jealous about suitable conditions in the house of God. If things are tolerated that are really filthiness and uncleanness in the sight of God, the way is stopped, is it not? We find that when saints have moved to secure suitable conditions in the house, there has been great enlargement; it is a fixed principle always. That is how spiritual enlargement comes, and it secures enlargement in our outlook on the position in the widest sense; so that though there is a comparatively limited range of movement what is contemplated is proper for “all Israel”. There were comparatively few taking it up; the vast majority were captive in Assyria. There is a great place given at once to the sin-offering, which shows how sensitive they were.
Ques You mean as to the condition of things publicly and the basis on which things can be recovered?
CAC That is what I thought.
Rem The cleansing of the temple by the Lord comes very early in John’s gospel (chapter 2: 15).
CAC Were you thinking it was a kind of moral requirement consequent on the unfolding of the gospel? That is very interesting and helpful. If there is a thought of things in the service of God being suitable to Him, there is a basis on which the Lord and the Spirit of God can move for great enlargement, and there is a sense of grace. It seems to me that bringing in the sin-offering at this juncture indicated a great sense of grace in the soul of Hezekiah and others.
Ques Is there a reason for the number seven in verse 21?
CAC I think it is a complete presentation of the sin-offering in every aspect of its value. It is a comprehensive view of the sin-offering, as bearing on the breakdown of the public profession, for that is what it is typically. It is a realisation that all that was professedly for God required the sin-offering — the kingdom, the sanctuary and Judah — showing how sensitive they were of what was due to God. As we look around and within, we see the great necessity for the sin-offering. God would have us understand that in His patience and grace He is bearing with christendom on the ground of the death of Christ in spite of so much that is contrary to His pleasure.
Rem All the congregation identified themselves with the sin-offering by putting their hands on it.
CAC We do not gain much from any exercise unless we do. It is in putting our hands on it that we get the gain.
Ques Have you any thought as to why the number of the animals was seven?
CAC Oh, I think it shows the complete way in which they took up the exercise. We should understand in a very full way, if we were spiritually exercised and addicted ourselves to the cleansing of the house, how available the sin-offering is to the whole christian profession.
Rem We should come to an understanding of how it affects God.
CAC Yes, and to see that in grace God has provided that the whole character of things displeasing to Him should be thoroughly judged in the sin-offering; He provided for that. The whole system of self-will and lawlessness has been judged for God in the death of Christ and He would have destroyed it long ago but for that. What is here typified is the entering on the part of the remnant into their true position. It is that we might take up in our spirits that God must have it judged, and has done so in the sin-offering of Christ. As we do that we are equal to move in grace in the midst of the whole profession. Hezekiah moves in grace in the whole system of disorder; he thinks of the tribes in captivity in grace, of “all Israel”, and sends out an invitation to all Israel in the next chapter to take the passover.
It is a most beautiful suggestion of grace; there is a sin-offering. We often speak of the disorder and rebellion side; well, let us just turn over and think of the sin-offering. So that it is possible for God to deal with every one of His own in grace. Personally it is very important that we should be in the good of the sin-offering ourselves. The judgment of will in the death of Christ is not a theory but to be an established thing in our soul. Even when not thinking of the sacrificial side we find the value of it all gathered up in a Person who is the centre of eternity. On the ground of the sin-offering God bore with men for four thousand years before Christ came; otherwise a man who pretended to be a priest would drop dead in a minute. We must bear in mind that the sin-offering is a means to an end. In one sense it is a negative thing, it deals with what is obnoxious to God, and enables Him to go on with a profession that is the most hateful thing that ever came under His eye. The word “atonement” (verse 24) means ‘a covering’. It applies to both offerings; it is something that covers sin under the eye of God.
Rem The burnt-offering is brought in by the sin-offering.
CAC The words that characterise the sin-offering in Leviticus and are referred to again and again are, “And it shall be forgiven him”; but in chapter I they are, “And it shall be accepted for him” (verse 4), which gives a positive thought. If not clear as to the sin-offering we shall not understand much about the burnt-offering. The burnt-offering brings in the thought of what is pleasurable to God; it is an offering of a sweet odour of delight to God.
Ques Is it like “having made peace by the blood of his cross” (Colossians 1: 20)?
CAC Yes, reconciliation brings in what is suitable to God, “To present you holy and unblamable and irreproachable before it” (Colossians 1: 22). Reconciliation brings that about. It is very necessary for us to get hold of the great thoughts of God; He would have all His people before Him clear of every stain, “holy ... irreproachable”; but He would have all of them consciously linked up with His own delight.
Rem So it is “taken us into favour in the Beloved” (Ephesians 1: 6).
CAC It is wonderful to see how the Spirit of God in the New Testament causes the offering, so to speak, to merge in the Person, that is, we are not only accepted in the value of what Christ has done, but in the blessedness of what He is Himself as the Beloved, which practically makes a great difference. You could not possibly have types to represent the truth, they can only present parts of it; but when we come to the truth as recorded in the New Testament it is greater than any type. It takes all the types put together to represent Christ, and then they do not equal Christ. No offering in the Old Testament was ever raised from the dead (except in type, of course). The wonderful thing is that all the sweet odour brought out in Christ as in the place of sin is all carried over in Himself into resurrection and ascension and eternity, and it is in the glorified Man at God’s right hand we are accepted; and we have to bring all that into the burnt-offering to get our conception of it.
Rem ‘Eternity’s begun’, as we sing.
CAC Yes. He chose us in Christ before the foundation of the world. It was in that One whom He loved that He chose us, when there was no other thought, nothing but delight. He chose us in Christ that we might be for His delight for eternity. So at His birth the angelic host spoke of God’s delight in men. We have little idea of the exceeding delight of God in us.
Rem We want to learn more what the Beloved is to Him.
Rem The best robe, the ring and the sandals were his in Luke 15.
CAC That is it; he was made conscious that he was not a penitent, forgiven sinner but an object of the father’s heart. If we do not touch that in some measure (and the youngest can do that, for the gospel brings this to us, it is teaching for babes in Christ), we shall not understand the song of the Lord.
Rem I think we all want to know more of this.
CAC So we are moved over into the region of divine complacency and delight. It involves that the saints are viewed as the brethren of Christ. David is the great leader of song in Scripture, and is typical of Christ. As we know He sings in the midst of the assembly.
Ques What would “the moment the burnt-offering began, the song of Jehovah began” suggest (verse 27)?
CAC It seems the moment we touch that in the assembly, the song of Jehovah begins.
Ques Would it be when it was true of the Lord?
CAC And when the saints were brought into it by ministry, particularly by the ministry of the gospel of John. It is the celebration of God as known in the effectuation of His own delight. So anybody who gets any idea of it is supremely happy, the song begins. That is why we are supremely happy in the assembly. And it is for “all Israel”; there is nothing restricted in what is of God. It is taken up representatively for we do not touch anything in the assembly that is not the divinely given portion of all the saints. Why are they not there?
Ques The conditions later in the chapter are not up to this practically; there were not enough priests. Is that the responsible side?
CAC Yes, I think we get the complete thought first, then a challenge as to how far we are ready to take it up practically. This is one of those remarkable Old Testament scriptures which could hardly have been understood until these last days.
Rem Certain things are done in Christendom that prevent an entrance into this.
CAC That is right, and until the cleansing has been taken up, no one will come into it. There must be some purpose of heart to please God; in Christendom things are done to please man. Directly any think on this line, saints get great enlargement in their thoughts as to Christ and as to the saints as linked up with Christ. As we are on the line of being hallowed and hallowing all those things that have to do with the house of God, we see how God has provided for the complete judgment of everything displeasing to Him in the sin-offering; and in the burnt-offering what is completely for His pleasure in Christ, and in the saints as accepted in Him, and then the song begins; we can praise Jehovah for what He is, for His wonderful thoughts that have come to light.
Ques In verse 23, would you say how we lay our hands on, how we do it?
CAC It seems to me, if one may speak practically, the Lord brings us on the first day of the week to identification with His death collectively. Of course, we have to take up the exercise individually in baptism; a moment comes in our history when we are ready to take it up, do you not think? A moment comes when we obey “from the heart the form of teaching into which ye were instructed” (Romans 6: 17), and I have no doubt it means baptism. That is very much like putting our hands on it.
Rem Actually in the Supper you do put your hand to it.
CAC And in the actual service of the assembly that comes first. We all do that ostensibly, the Lord only knows how far it is true of each individual. We break bread on that footing. I like to think many of the brethren are much deeper in it, and more real than I am, but we are all on that footing. I think what we get here is more a collective exercise; we come together on that basis, that what we were in the flesh has been judged in the death of Christ, and we are thankful for it. Otherwise we should be serving God in the flesh, whereas the only way He can be served is in the Spirit.