2 CHRONICLES 32 (NOTES OF A READING)
2 CHRONICLES 32 (NOTES OF A READING)
Rem The faithfulness that marked Hezekiah was very precious in the last two verses of chapter 31.
CAC It would seem that the faithfulness that appears in Hezekiah was the reason why the attack came from Sennacherib, the enemy observing it as something reserved for God and that he would stop.
Rem It is in principle, “All indeed who desire to live piously in Christ Jesus will be persecuted” (2 Timothy 3: 12).
CAC Yes. The enemy has only two methods of attack against God and His people: one is corruption and the other is violence. The first is more ready. In this chapter it is violence; he would seek to strike terror into the people of God, so that they should give way. I think that has been largely the object of the enemy in recent years. He is always against Christ and the assembly. If God has set up a testimony of what is in His own mind, we may be sure Satan would work everything so as to oppose it, and he will use the present war to intimidate the people of God and give them to surrender the ground that has been won. But we see the enemy was defeated in this chapter, and we can see it even in our time. In spite of destructive power, the privileges of the saints are loved and valued, and the service of God goes on. In another country they have not had the experience of outward destruction that we have had, but the powers that be are not in their favour as they are here. They are most favourable to us. There is no direct attack against the saints, but they come under a kind of intimidating influence, and it is good to see that in the power and grace of God the ground has been held.
Ques What would you say “the fountains of waters ... outside the city” were? The service of God is to go out from the city to bring others into it.
Rem The reason for the stopping of the fountains was that no help should be afforded to the enemy.
Rem There is a diverting of the water without stopping its flow in verse 30.
CAC Evidently the desire was that the enemy should not find something that he could take advantage of, and there was great care and labour that it should be not possible for him to benefit by the waters.
Ques What does the water signify?
CAC Well, I should like help. The enemy could not be advantaged by what is spiritual.
Rem In these matters you usually see the government of God acting. These fountains here refer more to what is inward and spiritual among the people of God and the enemy could corrupt them. Care for the spiritual side of things is preservation.
Rem The thought of the fountain is striking in John’s gospel. It “shall become in him a fountain ..:” (John 4: 14); and there is the side, too, of “out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water” (John 7: 38). There are the two sides. The outside here seems to be restricted.
CAC I think that faith will never seek to stop the flow of what is spiritual. I thought that what was striking at the end of the church’s history was the availability of the water for everybody.
Rem It is restricted.
CAC In the gospel period?
Rem There are those who attack it.
CAC If there is a stopping of the flow of what is spiritual, it is never on the side of faith, but on the side of unbelief.
Ques This is not of faith, you say. The enemy might want to stop our meetings?
CAC I do not think that in the dispensation of the Spirit you could conceive of the stopping of what is spiritual, but it is a very deep exercise lest the enemy could use anything against it. The water here is something that the enemy might take advantage of. Paul was very careful of his conduct with the Corinthians that the enemy might not take the advantage. He placed great restraint on himself. That is what seems to be here in principle. The fountains of water are hardly to be taken in a spiritual sense. One cannot think of the flow of the Spirit being hindered by the attack of the enemy, but we should expect a special flow of the Spirit then.
Ques What do the fountains of waters mean?
CAC It seems to me there are certain natural resources we have to be careful about, especially in a time of difficulty when the enemy is bringing pressure to bear upon us. We have to be careful what we make use of, just as Paul at Corinth took great care not to use the wisdom of words or natural eloquence; it did not enter into his service.
Rem He says that the things that happened to him “turned out rather to the furtherance of the glad tidings” (Philippians 1: 12).
CAC Exactly. We have to be full of jealous care lest there may be anything in our service or conduct that the enemy can work upon.
Rem The enemy could have poisoned those waters with infidelity, because what he says is terrible.
CAC I think that seems to be the suggestion, that anything that might serve the enemy is to be stopped. It cost Paul a good deal to put a check upon all his natural powers.
Rem He says he was with them in weakness, and in fear, and in much trembling.
CAC He was really stopping the flow of anything that would help the enemy. When the enemy attacks we have to see to it that we are really moving in the power of God and not of what is natural. These water supplies are outside the city and so do not represent what is spiritual but what the enemy might use. This provision is made, but does not quite stand in relation to Sennacherib.
Ques What would the wall being built up to the towers signify?
CAC I suppose it is the thought of the building up of all that is requisite for the testimony, what is of God. The fortified cities have some reference to the assemblies, and Jerusalem is the great universal truth connected with Christ and the assembly. All that has to be strengthened against the enemy. I think the Assyrian refers to what is violent in character in contrast to Babylon, which is more the corrupting element. God may use the violence of man for the chastening of His people. It is severe chastening to be exposed to violence every day and every night, which is what some of our brethren are going through. It is the severe dealings of God, under which we have to humble ourselves. The citadel is really the assembly, viewed as a great divine citadel that stands against all the power of hades. I think we are all praying that there may be a strengthening and building up of what is of God. On the one hand we need to be careful not to allow the flow of anything the enemy can use, and on the other to be concerned with the building up of all that can stand against the enemy, and in His own time God will come in to release His people from pressure.
Rem Hezekiah made darts and shields in abundance, but it was not the darts and shields that brought victory.
CAC They really got the victory through prayer, and it looks as if it came through two men. If only two brothers or two sisters were left to pray for the testimony, it would be carried through. The virgin daughter of Zion is found in those two men. The general state was anything but what it should have been, but an element appears in Hezekiah and Isaiah that was the virgin daughter of Zion, and she laughed at the adversary. The thing is there that God can support. If there is dependence in prayer, it will be supported. He never yet failed to support what He can support. If I am in a condition to be supported, I am sure He will support me. What a beautiful sense Hezekiah had of their superiority. With them an arm of flesh, but God with us; more with us than with them. It is just the truth of Romans, “If God be for us, who against us?” (Romans 8: 31).
Rem Sennacherib was a conqueror of hosts: Jehovah is the Lord of hosts.
Ques What is the reference Sennacherib makes that “Ye shall worship before one altar” (verse 12)?
CAC He did not observe the power of that. Sennacherib had learned in some way that many altars had been destroyed, but he did not know how to distinguish between Jehovah and the idols. All this boastful arrogance of Sennacherib is just the natural expression of the human heart when a man gets power into his hands; and Satan would like the people of God to become a prey of human power.
Rem It is very encouraging for us. I was enjoying what was said about the daughter of Zion. How much more it is true when numbers cry to God.
CAC I wonder whether we really believe there is more power in this little company of believers here than in all the armies and navies of the world. Do we really believe that?
Rem Some of us get a sense of it at times.
CAC It is good if we do. And God is coming in by preserving not only His saints but His creatures in answer to the prayers of His people. Prayer is not an unfruitful business that the saints are engaged in; it is the most successful business there ever was.
Rem In Acts 4: 31 the place was shaken where they were: “When they had prayed, the place in which they were assembled shook”.
CAC We ought to look for such manifestation, some evidence now that God is for His saints, and He is with His saints. It is most encouraging; God dealt in one night with the most powerful army of that time, I suppose. It shows how quickly God can dispose of the enemy of the testimony. I believe if the saints were in the good of the present exercises the war would cease more quickly than it would otherwise. I think it is a fine chapter for us just at this juncture. In the end the enemy shall surely be put to shame. “The God of peace shall bruise Satan under your feet shortly” (Romans 16: 20) — think of that! The language of the virgin daughter of Zion is the boasting of faith that God Himself put into the mouths of the saints. The prophet was told to utter these words which are a sublime contrast to the boastful bragging of Sennacherib. There was a spiritual triumph on the part of the daughter of Zion. We may shake and feel our own weakness, but God would have us to know something of this triumph over what is hostile.
Ques What is meant by the virgin daughter of Zion?
CAC It suggests they are those who have not fallen under the corrupting influence of the world, and it denotes a virgin state that has kept itself in purity from the corrupting influence of the enemy. Well, none of us is debarred from that. It is a jubilant sound.
Rem Hezekiah said, “The living, the living, he shall praise thee, as I this day: the father to the children shall make known thy truth. Jehovah was purposed to save me. — And we will play upon my stringed instruments all the days of our life, in the house of Jehovah” (Isaiah 38: 19, 20).
CAC When Hezekiah came to prove his own personal exercises, he was not quite in this triumph. We all know, I suppose, what it is to face personal exercises that let us down very low. But he came out of those exercises in triumph too. Exercises which are inward are deeper: those that expose the corruption of my flesh are infinitely deeper than anything outward, but we learn God in them. We learn our own nothingness; we are not to be trusted, but God is trustworthy. So all our theology is boiled down to two propositions, that is, God is good and Christ is precious. The people rested themselves on the words of Hezekiah. It is beautiful. We have even better to rest on, the word of God and of the Son of God Himself. It is a safe thing to rest on those words.