REST

^[p. 317] REST

Genesis 2: 1 - 3; Genesis 8: 4,5; 2 Chronicles 5: 7 - 14; 1 Corinthians 15: 24 - 28

JT What is in mind is the thought of rest; first in the bearing of it in regard to the dispensations of God which in Scripture are said to have come upon us. It is particularly in mind to dwell on 2 Chronicles, the account given of the ark as in rest in the temple, which is followed by service of a peculiarly rich kind that is not found recorded in the corresponding passage in 1 Kings. As it is obvious that the books of Chronicles were written in remnant times, the bearing of this passage on ourselves is specially to be noticed. It has come down to us; the dispensations having come upon us. The first book gives us a beautiful phrase: “after that the ark was in rest” (1 Chronicles 6: 31); but chapter 5 of the second book, from which we have read, records historically how it entered into rest; and in view of the glory coming in at that time we should inquire as to whether the period in which we are corresponds in any way.

The passage in 1 Corinthians is read just because it speaks of the end in a formal way. All these periods of divine operations and their results in men have this end in mind; the state of things in which God is “all in all”. The state of the saints is in mind; He is all as in us. It is clearly not what He is in abstract Deity, but what He is in revelation, dwelling in the results He has reached: “all”, but all in us, “all in all”. This gives a rather wide range, but the thought to be before us is the practical side of this matter, especially in 2 Chronicles.

CAC Were you thinking that is something to be reached spiritually now?

JT Yes, I was thinking that; whether the assembly does not afford a means of this being reached, at least ^[p. 318] in principle. God is all in the assembly objectively, but also in the sense of filling us.

FSM Had David this in view in Psalm 132: 8, “Arise, Jehovah, into thy rest, thou and the ark of thy strength”? And do we see it fulfilled in the next psalm in brethren dwelling “together in unity”?

JT That is very confirmatory of what is in mind. “Let thy priests be clothed with righteousness, and let thy saints shout for joy” (Psalm 132: 9), may be added; it is as if he not only thought of God’s rest, but response to Him as in it.

So according to our first scripture God rested. We are told that the creation was finished: God had finished on the seventh day His work; “And the heavens and the earth and all their host were finished. And God had finished on the seventh day his work which he had made; and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had made. And God blessed the seventh day, and hallowed it, because that on it he rested from all his work which God had Created in making it” (Genesis 2: 1 - 3).

That is a remarkable paragraph of Scripture; and then the fulness of that, the fulness that God would have and look for, is opened up to us in chapter 2. It is the thought of response to any position of that kind; here God in rest. He rests, of course, in Himself abstractly, In His Deity, but then He is resting now in relation to what He has made; not indeed leaving it to operate by itself, but the great operation was finished, and now there would be fulness. In chapter 2 God continues to open up His thoughts as to His creation, especially in Adam and Eve: “Ish” and “Ishshah”.

EuR Would you say a word as to God’s rest as connected with the seventh day and our realisation of eternal privilege which seems to be connected more with the eighth day?

JT The seventh day is the end of any testimony, viewed thus as completed. In an extended way it is ^[p. 319] the millennium; what God has in that order of things which is still testimony. The idea of eight is what God has beyond that; but not as detached from it. From the assembly’s point of view, that is, the instruction purely in relation to the assembly which is found in Scripture, the first day of the week is introductory to what is eternal; not the seventh, but the first. The first and the eighth synchronise, but the first is the eternal thought; it relates to what God had in mind in His eternal counsels before the world, and runs on into what shall be eternally.

CAC Would the seventh day have reference to the time when the work of God is going on and is brought to completion, therefore referring to time conditions?

JT Quite so; and material things, too, not yet all things made new. The first day of the week in the gospels stands related to persons, especially in John’s gospel, where it is mentioned twice, the Lord’s activities characterising it from very early morning to late evening. The whole day is in mind, and we have the highest relationship into which we are brought, mentioned. We are on lower ground in the sabbath, so we are prepared for what is purely spiritual on the first day of the week; not the eighth, but the first; what is purely spiritual in relation to persons.

Ques Would the close of Numbers 10 connect with this? When the ark rested, Moses said, “Return, Jehovah, unto the myriads of the thousands of Israel” (Numbers 10: 36).

JT It does; it is a remarkable setting of truth referring to the movement of the tribes in their four sub-divisions Judah and Reuben are mentioned first, and then the sanctuary, that is, a place for God is reached immediately Love is portrayed in the movement in the way it deviates slightly from the instructions: it is indeed the filling out in love of the instructions. The tent is set up, so that there should be no ^[p. 320] delay in the ark being brought in: that there should be an immediate accommodation for God, the divine dwelling being ready. That is, love for God is acting in the tribes; and then the ark on its part moves also outside the instructions. It is love in Christ acting too; it is the suggestion, I think, of the reliability of love; the ark moves and goes before the people to find a resting-place for them. It is not yet a place for itself; love in the tribes made provision for it in the first two movements, that is of Judah and Reuben, and then the ark moved later to make provision for the people. It is the activity of love, and then the end is, “Return, O Lord, unto the many thousands of Israel” (Numbers 10: 36), the foreshadowing of God coming back where love could rest; no doubt pointing on to the end when God will “rest in his love”, Zephaniah 3: 17. He returns to “rest in his love”.

Ques What is the thought of the rest in Hebrews 4: 9 — “There remaineth ... a rest to the people of God”?

JT Well, that is for us. We have just been remarking how love would prepare a rest for us; we are told Joshua did not bring them into it, but we who believe do enter into it; we come into these things now in a provisional way in the power of the Spirit. The feast of Pentecost made provision for all these things, what the Spirit can be to us; but we are now speaking of the divine rest, and it is thought the verses in Genesis would make a good beginning.

The ark of Noah is the second point; for what is in mind is to show the dispensations and the divine movements in them, and how our dispensation involves a point reached by God in which He can rest provisionally, not finally, but still rest. Then, from that point He opens up what is for the accomplishment of His thoughts. Every dispensation has something of this kind; God has reached a point in which He can rest provisionally, pending something else, but in that position He accomplishes certain features of His testimony,

^[p. 321] all of which are accumulative, and we are to gather them up in our souls so as to see how He reaches the thought of finality.

HPW Would you just outline what the thought of rest is connected with in chapter 2 and chapter 8 and then in Chronicles?

JT Genesis 2, as we have been remarking, is a question of creation and what God would develop out of it for Himself. The rest is not the final thought, but God being in that attitude of rest, the final thought develops out of that. The rest is broken in upon by sin, but primarily God had in mind what would develop out of the rest. Creation is in mind, man being the supreme thought in it, the man and woman, the pleasure that God would have in man viewed thus.

Then in Noah we have a form of headship, that is, he is the beginning of a new order, so the reckoning is from the year of his life — it is a question of his years. So the ark rested. He does things, and the ark rested; and then what follows on that has to be taken account of in the ninth chapter. The ark is a figure of Christ, as Noah is, too. They have to be taken together, as the ark and Joshua have to be taken together, concurrent ideas. “The ark rested ... on the mountains of Ararat” (Genesis 8: 4); that is not the finish, but is a point reached from which further operations can be carried on with a view to the prime results coming out of the movement.

So that the window is in mind: “And it came to pass at the end of forty days that Noah opened the window of the ark which he had made. And he sent out the raven, which went forth going to and fro, until the waters were dried from the earth. And he sent out the dove from him” (Genesis 8: 6 - 8). This would be, I suppose, a prime thought in the movement, the faith period, typically; and then the covering is lifted, which would be the sight period. So it covers our own dispensation and the millennial state of things, but the dove is the type to notice particularly; the link between Noah and ^[p. 322] the dove, how she was sent out “from him” and came back “to him”. The covering is not lifted, nor is there any thought of sight, simply a period of faith in which the Spirit is depended upon. Antitypically the dove would be the Spirit here having first-hand knowledge of everything, whether it be a state of death or whether life is extant at all. She ultimately reaches life and brings up the evidence of it to Noah.

Then the ark at rest is very beautifully stated in Chronicles; and inasmuch as a remnant state of things is in mind, one thought it would touch us a little as to whether we are in this period intelligently — as it is said, the ark is “in rest”. It is mentioned in connection with levitical activity in 1 Chronicles 6: 31: “And these are they whom David set over the service of song in the house of Jehovah after that the ark was in rest”. The fact is stated anticipatively in the history, for the ark was not yet in rest; in our chapter it is, it has reached its rest. The staves are drawn out, they are seen, not outside, but in the holy place, and then we have all this added to what we have elsewhere.

CAC We have been apt to look at the thought of rest as finality. What you are suggesting is most helpful, to see that it becomes the starting point of a wondrous development of the thoughts of God.

HPW Do I understand that God, as it were, reached a sort of halting-place of rest, if we might put it so, so as to move on further; and then move on again, and so on until you reach the end which is final?

JT All sections of one great thought.

HPW Is there such a thought connected with the assembly now? Would every Lord’s day morning be a sort of halting-place of rest?

JT That is what I understand. How restful it is spiritually, as by the Spirit in assembly we gradually release ourselves from all that would intrude! We are sitting there apart from and not occupied with our ^[p. 323] domestic affairs, or anything else; if it were only for a minute or two, how restful to reach the point that God has reached in Christ — the ark in rest, and the Spirit here is the power by which we reach it.

HPW Do you think we ought to go out as moved on a step further each week?

JT Yes, surely progress is in mind; we do not go out as we came in; if we do, we have not gained anything, and it is doubtful if God has got anything from us. You go out with Him, and the next time you are more fit for the service, you are richer: so Asaph is a typical man, a remarkable man; he says: “When ... I went into the sanctuaries of God; then understood I”, Psalm 73: 16, 17. He is the author of most of the psalms in that book and begins with this one, showing what is made clear as we enter the sanctuaries. Instead of coming out as we went in, we come out different; we may lose during the next week, but the point is to retain everything so that the next time you are more equal to the position.

EuR Do you suggest we should seek to fill out the privileged occasion on the first day of the week in the power of the Spirit, and thus hold the ground as God’s rest, and definitely judge wandering thoughts as to domestic or business matters?

JT Yes, that we are in accord with the position that God reaches ultimately. He is to be “all in all”, meaning that He is all to us, but as filling us there is no room for anything else. It would be an eternal condition as in the verse read, but it is to be reached now. There is a point reached where all else is shut out, however legitimate it may be elsewhere. I am filled with God; God is all to me as filling me. I may look at the heavens and admire the handiwork of God, but that is an objective matter; it is not all to me as in me. God is “all in all” — not all and in all, but “all in all” — one great fact.

^[p. 324] Ques Is that how glory to God in the assembly would be known?

JT What a glory it would be if you are filled, and I am filled! He has accomplished much if He has filled me, He is thus all to me as filling me. I am not casting about and thinking of other things; God is all to me as filling me.

FSM Is there a parallel thought in Ephesians 3: 17 - 19: “that the Christ may dwell, through faith, in your hearts, ... that ye may be filled even to all the fulness of God”? Does that lead up to the final rest, glory to God “in the assembly” and with Christ dwelling in our hearts by faith, have we reached rest?

JT I think that is right. Ephesians supports all we have been saying; that epistle stresses the assembly; glory to God “in the assembly”. When God is “all in all”, of course, there is glory to Him, too, that is, in the eternal state of things, but Ephesians has in mind the great thought of the assembly now. 1 Corinthians hardly goes as far as that, it is more the persons: “the first-fruits, Christ; then those that are the Christ’s at his coming. Then the end” (1 Corinthians 15: 23, 24). It is a question of persons raised and glorified, so that God fills us all, and He is all in that sense.

EuR What have we to learn in the dove finding “no resting-place for the sole of her foot” Genesis 8: 9?

JT I think the allusion is to the Spirit, the Spirit coming out of heaven. The window, I suppose, suggests the faith period apprehended, but when the cover is removed from the ark and Noah looks out, then he can see things. He is dependent entirely on the dove in the first instance, and that is how the matter stands today. It is what the Holy Spirit is here; He knows everything, as coming out from heaven He knows the whole position. Presently the dove finds evidence of life and brings back a token of it in the evening, meaning that there was a day’s work. The Holy Spirit works incessantly and when He touches life an end is reached.

^[p. 325] His activities are going on every day of the dispensation. Whilst there is no change in man naturally, “only evil continually” Genesis 6: 5, life appears; the leaf was not floating, it was ‘’plucked off’’, showing that it was the fruit of life. That seems to be a sort of basic thought for us; and then the principle of coming back, as it were, to Christ. Then Noah acts of himself, but he does not move out of the ark without orders. In moving under divine direction we have a state of obedience and all the living creatures under that. Noah is acting of himself now in offering up the sacrifice, so that we have permanency for the moment, not eternal permanency, but “While the earth remaineth”; that is the principle with God. He is moving on in sections, and we are in the section into which all the others come (1 Corinthians 10: 11). We are thus to understand them all.

I believe 2 Chronicles is to be viewed in that light. The writer is evidently a very spiritual person, but in remnant times. Our attention is called, I suppose, to the writer being in a time of recovery; so that as a spiritual man he adds what was left out in the earlier account.

He records two fillings of the house, that is another thing: he omits nothing in that way. The house is filled after Solomon’s prayer, and it is filled here, the thought of singing being added. There is the wonderful unison of the priests in song, and then the house is filled with the glory of Jehovah. It is also filled, as I said, after Solomon’s prayer. All this shows that in remnant times the full recognition of the ark and response to it may develop. It is not here the bare fact, as in 1 Chronicles, that the ark was in rest, but there is this wonderful display of spiritual power; and then subsequently, the prayer of Solomon occasioning a further coming in of the glory.

CAC Do you gather from that, that God has in mind to bring about what is most excellent at the end of the ^[p. 326] dispensations?

JT That is exactly what I was thinking. We have spoken of it a little elsewhere, the filling of the houses; how the dispensation began at Pentecost with filling the house with sound, and how, as seen in Luke 14: 23, God’s thought was that His house should be filled with people, such as suited Him. So the gospel testimony in these last days should be of spiritual quality. Then there was Mary of Bethany possessing what was needed on a great occasion: “the house was filled with the odour of the ointment”, John 12: 3. Then, finally, the house here in Chronicles filled with the glory, twice, indeed, both in relation to the service of the priests and then in relation to prayer — the meeting for prayer. That is not to be neglected, it has its place, the glory fills it too.

All this in this book is contingent on the ark in rest. Christ is still sitting in His Father’s throne, as He says to Laodicea. That is the position and the operations are in relation to that.

FW Would you say a word as to the staves? In the authorised translation they are drawn out, whereas in the New Translation, which seems to be helpful, “the staves were long” (verse 9).

JT Well, it is in accord with what we are saying; there are to be no more wilderness conditions. They are seen in the holy place, that is what is meant. The ark had been carried, but it is in rest now. Other operations develop out from this, but the ark is in rest.

Rem In Chronicles the singing refers to what we do, but in Zephaniah 3, it is God who sings and rests in His love.

JT That is a good link to bring in here: it is what He has in us, the inheritance of God.

Ques Does not what you are saying, and particularly the thought of God “all in all”, raise the question as to how far holiness has been maintained with us?

JT It does indeed; Leviticus stresses that — that God is holy; and Peter brings it forward. If we are to have to do with these matters inside, we must have ^[p. 327] holiness. The Lord stresses it from time to time. Romans takes it up initially: “ye have your fruit unto holiness” (Romans 6: 22). “Ye have” it, as if you acquire the thing as wealth, or substance, so to say. It is “righteousness unto holiness” (verse 19). “And the end everlasting life” (verse 22).

CAC We could not have to do with God at all without holiness: “holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord”, Hebrews 12: 14.

Ques I was thinking particularly of being able to move intelligently from the point God has reached: “the knowledge of the Holy is intelligence”, Proverbs 9: 10. Would He carry us with Him in what He is about to do, as developing from that point?

JT The Psalms have that in mind. We all ought to know something about the sub-divisions of the Psalms; and the end of the second book is Christ on the throne, and the prayers of David are ended. That is all he had in mind in his prayers, so to speak, for if Solomon is on the throne everything will be looked after; 1 Chronicles shows us that Solomon is on the throne; and as he is on the throne of Jehovah, David’s prayers are ended.

Asaph comes in as a counterpart, and he is concerned about evil, notwithstanding that Christ is on the throne. He was pained that ungodly men were flourishing in this world; but he says, “I went into the sanctuaries of God”. Many hold to what is reached through David’s prayers, Christ in heaven, and preach the gospel too; but have not a true judgment as to the state of things down here; the dove sent out by Noah, as we have seen, denotes infinite knowledge of the state of things down here. The Holy Spirit corresponds in Romans; and there Christ is “declared to be the Son of God with power, according to the spirit of holiness” (Romans 1: 4).

So it is as entering the sanctuaries that holiness is specially required; who could be there without holiness? — and then you see the need of suffering. So Asaph’s ^[p. 328] ministry in the third book of Psalms should be looked into; the book finishes with Psalm 89, where David is seen in a wonderful way — greater, I believe, than he has been seen before. He is seen as God’s firstborn, as if the book would teach us what Christ is in suffering, and how the conditions here occasioned Christ’s sufferings: not simply that I am suffering, but I judge of them because they occasioned suffering to Christ. I have acquired the habit of going into the holiest.

Rem At the end of Psalm 89 he is great enough to take in and bear all the reproach: “Remember, Lord, the reproach of thy servants — that I bear in my bosom that of all the mighty peoples — wherewith thine enemies, O Jehovah, have reproached, wherewith they have reproached the footsteps of thine anointed” (Psalm 89: 50, 51).

JT Yes. I think it would be well worth our looking into these psalms, one of the sub-divisions at a time, of course bearing in mind the others. When you get a man like Asaph, who had such a great place in the service of God, and see the exercises he had, it is worth while following him. The book touches on what the Spirit of God is doing; besides Asaph, there are other distinguished names in that book.

Ques Is the millennium a moral necessity for God’s rest in creation?

JT That is what has been remarked; the millennium is the seventh day, but those of us who enter the sanctuary not only see the end of everything here, but we see what Christ is before God, and how things are to be effected in a positive way and eternity reached; so that God is “all in all”.

HB At the end of the next book there is an addition to the doxology.

JT The psalmist is evidently in it himself. The “Amen, and Amen” (Psalm 89), would be his; Jehovah is specially in mind, He says, “Blessed be Jehovah for evermore!” The close of each book has its own distinction. At the end of the second book it is: “Blessed ^[p. 329] be Jehovah Elohim, the God of Israel, who alone doeth wondrous things! And blessed be his glorious name for ever! and let the whole earth be filled with his glory! Amen, and Amen”, Psalm 72: 18,19. You can see we are on lower ground in the second book; it is a question of Israel. In the first book it is: “Blessed be Jehovah, the God of Israel, from eternity to eternity!” Psalm 41:13. It is “the God of Israel” still, but Psalm 89 is “Blessed be Jehovah for evermore!” It is Himself. The end of the fourth book (Psalm 106), is: “Blessed be Jehovah the God of Israel, from eternity and to eternity! And let all the people say, Amen! Hallelujah!” So this third book is significant, I think, in that sense, it is God and what He is inside; one going into the sanctuary sees everything before God in Christ.

CAC That is very good. How do you connect these psalms with what we have in Chronicles?

JT Well, the truth is that David is “the sweet psalmist” and it would, I take it, be his chief service. It is not that he was appointed to be chief psalmist, but it is what he was. Eternity is not reached officially; we have official thoughts in every section, but eternity is reached on the line of personality, through personal formation, the working out of intelligence and affection in us, so that we know what to do. It is not a question of what we are told to do, as in Exodus, where we get constantly, “as the Lord commanded Moses”; but you hardly ever get that in David. He, we are told, built inward. Speaking of David in this way, there is, of course, evidence of the recognition of the word of God with him; he said, “The Spirit of Jehovah spoke by me, and his word was on my tongue” 2 Samuel 23: 2; but it is especially what he did; even the thought of the house was his own. So that in David it is God taking us up in accord with what we are as the fruit of His own work, so that in eternity everyone is entirely according to divine counsel. In 1 Corinthians 15 the Son is Himself subject; He is not, as it were, acting in subjecting others, that is all finished: the Son is Himself subject, “that God may be all in all”. How can He be “all in all” save as He has wrought in us to remove what is contrary? and that is what the psalms mean, I think: what men learnt in experience with God. Asaph, Heman, and Jeduthun prophesy, according to 1 Chronicles 25. There were twenty-four sons to these men, as far as I can reckon, fitting in with the great thought of twenty-four. David separated, we are told, “for the service those of the sons of Asaph and of Heman and of Jeduthun who were to prophesy with harps and lutes and cymbals; and the number of the men employed according to their service was: of the sons of Asaph ...” Then we have the names of four sons. Following that, “Of Jeduthun”, and we have six names. Then “Of Heman”, and we are given fourteen names. We have thus twenty-four in all. They are all said to prophesy on harps: “All these were under the direction of their fathers Asaph, Jeduthun, and Heman, for song in the house of Jehovah, with cymbals, lutes and harps, for the service of the house of God, under the direction of the king. And the number of them, with their brethren that were instructed in the songs of Jehovah, all of them skilful, was two hundred and eighty-eight” (1 Chronicles 25: 6, 7). All these men are with their sons who are said to have prophesied, thus bringing out Asaph, Jeduthun, and Heman, the special leaders under David in the service of God. They not only provided the song and sang, but prophesied; and how is God to be “all in all”, save on that principle? He is brought in powerfully in this kind of ministry; all else is excluded.

GW Does not the meaning of the name of Asaph suggest a gatherer, or collector; and Jeduthun, praising; and Heman, faithfulness?

JT All is very suggestive; they stand for the very acme of quality under David, all “under the direction of the king”. The prophesying is that God is brought in in this remarkable way, a way in which He is most ^[p. 331] easily allowed to come in, that is, in song. All Mr. Darby’s hymns, I believe, have that character, the words bringing God into our souls.

EuR Does that link on with 1 Corinthians 14: 26? “What is it then, brethren? whenever ye come together, each of you has a psalm, has a teaching, has a tongue, has a revelation, has an interpretation”.

JT Quite so; and there is the thought of “the spirits of the prophets”, what comes out is the principle of subjection: “under the direction of the king”. These men are really David’s seers, bringing God into the matter. God is ever in such services and He becomes “all in all”. What comes out in that chapter — 1 Corinthians 14 — is subjection: “spirits of prophets are subject to prophets”. That is, our spirits are subject to us as in the prophetic ministry. I believe generally the ministry is brought into prophetic meetings; it is thought over beforehand; one speaks after another and he has brought in what he says. Whereas if he comes in with his own spirit in subjection to himself, all the prophets present being in the same attitude, if there is one sitting by who has got something at the time, it will be discerned at once, and room will be made for him. Thus the Spirit of God can use what He has at the time. It would greatly help if the brethren came together so that “the spirits of the prophets are subject to the prophets”. I believe Asaph, Jeduthun, and Heman would all be together in this way.

Ques Would the accepting of “the direction of the king” (1 Chronicles 25: 2), stand behind the spiritual wealth in Chronicles?

JT We must give attention to apostolic authority: “If any one thinks himself to be a prophet or spiritual, let him recognise the things that I write to you, that it is the Lord’s commandment”, 1 Corinthians 14: 37. We must give direct attention to the authority of Scripture, or we shall be led astray. But then there is the spiritual side, the “spirits of the prophets”, but also the spirits of the saints: “I will sing with the spirit, but I will sing also with the understanding” (1 Corinthians 14: 15). How much scope there is for enlargement in spiritual understanding and power in these last days! It is the wealth of it, I believe, that is seen in 2 Chronicles 5.

HB The spirit of a saint would be very sensitive; is that the idea?

JT Normally the spirits of the saints are sensitive; you do not find anything like them in the systems of men: a number of men together waiting on the Lord, their spirits subject to one another. It is a wonderful triumph, but it can be made more than it is; I am certain of that. Heman, Asaph, and Jeduthun not only sang in the service, but prophesied in it; that is, that God is brought before our souls.

RTH Would the different kinds of instruments used suggest variety?

JT That is right, the different features there are amongst those taking part in the service of God.

FSM Would the thought of oneness that marked the singing (2 Chronicles 5), also mark the prophecy?

JT You feel that whilst you do not look for “suggestive” meetings, that is, that if you say something, I will say something like it, there should be spiritual unity in what is said?

FSM Spiritual unity and not merely verbal unity?

JT Quite so.

EuR David had the thought of this rest before the house was actually built: “This is my rest for ever; here will I dwell”, Psalm 132: 14.

JT This is answering David’s exercises: “Let thy priests be clothed with righteousness, and let thy saints shout for joy”, Psalm 132: 9. God would clothe the priests, too. And he said, “here will I dwell, for I have desired it” (verse 14). All this shows how David’s exercises corresponded with God’s purpose.

EuR He located the foundation and called it the house before it was built (1 Chronicles 22:1).