HOUSES FILLED
[p. 351] HOUSES FILLED
Acts 2: 1,2; Luke 14: 23; John 12: 3; 2 Chronicles 5: 11 - 14
You will observe that the idea of a full house appears in each of these scriptures. The first is filled with a sound, a sound from heaven; the second is to be filled with people; the third is filled with odour; and the fourth is filled with the glory of God. I wish to speak under those four heads, and it will be observed that these four features do not exclude each other: sound makes room for people as well; people make room for an odour such as that of which we read in John 12 — there was one complainant, but obviously the odour was appreciated by those present, nor did it exclude anyone; then, fourthly, although the priests were not able to do their service, that does not mean that the persons were excluded; it refers to an official feature as non-essential to what was in mind; the glory resting in what was there, which in the antitype does not exclude but includes people. The idea is ever in the mind of God, heaven is to be peopled; so that, although glory fills heaven, and love too, people are essential there. Authority in the sense of Moses, and what is official as in the priests, may be non-essential, but not the people; for our names are written in heaven, we are told, and our names there establish our right there; so that we are not to be there as strangers, but as known persons, and known in our dignity, for dignity is what is stressed in the firstborn.
Acts 2 is the first passage to be considered, and this states that the saints were all together in one place. That is a preliminary and essential condition to what follows, for God is not filling an empty house with His sound from heaven; hence we are directed to those persons. Persons are in view throughout. It is a question of the public testimony, and for the public testimony we have to consider those employed, whether [p. 352] they are suitable. How are they to be furnished? Not, certainly, according to this record, by human cultivation; they are furnished by Christ; they are His handiwork. Coming into this world He came in in a public way, for although He moved here in a retiring way, yet He took His place in the likeness of men, that is, He was One who could move about amongst men, and could accept their conditions and circumstances, sin apart. There is no evidence that He was clothed differently from others; John the baptist was, because his testimony required it, but Christ came in in a suitable way, eating and drinking, but with no special habiliments to mark Him off as a Minister of God. He moved about among men, “taking his place”, not only in the likeness of man, but “in the likeness of men” Philippians 2: 7 — men in their ordinary circumstances of life.
So His distinction would develop from Himself, not from any human honours or distinctions conferred. His distinction was in Himself, hidden, indeed, in a sense, for the ordinary eye saw nothing at all; as the prophet said, “there is no beauty that we should desire”, Isaiah 53: 2. Still the power of distinction was there; and so in time He became public. He is not said to have been “in the deserts”, like John the baptist was till the time of his showing to Israel. Jesus was there among men — it is most touching — following His father’s trade. “Is not this the carpenter?” they said (Mark 6: 3). It was not long before He became distinguished, and what distinguished Him was intended to give character also to the workers that He would send out into the world in testimony. They were to be seen. The testimony was not to be “done in a corner” (Acts 26: 26), nor were they to enter by the back door anywhere, but at the front. It was a public matter, and the Lord fitted them for it.
What is said in Acts 1 shows that they were all in a certain place, not in anything palatial, but in an upper room. They were there according to their names;
[p. 353] their names intimated what the Lord intended each one of them to be. Besides, there were women there, particularly the Lord’s mother — the most distinguished woman of all time; also other women; and His brethren were there, too. The testimony clearly is to include not only men but women — a very important matter to remember. So they were all there, as we read: “they were all together in one place” Acts 2: 1. You can understand how comelily they would sit together, for they were sitting. You might say, Why should they be sitting, for the Lord was standing as He left? Well, if we do not learn to sit, we shall certainly not learn to stand in testimony, nor to act in testimony. Their posture was that of sitting. They were evidently freed from all else, prepared under God for the great event. That is another important matter, dear brethren, to be ready for great events; for great events belong to us, as those who belong to God’s assembly, and every assembly meeting is a great event. We are to understand how to be there and to take advantage of an opportunity. Every occasion is not intended to give the same person an opportunity; we get opportunities in our turn, and we see in the case of Mary that she was ready for a great occasion. This occasion was not to distinguish one of them only; it was to distinguish them all — an important matter, too, that God would affect us together; that is, the similarising influence which God has provided is to make us like one another — in one way each is distinguished, but we are like each other; the likeness is taken on from the glory. The varied glories that shine, in which we have part, are intended to make us like one another. If there be difference, it “differs ... in glory”, 1 Corinthians 15: 41. Those whom God uses are to be glorious. We are perhaps slow to name things, but there are many things which come under our notice that are really glorious, and we are not aware of it; the reason is that we have not eyes to see true glory. Glory attaches to the believer, and especially to those [p. 354] who are the result of the handiwork of Christ. So the one event in Acts 2 affected them all, and they were all affected at the same time.
So we are told that when the day of Pentecost “was now accomplishing, they were all together in one place” Acts 2: 1; that is, they are ready for the great event. It was not an accident; it was thought of long before; the divine eye looked on to this at the inauguration of the day of Pentecost. It was a great feast, a feast not limited by time, like the others. It is running its course, but it is really an inlet to heaven. It is the feast that has the promise of the Holy Spirit in mind. Here it is not the inlet to heaven, but an outlet from heaven, an outlet for a sound, and this sound filled the house, but it was “the house where they were sitting” Acts 2: 2. They gave character to the house. If it be the upper room, it is all the more suggestive. They gave character to it, and the sound filled it.
Now you can understand, dear brethren, that this would accustom them to heavenly sound. There are many sounds, of course; the world is full of them, but the sound from heaven is something to be noted. They are to become accustomed to it; they are to reproduce this sound; they are to be preachers. I mean to say, they are to be vessels in testimony. Some of them — twelve any way — would be preachers, and they would have to understand that sound, so as to conclude what kind of sound should emanate from them. This must be the pattern of sound. It is from heaven. What issues from heaven is par excellence as to anything; and if it be sound, it must be that, and as such must enter into the testimony. It is the sound Paul speaks about, the sound issuing from Thessalonica, for instance: “the word of the Lord sounded out from you”, 1 Thessalonians 1: 8. The apostle Paul, in treating of this subject, speaks of lifeless things that give sounds — pipes and harps, organs and pianos; I do not say that he mentions all these, but they are all lifeless. He calls them lifeless;
[p. 355] they cannot be used in the service of God; they are not equal to it. They are lifeless. Hezekiah says, “The living, the living, he shall praise thee”, Isaiah 38: 19. The service of God is to be carried on in life, the musical instruments are to be living. That is what the apostle is stressing in 1 Corinthians 14; so he says, even lifeless things give a sound (verse 7); and he uses them illustratively to show that if there is not definiteness of sound, who shall know what is piped or harped? So with the trumpet, there must be definiteness; and so with those who catch the heavenly sound, the sound that issues from heaven. Witness must be definite, so that what is said, or testified to, should be understood.
So this sound filled the house; that is, it excluded all other sounds, for any other sound would interfere with this one. People do not interfere, odours do not interfere, but other sounds interfere. Hence the travesty of the use so profusely in christendom, in the testimony (so called) of God, in the streets, and in the great cathedrals and the like, of lifeless things. They are incongruous. This heavenly sound is not to be discerned in them, but in living instruments — persons who wait on God. Here the saints are sitting; they are ready to absorb what is of God. The sitting posture would suggest that all the senses are free — we absorb things through them. So there would be the absorption of this wonderful sound in the men and women who sat there. It is not a musical sound for the moment — it will develop into that in the house of God, for we read of music and dancing in the house (Luke 15); but this is not musical: it is “a violent impetuous blowing”, or “a sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind” Acts 2: 2, as it is rendered in the Authorised Version. But it is not simply “wind”, it is more the idea of breathing — see note in the New Translation. The word “breathing” is more suggestive, not of the wind as a created thing, an element in the creation (these elements have their place, of course, in the testimony [p. 356] of God), but if there is breathing, there is a Person behind it, there is feeling behind it. God does use the elements, for, as we read in Job, He uses thunder, lightning, rain, snow, frost, and so forth. God uses these things in His testimony; but this sound is directly God-given, this sound of powerful breathing. We have breathing in John 20, but it is not mentioned in this way. That is the breathing of Jesus — it is most touching — the breathing of the ascending Son of God. He breathed into them, and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit” (John 20: 22). This, in Acts 2, is an enlargement of that, having in mind what had to be contended with in the testimony; and we are told that it filled all the house where they were sitting; and then we are told in verse 4: “they were all filled with the Holy Spirit, and began to speak”, but they began to speak “as the Spirit gave to them to speak forth”.
Now that is the great principle in this section, that the idea of the filling of the house is carried into the persons. All the house was filled where they were sitting, and in turn it is said that the Spirit filled every one of them; “it sat upon each one of them” Acts 2: 3 — beautiful thought! Can I eliminate myself from anything like this? Maybe there is someone here who does. It is the mind of God for believers, and I cannot afford to eliminate myself from that; it is an insult to God, and it is to my unutterable loss, if I eliminate myself in any way from these great things which God furnishes. So it says, “they ... began to speak” Acts 2: 4. I am speaking now in a practical way to the dear brethren. Let us not in any way eliminate ourselves from any of these things that are brought so near to us, and in such a palpable way. It says, “it filled all the house” — why should I be out of it all? Let no one here eliminate himself or herself from this: the Spirit sat on each in the character of cloven tongues, as of fire; then we are told that they were all filled with the Holy Spirit; that is to say, they were available. Think of the opportunity given [p. 357] to us! Are we available for what God offers? Think of what there is for us at the present time, dear brethren! Am I available? If I only listen to the truth, even admiring it, and do not take it in, I am not filled.
God is looking for filled vessels. God does not want empty vessels. If there are any ready, He would fill them, as the six waterpots of John 2 were filled. So here, each one was filled. With what? — with the Holy Spirit! Surely no one here would for a moment think of eliminating himself from such a great blessing, brought so palpably to him, as this is! Each one of them in this wonderful company which Christ had prepared was sitting there; they were all ready to be filled. Were they unjudged people? Were they selfish people? Were they people of pride and ambition? No, they were not. The Lord Jesus had taught them to eliminate through self-judgment all these things; and now they are ready for the Spirit. One challenges oneself: Am I available to God for this — to be filled? It is not simply coming to the meetings in a perfunctory way, and intimating that it is nothing to me whether I am there or not. What good is such a person to God? He is better away, really; he does not add to the interest; he does not add to the absorbing power of those present. And yet God is here in infinite fulness to fill each one with the very best, with the greatest possible things. They were all filled. They took part in testimony, too. They spoke, we are told: “they ... began to speak with other tongues as the Spirit gave to them to speak forth” Acts 2: 4. That is to say, they were vessels ready; and the Spirit came in and they heard the sound, and now the Spirit is on each, and they are speaking, but how? “As the Spirit gave to them to speak forth”; and they spoke “the great things of God”.
Well now, I go on to Luke to pursue the subject. In this gospel we have the house — “my house” is the word which the Lord’s parable uses — it is God’s house, of course; and the word is, “that my house may be filled”. The house in Acts 2, of course, was a literal house or room, and we cannot say that it was filled with people. I suppose it was commodious; I suppose it afforded suitable accommodation. We are told by Luke in his gospel that it was large — “a large upper room furnished”, Luke 22: 12. If it be the same one as in Acts — no doubt it is — I suppose they were all comfortably seated. It is important that the testimony should not be hindered by unsuitable accommodation in rooms or halls in which meetings are held. I believe God would help us on these points — not to discredit the testimony by any avoidable limitations. In some instances they are simply the result of carelessness. God does not like that. If we are careful about our own houses, why not about the places where the saints meet? So Luke speaks of “a large upper room furnished”; there is no thought of its being filled with people in this connection: the point is that they were comfortable there, sitting; not, indeed, for their mere ease, but as ready for the great occasion, with nothing to distract them.
Now we come to the house in Luke 14; and there can be no doubt that it is the house of God, and it is to be filled, to be filled with people. That is the point; there were not enough. And, dear brethren, inasmuch as the final thought of filling is in view — though a good many were there already, according to the parable, it was not quite filled — does it not enter into our own position now? The churches are becoming empty: I am alluding to what is common and current around us; that is to say, apostasy is at work, most deplorably so. One has no pleasure at all in the churches, so called, becoming empty, because one knows such emptying is simply apostasy, the devil’s work. But what about the house of God? Is it not being added to? It is, indeed; and that is the positive thing to which one turns with the deepest satisfaction, that the matter is proceeding, the house is being filled with people,
[p. 359] but not with such as are unsuitable. Let us never be deceived by the thought of mere numbers. Not that we should not be ashamed of very small numbers where there might be larger ones: for the truth is that small numbers are often due to want of evangelical activity.
Whilst we say rightly that it is “the day of small things” Zechariah 4: 10, let us remember and own that our laziness, our indolence, our want of evangelical activity, is the cause of the smallness of numbers in many cases. Let us take this to heart; for this is a great evangelical chapter, and also the next one (Luke 15).
I am now speaking of fitting, for God has no thought of anything else than that all His blessed thoughts should be answered to in the fullest measure. There are to be no voids, no empty seats: no, dear brethren! The counsels of God will surely be corresponded to by the work of God. The gracious, patient work of God in all these centuries will result in His house being filled: filled with people; but what kind of people? “That my house may be filled”, the parable says. Luke 15 shows you the kind of people. There is quality, not only are there numbers; and in securing the quality, we are to be concerned not only about evangelical energy, but about formation and building. So we find in Ephesians, where we should expect it, that the gifts are received, according to the psalm quoted, by Christ as Man. Every gift was received by Him as Man, and every gift was, I believe, expressed in Him, the suitable, blessed Vessel available to God here below for the expression of all His thoughts. I am now speaking of ability, of workmanship. Christ is now ascended, having passed beyond all the heavens. Think of the altitude that enters into our service! We have been speaking of the upper room, but think of going beyond all the heavens! He has gone beyond all the heavens, and being up there ascended, He has received of the Father the gifts. We read of His “having received of the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit”,
[p. 360] Acts 2: 33. The Spirit involves all the gifts, but the Lord received Him first. Of course God gave the Spirit, but the Lord Jesus as Man exalted in heaven received Him first. The Spirit has come down through the hands of Jesus — wonderful thought! — that as Man above He has Himself received the Spirit and shed Him forth; and so the gifts are here. We read, “thou hast received gifts in Man” (Psalm 68: 18); He received them for men; they have come through Him; not, as it were, directly from God the Father to us, but through Christ, handled there and then given. “He has given some apostles, and some prophets, and some evangelists, and some shepherds and teachers”. What for? “For the perfecting of the saints; with a view to the work of the ministry, with a view to the edifying of the body of Christ”, Ephesians 4: 11,12. That is what we have to keep in mind, dear brethren, not only that the house is to be filled, but how filled? With what filled? What is in view is “the edifying of the body of Christ: until we all [the same word as in Acts 2] arrive at the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, at the full-grown man, at the measure of the stature of the fulness of the Christ”, Ephesians 4: 12, 13.
Well now, that is Luke 15. This prodigal, as we call him — see the hands he has passed through! “The father said to his bondmen, Bring out the best robe and clothe him in it, and put a ring on his hand and sandals on his feet ...” Luke 15: 22. The bondmen are all available; they bring out things; it is a question of refinement, of clothing the saints; first of all, with the thoughts of heaven. If I am to be in the house, I am to be there as fully acceptable to heaven. In truth, we belong to heaven: “such as the heavenly one, such also the heavenly ones” (1 Corinthians 15: 48); and if the house is to be filled, dear brethren, there must be the reflection of heaven; the persons must be according to that. So in chapter 15 there is no formal introduction of the [p. 361] prodigal into the house: he is the house — you understand what I am saying — he represents the idea of the house; he is clothed and fed and furnished and arrayed in every way according to heaven, it is the father’s doing. The bondmen are all there to do it; there is no discrepancy whatever; he is according to the place. Then there is the house: as if to say, That is the divine result of what these two chapters in Luke present.
So, dear brethren, the filling coming in there, at once calls for quality. The Lord has been helping us as to quality. What am I doing? What kind of workmanship is mine? Am I skilled? There are rough workers, as we see among Solomon’s workmen, those who were burden bearers, but there were skilled workmen, too, not only skilled in relation to ordinary stones, but also precious stones — in all that is highly refined. Am I available for anything of this? Well, the filling needs it — “that my house may be filled”.
I pass on to John 12, so as to show how sisters come into this matter. I have been speaking of sisters: they were all there as the Spirit came, according to Acts 1 and 2. Now here is a great occasion, a supper made for Christ, and the place of it is suitably filled. We can understand there would be no vacant seats at this table. Martha served; that is, the idea of sitting is there, and the idea of serving is there. “Martha served” — that is her part; and I suppose, service is never to cease; shall we not serve above? Jesus will; I mean, love would be active in that way, and nothing would be remiss, nothing wanting. No, dear brethren, love will never have anything that is not suitable, and everything needed is furnished.
So now it is a question of what this sister Mary can do. What has she got? One often feels, and surmises, without being severe on the sisters, that they do not think it necessary to have anything. As if they were saying, If the brothers have the things, let them give [p. 362] them out: we will receive them — or maybe not receive them! Now the only one who, in the sense implied, had anything in this wonderful scene was Mary; and she had what was supremely suitable. She had it too, in the sense of preparation; it was something she had kept for some time; for what is any one of us if he has not spiritual history? Spiritual history is one of the greatest thoughts. Mary had spiritual history; she was not a believer of yesterday, she was a woman of spiritual history; Luke gives us the beginnings of it, John the finish. It is a fine piece of work, dear brethren! Would you not say, Well, I want to be a fine piece of work for heaven? Each one of us, I am sure, in our quiet, meditative moments wants to be a fine piece of work. Such divine workmanship is wonderful: “Let thy work appear unto thy servants”, Psalm 90: 16. Is there anyone here who would eliminate himself from that? Is the work of God not to appear in us? It is, even as it appeared in Mary. Luke gives us the beginnings, John the finish, as I said. This is the last mention of Mary in the Scriptures, though, of course, she has been mentioned millions of times since; there is no end to it at all. She has an eternal fame — all in heaven will talk about Mary in the way I am speaking of her. She is a fine example of divine workmanship. She knows how to choose the good part — to sit at the feet of Jesus and hear His word — and now she has this ointment. It is very precious; she has kept it — it does not say in an alabaster box, as elsewhere. The Spirit of God would eliminate that thought here. She kept it; she herself was the box. She was one of those who “love our Lord Jesus Christ in incorruption”, Ephesians 6: 24. You cannot corrupt her, in that sense; she is incorruptible. In principle and in result all true believers are; the first epistle of John views us in this abstract way; it is only a matter of the setting aside in time of all that is contrary. God looks at us abstractly, and there is the thought of it in a concrete [p. 363] way, seen in those who love our Lord Jesus Christ in incorruption, that is, to be entirely unselfish in it. So she kept the thing without an alabaster box; she was that herself. That is the way John presents Mary.
So the great occasion arrives, and there she is thoroughly in it and equal to it. She anoints the feet of Jesus. It is not an assembly occasion properly; for after the Lord discloses Himself to the assembly as such, to the persons who compose it, it is His hands and side of which He speaks; that is how John records the fact; but here it is the feet of Jesus. I suppose she represents the Jewish side; but still, we can include it amongst ourselves. It is a question of a journey, of six days yet to be traversed. She was waiting for His death, for the time of His burial, and it was a question of His feet. She is saying in effect, Those precious feet have travelled to me; they have to travel six days more; they have to travel to Golgotha, and I will express my love to Him whose feet they are! And she had the ointment; there was no need for self-complaint, saying, I wish I had brought that! What a fine opportunity it would be if I had it with me! Mary had it with her; it was herself in effect, dear brethren. There are things I may forget, but the point is what I am myself, that is the thing. She was there; the real Mary, the real workmanship of God was there; there was nothing wanting, no! She fitted there, as she will fit eternally. That is the idea in the assembly: I want to fit in there as a subject of the work of God, and to be ready for my opportunity. So the house is filled with the odour of the ointment.
Now I go on to 2 Chronicles 5. I have now come to the supreme thought in my subject, namely, the unity of the Spirit in the formal service of God. This is one of the four records of the kind: the tabernacle is filled with the glory; then 1 Kings tells us that the temple was filled with the cloud; and this book tells us it was filled with the glory twice, the second time [p. 364] being when Solomon had finished praying. Indeed, we get again in Ezekiel twice over that the house was filled with the glory of the Lord. It is a thought God loves; it marks His ways where things are suitable. This account in 2 Chronicles is fuller, I think, than any of the other instances that I have mentioned; and I may remark, so as to make it clear, that in 1 Kings the filling does not require the service of the priests and the Levites; it is in relation entirely to the ark, as if God would signalise the presence of Christ in the temple, how God comes in where Christ is everything, Christ personally or in testimony. “And it came to pass when the priests were come out of the holy place, that the cloud filled the house of Jehovah” (1 Kings 8: 10), as much as to say, when they are out, the glory goes in. What for? It is in relation to the ark which they had just been placing there under the wings of the cherubim, and we are told that the staves were drawn out: there is to be no journeying; it is never to be carried again. The staves appeared in the holy place, suggestive, too, to those of us who are serving; as the word says, “he shall go no more at all out” (Revelation 3:12) — precious thought! This is the time of working, journeying. The ark had to journey for centuries, but now the staves are to be drawn out, they are to be seen from within; the time of journeying is over. We too are about to enter into our rest very soon: in this sense the staves are to be drawn out soon. “He shall go no more at all out”, is the word of Christ in consideration for His workers. It is said, indeed, in the gospel, that He said to them, “Come ye yourselves apart into a desert place and rest a little”, Mark 6: 31. It is His consideration for His workers; He never fails in this, and we must not forget that we are to do this, answering to His request, because our workmanship will be all the better for it. We are not to be holiday-makers or tourists, but to come aside into a desert place, where there is to be nothing for the flesh, to rest awhile;
[p. 365] but it is with Christ, not in His absence: He says, “Come”.
The passage in Kings to which I am alluding refers to the completion of the work side, the journeying side. The staves are drawn out, the priests come out of the temple, and the glory fills it, as if God is saying, That is enough for Me! Christ’s presence there is enough in one respect, for Him. There is no longer any priestly or official service: the glory fills the house; but there is nothing there about this wonderful service of the priests and Levites that we have in this chapter of 2 Chronicles. So we read in 2 Chronicles 5: 10: “There was nothing in the ark save the two tables which Moses put there at Horeb, when Jehovah made a covenant with the children of Israel, when they came out of Egypt. And it came to pass when the priests were come out of the holy place” — that links on with what is recorded in 1 Kings 8. The Spirit of God however is not content with that in this book; we have enlargement here on what we get in 1 Kings, and it really suggests, dear brethren, that the continuance of spiritual ministry must mean enlargement. Undoubtedly Chronicles came in later than Kings; it was, no doubt, written in remnant times; and we have thus the suggestion that in remnant times we may have spiritual enlargement on official times, for it must be the same occurrence that is referred to in 1 Kings 8 and 2 Chronicles 5, but in the latter record there is enlargement as compared with what was seen in official times. Is it not an incentive to us, dear brethren, to follow up this great thought of the service of God, to be ready for it at all times, so as to get this enlargement, this preparation for eternal service, for it is to be, “to him be glory in the assembly in Christ Jesus unto all generations of the age of ages”, Ephesians 3: 21. It is “in the assembly in Christ Jesus”: that would imply that He is still operating; the preposition indicating that it is in His power that the service goes on and shall go on eternally. So there [p. 366] will be a great enlargement in what we shall have part in then. God is preparing us for it now.
So the addition to 1 Kings 8 is in verses 11 - 13 of our chapter: “... (for all the priests that were present were hallowed without observing the courses; and the Levites the singers, all they of Asaph, of Heman, of Jeduthun, with their sons and their brethren, clad in byssus, with cymbals and lutes and harps, stood at the east end of the altar, and with them a hundred and twenty priests sounding with trumpets) — it came to pass when the trumpeters and singers were as one, to make one voice to be heard in praising and thanking Jehovah; and when they lifted up their voice with trumpets, and cymbals, and instruments of music, and praised Jehovah: For he is good, for his loving-kindness endureth for ever; that then the house, the house of Jehovah, was filled with a cloud”, 2 Chronicles 5: 11 - 13.
This brings out the great enlargement in the mind of the writer of the books of Chronicles; and surely it should appeal to us now as to whether we are ready for enlargement, or whether we are simply living in the past. Is the Spirit inactive? Not at all! The Spirit is here. “Not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit, saith Jehovah of hosts”, Zechariah 4: 6. Zechariah enlarges on that in remnant times; and it is for us, that we might make room for the Spirit to enlarge us.
I confess that I am very little able to speak much about glory, though I find myself speaking a good deal of it; but that one should speak of it with understanding is what one is concerned about. The glory of Jehovah (for that is the word here) filled the house of God: God is the great Ultimate, dear brethren in all this — not the Father, exactly, nor Jehovah, but God; God as presented to us in the Scriptures. The first verse of Scripture uses a word to express Him which implies that we are to worship Him, that He is to be served, that He is to be revered, that He is supreme. Here “[p. 367] the glory of Jehovah had filled the house of God”. It seems to me that it is a beautiful touch, a touch that such a man as wrote this book was able to give by the Spirit, in order to direct our minds to God as the great Ultimate of all things: “For of him, and through him, and for him are all things”, Romans 11: 36. The glory of Jehovah fills the house of God.
What is to be noticed in verse 13 is “to make one sound to be heard”. It is not simply that the sound is there, but it is to be heard. I was speaking earlier of sound from Acts 2; but now it is one sound from human musicians, but worshippers, qualified worshippers, and they are able to make one sound. Is God not leading us to that? Is He not seeking to help us to repudiate all selfishness, and pride, and rivalry, and ambition, in His service; that there might be unison — not only the unity of the Spirit and the unity of the faith, but the unity of sound? We do not get this in Acts 2: it is the supreme thought in relation to what I am saying, and it is to be heard. There is no use in talking about these things unless they are to be realised. Here we have one voice heard “in praising and thanking Jehovah”. It is very touching to connect this with the prison in Philippi: the sound was heard coming from those two sufferers, who in prayer praised God with singing. The prisoners listened to them. The sound was heard. The children in the temple were praising the Lord, saying, “Hosanna to the Son of David” Matthew 21: 15. Who heard it? — the Lord heard it. His enemies said to Him, Do you hear what these are saying? He says in effect, I hear! What they were singing was to be heard. So, as I said, in the prison at Philippi, the singers were heard: “the prisoners listened to them”, Acts 16: 25.
May God bless those thoughts to us, so that we may have before us this supreme thought of unison in service, that the sound may be heard, so that we may realise something of God’s glory filling His temple.