BLESSING AND AFFECTION
BLESSING AND AFFECTION
JT At the end of Solomon’s prayer in the eighth chapter, it is said “And it was so, that when Solomon had ended praying all this prayer and supplication to Jehovah, he arose from before the altar of Jehovah, from kneeling on his knees with his hands spread forth to the heavens, and he stood and blessed the whole congregation of Israel with a loud voice, saying, Blessed be Jehovah, who has given rest to his people Israel, according to all that he promised: there has not failed one word of all his good promises, which he spoke through Moses his servant! Jehovah our God be with us, as he was with our fathers; let him not forsake us nor cast us off: that he may incline our hearts to him, to walk in all his ways, and to keep his commandments and his statutes and his ordinances, which he commanded our fathers. And let these my words, with which I have made supplication before Jehovah, be nigh to Jehovah our God day and night, that he maintain the right of his servant, and the right of his people Israel, as the matter of each day shall require; that all peoples of the earth may know that Jehovah is God, that there is none else; and that your heart may be perfect with Jehovah our God, to walk in his statutes, and to keep his commandments, as at this day”, 1 Kings 8:54 - 61. It is worthy of note that instead of the fire coming out from heaven, it is blessing by the king himself. It is what the saints need, not public acknowledgment by God, but blessing.
RSS To what do you refer in the fire not coming out from heaven?
JT We might turn to 2 Chronicles 7:1; “And when Solomon had ended praying, the fire [p. 294] came down from the heavens and consumed the burnt offering and the sacrifices; and the glory of Jehovah filled the house”. It is public acknowledgment there, which is in keeping with Israel’s position, and I think it corresponds also with the day of Pentecost; whereas we are not looking for that, but we need the blessing.
AFM To what would this particular act of Solomon answer in the New Testament?
JT I think it is what we get in Paul’s ministry. It is not public recognition, but inward gain. Paul’s ministry is more private. It does not appear in the heavenly city, but it is evidently that which sustains things. I only suggest that, as showing the character of 1 Kings.
HG You mean the thought of our heavenly citizenship, etc.
JT Yes; the calling, and the mystery.
JB Maintaining the cause of His people at all times. Is that significant?
JT Yes, the saints are sustained; things are sustained. “The cause of his people at all times”, 1 Kings 8:59. Our cause is maintained by God.
RSS Is Solomon looked at here in the same way as David, as head, rather than king?
JT I think he is. There is very little said about David’s wisdom, and it is noticeable that the queen of Sheba makes no reference to him. Hiram is the link with David here. Hiram and the queen of Sheba are the two great representative figures here, the one linking on with David in his affections, and the other wholly taken up with Solomon, with Christ in glory.
EJW There would seem to be a correspondence between this prayer of Solomon’s and the Lord’s prayer in John 17. In the latter the saints are regarded as in heavenly relationships; the chapter has in view really the whole history of the Christian [p. 295] company, and one loves to think of it, as that which is, so to speak, underneath the saints; the desires of Christ for His own, presented before the Father, and, so covering our whole history. In regard to the testimony the end in Solomon’s prayer is that all the people of the earth may know that Jehovah is God and there is none else.
GAT When the Lord was leaving here He led the disciples out to Bethany and lifted up His hands, as Solomon did, and blessed them, as He departed from them.
AFM In Kings there is no veil, which fact suggests liberty of approach.
JT Yes, but the idea here is dwelling. That is, it is not so much approach, but rather God dwelling with His people, so that instead of a veil the doors are folding, as if all could be thrown together, so that fatherly affection should flow. “The Father [of our Lord Jesus Christ], of whom every family in [the] heavens and on earth is named”, Ephesians 3:14 - 15. The affections of the Father flow out freely. I think that is more the idea here.
RSS That is exceedingly interesting about the doors being folding. It seems the idea was that all could be thrown into one.
JT I think that is the thought in the chambers there. In the Father’s house the affections of the Father are supreme.
RSS These folding doors were made of fir. What is the significance of that?
JT I do not quite know. It is referred to as green, Hosea 14:8.
Ques Does Hiram, as being with David, represent being with Christ in rejection, and the queen of Sheba with Christ in glory.
JT That is quite right. Hiram’s was a love that subsisted through all circumstances, whether David was in rejection or otherwise, he “always loved David” (1 Kings 5:1); whereas the queen is affected by the glory of Solomon; Solomon in his glory.
GWH Does the queen of Sheba answer to Colossians or Ephesians?
JT Ephesians, I think.
GWH I was thinking of the greatness of His Person in Colossians.
JT Yes, but Colossians does not set forth the environment suited to Him. She comes to him in the full height of his glory and speaks of the things surrounding him. She speaks of that, and she connects the glory with God’s love to Israel. Ephesians speaks of “his great love wherewith he loved us”, Ephesians 2:4. She connects Solomon’s wisdom and glory with the fulfilment of that; she regards it as the result of that love. She says “Blessed be Jehovah thy God, who delighted in thee, to set thee on the throne of Israel! Because Jehovah loves Israel for ever”. She rises to a great height in that way, as seeing that it is all the result of God’s love to Israel for ever. In Ephesians it is because of “his great love wherewith he loved us, (we too being dead in offences,) has quickened us with the Christ”, Ephesians 2:4 - 5.
HG Would it be the apprehension of the power in raising Christ from the dead and setting Him at His own right hand, and then the assembly in association with Him?
JT I think so. We see things in that light and we trace it to the source, namely, the great love of God. In Romans it is the love of God shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit which is given to us, and the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord, whereas Ephesians is His great love wherewith He loved us.
HG I was thinking of the third of Exodus, where God says, “I will come down” and was wondering if this is the climax of all that activity, and now the saints go up in that sense.
JT [p. 297] I think that is right. This is the full result.
EJW The passage we get in the sixth chapter confirms that, where we get the date of the building recounted from the coming out of Egypt; four hundred and eighty years; as if to show what God’s thought was from the beginning of His work in redemption. The climax of the divine thought is reached here.
JT Yes, God had waited and He had walked with them all that time.
EJW And all His walk and ways with them had had this in view, as with ourselves. God takes us up, we start with redemption, but His great end is to bring us to have a place in this great structure, as living stones, living in the life of Christ in association with Him.
AFM Do you connect the queen of Sheba with a state of soul?
JT She is a typical personage. She comes in at the time of Solomon’s glory. She had not come in before. Hiram, as a type, fits in earlier.
LTF Of whom is she typical?
JT Of the Christian, as appreciating all the light that is available, and approaching it. She made the journey in order to see Solomon and his glory with her own eyes.
WHF Does she represent the individual believer affected by the greatness and glory of Christ, or is it a collective thought?
JT I think it would be individual, because she was moved by testimony, by what she had heard in her own land.
The love begotten for David in Hiram is a feature that precedes this. As a consequence there was material for the temple. Love is the great feature. What you will observe is the greatness of things throughout these pages; great stones, etc. I was especially struck with how things were founded.
[p. 298] All these buildings, it says, were founded in great stones and costly stones, “stones of ten cubits and stones of eight cubits” (1 Kings 7:10) showing that at the foundation of things there had been an answer typically to responsibility.
AFM How do you apply this patience to us? God had waited all those years.
JT Well, it is the attitude of God, the patience of God waiting on a soul or waiting on the assembly. He waits, but the point to see is that He brings in Christ in some sense. He brings in David, who begets lovers, and consequently there is supply. It is very important, I think, to see the character of the foundation of things.
EJW Are you connecting with such, the foundation of the apostles and prophets?
JT That was just what I was thinking, of the character of the foundation.
Ques What had you in mind as to the stones of eight and ten cubits?
JT I think ten is a numeral usually denoting responsibility, and would show, I think, that at the foundation there were those that came up to the mark.
Ques Is Paul among the apostles who laid the foundation?
JT Yes, Paul speaks of himself as one that finished his course and kept the faith. He was, you might say, a stone of ten cubits. It was in keeping with God that things should be founded in that way.
WHF He was an overcomer.
EJW And as shown this morning, the language the apostle uses would certainly be the language of a man who was a very great stone; he could say he was ready to spend and be spent, though the more he loved the less he was loved. That is the language [p. 299] of a man who is a very great stone. It seems to me there is something wonderful about those words.
HG You spoke about the patience of God. You feel that spirit in a man like Mr. Darby, for example, who was content to keep on serving others although often but little appreciated. When we were singing our hymn at the beginning of the meeting, I was thinking how slow we have been to reach the point that he in his own soul had reached and longed to have the saints reach. You see the patience there, do you not?
JT I am sure you do. We do not fully see the fruition of our service, nor the full result of it. What do you say about that?
GWW Yes, one has been struck with what our brother was drawing attention to, about Mr. Darby, how patiently he toiled on. One has sat in meetings and heard a great deal said in his presence that one knew he could not go on with; yet the patient way he could go on and build up what was truth letting what was not go by.
JB We read in Thessalonians that they were characterised by work of faith, patience of hope, and labour of love. Therefore Paul would have laid that same foundation there.
JT He would impart in his ministry not only the light, but set out the idea. As a model he conveyed the idea. He said to the Corinthians that the signs of an apostle were wrought among them in all patience, and signs, and wonders, and mighty deeds. They were wrought among them.
GWW I suppose it would very much humble us if we had to lay a foundation. We ought, however, in some measure to be able to represent the features of the true foundation.
GAT How does what you were saying agree with what we were having last night when we were [p. 300] advised to build our foundation on a rock? Is laying a foundation for others on a different line?
JT When the word foundation is used one has to consider what is in view. You are to lay your own foundation, as was pointed out, in repentance, Luke 6:48. Then there is the “foundation of God”; “Other foundation can no man lay besides that which [is] laid, which is Jesus Christ”, 1 Corinthians 3:11. Now the point there I think is the order of man, Jesus Christ, and the whole structure must be in keeping with that order of man; whereas, in Matthew it is “the Son of the living God”, Matthew 16:16. Life is prominent there. Things must be living, but at Corinth it was a question of the order of man. They were allowing the wrong man a place, which would deny the foundation Paul laid.
WRC What is the difference between that foundation and the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ Himself the chief corner stone?
JT I think the foundation of the apostles and prophets is like what we have here, great stones and costly stones. It is not a question of Christ personally, but of the testimony of the apostles.
GAT You would say that in Matthew 16 Christ refers to Himself as laying the foundation of the assembly, but in the apostles’ doctrine we have the truth of the assembly?
JT And the men themselves are in view, what they were.
GWW I think that is important; it is not only what they said, but the men themselves were expressive of what they said, and that is why the apostle could say, “Be my imitators, even as I also [am] of Christ”, 1 Corinthians 11:1. With such a positive presentation of Christ in them there was something truly and morally of Christ. Their walk and ways were after [p. 301] Christ.
HG In Psalm 122:4 we get “whither the tribes go up”, but here in 1 Kings 10, it is a Gentile that goes up.
JT Yes, and she came to Jerusalem with a very great train.
BTF Was she a contributor such as we have been speaking of?
JT It is remarkable how the Spirit puts her alongside of Hiram here. After she comes with the great train, and after she has the interview with Solomon, and all her hard questions are answered, then it says, “When the queen of Sheba saw all Solomon’s wisdom, and the house that he had built, and the food of his table, and the deportment of his servants, and the order of service of his attendants, and their apparel, and his cupbearers, and his ascent by which he went up to the house of Jehovah, there was no more spirit in her”. That is, the whole array of glory was put before her and she was lost in it. She becomes in that way a remarkable type of a believer who has made the journey to Christ where He is, one who is not simply content with the light of things, but who has taken the journey. His fame had gone out into all lands. Others had the opportunity as well as she. It was a world-wide testimony, and she is moved by it. She is not content simply with the tidings that come to her, she takes the journey.
BTF It says there was no spirit left in her. Self was gone. She was completely absorbed with the glory of Solomon.
LTF Is that like beholding the glory, so that we are “transformed ... from glory to glory”, 2 Corinthians 3:18.
JT Yes, only it goes further here. I think the “glory” here refers to what we are taught in Ephesians.
HG I was thinking of the end of Ephesians 3, the apostle’s prayer. He prays for certain things specifically, but then he says: “But to him that is able to do far exceeding above all which we ask or think”, Ephesians 3:20. It is as though there is that which, with all his mighty energy, he could not compass in prayer. In that same way here, the glory and greatness is such, that it cannot be expressed.
RML Would you compare the fourth verse here with the first of Revelation, “When I saw him I fell at his feet as dead”, Revelation 1:17.
JT There is an analogy, of course. However, the scene that came before John’s eyes was a judicial scene, calculated to cause terror, which is not this. This is Solomon, as the Lord Himself says, “in all his glory”, Matthew 6:29. There is nothing here to terrorise. It is rather the greatness and grandeur of it that so eclipses all she had ever seen before.
AFM What was there about this ascent, that seems to be the climax? “His ascent by which he went up to the house of Jehovah”.
JT I suppose it is typically how the Lord Jesus would approach the house, and it is a very suggestive thing, because one often is exercised as to how saints regard the house, how they go into it. “Keep thy foot”, it says, “when thou goest to the house of God”, Ecclesiastes 5:1. Keep thy foot! One is exercised as to what kind of feet one goes with, to the house of God, and how one keeps them. Then it says further, indeed it is Solomon himself who says it, “draw near to hear, rather than to give the sacrifice of fools”, Ecclesiastes 5:1.
GAT Would you mind applying what you say, to us at the present time?
JT It is how you regard the house of God. You must not be careless and take things up in a natural way. The feet are referred to; it is how you go.
RSS What is signified by the “vow” in its application now?
JT It is the resolve of one’s heart. David had [p. 303] resolved in his heart that he would not give sleep to his eyes nor slumber to his eyelids until he found a place for the Lord. That is what every true Christian desires, a place for the Lord. If you are right you think of the Lord, so that in going to the house you have that before you. What is there to be for Him? Therefore, your resolve is, that you are not to be in evidence. You are not going to be a fool. He has no pleasure in fools; that is quite clear.
RSS In fact it is in that connection he says; “Remember for David all his affliction”, Psalm 132:1.
JT I think we might dwell on the ascent, how you go up. It was that which affected her very much, and it does affect people, to see how saints go to the house. Mark you, it is going up. The house is on an elevation morally. It is “whither the tribes go up”, Psalm 122:4.
JC Does that involve exercise?
JT It involves exercise to go up.
GHW “Who shall ascend into the mount of Jehovah? ... he that hath blameless hands and a pure heart”, Psalm 24:3 - 4.
EJW Speaking of the way we go up, and what impressed the queen of Sheba, just brought to my mind an incident that occurred a good many years ago in the old country. I happened to be staying in the house of a sister in a little country place, where there was a very poor little meeting, which she had identified herself with, and I asked her what first reached and affected her, to draw her to the few gathered together. ‘Well’, she said, ‘I live on the opposite side of the street to the meeting-room and it was the way the few saints departed themselves as they went in and came out of the meeting that first attracted my attention, their loving attitude and deportment toward one another and I thought I must go in and see what was there’.
WB There was a case the other week here, a man came into our meeting and when he went out he said to me; ‘I have been very much impressed in being here, by seeing how the people come in. Where I am accustomed to go they talk, but here the people are quiet’.
JT Our brother’s illustration helps us as to how we go, whereas 1 Corinthians 14 deals with what goes on afterwards. It is, as he says here, “Let thy words be few”, Ecclesiastes 5:2. So that if one comes in, he is affected by what is there.
BTF Does not the ascent imply the heavenly position of the house?
JT It would show that it is in that connection. I do not say the house is in heaven. Of course the Father’s house is, but the house of God is here, it is that which we enter into now. It is called “the gate of heaven” in Genesis 28:17 so that it is very near to it.
GAT In contrast to going up, Proverbs 5:5, speaking about a foolish woman says: “Her feet go down to death; her steps take hold on Sheol”. That is just the contrast.
JS The glimpse of his glory overcame the queen of Sheba. No such spectacle ever came after.
JT You see if you proceed here she gives an account of things. Whilst there is no spirit in her, that does not mean she is not quite conscious and in all her senses. She is, and so she proceeds to give an account of things as she sees them. She says “It was a true report that I heard in mine own land of thine affairs, and of thy wisdom; But I gave no credit to the words, until I came and mine eyes had seen; and, behold, the half was not told me: in wisdom and prosperity thou exceedeth the report that I heard”. And then she says: “Happy are thy men! happy are these thy servants”. I wish to call particular attention to the way she looked at those [p. 305] surrounding Solomon. There were those she called, “thy men”. She further says, “Happy are these thy servants, who stand continually before thee, who hear thy wisdom”. She took account of things in that intelligent way.
Ques What was the difference between the men and the servants?
JT Well, his men would be such as he would have.
Ques The heavenly man in type?
JT Yes, quite, his men.
BTF Would the men at Ephesus, Acts 19, correspond?
JT Yes, there were twelve men at Ephesus, all of whom got the light and the Spirit at the same time. It is Paul’s light they received. They were remarkable men.
Ques Would it imply companionship?
JT I think it would; the men he surrounds himself with.
GWH I would like to ask at this point, what is the difference between brethren and companions?
JT Brethren are what Christ has, His brethren. There is an affection in brethren peculiar to themselves.
GWH Is it a greater thought than companionship?
JT I think so, his companions are his brethren, but it is necessarily a greater thought because it involves family relationship. You may have a companion who is not a brother.
EJW As regards our association with Christ, we are given a place as His friends in the presence of the world in John 15; but in chapter 20 the Lord regards us as His brethren before the Father; not now before the world, but with the Father. Then in Hebrews 1, which is a quotation from Psalm 45, it is a question of the kingdom glory. The king has companions, which to my mind would [p. 306] answer very much to the thought we get here. Solomon’s men would suggest the idea of courtiers, those who would be his associates.
GWW That there should be those with the Lord who were His Father’s gift to Him, might well cause feelings of admiration to arise in the soul.
JT And they were constituted men of His own order, in the breathing into them of His Spirit. He has brethren; that is His portion. The Father has sons.
BTF Would you say in connection with the earlier part of Solomon’s reign that God had reached His thought typically? That is, that He had found a son in Solomon. In contrast to Adonijah, Solomon was the true son.
JT Yes, and Solomon had his men. I think it is well to see that the men the Lord has, are given to Him of the Father out of the world, and they are sanctified through the truth; they are constituted as suitable to Him, by His Spirit being breathed into them.
HG
“As sons like Him, with Him to be:
In thine own house”. (88:1)
AFM In chapter 4, the “superintendents” were all sons. Is there a correspondence?
JT There are twelve of them set over certain things. The fact that they were sons, seems to be in keeping with himself, he being the characteristic son; see, Proverbs 4:3.
DR In the Lord’s prayer in John 17, part of it reads: “Father, [as to] those whom thou hast given me, I desire that where I am they also may be with me, that they may behold my glory”, John 17:24. Would the men here who stand around Solomon, hearing his wisdom and beholding his glory, answer to that?
JT I think they do.
GAT How about the [p. 307] servants?
JT That would be another thought. In John 20 they are sent out. As the Father sent Him, they are sent out, but they are sent out with His Spirit. As thus dignified, what a service they must render!
GWW We may connect the thought of servants with what we get in John 17:1, “Father, the hour is come; glorify thy Son, that thy Son may glorify thee”. There is a work which the blessed Lord is carrying out in connection with the Father’s glory, which now constitutes the highest form of service. I refer to John 20. It was in connection with that thought He expressed the carrying out of the Father’s glory and the continuance of it, and we feel it is a character of service of which perhaps we have thought but little, and that is the Son’s desire that from the glorified position where He is, the Father’s name should be glorified.
EJW That would harmonise with the suggestion made just now, that God has a son in Solomon figuratively; “he shall be my son” (1 Chronicles 22:10); one who could take up things for God and establish them in the intelligence and affection of a son. This is really what we have come to in Christ, or, rather, what God has in Christ. It seems to me, that is a prominent thought in Scripture. Take Abraham, for instance, he looked for a son, not simply that he might have a son to be with him, although no doubt there was that in it, but one of the great desires of a man in those days was to have a son who could take up his interests for him and maintain them. And so the servant, when he goes to seek Rebecca, speaks of all the vast wealth of his master, and that it has all been given to his son, as one able to take care of it and perpetuate his father’s name and honour.
WB-t It says especially in regard to Solomon in 2 Samuel 7:14; “I will be his father, and he shall be my son. If he commit iniquity, I will chasten [p. 308] him with the rod of men, and with the stripes of the sons of men; but my mercy shall not depart away from him, as I took it from Saul, whom I put away from before thee”.
EJW That was what I was alluding to, that Solomon should hold the place of son for God.
GAT In the New Testament we read the heavens opened over God’s Son, and in speaking of Him God could say, “in whom I have found my delight”, Matthew 17:5. The queen of Sheba said: “Blessed be Jehovah thy God, who delighted in thee”.
EJW What I had before me was what Solomon did; what he built and established; the whole system of things that he formed and established for God, and I was noticing in the first verse of this chapter that we get the fame of Solomon and the name of the Lord connected.
JT I think it is nice to see how the queen of Sheba has Jehovah before her, not David. In Ephesians 1:17 it is, “The God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory”. Then “For this reason I bow my knees to the Father [of our Lord Jesus Christ], of whom every family in [the] heavens and on earth is named”, Ephesians 3:14 - 15. The Father is the source of everything, and so she, it seems to me, represents an Ephesian Christian as connecting things with Jehovah. Solomon’s fame was concerning the name of Jehovah. She says further: “Blessed be Jehovah thy God, who delighted in thee, to set thee on the throne of Israel!” (not on the throne of David, but of Israel) “Because Jehovah loves Israel for ever”. She connects it with God and His love for Israel.
RSS It was a queen not a king. Does that indicate that the subjective side is in view?
JT She represents those who form the assembly in the way of intelligent interest and affection. And then her peculiar gift is worthy of note. It says, “she gave the king a hundred and twenty [p. 309] talents of gold, and spices in very great abundance, and precious stones: there came no more such abundance of spices as those which the queen of Sheba gave to king Solomon”. She excels in that regard, and then immediately the Spirit of God brings in Hiram, setting him down alongside her; as it were placing them together. They are together in love for Christ, and for God in the accomplishment of His counsels, so it says in the eleventh verse, “(And the fleet also of Hiram, which carried gold from Ophir, brought from Ophir sandal-wood in very great abundance, and precious stones. And the king made of the sandal-wood a balustrade for the house of Jehovah, and for the king’s house, and harps and lutes for singers. There came no such sandal-wood, nor was there seen to this day)”. That is Hiram’s part, and then it goes back to the queen again. “And king Solomon gave to the queen of Sheba all her desire, whatever she asked, beside what he gave her of the bounty of King Solomon. And she turned and went to her own land, she and her servants”. I think it is beautiful to see how she and Hiram are found together in the peculiarity and excellence of their gifts.
HG In Chronicles he gives what she brings but not in Kings, no doubt this is because Kings presents the heavenly side.
JT He gave of his royal bounty. The royal bounty is something like Ephesians, “far exceeding above all which we ask or think”, Ephesians 3:20. I think it is the excess of things here.
EJW I was thinking of the correspondence between Hiram and the queen of Sheba. It is a little remarkable that they apparently both brought the same amount of gold. It says of Hiram that he sent one hundred and twenty talents of gold (1 Kings 9:14); and the queen of Sheba brings exactly the same amount. This would go [p. 310] to confirm your thought as to the spiritual correspondence between the two.
RSS Is there anything today that corresponds to the hundred and twenty talents of gold? It would seem very often, that our meetings are characterised by a great deal of poverty rather than tremendous wealth. God’s portion is but very little considered.
EJW A great deal of silver sometimes! We dwell upon the benefits that have accrued to ourselves. I was thinking of redemption; often the Lord’s supper is taken up in that way.
JT When you come to gold and spices, you have what is peculiarly for God; spices being special, I suppose. As we have already noted, Mary of Bethany yielded that.
WCR It was a question of affection with Joseph of Arimathaea, when he buried the Lord in his sepulchre. He also furnished spices there.
JT I am sure the question of supply is a great one. It is a very great one in the nations at the present time, but a great one in the house of God too.
ALM The wood Hiram brought was used for pillars for the Lord’s house. Pillars are for support, are they not?
JT “Balustrade”; it was something to lean on. The sandal-wood was also used for harps and lutes for singers.
GAT Would you say the reason we do not have supply, is because we do not admire the One we come to enough? The queen was so taken up with Solomon, so admired him, that she freely gave of what she had.