2 CHRONICLES 30 (NOTES OF A READING)
2 CHRONICLES 30 (NOTES OF A READING)
CAC I think that the previous chapter provided conditions according to which the people could be called together to hold the passover which was the great memorial feast at that time, the original footing on which their relations with God were established; and, of course, in that connection it is well to remember that the assembly is the first company to take up the passover. As we have understood, I think, all was typical in that day. There was in reality no lamb without blemish and without spot until Christ came. The assembly is able to say, “For also our passover, Christ, has been sacrificed” (1 Corinthians 5: 7), and so the assembly is the first company to take up the passover. Israel will take it up in a coming day, but not quite in the same way as the saints of the assembly.
Rem You have remarked that there is an additional feature each time the passover is taken up as a feast in the Old Testament.
CAC Yes, I think that is so.
Ques What would be the distinctive feature here?
CAC I suppose the recognition that it was to be taken up in a priestly way in relation to the house of Jehovah.
Rem Verse 8, “Come to his sanctuary”, puts it on a high plane.
CAC Yes, and suggests it could only be rightly held to Jehovah in the place where He dwells, and therefore it must be accompanied by holy and priestly conditions.
But we find in the chapter conditions come short of the divine requirements, which would indicate that the passover rather corresponds in this chapter with the way it is spoken of in Corinthians. The passover and the Lord’s supper are spoken of together in the institution, and were taken up in Corinth in a manner far short of the divine mind. For instance, “Our passover, Christ, has been sacrificed” — why did he say that? Why did he leave out the thought of eating?
Ques Was he stressing the sacrificial side?
CAC Yes, I do not think he could say anything about eating at Corinth; those who do so are inwardly in accord with the sacrifice, with the death and judgment-bearing of Christ. He could not say they were so at Corinth.
Ques Is the feast of unleavened bread brought in because of recovery?
CAC And the apostle is anxious the feast should be kept at Corinth, that there should be a purging out of old leaven, and a new lump that was unleavened. If that is not the case, there is no true basis for coming together to eat the Lord’s supper.
Rem It says, “And thus eat” (1 Corinthians 11: 28 ).
CAC There is no setting out of the Lord’s supper in its spiritual import in Corinthians. The eating and drinking there is the outward thing, and he reverts at once to the grave responsibility everyone came under in eating the Supper, and they would come under judgment just as in this chapter Jehovah was angry and smote them with disease. Paul says it was not to eat the Lord’s supper, he does not hesitate to say it.
If the assembly were practically a new lump, an unleavened lump, there would be nothing to hinder the spiritual apprehension and appropriation of what is connected with the Lord’s supper, but if leaven is working there can be no spiritual apprehension of the loaf and the cup in the Supper.
Ques Is there a good state indicated in Judah in the hand of God being upon them, to give them one heart and so on?
CAC Yes, there was a unity produced by the word of God, and it brought about that certain of Asher and Manasseh and Zebulun humbled themselves.
Ques Would it mean they were learning to judge the carnal mind?
CAC Yes, “If we judged ourselves, so were we not judged”, Paul says (1 Corinthians 11: 31).
Ques If you connect the cross with the wrong man, is that unpardonable in God’s sight?
CAC Say what is in your mind.
Rem It is not in its right setting here, I mean, they were late, and some were not cleansed.
CAC Yes, it corresponds to Corinthian conditions, does it not? People who are really in accord with the death of Christ are entirely separate from the world, and give no allowance to the flesh, which is always marked by self-importance and inflation. Well, eating the passover and keeping the feast would free us inwardly from what is of the world and of the flesh, so that there might be a new lump, an unleavened lump, and then the Lord can really be before us. The great point in the passover was that Jehovah was to be before the people: it was held before Jehovah, and it was spoken of as the offering of Jehovah, and sacrifice of Jehovah, and feast of Jehovah. Its very character depended on Jehovah being, as it were, present to the hearts of His people, and His great deliverance the footing on which He had placed them with Himself. We need to keep up that kind of exercise continually.
Ques Would the sprinkling of the blood show that conditions were secured from God’s side? The uncleanness arises at once as far as the people’s side is concerned.
CAC The death of Christ is the ground on which God can take His firstborn sons out of the world for His pleasure and service, but then there are exercises on our side that come in; all the rites and ordinances connected with the passover are essential for us.
Ques What are they for us?
CAC The necessity of our being inwardly in accord with the death of Christ, and of taking care to exclude the leaven, those are the rites and ordinances. It is an exercise that saints of the assembly have to take up, so that there is the connecting with the death of Christ the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth. We have to be genuine in our inward exercises in relation to the death of Christ, taking things up in a genuine way.
Rem The prayer for forgiveness by Hezekiah (verse 18).
CAC I think he recognises that things had not been taken up “according to the purification of the sanctuary” (verse 19), and he prayed for Jehovah’s hand to heal, for they were stricken with disease, just as many at Corinth were weak and sickly. But I suppose Jehovah was good also to them at Corinth, for through repentance He brought things back to the right conditions of the sanctuary. The second epistle to the Corinthians is the sanctuary.
Ques What is faced in verse 14?
CAC Certain things that challenged the rights of Jehovah had to be dealt with in a summary manner; and so it is today, souls will not move into right relations with divine Persons if they do not deal definitely with these things. There is a provision for abnormal times, and I think almost everything we take up today is adapted to abnormal times, is it not?
Ques Would the recognition of that help to keep us humble and free from pretension, for we are all part of it?
CAC Yes, quite so, and it is all essential to our coming intelligently to the Lord’s supper and understanding it.
Rem “All Israel” are not in this.
CAC They would not come.
Rem Provision is made so that the service can go on, though things were abnormal.
Rem Some were not at Jerusalem.
CAC I think what is universal has to be recognised. There is no true gathering together of saints now except in recognition of what is universal; so meetings on independent ground are out of it altogether, they are not at Jerusalem. The Holy Spirit has formed the body and acts and moves in the body, and that is a universal thought.
Ques Would Hezekiah in prayer (verse 18) be a type of Christ as our great High Priest?
CAC Yes, we need the Lord’s grace to enable us rightly to eat His supper.
Rem The two sides are given in Hebrews: our High Priest, the companion side, and a great Priest over the house of God, the service side.
CAC And we need the Lord’s help and support to bring us to see that His supper is connected with Paul’s ministry; it was given to Paul in connection with his ministry, so that we take it up in that connection as linked with the truth of the assembly.
Ques The outcome seems to be that they can eat the peace-offering. Is that leading up to liberty in the service of God?
CAC Yes, and in our case the Lord’s supper is what helps us greatly into liberty, His body given for us and His blood poured out for us; it is all to be appropriated.
Rem Only those at Jerusalem had the great joy.
CAC Yes, really what the Lord has in view for us is that we should be supremely happy. I suppose the cup enters into that, not only that we are to have Himself before us and be filled up in our relations to Him, but that we should be supremely happy with God. The loaf has to do with our relations with Christ, and the cup with our relations with God; but then it is the Lord who in love secures both for us.
Rem So it is “Me” in both cases.
CAC Yes, so that we think of the Lord. It is wonderful that He should come into flesh and blood that He might use that condition to express His love to the assembly, and He has given His body for the assembly.
Ques For “seven days” — what is that?
CAC Oh! the whole period.
Rem There are two seven-day periods.
CAC Yes, that was excess.
Rem There were two seven-day periods in Solomon’s time.
CAC Yes.
Rem They are so happy in it; they went on again, do you suggest?
CAC Yes, there is always liberty for things to be extended. All the truth that has been made known to us concerning the passover and the Lord’s supper has been wonderfully extended and expanded during the last one hundred and more years.
Ques The whole congregation was secured in reference to the second seven days; would it be looking on to the complete thought that God will ultimately bring all His people into it?
CAC It was the whole company in principle. So that we understand the loaf sets forth the complete thought. The loaf that we break, all that Christ brought into manhood is for the assembly’s appropriation, so that as appropriating Christ she becomes His counterpart, a new thing in the earth, a company that has appropriated in its affections all that came here in the body of Christ and is available to the saints in His death; and the precious features that came out in that body are to come out in the saints as a satisfaction for the love of Christ.
Rem The Lord says, “I will no more drink at all of the fruit of the vine, until that day when I drink it new in the kingdom of God” (Mark 14: 25 ). It would be the expression of the delight of God.
CAC I think He is looking on to the fulfilment of things in the kingdom of God on the earthly side. Meanwhile He lays out this precious truth of His body and blood given for the assembly, which does not belong to the earthly side at all.
Ques Would the heave-offering have reference to what is for God?
CAC And the Lord has that in view in the cup. In giving us the cup He has in view that we should be in perfect liberty and joy with God, drinking in in the power of the Spirit what God is as made known in His blessed love, in His nature. The Lord gives us to drink into it, so as to be filled with the blessedness of God, so it provides a condition of great happiness in the assembly in relation to God, which, of course, surpasses anything we get in type. The first thing is we have to begin with the loaf, so all that came here in the body of Christ has been dedicated in love to the assembly, and is to be appropriated by the assembly, and we call the Lord to mind in that connection. He has left that condition of flesh and blood, so the One we call to mind is glorified. He has been into death for us, but is now glorified; and the Lord was in spirit beyond death when He instituted the Supper, because He said, “This is my body which is given for you” (Luke 22: 19). It was not actually given then but He speaks of it as accomplished. Verse 22 is a very beautiful verse; there are persons that have understanding in the good knowledge of Jehovah. It sets forth what the saints are brought into as drinking the cup of blessing, as having the good knowledge of God. The Supper is on that line, it is what He conferred on the assembly. The goodness of God comes out in a special way when all is so full of shortcomings. He says, “my people shall be satisfied with my goodness” (Jeremiah 31:14). What a beautiful expression that is!
Rem We see the result in verse 27.
CAC It is encouraging that the Lord is the Originator of the whole thing.
Ques Is consolation connected with the Supper?
CAC I think the Lord in taking up the custom of breaking bread and a cup of consolation was giving it a new character. It is connected originally with mourning (Jeremiah 16: 7). There is none connected with the Supper, it is a eucharist, a thanksgiving; a season of unmixed joy, you might say, takes the place of the bitter herbs. His death was behind Him. In spirit He was past death when He instituted the Supper, clearly so. We come together in the sense that the Lord is glorified. It is the ‘calling of Me to mind’ — that is in glory. He once gave His life for the assembly, that is past, but it is now connected with His present position in His glorified condition, the ‘Me’ is in heaven; He is not on the cross. We would be freer in the service of praise if we entered more into this; we are slow in apprehending His body being given for the assembly; that is to be apprehended, for there is that on the earth that has gathered up for itself what has come here in the richness and blessedness of it, so that she has become His counterpart for the satisfaction of His love.
Ques Why does it say, “In the night in which he was delivered up” (1 Corinthians 11: 23 )?
CAC To emphasise the solemn conditions that were here; “The night in which he was delivered up” brings out the unfaithfulness and terrible wickedness of man. It was just at that moment when murder filled all the scene that He brings out what His love conferred on the assembly (for the disciples were that in principle), that is, He conferred Himself on the assembly.