ADJUSTMENT TO GOD'S THOUGHTS
ADJUSTMENT TO GOD’S THOUGHTS
JT In this chapter we see the need for adjustment even in the most spiritual. It is easy to apply it to those who are not spiritual, but that it should be needed in the most spiritual is perhaps what we would not expect. There is no evidence of any naughtiness of heart in David in this connection. In the end of the previous chapter, referring to his dancing before the ark, he says to Michal, “It was before Jehovah, who chose me”; he evidently was subdued and humble in his spirit, but not withstanding all the honour put upon him and the prosperity that marked him in bringing up the ark, he needed adjustment.
Ques Nathan needed it also, did he not?
JT Yes; so that we see the most spiritual among the people of God need it, especially in connection with His house. God would remind us that all in the house must be of Himself. That David should consider the fact that he dwelt in a house of cedars and that the ark of God was under curtains was a very right motive and exercise. Nathan says to him, “Go, do all that is in thy heart; for Jehovah is with thee”. It was right that it should be in his heart, but then whatever may be in my heart, I must think of what is in God’s heart.
Ques Would God’s word to Abraham earlier, “Walk before my face, and be perfect”, show that in God’s wisdom He anticipates that in the most spiritual there would be times of imperfection?
JT Just so; in the most spiritual. Even Joseph, wonderful man though he was, does not pass without a slip that needed adjustment; he would have the elder blessed, in that way denying the sovereign choice of God.
[p. 6] Ques Adjustment is needed in so many ways, but is it your thought that we need adjustment in relation to the thoughts of God, that He must act first?
JT It is to bring out the importance of the house, that God’s mind must pervade it and that He must have the initiative as to all things concerning it.
Rem The children of Israel took the initiative in desiring a king, but it was not according to God.
JT There is no doubt that the motive on the part of David was a worthy one; he had in his mind to find a habitation for God. It was a governing principle in his life, but this chapter is to bring out that notwithstanding all that, worthy as it was, David was short of the spirit that enters into the house of God; that he lost sight of the fact that it was a question of God’s sovereignty and choice and that the thought of relationship entered into it. A military man was never in divine purpose, it was a son; what answers to the heart of God is sonship. It is the son who is to build.
Ques Should Nathan have known that, instead of confirming David in what he purposed to do?
JT We must not be too quick. Deliberation is a great thing in the things of God. Of course, the Lord answered quickly in His dealings with others, but deliberation is a great principle. It was a great and weighty matter that David suggested to Nathan and required due consideration. You would have thought that Nathan would have said, Well, what about the word, “Thou shalt bring them in, and plant them in the mountain of thine inheritance, the place that thou, Jehovah, hast made thy dwelling, the Sanctuary, Lord, that thy hands have prepared”, Exodus 15: 17.
Rem So what is in our hearts should originate from God’s heart.
JT If David had built the house, “Wisdom hath built her house” could not have been said. Wisdom [p. 7] borrows nothing; she is indebted to no one. Wisdom originated with God, but it is the Son that builds, so that while wisdom builds, it is the affections and sentiments of the Son that enter into the building.
Ques Is that why it is said regarding Solomon, “I will be his father, and he shall be my son”, 1 Chronicles 17: 13?
JT It is not simply David’s son that builds the house. In both Proverbs and Ecclesiastes it is David’s son — Solomon, “son of David”. But that is not enough for God, the point that God emphasizes is, “He shall be my son”; that is to say, he is detached wholly from David. So that from the very outset of Solomon’s being, God, as it were, intervened. He sent by the hand of Nathan and called his name Jedidiah, meaning that Jehovah loved the child. To David he was Solomon, but to Jehovah he was Jedidiah, and this showed what he was in the mind of God. God adopted him because He loved him. Thus Solomon is not simply David’s son. As building the house, he is God’s son, and the application of that to Christ in the first chapter of Hebrews makes it all the more emphatic: “I will be to him for father, and he shall be to me for son”.
CHH I suppose David reached that in his soul in Psalm 72 where he blessed “Jehovah Elohim, the God of Israel, who alone doeth wondrous things”.
JT Quite; and we see the end of David’s desires, for the psalm ceases with, “The prayers of David the son of Jesse are ended”. He sees now in the son one who would take up the will of God; there is nothing more to desire.
JD What place would David’s matchless preparation for the house have when he himself was debarred from building it?
JT Well, in David’s heart there was affection for the house, so that although one might be debarred from much activity, his affection for the house would [p. 8] lead him to expend all he has for the saints; he has a regard for what the saints are as the dwelling of God. Exodus 15 contemplates a place which Jehovah has prepared for Himself to dwell in. Moses could not bring the people in, nor did Joshua bring the people into the fulness of Exodus 15; Joshua did not get beyond Shiloh. The tabernacle was set up there. But in Solomon, the counterpart of David, you have the full thought of God reached as indicated in Exodus. What David is occupied with in this chapter (verses 22 - 29) is the establishing of the thing, not only that they had been redeemed for Jehovah, but that he wanted to see them established to be His people for ever. And that, I think, agrees with the number twenty-four — a number that characterises David’s ministry, meaning another ministry besides that of Moses.
Ques What is suggested in that it says that the word of Jehovah came to Nathan that night?
JT It was an urgent matter; God would not allow the thought to crystallise in David’s mind. He would adjust David at once. But it is interesting to see that He refers to David as “my servant”. He is serving God and God would have him proceed to the end. He was chosen to be king and he was to proceed on that line; God took the matter up at once so that there should be adjustment. There was a certain distance — the prophet involves distance, and David was to accept the fact that the message was mediatorial. David had been chosen to be a prince over His people; that was his ministry or office, and his last words indicate that he had learnt the mind of God as to his ministry. He accepted the message that Nathan brought, and he went in and sat before the Lord. It is a question now of being detained there.
CHH May we not learn from that a principle, that if ministry puts us in touch with God, in accepting it we can go in to [p. 9] God?
JT That is the thought. Had David done this before the prophetic word it would not have been necessary. The thought of building a house was an important matter and it required the greatest care and inquiry from God.
JD Are you indicating that every one of the people of God should be able to get His mind for himself?
JT Yes; prophetic ministry is intended to bring us down, but it is for our blessing. You feel reduced and humbled as the prophetic word comes into your soul. Now David would speak to God, but before he speaks, he goes in and sits down before Jehovah. A sitting posture shows that you are there for a while. What he says to Jehovah indicates how much he profited by the word of Nathan; he had bowed unreservedly to the prophetic message.
CHH Communications to Paul were direct.
JT They were, but there is one important point about him, before he got his direct communications for his ministry, he fully owned the brethren, and found adjustment among them; one cannot be a special minister to the saints or to the Lord unless he finds his place among the brethren first.
CHH So that they gave him the right hand of fellowship, but in the first place he owed his position to Ananias.
Rem It is noticeable that while Nathan failed in the mind of God at first, yet he was entrusted with the message, and he delivered it.
JT God spoke to him that night. But when Paul asked, “What shall I do. Lord?”, the Lord answered, “Rise up, and go to Damascus, and there it shall be told thee of all things which it is appointed thee to do”, Acts 22: 10. That was the reply to Saul without designating anyone; but so that there should be no discrepancy between what Saul saw in Christ and what he should find in Damascus. He went before him and prepared Ananias to receive him. The kind [p. 10] of people Saul met in Jerusalem when he went to houses and dragged out men and women and delivered them to be punished, was the same as he was to find at Damascus. He was dealing with Christ when he did that at Jerusalem, so the word was, “Why persecutest thou me?”. Now he was to find the same people in Damascus. Ananias says, “Brother Saul”. He is at once disarmed and made to realise that the voice he had heard from heaven was the same in character as when Ananias spoke to him, so that from the very outset of his spiritual being. Saul would know that he got adjustment through the brethren. He recognises this principle later when he refers to one who was in Christ before him. Ananias said to him, “Receive thy sight”. He looked upon Ananias; he would be impressed with what he saw in a brother after he received his sight. But then Ananias went on to say wonderful things to him, that he was chosen to “see the just one, and to hear a voice out of his mouth”. It was a personal touch. Saul was listening to all this, but it was his turn now to do something; that is to say, when the light comes to you conveying the mind of God, you are to move according to it. Saul apparently was not doing anything, so Ananias says, “Why lingerest thou?”. He was listening to the mind of God but that was not enough, the time had come to make a move: “Arise and get baptised”. That was his part; he had to come to that. So you see he had to learn the principle of adjustment through the brethren. Great vessel though he was, he was at first slow to act according to the light vouchsafed.
BTF Do you think the Acts take character from the principles laid down here?
JT Quite, the principle of selection. Whilst God selects there must be the corresponding result in those He selects. It is very beautiful that after the message reaches David, he goes in and sits before Jehovah. He would get impressions of the divine dwelling as he sat before Jehovah. In John’s gospel the first persons that move towards Christ say to Him, “Where abidest thou?”
FR Does sitting before Jehovah indicate that David no longer takes the initiative?
JT If we are to get the mind of the Lord, the thing is to sit before Him. The prophetic message is gracious but it implies distance. It was right, surely, to take account of the ark as dwelling under curtains, but to get an idea of what is requisite for God you must go in and sit before Him; you get right impressions there.
CHH What answers to that today?
JT Of course we know what the house is: “Whose house are we”. We know from Ephesians that the house is built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets. Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner-stone. It is a spiritual structure in which God dwells and in which He is approached. But then, in approaching God now, you never lose sight of the fact that He is in heaven. He is dwelling here Spirit-wise; that is, all divine feelings and sympathies are directly in the Spirit. If we distinguish between the divine Persons, the Father and the Son are in heaven; the Spirit is here; so that God is here in that way.
BTF What about the “living stone” and the “living stones” in connection with the building?
JT It is a spiritual house. “Yourselves also, as living stones, are being built up a spiritual house”, 1 Peter 2: 5. We never lose sight of the fact that the Father and the Son are in heaven, and that the Spirit is here — the Comforter; so that there is a medium through which the Father and the Son can dwell.
Ques What does the ark dwelling under curtains signify?
JT David refers to the curtains as unsuitable; it [p. 12] was a provisional place for the ark pending the building of the house.
Ques God bears a good deal from us until we have light?
JT That is what comes out in Numbers, when the ark went before. The love of God is such that He is content to accept the circumstances without complaining. But sitting before the Lord you can understand that certain things will enter the soul. You are subdued and you get impressions that you might not get anywhere else.
Rem I suppose Mary of Bethany was a typical example of this; she sat at Jesus’ feet and heard His word with the result that she knew how to anoint Him.
CHH Does this passage correspond with the holiest?
JT In a way. Entering the holiest in Hebrews 10 does not contemplate us as together. You are to do that. It involves ability to abstract yourself from what is outward so that you acquire an apprehension of Christ as He is before God. In this passage it is where the ark was and what that alluded to — where God was dwelling between the cherubim. Of course, David, not being a priest, could not go inside. It refers to God’s house. In the Psalms you get it alluded to, “One thing have I asked of Jehovah, that will I seek after, that I may dwell in the house of Jehovah all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of Jehovah, and to inquire of him in his temple”, Psalm 27: 4.
CHH That is the value of a meeting like this.
JT Especially when the saints are together in assembly, where the Lord is supreme and where He is recognised. You get impressions there that you get nowhere else.
Ques David having now found his place in Jehovah’s thoughts, would really point to Christ, would it [p. 13] not?
JT That is the point God has in His mind.
Rem Peter had to learn that lesson also. His idea was to make three tabernacles; he had to learn that Christ is supreme.
JT Exactly; the voice said, “This is my beloved Son, hear him”. Mark puts it that they saw no one but Jesus alone with themselves. So that David really comes to Christ and that is the substance of his remarks in this passage. David is coming into the divine ‘manner’. In the house of cedars he would be impressed with the manner of man — what man can do — but it is the manner of God, the divine manner you get in the divine Presence. And so David says, “Is this the manner of man?”. He is laying hold of how things are there; he is apprehending what was in God’s heart.
Rem He speaks on very intimate terms with God.
JT I think it is the effect of perfect love that casts out fear. He is able to speak to God and he says, “... according to thine own heart”. Certainly it is much better to have things according to His heart than according to my heart. The manner of man in the house of cedars can never rise to the manner of God in His house.
WDR You are coming nearer to the thought of ascension, are you not?
JT It is elevation. Hence you see the Lord in the finishing touches in the gospels; He directs the disciples upward. Here David gradually arrives at the greatness of God; he is impressed with it.
BTF Why does David use the titles “Lord Jehovah” and “Jehovah Elohim”?
JT I suppose it refers to the increasing spiritual power of David as he apprehends God.
CHH Would it refer to our ability to express the greatness of God in the assembly in every character in which we know Him as revealed in Christ, so that there is a variety of worship?
JT [p. 14] I am thinking of the difference between Romans and Ephesians. In Romans 8 we cry, “Abba Father”, by the “spirit of adoption”. That is not the Holy Spirit, formally, it is “a spirit of adoption”. That is related to the beginning of our relations with God, consciously. Ephesians is the culmination of that, so that you get reference to “the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ”, and then you get “the Father of glory”, and then, in chapter 4, “one God and Father of all, who is over all, and through all, and in us all”. There is expansion in Ephesians. David’s use of divine titles here shows spiritual progress.
HEE Is it because of David’s apprehension of the greatness of God that he takes account of the greatness of God’s people in verse 23?
JT That is the next thing that comes out, as it says in Ephesians: “the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints”.
Rem So that our valuation of the people of God is related, to the measure in which we apprehend God.
JT You are impressed with the fact that David has come to recognise that all that he was, spiritually, was from God; all that his house was ever to be was from God; all that God’s house itself was to be was from God; so that he is completely adjusted in that he saw that God was all and in all; he reached, we may say, “the fulness of God”.