SOLOMON'S WORKMEN
SOLOMON’S WORKMEN
2 Chronicles 2: 17,18; 1 Kings 5: 13 - 18; 1 Corinthians 3: 5 - 15
JT Workers are in mind to be considered. There is this great army of workers and no age limit is prescribed. In the earlier typical references we have age limits. The increasing ages of the youth made them liable for service in the army, and also as in levitical service according to Numbers.
So that, whilst inquiry will be confined largely to these three scriptures, the question of age must not be overlooked. The first typical references that are in Numbers bear on all Israel. The military requirement was very large; the Levites are given from a month old and upward. We find some twenty-two thousand taken instead of the firstborn of all Israel, but only about eight thousand of them in actual service. According to the age limits, some would be passing out of service and others coming in all the time.
These descriptions in Numbers, applying also to the army, bear on us now. The older ones are more or less incapacitated by age and other infirmities, so that the bearing of the application is on youth. The Lord seems to be pointing to the youth now; many are coming into the light and into the fellowship. So that what is before us today is to see their place in the service, the need being great, inclusive of all young brothers and sisters. The sisterhood spiritually seems to be coming up for review.
Our scriptures speak directly of the building of the house, and it is worthy of thought for the moment why there should be such a number employed; a hundred and fifty-three thousand “strangers”; seventy thousand being bearers of burdens, and eighty thousand to be stone-masons; and three thousand and six hundred being overseers, besides the thirty thousand of Israel under the heading of a levy, these receiving more consideration than the strangers. All these typical references bear clearly on the passage read in 1 Corinthians, where the building is directly in view, and everyone who builds is in mind. There is no doubt the vast number would have in view the continuance of the building; for it is going on now as it was in the apostle’s day.
JCT What had you in mind in the Israelite receiving more consideration than the stranger in this work?
JT It would allude to spiritual development in the workers, I think. With the hundred and fifty-three thousand there is no special consideration; I suppose they allude to the younger, and to the comparative arduousness of their position; they are just numbered and put to work. They come down from David’s regime, so that we have to consider them in relation to Him, who Himself was a Sufferer and Worker beyond measure, that is, the Lord Jesus viewed as the antitype of David. In that respect He is the great example of toiling; the work is always there, abundance of it: “Lift up your eyes”, He said to His disciples, “and look on the fields; for they are white already to harvest”, John 4: 35. “Other men laboured, and ye are entered into their labours” (verse 38). It was just a question at that particular juncture whether they were labouring very much. They were just engaged in something that one or two of them could have done alone, buying provisions.
FCH Do you mean that David had felt what it was to be a stranger himself?
JT David being mentioned in Chronicles in connection with this subject, the mind is directed to him, as to what his experiences were; applied to the Lord, who wrought like Him? He tells us in spirit in Zechariah,
“[p. 277] I am no prophet, I am a tiller of the ground; for man acquired me as bondman from my youth” Zechariah 13: 5. That is a remarkable statement: it points to the readiness with which He served, taking on anything that was needed to be done without any thought of honour or dignity, which is important especially for young ones entering the service. It is not to make much of us; we are to do what is to be done; as the apostle says, “these hands have ministered to my wants, and to those who were with me”, Acts 20: 34. He was ready to do anything that was needed; as the Lord says, “I am in the midst of you as the one that serves”, Luke 22: 27. That is, He did anything that was needed: very touching!
Ques Is it your thought that every one of us should be engaged in profitable labour for the house?
JT In the light of the Lord’s remarks and Paul’s remarks, how can any of us excuse ourselves at all — how can any believer excuse himself from doing necessary work? There were those at Thessalonica who worked not at all; well, the apostle says, You must shrink from them, they are to be put under discipline.
FCH The Lord speaks of the one of the ten lepers who returned as a stranger (Luke 17: 18).
JT Strangership did not prevent him, on the contrary, the spirit of service was there with him.
FCH He entered into the spirit of service from the beginning.
Ques Was that dependent on his appreciation of Christ?
JT Quite so. Strangership is often brought in in Scripture, to show that God is working in others besides those who are in the place of outward relationship with Him, as in the case of the ten lepers, and the Samaritan of Luke 10.
Ques What do you think would help us to enter into this labour?
JT Well, one thing that ought to appeal to us is the example of the Lord, seen in the gospels, also of [p. 278] the apostles and others seen in the Acts; and the epistles. And then, what example there is in the older brethren now. The last is to be taken to heart, for, after all, the coming generation must learn from the one passing away. The young ought to be brought up with the understanding that the work has to go on.
We have another set of labourers in the Scriptures — the Gibeonites, “hewers of wood and drawers of water for the congregation”, Joshua 9: 21. Christ is said to have supplied the water for Israel, the Rock that followed them: “that Rock was Christ”, 1 Corinthians 10: 4. He was a Water Carrier. It is a most touching thought. It is not simply that He was smitten, He was smitten as the Rock, but He followed them: the Ark went before, facing the exigencies of the wilderness, the opposition, to find out a resting place for the saints, and the Rock followed with the water. So that we have examples in abundance, both in the Lord Himself and in His earlier servants. But what is evidenced now in those of us who are older?
ESB Why did the Gibeonites come into this service as a result of the curse of Joshua?
JT They came in that way, but they came under covenant. Joshua made a covenant with them, that they should live, thus putting them under protection; and Saul’s descendants accordingly suffered because of interfering with them. So, as coming under covenant, taken on by God, whatever the preceding history, we are under His protection: that is a great matter.
Take the maid Rhoda, in the house of Mary the mother of Mark; she served and was persecuted because she served, but she stood by her service; showing how young people ought to serve today.
COB These workers were not volunteers, they were numbered by Solomon.
JT Conscription governs service or work in the divine system, it is not optional. I may say, “Here am I”, Isaiah 6: 8; God loves that, but it is obligatory on us,
[p. 279] it is not optional; any refusal of it would come under discipline.
COB Our wills do not come into the service.
JT That is the point, I think, in the hundred and fifty-three thousand and the levy too; a number of persons put under obligation to serve. It is a question of Solomon’s ordering. The Lord says to His disciples, “When ye shall have done all things that have been ordered you, say, We are unprofitable bondmen; we have done what it was our duty to do”, Luke 17: 10. Well, what is it our duty to do? It is what these hundred and fifty-three thousand had to do. It is arbitrary, but in time we shall find we have a wonderful Master. Boaz may be viewed thus as a type: a most gracious master; but there must be the acceptance of the obligation to begin with, the acceptance of the authority of Solomon. We shall never be effective servants until we bow to the obligation resting upon us. An optional attitude amongst the brethren is most damaging. The youth are especially damaged in that way.
Rem The question is asked, “Why stand ye here all the day idle?” Matthew 20: 6.
JT Quite so: they were ready, but no man had hired them. That brings up another matter; any of us who may be working for the Lord in our simple, humble way, the leading religious organisations would not hire us at all. That is a humbling thing, but it exposes them rather than us.
Ques You have referred to the workers in John and Luke and Matthew; do we see the completion of it in Mark: “the Lord working with them”, Mark 16: 20?
JT Quite so; that would be the true Boaz, He is sitting “at the right hand of God” (verse 19), but working. Paul sets out in a most striking way the labours and sufferings that go with service.
GCS Paul says to Timothy, “Strive diligently to present thyself approved to God, a workman that has not to be ashamed, cutting in a straight line the word of truth”, 2 Timothy 2: 15. Does that suggest accuracy as in service and building?
JT That is good; you are coming to skilled labour, we have to come to that. But we must consider the rough, heavy burden bearers first.
Rem Even when they were on constructive lines.
JT Yes; you have to get the rough material, but those engaged in it are hardly skilled labourers.
Ques Does 1 John 3: 16 apply? “Hereby we have known love, because he has laid down his life for us; and we ought for the brethren to lay down our lives”. That is an obligation, is it not?
JT “Ought” implies obligation. These strangers have no option at all, and I believe they refer to the generality of workers. In order to enter on the work of God we have to see that the Lord has absolute ownership of us, we belong to Him. Their strangership placed them in the position of slaves, a most salutary attitude to take up; for we shall never enter on the more skilled and honoured services that 1 Kings has in mind save as we acknowledge the Lord’s rights over us.
ADT Does the reference to John Mark help? “Paul thought it not well to take with them him who had abandoned them, going back from Pamphylia, and had not gone with them to the work”, Acts 15: 38. Then in 2 Timothy 4: 11: “Take Mark, and bring him with thyself, for he is serviceable to me for ministry”. Would that not be a warning to us and also an encouragement?
JT Yes; he lost ground, although he seemed to start well. He came from a good household, for I understand that the prayer meeting was held in his mother’s house (Acts 12). John Mark’s mother was evidently a godly woman; but the failure to recognise the good service of Rhoda would indicate declension, and this may be the explanation of his breakdown. There was another thing, too: they were praying and yet did not believe they would get the answer. That [p. 281] condition in christian households is apt to damage the young in relation to their service. Drilling for service is in early youth. That is the idea of the strangers here, they belong to the king; there is no question about it. Their strangership obliges them to be absolutely subservient.
JLA With regard to the thought of obligation, would what Paul speaks of in Acts 20: 35 bear on that? “I have shewed you all things, how that so labouring ye ought to support the weak, and to remember the words of the Lord Jesus, how he said, It is more blessed to give than to receive”.
JT Well, exactly, wherever you have obligation laid upon you, that is the principle.
RD “A master roughly worketh every one”, Proverbs 26: 10.
JT “Roughly worketh every one”, that would mean, I suppose, that they are taken on raw, but absolute subjection must be there.
Rem As to what you were saying as to youth being conscripted into service, in Mark’s gospel the Lord saw the two sons of Zebedee, and “he called them: and they left their father Zebedee in the ship with the hired servants, and went after him”, Mark 1: 20. He would make them something.
JT They left a good going business; that is another matter. Another thing that might help, is to call attention to the three thousand six hundred overseers in the passage in Chronicles and those mentioned in Kings, too; that is, the potential ability in the very youngest workers of developing into overseers. That is, purchasing to ourselves “a good degree”, 1 Timothy 3: 13. Why these three thousand six hundred were selected is not stated; the secret of their qualifications is not given, but they are made overseers, which, of course, would be a higher level than that occupied by the hundred and fifty thousand. It is a very important thing to have the element of overseeing taken on in this way at [p. 282] the beginning; that is, you will not let things go by the board, as we say, discrepancies will be noted. Take Abigail’s young man, he scented the danger of disaster, and acquainted Abigail with the fact; he might have let it go had he been careless, but he did not. He represents a person who loves the Lord and the interests of the saints, and anything going amiss is his matter.
FCH Is it something like the young man in Acts 23: 16, “Paul’s sister’s son”?
JT Yes, the brethren seem to have been very remiss; not one of their names is mentioned after Paul was arrested in Jerusalem. That young man did a very remarkable service.
JCT Had Timothy purchased to himself “a good degree”? He was known to the brethren in two districts and well reported of, and Paul would have him “go forth with him”, Acts 16: 3. Had he qualified?
JT Quite so; and continued to qualify, for in the Corinthian crisis the enemy was trying to damage the whole assembly, and Paul could send him there; a young man to go into the midst of it and represent Paul, that they might learn in Timotheus what spirit marked the apostle.
JCT Brothers are encouraged in 1 Timothy 3: 1 to aspire to oversight.
JT That is another thing: eldership is within our range and we have to be qualified on moral lines. Overseers must have suitable qualifications; no one can rule others if he does not rule himself Evidently these men qualified. Solomon was very methodical, and we may be sure he had the matter investigated as to the persons he appointed to rule. Even in regard to the brethren of Joseph, Pharaoh inquired as to whether there were any capable of overseeing. What scope there is for such service, and hence the importance of purchasing to ourselves “a good degree”.
FWK “Say to Archippus, Take heed to the ministry which thou hast received in the Lord, to the end that thou fulfil it”, Colossians 4: 17, That was to stir him up.
JT Exactly, to stir him up; and Timotheus, too, “stir up the gift of God, which is in thee” (2 Timothy 1: 6) — really, rekindle it.
PHH In Mark 13: 34, He gave “to his bondmen the authority, and to each one his work, and commanded the doorkeeper that he should watch”. Would these features go together? Would the watching be in line with the authority, in oversight of what is being done?
JT Quite so: I suppose you may see it throughout, in the epistles and in the Lord’s own service. Here, the principle of authority is always present.
AWP Would the spirit of desire enter into what you are saying?
JT In the antitype, the principle is that the work is carried on by old and young, by experienced and inexperienced, by gift and by those who have no special gift. So that alertness in the young will lead them to see what is within their range, as we have been saying, purchasing “to themselves a good degree”. That is illustrated in the seven deacons appointed according to Acts 6: 3, men “full of the Holy Spirit and wisdom”; they were to be that. The apostles said, “It is not right that we, leaving the word of God, should serve tables”, Acts 6: 2. Their work was regarded as beyond that, whereas these seven required no gift; deaconal work is not gift, but a question of moral qualification. Evidently they all qualify for deacon’s service, but two of them purchased “to themselves a good degree, and great boldness in the faith”; that is, Stephen and Philip. As a result the other five might say, That is within our range also, within the range of all, why should not we go in for the service wholeheartedly? So that the scattered ones preached and Antioch is the outcome. Paul and Barnabas come in [p. 284] later, and give character to the work. It developed into an assembly. But the scattered ones were workers; they did the rough work, so to speak. Philip “preached the Christ”, Acts 8: 5. “The Christ” conveys the thought of operation: He is the model for every worker — “that the Christ may dwell, through faith, in your hearts”, Ephesians 3:17. We are to develop in skill. Philip started and attained great heights in evangelical work, so much so that he was raptured, taken away by the Spirit, so much was the Spirit pleased with him.
But then this thirty thousand in 1 Kings 5 have to be considered: “And king Solomon raised a levy out of all Israel” (verse 13); these are Israelites having a greater status. “And the levy was thirty thousand men. And he sent them to Lebanon, ten thousand a month by courses; a month they were in Lebanon, two months at home; and Adoniram was over the levy” (verses 13, 14). Adoniram must have been a man of great distinction. Now we have skilled labour: “And Solomon had seventy thousand that bore burdens, and eighty thousand stone-masons in the mountains; besides the overseers whom Solomon had set over the work, three thousand three hundred, who ruled over the people that wrought in the work” (verses 15, 16). So that the work is now proceeding with skilled labour and burden bearers.
Ques Why is it, “a month ... in Lebanon, two months at home” (verse 14)?
JT That refers to the consideration our Master has for us. The Lord would become known as our Master. It is a remarkable thing that the prayer in Acts 4 is addressed as by slaves to a master; so that the Lord is apprehended in that way in the beginning, and here we have great consideration suggested. “A month they were in Lebanon, two months at home”; that is to say, continuous labour will not do. We need home experience or there will not be development of the family. God not only wants workers, but He wants sons, and sonship must keep pace [p. 285] with workmanship.
ESB Do we see the Lord’s consideration for the seventy in saying, “Come ye yourselves apart into a desert place, and rest a while”, Mark 6: 31?
JT Yes. Suppose you met them on the way, they would not be holiday-makers, with sports coats, tennis rackets, and all that; it was needed rest; and this would bring about better service. I think the two months at home would suggest God’s concern about His sons. We must retain in our toil the spirit of sonship, the spirit of the family.
HWS Is it like the Lord saying, “rejoice not, that the spirits are subjected to you, but rejoice that your names are written in the heavens”, Luke 10: 20?
JT Yes.
FCH What had you in mind in the levy? — were you connecting it with Acts 13?
JT I would say that Saul and Barnabas belong to the thirty thousand (1 Kings 5: 13,14). They, too, had to be developed. Saul appears at once as a preacher of the Son of God, but the principle of the heavy burden bearers was there, and is seen in Acts 9. The Lord on His own initiative directed Saul to go into the city; I think that is the principle of the hundred and fifty-three thousand (2 Chronicles 2: 17, 18). It is first, “rise up and enter into the city, and it shall be told thee what thou must do”, Acts 9: 6. It was imperative. The Lord could have told him all, but he must go to the brethren, bringing in the principle of overseership. He very quickly preaches that Jesus is the Son of God, which I think would enter into these two months at home. I think that would be the basis, that sonship must be understood and maintained in our souls. Then there is another thing, skilled labour of the highest type is seen at Antioch. Barnabas, being a man of great vigilance, knew a good workman, the kind of man needed at Antioch, and brought him there; and we are told that for a whole year they taught in the assembly. It was a “large crowd” (Acts 11: 26) that was taught,
[p. 286] rough material, you might say, but the idea of the assembly being present, it is the gradual merging of the crowd into what is structural. The assembly that was formed was marked by spiritual men.
Rem That links on with Corinthians — the structural idea — “ye are ... God’s building” (verse 9).
JT That is what we are coming to.
Ques Would the “great stones, costly stones, hewn stones” be in keeping with the ministry of Paul and John and Peter? Would these features have a bearing on those who went home? So that there would be the matter of exercise and pressure in the mountains, but rest and recuperation in the home.
JT I suppose their work would be more efficient as having the home experience; for us it would be assembly experience, so that we apprehend what is needed. We get measures in the assembly, quality in the assembly, and our work is therefore intelligent, we know what is needed. I believe sonship underlies all skilled work in the service of God.
AEL How do you bring in the thought of sonship? Is it in connection with Solomon as son?
JT Well, Solomon, of course, shows typically the primary thought of sonship as seen in Nathan’s message to David (2 Samuel 7: 14). It was a question of the house; much was made of the thought of the house, even David’s house was provided for for “a great while to come”, 2 Samuel 7: 19. Solomon represents all that; he is the son. Thus the home here (”two months at home”), is the place of sonship. The idea is not workmanship in the home; Lebanon is the place for the workers, but the home is the place for the development of intelligent affection. That must enter into our service. Who can preach the gospel rightly except a son? Paul says, “God, who set me apart even from my mother’s womb, and called me by his grace, was pleased to reveal his Son in me, that I may announce him as glad tidings among the nations”, Galatians 1: 15, [p. 287] 16.
JS Would the toil and labour of David and what he secured in his affliction bring in the thought of the levy? As you have said, it is not optional; and would Solomon bring in refinement?
JT 1 Chronicles 22 contains the record of the result of David’s affliction, the material, not the finished material, but the rough material. That is why one thought it should have a place in this inquiry. He is mentioned in our chapter as taking account of the strangers, but now we are dwelling on the thought of sonship in service in the home.
NKM Would you say a further word as to the features of the work of “stone-masons in the mountains”?
JT It says, “Solomon had seventy thousand that bore burdens, and eighty thousand stone-masons in the mountains” (verse 15). They are not building, they are preparing the stones. The word ‘mason’ is usually connected with builders, but evidently they would be preparing the stones; there are eighty thousand of them, ten thousand more than the burden bearers. They would refer, I suppose, to work such as gospel service in which the Son of God is preached. I do not think you can grasp the idea entering into these men’s work in the antitype save as we have sonship, because the “living stones” are those who believe in the Son of God. Paul says, in the great work in Corinth, “the Son of God, Jesus Christ, he who has been preached by us among you (by me and Silvanus and Timotheus)”, 2 Corinthians 1: 19. The three of them preached the Son of God. I suppose the idea would be that it was set out in the three of them, in their minds, Christ in that light. How could they become stones otherwise?
ESB “All the building fitly framed together” (Ephesians 2: 21); the stones are made ready so that there is no further preparatory workmanship required.
JT There was no noise there: so Peter, who understands material says: “To whom coming, a [p. 288] living stone, cast away indeed as worthless by men, but with God chosen, precious, yourselves also, as living stones, are being built up a spiritual house”, 1 Peter 2: 4, 5. Not prepared, but each put into his place; that is, I hope, going on in this room. That is how it goes on, it is a silent work. There is noise in the service in the mountain, but there is the silent work. It happens in these services that souls get light and take their place secretly.
FWK Does the apostle refer to this when he says, “So have I strived to preach the gospel, not where Christ was named, lest I should build upon another man’s foundation”, Romans 15: 20? He was moving in the glad tidings in an extensive way.
JT Well, that brings us to what is before us in 1 Corinthians.
PHH Before you go on to that, with regard to the ten thousand extra stone-masons over the burden bearers, would that suggest that in assembly matters there is always to be a forward movement in what is positive? No matter how many exercises there are to be borne, would the ten thousand extra stone-masons suggest something being constructed all the time?
JT Well, it would seem that more of them were needed, and no doubt their work would mean a reduction of labour for the burden bearers. They prepared the rough material, and would remove what was extraneous. The ten thousand extra, I suppose, would be for this work. We hear of persons being converted, but have any masons had to do with them? So it seems that more masons are needed than burden bearers. A man may get so many converts, but how many of them come into fellowship and fit into the assembly? All that, I suppose, enters into this extra ten thousand.
Rem The stone-mason’s work is particularly to fit the individuals to have their part in the assembly.
JT Quite so.
PHH Do you connect it with finishing work?
[p. 289] JT Yes, the stones are to be made to fit into the building. There is more said in verse 17, “And the king commanded, and they brought great stones, costly stones, hewn stones, to lay the foundation of the house. And Solomon’s builders and Hiram’s builders and the Giblites hewed them, and prepared timber and stones to build the house”. The Giblites are skilled in stone work. We are not told how many there were, but I think they point to greater skill in the work; skill, I think, is the leading thought now. We hear every week now, thank God, of young people coming in and confessing the Lord; but skilled labour is needed that they might be put into the building; so that takes us to 1 Corinthians 3, where the apostle says he is “a wise architect” (verse 10). “I have laid the foundation, but another builds upon it. But let each see how he builds upon it”. Then further he says: “Now if any one build upon this foundation, gold, silver, precious stones, wood, grass, straw, the work of each shall be made manifest; for the day shall declare it, because it is revealed in fire; and the fire shall try the work of each what it is. If the work of any one which he has built upon the foundation shall abide, he shall receive a reward. If the work of any one shall be consumed, he shall suffer loss, but he shall be saved, but so as through the fire” (verses 12 - 15). This brings out the building from the standpoint of responsibility In Matthew 16 Christ is the Builder, there is no discrepancy there; but it is a question now of our responsibility, any one of us might build, but the question is, What do I put into the building?
ADT Would you say a word on the thought of “God’s fellow-workmen”?
JT That is important as coming into the subject, referring to Paul and those labouring with him, linking on with chapter 6 of the second epistle, where we have a similar reference: “as fellow-workmen” (verse 1), or, as it is literally, ‘jointly labouring’. So that we have [p. 290] the workmen linked on with God, which is a most precious thought. What can be more exalted than to be workers with God? And, of course, it peculiarly fits in with these epistles, because there were those ostensibly working who were not real, they might be cast away at the end.
Ques Is what is built to be consistent with the foundation?
JT That is the point here; Paul’s work, I suppose, was almost all there was so far. We must remember the Corinthians were spiritually only about two years old, and the apostle’s leaving exposed them to the wicked one, who was trying to destroy the work; but the foundation, the apostle’s work, stood.
COB “Built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets”, Ephesians 2: 20.
JT It is remarkable that the apostles are brought into it; the apostles, I suppose, represent the insistence on Christ’s authority, and the prophet brings God into the work: the apostle says in the first letter that one affected by prophetic ministry would report that God was among them (1 Corinthians 14: 25).
JCT He passes from the thought of husbandry to building, what is the connection?
JT Husbandry is not our subject, it is building; but still the agricultural thought is connected with the structural thought here and elsewhere: “Prepare thy work without, and make it fit for thyself in the field; and afterwards build thine house”, Proverbs 24: 27. We must have the field, we must have the support its produce affords; but this building is the point the apostle is stressing, because there were those who were putting in bad stuff, and that is seen everywhere now, so the chapter is most important for us: “let every man take heed how he buildeth”.
PHH It says in 2 Corinthians 11:13 that some were “false apostles, deceitful workers, transforming themselves into apostles of Christ”. Paul goes on to say here, “For other foundation can no man lay besides that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ” (verse 11). Would that give the suggestion as to the kind of work?
JT Yes, it is the moral side, I think. There is another thought of foundation in Matthew 16: 16, “Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God”. It is sonship entered into, but Messiahship too, “the Christ”; but here it is Jesus Christ, not even Christ Jesus, it is the moral side. Jesus Christ is more what He was down here. That is where the character of Christ is seen, and that must enter into the building — the moral features of Christ.
Rem That kind of man.
JT Exactly.
FCH And would the gold carry on with your thought of sonship?
JT What subsists through the fire is contemplated here.
Ques With regard to the thought of fellow-workmen, do you think that there is a preservative element in working together?
JT I suppose Jonathan would help us. One has thought of him as in 1 Samuel 14, where it is a question of Saul, who could never build a house for God; he himself was foreign material such as we have all around us now, today; without accusing anyone, the leaders are not to be trusted. Jonathan “did not tell his father” (1 Samuel 14: 1). I believe the work today requires that we proceed, making no inquiry at all of the religious leaders of the day. It is not only withdrawing from iniquity, but also from vessels to dishonour. Jonathan took counsel with his armour-bearer; they were two men on their hands and knees, but they are working with God. I believe that enters into our work at the present time.
JCT The condition of things publicly makes the work more arduous. Twice Jonathan says, “Come and let us go”; and then there is the response of the young man, “behold, I am with thee according to thy heart” (verse 7); and then both show themselves.
JT Workers with God, showing themselves to the garrison of the Philistines. That is what Christ was here, coming out, according to the circumstances, to the enemy. It is as we show ourselves in that character there will be victory.
Ques Should all workmen have the completed structure in mind?
JT Yes; I suppose Paul would have that as “a wise architect”.