THE TEMPLE OF GOD - EIGHTH READING
THE TEMPLE OF GOD - EIGHTH READING
I should like to give a summary of what we have considered over these last four or five days. We have been occupied with what God is doing at the present time, with his building work. The heavens and the earth have been completed but the present work of God is not yet completed.
We mentioned what was in David’s heart when he was a young boy. Later, he says, “Behold, we heard of it at Ephratah” (Psalm 132: 6). That is where the life of David, son of Jesse the Bethlehemite, began. He says, ‘We heard of the ark at Ephratah; “we found it in the fields of the wood”. At that time the ark was treated with much indifference, but David said, “I will not give sleep to mine eyes, slumber to mine eyelids — until I find out a place for Jehovah, habitations for the Mighty One of Jacob”. This was the great objective of David’s life. He told Solomon that, in his affliction, he had prepared materials (1 Chronicles 22: 14).
Even when he was hunted as a partridge on the mountains, this great goal was always before him. It was to this end that he went to war. In each of his battles, what he had in view was to gather spoil for the house of God. It was the objective in view when he was on the throne. Before his reign was finished, he put Solomon on the throne and told him what was in his heart; he instructed him on how he would build the house. He said, “And behold, in my affliction I have prepared for the house of Jehovah a hundred thousand talents of gold, and a thousand thousand talents of silver; and of brass and iron without weight, for it is in abundance; and timber and stone have I prepared” (1 Chronicles 22: 14). Then he added, “and thou shalt add to it”. The builder in glory has every resource, all wisdom and the power of heaven. Christ is building this house. It says, “And Solomon purposed to build a house for the name of Jehovah” (2 Chronicles 2: 1). No one can make him alter his decision. Thus he speaks to Hiram, a man who was ever a lover of David. Whether David was in poverty, in rejection, hated, or glorious, Hiram always loved David. So Solomon requests materials from Hiram. He says, “Send me also cedar-trees, cypress-trees, and sandal-wood” (2 Chronicles 2: 8). “And now send me a man skilful to work in gold, and in silver, and in bronze, and in iron, and in purple and crimson and blue” (verse 7). Hiram sends his servant, he is happy to send him and he sends him in a spirit of worship, saying, “Blessed be Jehovah the God of Israel” (verse 12). He sends a man who can do all that Solomon can ask of him, and more. He is able to devise all sorts of things.
We have noticed that the place where the house is to be built has been determined. It is Mount Moriah, which God had indicated to Abraham (Genesis 22: 2). Isaac was offered there. It was there that David presented a sacrifice, where the judgment of God stopped when the sword was stretched out and the holy sacrifice was accepted. It is Calvary. The foundation of God’s building is at Calvary.
We then considered the building under construction — the court with a door of bronze at its entrance and the door of gold set up. We saw the great house, with its wonderful walls of gold covered with precious stones, and the holy of holies, into which the ark was to be placed, the wings of the cherubim spread out in the place where the presence of God was to be known. We saw the altar, which was to bear the sacrifices which Israel would present. We saw the great brazen sea, full of water so that all those offering sacrifices might be purified. The lavers for the cleansing of the sacrifices are also in this wonderful court. We saw the golden lamps lit in the temple and the tables with the shewbread.
We now come to the important consideration of the place where the utensils of brass were made. The number of these was never known and never will be known. No one can measure or enumerate the holy vessels, which will be for the eternal praise of God. Where are they made? “In the plain of the Jordan did the king cast them, in the clay-ground between Succoth and Zeredathah” (2 Chronicles 4: 17). Where is this? Where are the plains of Jordan? We know them well — they are here in Loriol, as in Paris or London, where man’s sin is so great that God comes down to communicate what is to happen, as He said to Abraham, “I will go down now, and see...” (Genesis 18: 21). A cry rose up to heaven from these plains, the voice of man’s wickedness. It is in just these plains that Hiram works. Lot had beheld them, but Abraham looked towards heaven. Lot saw the plains of Jordan. What a spectacle! They were well watered; it was a place of many pleasures. The rivers of the world’s pleasures flowed there. These plains were as “the garden of Jehovah, like the land of Egypt” (Genesis 13: 10). Oh, what confusion! It is the confusion that is found in the world, although it professes to have the Lord’s name. In the world, dates are set from the birth of Christ, but it is “like the land of Egypt”. What is Egypt? Egypt refuses God — “Who is Jehovah, to whose voice I am to hearken...?” (Exodus 5: 2). Egypt’s resources are its own river; it does not receive rain from heaven. It is a country of frogs, gnats, corruption and darkness. The plains show what Egypt is. Lot beholds these plains; he goes there and lives there. Hiram works there, “in the clay-ground”, that is, in the conditions of our lives here on earth. Elihu says, “I also am formed out of the clay” (Job 33: 6); such is our earthly condition. “For dust thou art; and unto dust shalt thou return.” (Genesis 3: 19). Hiram works in this clay, in the presence of man’s wickedness, “between Succoth and Zeredathah”.
What is Succoth? Succoth means booths or tents (Genesis 33: 17); it is a temporary dwelling. We are here for only a short time. We have no permanent dwelling; only a ‘booth’ in which to pass the night. And what is Zeredathah? It is the place where “the waters which flowed down from above stood and rose up in a heap” (Joshua 3: 16). It is the place where death waits to intervene; no one knows when the waters will return. It could be at any moment that you find yourself carried away by them. Zeredathah speaks to us of the presence of death. This is where we are in our earthly dwelling at this very moment, with evil all around us. Death is not far off. In these conditions, Hiram works to make vessels of bright brass for the temple of God. Soon these conditions will be left behind, what is of clay will be finished for ever. We will no longer have a tent but a “house which is from heaven” (2 Corinthians 5: 2). Death will exist no more; the fire of God will have consumed that which is spiritually Sodom and Egypt, where also our Lord was crucified (Revelation 11: 8). The judgment of God is soon going to destroy it all but from conditions such as these emerge vessels of bright brass, available for God’s use, shining with holy beauty. There will be millions upon millions of such vessels. Neither their number nor their weight will ever be known.
Using servants, God is working in these conditions. May we take it to heart, dear brethren. We do not know how long may remain to us in these conditions. The years, the months, the days pass quickly and our lives fly past. Should we be wasting time in the pursuit of pleasures, money and the things of earth? The apostle speaks of the need to redeem time (Ephesians 5: 16). Time is so precious! Present conditions should be used for the casting of brass. There is only one divinely prescribed mould in which the wisdom of Solomon can cast the utensils. You will notice that this is what Solomon does; he employs Hiram, as he can employ anyone. It is a matter of the choice of servants. With the resources of the kingdom and deploying all his wisdom, Solomon uses earthly circumstances of what is temporary and overshadowed by death. With wonderful wisdom, the Lord forms these vessels of brass. He uses our earthly circumstances to prepare something that is eternal. Later, He will remove the vessel from the mould and have a completed vessel at his disposal.
Consider the vessel which He takes in the seventh chapter of the Acts. Christ is the true Solomon on the throne. Stephen looks into heaven and sees Jesus in glory. Down here are the plains of Jordan, where there is unleashed against Stephen the terrible wickedness of men, who gnash their teeth against him and stone him. This is Succoth, in the plains of Jordan. Stephen is in an earthly dwelling, made of clay. His sojourn down here is for only a short time; it is like a booth at Succoth. Zeredathah is near; the power of death is weighing down on him and is about to carry him away. Think of Solomon releasing this vessel from the clay-ground, a vessel of bright brass, a holy vessel. There is no mixture; it is a vessel of perfect beauty, suitable for the temple of God. When his spirit goes to be with the Lord Jesus, Stephen departs the earth and leaves behind him the plains of Jordan. He leaves behind Succoth and the waters of death. The Lord receives a vessel of bright brass,
precious as gold — “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit” (Acts 7: 59). What pleasure for the Lord to receive him! What a reception is provided by the true Solomon for such a vessel in the temple of God in heaven. In the Revelation it says that “the temple of God in the heaven was opened” (Revelation 11: 19). Everything that is formed in this way belongs as much to heaven as to earth.
Other features are seen, no doubt, in Stephen. The temple is not made entirely of brass. The clay-ground is where the brass is cast. Cedar-wood is also used in the temple. Cedars grow on Lebanon on the earth but very close to heaven. Cypress and sandal-wood also grow on Lebanon. Stephen was like a cedar of Lebanon — he was not of this world. The cedars of this world will be burned (Numbers 19: 6); only ashes will remain. The glory of this world will end in this way. But Stephen was not a cedar of this kind; he lived in relation to heaven. There was not a cloud between him and heaven. Looking up, he beheld the heavens opened.
Stephen was evergreen, like a cypress of Lebanon. Even while he was being stoned, all the freshness and beauty of the cypress were still there, because his soul was deriving its support from the river of God by the Spirit. He was like a tree planted by brooks of water, whose leaf fadeth not, even in the presence of the hatred of the heart of man.
Again, Stephen was like sandal-wood. He was familiar with the sandals of Jesus, whose footsteps he had followed. “How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him that announceth glad tidings, that publisheth peace” (Isaiah 52: 7). Stephen had followed his Master and his movements were like those of Jesus. John says that we should walk as He walked (1 John 2: 6). This is what Stephen did.
Pure gold was seen in him; this is love which corresponds to the love of God. There was not a word of hatred in him, not even a threat. All that was heard from him in this connection were these words — “Lord, lay not this sin to their charge” (Acts 7: 60). How beautiful is this gold! How he expresses the character and glory of God!
Silver is also found there, since Stephen says, “Lord”; that is the silver, Jesus was always his Lord. Brass and iron were also in evidence. Stephen is strong; he was unshaken.
A genuinely royal character is seen in him, evidence of the purple. The Lord is making kings of us but Stephen had already reached this state. Purple is seen in him, as is scarlet, the conspicuous colour which cannot be hidden. The colour which marked Stephen has remained for two thousand years and the blue is also seen in him, the very character of heaven.
In other features, Stephen was a model of what the Lord was doing as to His own. It is beautiful to see his correspondence to the precious stones. What colours can be seen shining in him! The purple, the blue and the scarlet are there in a permanent way. That is the idea in the precious stones — their colour is there for ever. Jasper is also evident, for nothing was hidden with Stephen; he was transparent.
I refer to all these things, dear brethren, to illustrate what God is doing. In Stephen, it is already finished. For us, it is not yet complete. It may be that, for some, it is almost complete. However it may be, the divine work continues with each one of us for as long as we are down here.
Then it says that Solomon made the golden altar. If we understand in our hearts that these are great divine thoughts, that this is what God has been working out for two thousand years and is that into which we have been called to have part in His grace, then we feel moved to pray. We find the necessity of the golden altar. I wonder if we approach the golden altar often enough. This is a wonderful altar, made of cedar wood and covered with gold. It is Christ in his kingly glory, set apart for the glory of God, so that we should have a means of access to God. The holy incense is offered there — the prayers of the saints rise from the golden altar. One would wish to set this exercise before each brother and sister — do we approach this altar? It is not in the court, much less in the world. It is not an altar of earth, precious as the altar of earth is. The altar of stone is also of great importance and the brazen altar cannot be bypassed but the golden altar is the most important. It is opposite the veil in the holy place — it is in the presence of Jesus in His humanity. It speaks to us of the blessed man who lived only for God — He whose prayers were always at the golden altar — He who taught us to pray. The disciples heard Him pray and they asked Him,
“Lord, teach us to pray” (Luke 11: 1). He said to them, “Thus therefore pray ye — Our Father who art in the heavens, let thy name be sanctified, let thy kingdom come, let thy will be done as in heaven so upon the earth” (Matthew 6:9,10). That is incense. It is not simply a matter of our needs, our affairs, our health or our families. There is much more than that — “...let thy name be sanctified”; it is the name of God. The Lord teaches us what incense is, what it is to pray at the altar of incense in the way in which He always did. What incense was there in John 17. He lifts up His eyes to heaven and says, “Father, the hour is come; glorify thy Son, that thy Son may glorify thee”. It was not simply for His own glory as Man that He desired to be glorified but it was in order to glorify God. It is the same with all the prayers of Jesus. For these great thoughts to be real and living in us, we need to approach the golden altar and pray in relation to the glory of God and the glory of Christ. This was what was in Paul’s heart. He had shown God’s great thoughts to the Ephesians, that is, that God would be glorified “in the assembly in Christ Jesus unto all generations of the age of ages” (Ephesians 3: 21) and that God will have all building so that it is fitted together and “increases to a holy temple in the Lord” (Ephesians 2: 21). He also says, “For this reason I bow my knees to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ” (Ephesians 3:14). For the realisation of this, he needs to approach the golden altar. The apostle is at the golden altar and he beholds the veil. He prays for these dear brethren and we need to pray more at the golden altar so that these great thoughts should have their place in the souls of those who compose the people of God today. There is nothing in Scripture that indicates that growth takes place in heaven. The size of the vessel is fixed in the clay-ground. When it is removed from the mould, it does not change. When God will have completed His work, “he will rest in his love; he will exult over thee with singing” (Zephaniah 3: 17). As He considers all that He has wrought over the whole of this period and sees the beauty of Christ in His masterpiece — His love known in every heart — He will exult with singing. Think what this will be. We can understand that we shall sing the new and eternal song. The Lord Jesus sings too; “in the midst of the assembly will I sing thy praises” (Hebrews 2:12). But God will also exult with singing as He sees the product of His work.
May the Lord help us, dear brethren, to let these great thoughts penetrate our souls, so that we might be able to say with the apostle, “but one thing” (Philippians 3: 13). We are often hindered by so many things! But he says, “but one thing — forgetting the things that are behind, and stretching out to the things before, I pursue, looking towards the goal, for the prize of the calling on high of God in Christ Jesus”.
May it be the same with us, for the love of His name!