2 CHRONICLES 33 (NOTES OF A READING)
2 CHRONICLES 33 (NOTES OF A READING)
Rem There is a very pronounced lapse now after the recovery of Hezekiah.
CAC Yes, it seems to show that those who have had special opportunity may turn out very disappointing; but that is not the great lesson of the chapter, is it?
Ques What is it, perhaps you will tell us?
CAC I think it was intended to show us that the accepted time continues.
Rem That is very wonderful, for the failure is very terrible that is outlined in this chapter.
CAC Yes, it is very much the present state of the christian profession that is brought before us, but notwithstanding all it is still the well-accepted time. It is a great comfort to bear in our minds that God is not yet sending strong delusions to mankind. He is going to do it and will do it after the assembly is translated. It is impossible for Him to do it today because it is an accepted time, that is, God can vindicate His own name whatever men may do to dishonour that name; and the christian profession has done everything possible against that name. But He will vindicate that name, and whenever any heart will humble itself, He will hearken. At the present time Satan is deceiving men and they are deceiving themselves, but on God’s part it is a well-accepted time, a day of salvation, and that is said, not to sinners, but to saints. It is brought out to the Corinthians (2 Corinthians 6: 2), so Paul beseeches them not to receive the grace of God in vain, on this ground, that is, if they turn to God He will hear them. Those words are addressed primarily to Christ Himself, as we all know, and He was the first one to prove it was a well-accepted time, He was always heard when He called upon God.
Rem Manasseh had a long reign, and God gave him opportunity to repent.
Rem God is “longsuffering towards you”, Peter says (2 Peter 3: 9).
CAC Yes, addressing saints. If there is anything wrong there is opportunity to repent of it.
Rem It brings out the greatness of God and His thought to bless, His wonderful forbearance. How great He is in the face of such actions as this, on the part of one who had been brought up in a circle where the ways of God were experienced and known. And it is not a personal thing only, it led all God’s people astray and robbed God. Yet God patiently waits in His grace. The captivity was really in view of blessing.
CAC It is an immense thing to get the knowledge of God, is it not? It is by far the greatest blessing that could be thought of to know the Blesser Himself and His name, and He speaks of His name as set for ever in Jerusalem. Manasseh had done all against that name and everything unworthy of that name. Hezekiah had said, “the father to the children shall make known thy truth” (Isaiah 38: 19); but the depraved condition of the heart of man is such that he always deliberately prefers to have what is not of God. That is, Manasseh was not converted as we should say.
Rem “The goodness of God leads thee to repentance” (Romans 2: 4).
CAC Manasseh proved it in a very special way. “Not knowing”, it says; man naturally does not know it, he has to be put through a very humbling process to know it.
Rem It says God left Hezekiah “to try him, that he might know all that was in his heart” (chapter 32: 31). Manasseh had to learn that lesson.
CAC Ever since the making known of God’s name by His Son, the devil has been working to obscure it. There was a wonderful knowledge of God possible to Israel, for Jehovah had made Himself known as a Saviour God, One who had loved them and redeemed them, and brought them to Himself. There was a wonderful disclosure for that time.
Rem In Luke 4 the Lord Himself said, “Today this scripture is fulfilled in your ears” (verse 21). It is the day of grace, a divine Person coming near to men and saying, “Today ... is fulfilled in your ears”.
Rem And the Lord closed the book at that point; it was salvation that He brought in. He leaves out “the day of vengeance of our God” (Isaiah 61: 2).
Rem That would be another day; we want to take up all there is in this day.
CAC Well, what is the characteristic of this day? The Father’s name is made known, His motives are known, and all that was nearest to His heart, all His purposes for those He loves. Satan has come in with darkening influences to obscure that name. Elements of the world have been brought in to obscure, that do not belong to the revelation of God’s name at all. On the side of the dispensation all this terrible war is an acting of grace, but on the side of divine government God deals with divine chastisement upon the nations, but even then on the side of the dispensation it is in grace, in order that men may turn to God and learn God’s name as it has been made known by His Son.
Rem And God does not move from that position.
CAC As long as the dispensation lasts, and the Spirit is here, God does not move from that position. He is called “the Spirit of truth” (John 16: 13).
Rem “Grace and truth subsists through Jesus Christ” (John 1: 17).
CAC Grace and truth are one thing, and that is why the verb is in the singular. “Grace and truth subsists through Jesus Christ”, that is, the truth at the present time is that God is revealed in grace. The Lord introduced that character of things, man able to speak in freedom and liberty to God. That availability began in Christ; no Old Testament prophet or priest had the privilege of speaking to God as Christ did. It is very important for us to see the greatness of these things. The greatest thing of all is God’s name revealed by the Son and maintained in the Spirit — what He is, and His motives and heart. God is seeking the recovery of man, and particularly the recovery of all in the christian profession. To Laodicea, He says, ‘I have placed Myself at the door and am knocking’. He is seeking the recovery of an assembly that will not have Him, and yet He stands outside and knocks. It is really an assembly reproof. It is God known in His name, for His name is how He would have men to know Him. God is not the God of a section of men; God is one. I believe God intends us to be encouraged at the possibility of the recovery of anybody; nothing is impossible.
Rem Even a spiritualist.
CAC Yes. Manasseh was a spiritualist. No man is outside the pale. A brother well known to us had the opportunity of addressing thousands of wounded men, and asked each the question, ‘When you were struck down on the battlefield, did you think of God and your soul and eternity’? There was not one out of many thousands who did not say he did. God has not given man up, even if man has given Him up.
We want to keep the spirit of the dispensation.
Christendom generally has gone back to law. It began in Acts 16 and the great mass of christians regard themselves under law: ‘Incline our hearts to keep this law’. It is hateful to God, it is wickedness. The truth is, we have died to the law. This going back to the law obscures the grace of God, and after all God’s great concern is that His name should be known. At the end of Matthew they are to make disciples of all the nations; “Baptising them to the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit” (chapter 28: 19). It is marvellous, the greatest thing conceivable, that man should be brought into connection with God in that way, in the fulness of it: the Father, the Son, and the Spirit. God has come out in the fulness of grace in His Son. A divine Person in manhood is the greatest thing, and He laid down His life at the cross that man might be redeemed. And then the Spirit comes into our hearts that we might have the Spirit of sonship. We all need to come to the point that we need God for ourselves. Manasseh really needed God, and then for the first time he began to seek Him. He humbled himself greatly, it says.
Many things come upon us as the result of our own fault, and that is governmental, but then, divine government subserves the designs of His grace. This brings out the availability of God at the end of the dispensation. It was just at the end and they were about to be carried off into captivity, showing God was available for the most departed man. This book has restoration in view, having been written by Ezra. So that the greatest thing God has done for us is that He has brought us back to His name.
Rem So He has put His name on them for ever.
CAC His name was in Jerusalem only in a typical way; His name is placed now in the assembly.
Rem “According to thy name, ... so is thy praise” (Psalm 48: 10). It is an exercise that our praise should be in line with that name.
CAC It is very touching that the One who makes known God’s name is the One who has taken up the wonderful service of praising His name.
Rem The praise is equal to the revelation.
CAC It is suitable to God.
Ques Why did Manasseh build a wall “on the west” (verse 14)?
CAC It is the side that is more likely to be the declining side of things, the east is the rising side, so the west side needs the most strengthening. We are just at the end of the dispensation when things are hastening to their ‘sunset’; so there are fortified cities and power to strengthen what is weak.
Rem “Be watchful, and strengthen the things that remain” (Revelation 3: 2).
CAC We want to lay ourselves out to strengthen all that is connected with the revealed name. We want to enjoy it and maintain it. Assembly recovery is going on at the present time; it may have gone on a little faster with some than others. And all building is building up in the knowledge of God intelligently and all edification is that, it is the great service in the assembly.
Ques Why does it mention “both courts of the house of Jehovah” (verse 5)?
CAC I think it shows how Satan would use what is apparently great and elevated — it is “all the host of heaven” (verse 5) — what is to the mind of man extremely glorious, to obscure the revelation of God. There are systems of teaching in the world today, but do they impart any true knowledge of God as men desire to know Him? Rationalism and ritualism are two great elements Satan uses. Ritualism appeals to the religious side of man and the other to man’s mentality, but neither of them brings any knowledge of God’s name to us.
Rem These principles meant the ship went to pieces (Acts 27: 41).
CAC That is what will happen, the ship will go to pieces. I do not suppose Manasseh had ever read the book of Deuteronomy, or he would have known all these things were positively forbidden by God. And all the things that have darkened God’s name are disobedience, all that is contrary to God’s name.
Ques “He reinstated the altar of Jehovah”, it says in verse 16. What does that signify?
CAC I think the true character of approach was recovered and the place of approach, and that has been what God has reinstated in these last days, after many centuries when the thought of approach was not known.
Rem He “sacrificed on it peace-offerings and thank-offerings”.
CAC It suggests the restoration of fellowship on a divine basis.