1 CHRONICLES 10 AND 11 (NOTES OF A READING)
1 CHRONICLES 10 AND 11 (NOTES OF A READING)
1 Chronicles 10: 1 - 14; 1 Chronicles 11: 1 - 3
CAC On a previous occasion we saw how David was introduced as a prince and how he ordered the service of song in the house of Jehovah and also the position of trust to see that everything was provided in readiness for the service — all those numerous spiritual suggestions that we were looking at last week. I think the mind of the Spirit is that we should look at this chapter before us in the light of all that has gone before.
Ques Is your thought that in the light of what you are considering the man after the flesh has to go?
CAC What is not in keeping with the order of things we have been considering must go, the unfaithful man must go in death. The more we consider what God has brought in in Christ and by Christ, the more plainly we should discern that the man after the flesh can have no part in it whatever. So Chronicles does not give the history of Saul, and is only concerned to show that he died.
Rem “And all his house” (verse 6) is very striking.
CAC It is, it is a clean sweep of all that generation typically.
Ques Would you say that the Lord was behind it all — the transference of the kingdom of Saul and his death?
CAC It is very striking. It was not the Philistines that killed him; it says distinctly that Jehovah slew him (verse 14). It was directly attributed to Jehovah, He slew him. In Acts 13 it says God “removed him”.
So this is very important instruction for us, giving something we have to come to. We have to learn the death of the unfaithful man for ourselves.
Ques Is that to be learnt in the light of all God has brought in?
CAC Yes, and really the end of the unfaithful man we learn in the death of the faithful Man. It pleased God that the man after the flesh should have his opportunity and should be tested, so that it might be known by experience what the character of that man was. It took forty years of experience to learn the character of that man.
Rem Elsewhere Samuel is told not to mourn for him.
CAC Yes, God says, “I have rejected him”. The man after the flesh is rejected by God — he cannot be subject; none of us can afford to give him any footing whatever.
Ques Does the teaching of the chapter correspond with Romans 6?
CAC I think that is a good suggestion. It would fit in with what the men of Jabesh-Gilead did, for they buried him. In spiritual import they identified themselves with what God had done. It was a matter of personal exercise: they buried him. That was what was in your mind, I think. It rather goes with the exercise of baptism. We were identified with Christ in baptism. God was pleased to put baptism at the very gateway of the public christian profession, and we were publicly baptised to Christ; but then He had died; no one was ever baptised to Christ till after He died. If we had not some thought of living with Him we should not care for baptism; so people used to put off baptism till they were about to die, when it was no use. It is no use for a man to be baptised who is going to heaven and certainly no use for a man going to hell. He is going to live here identified with a Christ that has died. Whose death did He die? — His own? Certainly not! The death that He died was my death, and we really come to see the end of Saul in the death of Christ, speaking typically.
Rem “Concerning whom does the prophet say this? Of himself, or of some other?” (Acts 8: 34).
Rem A terrible way out, was it not? Saul fell upon his sword.
CAC Yes, actually he was a hopeless man, and the flesh is always hopeless. It is a terrible thing to those who have not life — death is a terrible thing to one who has no link with One out of death. What we find is that David is alive all the time that this is happening; the Spirit of God had introduced David and he was there before Saul died; and before God had put man in the flesh to death He had introduced Christ, so our death with Christ is in view to our living with Him.
Baptism goes with lordship, so that what follows is that they made David king; they all gave him the place of supremacy. They come to him and say, “We are thy bone and thy flesh”. Baptism is in view of lordship. You can be baptised in about a minute, and it will take all your life to learn what it is — a lifetime lesson. I suppose some hardly come to understand it until they come to die themselves.
“We are thy bone and thy flesh”, they said. They had the thought of being thoroughly bound up with David, and we with Christ. “For if we are become identified with him in the likeness of his death, so also we shall be of his resurrection” (Romans 6: 5).
God had prepared their hearts, and we never get anything from God apart from preparation. They had thought of David for many years, they really apprehended God’s thought in advance of the time. He works and prepares hearts by giving them some appreciation of Christ long before they see the end of man in the flesh. Otherwise we should collapse in despair, should we not, if we saw the end of the man in the flesh before Christ? We are baptised to Christ; Israel and Moses are a kind of illustration of what baptism is. It is a great thing to come to it, that we are of Christ’s bone and of His flesh. It is as much as to say: We live in Thy life. It is good when we come to the point that we really see the end of the man in the flesh, and that we are bound up vitally with Christ, and He is our life.
Rem He said to Saul, “Why dost thou persecute me?”; is that the thought?
CAC That is the idea — the life of Christ coming out in His saints made Saul of Tarsus persecute. The thought of living in the life of the One who died for us is very precious, we need to take it in more and more. “We are thy bone and thy flesh”. Here it is not Christ that says it, but it is so in Genesis 2 typically. The Man says, “This time it is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh”. Typically it is Christ acknowledging the assembly as of Himself. But here typically it is not Christ, but the saints who say it. And it is in the light of it, I suppose, that we come together to remember the Lord.
Rem It is in view of the service of God?
CAC It has to do with the service. The service of God is set up by Christ; therefore it is important that we should come under the control of Christ. If we are in subjection to the Lord, we come into the gain of the Spirit. If we are not subject, we might as well not have the Spirit at all; the Spirit can do nothing with insubject persons.
As we break bread, we set forth that we are one body. “We, being many, are one loaf, one body; for we all partake of that one loaf” (1 Corinthians 10: 17). The saints looked at as the one loaf is very like these men saying, “We are thy bone and thy flesh”.
Ques Laban recognised that in some way, I believe?
CAC He referred to it as family kindred, but there is more than that with the saints, there is a corporeal identification with Him. You could not have it in a natural way, could you? So Scripture says “Your bodies are members of Christ” (1 Corinthians 6: 15).
Ques How far does Philippians 3: 3 come in here?
CAC Well, that is clearly the christian position defined in very few words. “Do not trust in flesh” means that Saul has gone out. These people rejoiced in Christ Jesus; they were instructed of God that He was Prince and Leader. Now Saul having gone out, the people are in perfect liberty to find all their delight in David. We often sing in the morning meeting, “We live of Thee”. He gets His place and is in control, and the service is then all ordered according to God.
Ques What was the thought of David making this covenant with the elders of Israel?
CAC I think it went with the way the Lord made Himself known in resurrection. He linked Himself on with them. They must have had a very distinct sense that there was a living bond between Him and themselves.
Ques Does Hebron give the thought of purpose?
CAC It is not quite the same as Jerusalem, and I should think would be connected with the purpose of God and the resurrection position.
Ques Does it refer to fellowship at all?
CAC I think there is some thought of that in the words “gathered themselves”. The antitype is in the saints coming together to give Him His place. This is in part individual, but not all. He wants to have His place collectively. He wants to see the saints attracted together powerfully for Him to get His place, for what God gets depends on Christ getting His place.
Rem The thought of leadership is seen in “Thou wast he that leddest out and broughtest in Israel”; then to feed Israel and be a prince, and then he is king, he is supreme. His authority is recognised and followed.
CAC We should hardly get the gain of Christ’s headship if we do not give Him His place as Lord.
Rem So the Supper makes much of the Lord, and brings Him into prominence.
CAC In 1 Corinthians 11 I have noticed that “the Lord” is mentioned seven times in two or three verses. He comes in first as Lord, so each would be exercised to be in subjection to Him, and if He had us all under control, it would be very easy to change His attitude and take His place as Head. I do not see how the service of God could go on under any other principle. So they anointed him, the people did so, and I think the Lord looks for that. They had come to the truth of it themselves. It is very much like saying ‘Lord’ to Jesus in the power of the Spirit. When we do that we truly anoint Him, so when He is anointed He will take charge, and loves to, of all matters in the service of God.
Rem Every movement would be under His lordship from the very beginning.
CAC Yes, all that is under His control. There are many services but one Lord; so no service would clash with another. It is painful if it does and shows that there is a want of subjection to the Lord. We all own this. Raising a tune is one of the services carried out under the Lord. All that goes on belongs to the services that go on under the same Lord. So the portion before us is very important, the end of the unfaithful man who is very close to us, so that it keeps us constantly on the alert. That held in the soul enables us to take the ground spiritually that we are bone of His bone and flesh of His flesh, and we are glad to think of the place that He fills by appointment; that of Prince and Head.
Rem “I have anointed my king” (Psalm 2: 6).
CAC That is God anointing His king; on this occasion the people anoint Him. Are we anointing Him, giving Him by the Spirit all that is due to Him? Then he enters into covenant with them — there is a definite covenant. There is no covenant subsisting now between Jehovah and Israel.
Ques But there is between Jehovah and David?
CAC Yes, viewing David as prophetically Christ the covenant stands firm, nothing can invalidate it. Speaking of it typically there is a definite bond with the Lord formed in resurrection; He was very particular to link on with them.
Rem In Acts 1 He “assembled with them”.
CAC And He ate and drank with them — a wonderful thing! It is wonderful to think they could eat and drink with a risen Man, and He ate and drank with them. And the establishment of the kingdom was necessary to the service of God.
It all has a definite bearing on ourselves, having been written in remnant days in view of recovery.